![]() Dead flipper bounces work very well, drop catches are doable but quite inconsistent still (probably not worth trying). Nudging here is more realistic than TPA but it doesn’t seem to do much. For as fast as the ball flies up the playfield, the ball’s reaction is completely opposite of what it would do on a real machine. It’s like the ball just stops in its place. ![]() ![]() There is also very little action when you hit any object on the playfield, be it a target, a wall, a post, etc. There is better ball movement, but the ball moves unrealistically fast. Zen Pinball has better physics than the Pinball Arcade, however, Zen is like the polar opposite of TPA. It will teach a new player to get into the habit of using those flipper skills. It’s a good starting point for beginners as well because things like the dead flipper bounce and post transfer work with near 100% consistency. The good thing about TPA is it using real-world tables, so you can learn the rules to a game you might not have access to. Drop catching and live catching are things of luck on the old physics engine (I am playing on the Xbox One now so I haven’t had a chance to try the new and “improved” engine). Nudging in TPA as it’s been mentioned moves the ball much more than it should and as such people get into the habit of nudging the game when the ball is in the middle of the playfield–totally unrealistic unless you are playing a machine that has no tilt bob. Balls seem to just slide down the outlanes in the blink of an eye with nudging not doing much from that point of view. Upper flipper physics don’t seem to work properly. Super floaty on some tables, or unrealistically fast on others. Not as tough to figure out either with a more straightforward ruleset than most of the PP games. Definitely worth checking out if you like the Pro Pinball games. Solid physics and the ruleset is pretty solid. It’s an older download release now but it was done by the same folks that did the Pro Pinball games. I’d like to make mention of “The Ancients Beckon” on the Nintendo DSi. I am personally waiting for the console versions to arrive before sinking lots of time into the remake, I have issues on the iPad myself but I think that’s more due to the nature of touch controls and not so much the fault of the game itself. Also, when it comes to a creation made specifically for the videogame market, it’s got a ruleset closest mimicking real-world machines (in a good way). Still, it’s the best physics-wise you can drop catch with consistency, bounce pass, even flick-pass. The original games from the '90s had this same issue. They just don’t feel snappy and you have to make every shot unrealistically early on these flippers. ![]() Backhands from a cradle don’t act properly and the flippers feel… flimsy? Rubbery? I don’t know what word to use. Timeshock is the winner when it comes to physics, but it’s still not perfect. Overall though, it’s still useful as a way to learn the rules and objectives on games you don’t always have access to, so I prefer it to Pinball FX2 for that reason alone. Farsight has tried to introduce a few tweaks to its physics engine recently to allow for things like live catches, but it still has some room for improvement. The ball trajectory on most kickouts like the Stroke of Luck hole on AFM is virtually 100% predictable. Other physics are a little bit off as well, for example nudging on Pinball Arcade is much easier to use consistently and affects the ball path much more dramatically. When you play a real, physical machine you’ll find that things like ramp shots are much more difficult to time and make consistently (and of course will vary a lot depending on the actual machine’s condition and setup), whereas in the emulated versions nearly every well-struck shot rockets up the ramps. I haven’t spent as much time with Pro Pinball as Bowen so can’t add much to his comments there, but I’ve played quite a bit of both Pinball FX2 (Edit: Actually, it was Zen Pinball 2 I was under the mistaken impression that this was the same thing as PFX2) and Pinball Arcade (on both PS4 and iOS) and can tell you that they both suffer from a similar problem with unrealistically overpowered flippers.
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