Which tables are worth buying

[BonzoGonzo]

But then again the older tables are ideal for a quick game. And after hating BH at first, i really started to like it for its differentness.

All tables released so far have their own feel and flow. So for me it only depends on my mood which one to play.

pretty much this

gorgar is not bad at all

 

[szycag]

I'm going to buy every table that comes out for sure, at $2.50 each even if the bundling was a problem it seems silly to complain. I spend that much on 2 liters of carbonated syrup. IGN has a bias towards anything mildly frustrating anyways, I never take their opinions too seriously.

Black Hole gets a lot of slack, but it gets fun when you figure out how to turn the multipliers on up top and see how long you can stay in the bottom field without draining. Just get more familiar with the rules in the menus and put the time into it that it deserves. Haunted House has the same bottom field motif as Black Hole but is a little more forgiving, which is why it might have been a better Gottlieb table for the core pack. That doesn't change the fact that at $2.50 a pop I'd take most any well-simulated pinball table.

 

[Russell Bergman]

I will buy every one! I see some people on the facebook page and even on some forums downing the Harley Davidson table. I would like to remind everyone that people were doing the same thing to Ripley's Believe It Or Not table, and since it's release, people who weren't to keen on the table ended up loving it! I do hope the same thing happens to Harley Davidson. I played it at the Texas Pinball Festival last March and I really liked it. Pinball is funny....the machine you might not like at first, sometime later you end up giving it another chance and you get really into it and becomes a fave!

 

[pseudokings]

They're all worth buying, for sure. Little bugs, issues, and all. $5 for a 2-pack, and some people aren't sure they're worth getting? Boggles the mind... really does.

 

[shutyertrap]

Everybody (myself included) keeps on saying it's only $5 a pack, but consider this...if the original poster hasn't bought ANY of the tables yet, he's looking at $30 to get everything (i'm throwing in Taxi and HD in this), and that's more than lunch for a day. That being said, skip lunch once a week and buy 1 pack instead, in 5 weeks you'll be all caught up!

 

[bavelb]

Everybody (myself included) keeps on saying it's only $5 a pack, but consider this...if the original poster hasn't bought ANY of the tables yet, he's looking at $30 to get everything (i'm throwing in Taxi and HD in this), and that's more than lunch for a day. That being said, skip lunch once a week and buy 1 pack instead, in 5 weeks you'll be all caught up!

Do this, as getting 10 or more tables at once is pointless anyway imo, you'll feel obliged to keep trying them all out and either end up not giving tables enough time to "get" them or you'll spend all your time on 1 or 2 and it ended up being pointless to buy them all.

So this brings us to a "buying order". Problem here is that that depends on your device (can you buy single tables or only packs)...and I can see you have both iOS and 360

So my initial buying order for the casual pinball player would be (do note, this is not my own ipdb.org list...my list of favorites differs from this)
iOS
1)Totan (0.79 ct's for one of the best tables in the game, no brainer)
2)Theatre of Magic (One of the easier tables that guides you through it's goals and what to shoot for best, impressive lightshows, good presentation)
3)Medieval Madness (best production value, fun table, physics and left flipper need some work )
4)Taxi (For the more avid pinball player I'd put this one on number 1 or 2, but it might lack some lightshows and presentation for newer players..but for iOS this is my personal favourite due to it's shorter games)
5)Creature from the black lagoon (Might be one of the best iOS tables as I feel nudge isnt that needed to enjoy it, but the ruleset might be a bit wtf, and the table layout can appear cluttered (but it isn't)
6)Monster Bash (Great great table, but I feel this table needs better nudge on mobile devices as the playfield is a bit ..crammed? for iOS)
7)Fun House (Nothing bad to say about this table, a classic, best in its time but has been surpassed in its presentation by newer tables, and no other System 11 can beat Taxi imo)
8)HD (clean, fun table, easy to grasp, lots of multiball action, great physics and a unique feature in the electropost. Might lack some "factor X" for instant attractiveness to most)
9)RBioN (one of the more expensive tables out of the core pack, Awesome table, in my top 2..but hard to get into for the new player..."wtf am I doing??". Also performance is lacking on older iOS devices)
10) B.o.P (for the casual/new player, one of the most novel tables. Very crisp, clean graphics, fun voicework and theme...and an intriguing shot. But once you realise that, this table will slowly sink to the bottom of playtime per week
11Black Hole (Best of the older tables, as it has the most action.)
12)CV (it's a bit brutal on iOS on the outlanes but very cool lightshows, but those are not as impressive on iOS)
13)Gorgar (a little too bare bones for the casual, new player?)
14)Black Knight (this table needs some dev polish...once it's fixed and hopefuly emulaed, could very well rival BH for older table with best action)


So looking at that list, time to assemble a DLC buying guid for Xbox, after you buy the corepack, which isnt just a matter of adding the above positions as there are some additional coments to make in regards to the xbox versions.
1)CV and FH (outlanes are far less annoying on consoles on CV, and with this pack I feel you don't get a table that needs a certain niche aspect as with the others
2)MM and BOP (Id put this pack on number 1 if MM physics and left flipper got some work...BoP is a great table for the casual/novice player but gets very onedimensional)
3)Gorgar and MB (these 2 tables are so far apart in their production timeline that I don't think there are many that have both in their "favorite TPA table" list. See my iOS list above for my preference)

IF DLC 4 and 5 are out next month or after that, that list will look like:
1)CV/FH (Fix CV floatier physics and it might rival a fixed MM)
2)Taxi/HD (This pack has NOTHING wrong with either table, if the quality on 360 is as good as iOS, but both tables don't have the deepest rulesets, so I rank it slightly below CV and FH as a pack..but in time played, this could very well be my number one pack in a few months time)
3)MM/BoP (fix MM physics and flipper and this will go to number one for a casual player that doesn't mind the shallow BOP ruleset)
4)Gorgar and MB
5)BK and CFTBL (same commentary as my previous gorgar/MB one....these tables are miles apart and are from diffrerent era's that I think a these will polarise a lot of the playerbase. This pack is a toss up between gorgar and MB for me, I just put this on nr 5 as it's not released yet).

edit: in hindsight, maybe I should've made this into a seperate thread, and see if we can come with a "buyers guide" with some overall consensus

 

[Shaneus]

Every one... except the Stern ones. I just can't bring myself to like Ripley's after demoing it on iOS and being forced to have it on 360. My confidence in HD isn't that great, either. They can only redeem themselves in PA if they somehow manage to get AC/DC in the collection (for some weird reason... but even I know there's no way that machine's coming to it anytime soon... if at all).

 

[Matt McIrvin]

But then again the older tables are ideal for a quick game. And after hating BH at first, i really started to like it for its differentness.

I got hooked on those 1970s/80s solid-state pins by PHoF: The Williams Collection on the Wii, which didn't have any tables that required emulation (so no DMDs; the most complex tables featured were scripted versions of Funhouse and Whirlwind).

I think a player relatively new to pinball might actually prefer these older tables. The games are short, but it's relatively easy to learn what you're supposed to be doing. As I've said elsewhere, I thought of Firepower as a sort of training ground, because it was just about the simplest table you could imagine that had all the gameplay features people came to expect from solid-state pinball after 1980.

 

[superballs]

I would (will, have) buy them all, of course you're going to like some tables better than others but they are worth the price, even the worst table.

Personally I'm a huge fan of Black Hole, Medieval Madness, Funhouse and well all the tables really except RBION, which i still play occaisonally.

I really enjoyed playing Gorgar in VP so I'm sure that I will enjoy it in TPA as well.

 

[superballs]

So, I got a chance to play them at lunch and I love this table pack.

Gorgar is better than i remember and Monster Bash is so much better than it was on iOS (like every table)

 

[Turbine]

Bought everything except Black Hole. Of the rest, I like them all except Gorgar and CV (just too buggy to enjoy).

 

[Matt McIrvin]

Another thing to consider is that the bundling of tables varies from platform to platform.

On Android, TPA is a free download, and you can buy every single table separately if you want to (though if you want them all, you'll probably save money by buying them in packs). I've actually not bought RBION there.

On XBox, you buy the four core tables with the application, and the others are bundled in two-packs of a new table and a Pinball Hall of Fame retread, so you can't, say, skip all of the latter (while the TPA console implementations are often improved, I'd have been tempted to skip them if I could--as opposed to Android, where having the familiar games in my pocket is a major addition of value).

I'm not sure how it works everywhere else.

 

[Sean]

Due to the price I don't regret buying any of them. The only table I don't play is Creature from the Black Lagoon - that table leaves me cold. If I was buying them one at a time that's the only one I'd skip.

I find myself spending the most time with the non-DMD tables and Medieval Madness - I really want to beat the King Of Payne!

 

[Richard B]

I like them all, and will continue to buy to support the cause, even if the pack totally blows. That said, the only tables I couldn't fault someone for skipping are MM and BH, since both are so inaccurately recreated. I'm sure they will both be fixed in time (they've already fixed the flipper gap in MM, but it caused the playfield lights to stop functioning), but right now they're not that great.

 

[Wigoutboy]

All of them are worth buying my friend. Since they are actually real tables, and the highest rated of them all, they are all extremely well designed and fun, each in their own way. Even the simpler ones like Gorgar are so well designed that they hook you. So my advice is, buy them all.

 

[Pinballfan69]

If you're a pinball fan/enthusiast, I suggest you get them all. I have all the TPA pinball tables that are available for the PS3 and look to get any other DLC out there. They are all good in their own way. I tend to play certain tables more as others just don't do it for me. Gorgar and Black Hole are such tables. They are still virtual sims of those tables and I might play them more but the other tables interest me more.

I play Funhouse, Bride, TOM, Medieval Madness. (it's getting better after the PS3 update) and Ripleys more.

 

[Heretic]

I remember way back when...like five months ago...i sorta stumble apon tpa via jeff minter...i was thinking nice i can demo blackhole...now i cant seem to stop buying pinball games.

If you enjoy the game every tables got qualities that can appeal...i enjoy them so much i plan to buy for xbox and pc aswell

As a very jaded video gamer (humbug to new fps) ive really enjoyed swearing at my ipad lately hah...