Topic: The Switch Arcade Community Thread

@Lroy @monkeyspasm
I'm starting to think it might be tomorrow as the other games for today have shown up already, except for Dragon Blaze, even though it's up on the Japanese store.
Urge to buy import....rising.....

@meppi64

That EDF 2017 looks absolutely crazy...in a good way!! I don’t know this series but I will check it out on the 360. Thanks for the tips.

I believe the US gets Bad Dudes today!

I was really hoping we’d see Rampage show up, given that a movie license is on the way. That’s a 4 player coop I played non stop as a kid. That & Gauntet were two arcade coops I always hit up.

Oh the whole series is pretty much golden.
I've been going back to it since yesterday and I have to say that my memory was playing some tricks on me.
It seems like in EDF 2017 you only have one class to play with and that's the regular soldier.
The Vita port added the Wing Diver back into the game, which I somehow thought was in the 360 version as well.
That's the woman with the jetpack you'll see in a lot of Youtube videos and artwork and a hugely fun class to play with since she gets completely different weapons.
For example, while a normal Ranger gets assault riffles (which I don't like actually), shotguns (lots of fun), sniper rifles (also terrific) and RPGs (must have weapon imo, one of the most fun weapon class in the games). The Wing Diver gets energy type weapons like a plasma shot that drops down over distance and explodes when it comes into contact with something and Thunder Bows, which shoot lightening beams in a variety of ways.
Oh and a laser chainsaw later on!

So when things start to get a bit monotonous, just change to a different class and you're back in business.
EDF 4 (2025) added 2 more classes actually, which again play very differently, so it might be better to get 2025 to get the most bang for your buck as it does refine quite a bit of other things about the game.

Don't forget the game started as a €20 budget game on PS2 in Japan with pretty much no budget behind it.
So it evolved quite a bit as it got more popular.

But if you're interested in getting deeper into the series, EDF 2017 is a good place to start as you can see the game evolving and things being added to it as the years go by.

Mark is a huge fan as well.

@meppi64

Laser chainsaw!!! That’s awesome!

@Agent721 It sure is! And it's very powerful as well!

OMG! It seems like the rumours actually appeared to be true.
The Pinball Arcade seems to be releasing tomorrow!
Well at least in the US since there's nothing about it on the EU or Japanese eshop yet.
Hopefully it's a worldwide release.
https://nintendoeverything.com/the-pinball-arcade-seems-to-be...

Considering that I'm planning on picking up every single table, this might get rather expensive very quickly.
Although I'm a bit sceptical about the claim on the site of it offering 90 cabinets from the get go.
It would make more sense to release the seasons a bit more spread out, say one season every 2 weeks.
But I'm not going to complain if I'll be €360 poorer by tomorrow.

@meppi64 EDF is one of the greatest series of games ever, and in co op is the most fun in gaming I've ever had. Challenging in later difficulties as well, the robots in 2017 are epic jaw dropping sights and a pleasure to do battle against... love it

@Jbs-Dad Sadly, I've never played it on co-op since my best friend refuses to even play these games since they aren't realistic war games.... yeah...

You'll love the frogmen in EDF 5 when it finally comes out over here. I think it's PS4 only?
I do miss those robots though, really wish those were in 5 as well.
But the frogmen are some of the smartest enemies I've ever seen in EDF. A real joy to fight.

@meppi64 can't wait, will have to buy a ps4 for that one. Are there any other enemy types? Also get rid of the friend haha, he's missing out on 100s of hrs of fun.

@Jbs-Dad
Yeah, I know... :-/
He doesn't want to try any of the games I recommend and then he complains that there aren't any good games out there. Well, that's kinda what happens when the only thing you play is run-of-the mill FPS games and the biggest cookie cutter blockbusters that get recycled every year over and over again.
Might be best with a pro I think as the base system had problems with EDF 4.1.
Although nowhere near as bad as EDF 2025 on PS3. That got pretty terrible.

Most of the enemies in EDF 5 are actually new, besides the swarm enemies at least.
So the ants, spiders and bees are still in, but most of the others are all new and act in very different ways.
The first mission is terrible though as it's a long slow tutorial mission for people who have never played EDF.
So it takes a bit longer to get going, this one. After that's it's fine though.

@meppi64 Which of the Pinball Arcade tables would you recommend? It comes with the free Arabian Nights table. It says on the news feed 90 tables so it seems to be launching with the lot. I didn't particularly like Stern Pinball but I never really gave it much of a chance to be honest. I was so into Pinball FX3 but I realise this is a more authentic take on pinball. I'll give the Frankenstein table and Arabian Nights a fair shake and see how I get on.

@OorWullie
I really don't know how they pulled it off to get all 90 tables working in such a short time.
Hopefully there won't be too many bugs as it must have been an enormous undertaking.

Don't worry about not being into their Stern release. It's a bit hit and miss and I really don't like the Frankenstein table at all myself.
The 3 tables that stood out there for me were Ghostbusters, Star Trek and AC/DC.

As for my favourite picks on the regular Pinball Arcade, I can't give you a truly comprehensive overview as I haven't played all of them enough to be able to recommend them or to say to avoid them.
Some cabinets I haven't played at all since I stopped buying them elsewhere as soon as I heard it was coming to Switch.

But the ones that jump out to me are the following.
Star Trek The Next Generation
The Addams Family
Medieval Madness
Theater of Magic
Terminator 2
Twilight Zone
Pin.Bot
Attack From Mars
Judge Dredd
Scared Stiff
Elvira & the Party Monsters
Funhouse
Circus Voltair
Creature from the Black lagoon
Phantom of the Opera

Heard great things about Dracula, banzai Run and Firepower II but haven't played it yet.
I was just playing the old Williams Pinball Hall of Fame last night and finally after all those years beat the Williams Challenge and unlocked the final table. The physics in those old versions back then were nowhere near as good as the ones now. Very floaty.
Played Space Shuttle somewhat seriously for the first time and really enjoyed it.

Oh and Tales of the Arabian Nights is the free table on TPA?
Wow, that's an incredible pick as it's a brilliant table in it's own right. Very fun to play, has a great theme, great design and is quite the spectacle when you all combine it. Certainly one of my favourite tables.

@OorWullie
Oh and don't be discouraged when playing any of these tables.
Pinball is something that is very personal, so you might end up hating tables that I love and vice versa.
Been talking with a pinball expert for the past couple of months and he is a huge fan of Last Action Hero for instance. And while I've tried to like the table and will keep doing so, it hasn't clicked with me yet, and that's after several hours... So yeah, you never know.

Quite a few of these tables will kick your butt at first, but trust me on this, stick with it and you will improve dramatically, even if you end up getting frustrated at first with certain targets that seem to make your ball drain every single time.
I had this happen with Ghostbuster and I can now say that it was all on me.
Some tables are more forgiving than others, but to get a good feel for one, you should try and stick with one that you like at first. Don't go jumping from one table to the next all the time, certainly not at first.
That way you'll not get much better since everything will feel random.

For instance, have now put about 30 hours into Ghostbusters and it"'s one of my favourite tables of all time.
But it only started clicking with me after 4-5 hours. By that I mean that I was slowly starting to understand what to do in certain situations in which I always lost my ball previously.
Yet, even though I felt it started to click, I only really started to "get" it after 12 hours more or less. Suddenly the game felt a lot easier by then. But that was just thanks to the learning curve.

Every single cabinet has it's own rules and specific way of playing. Some have 2 or 3 layers in those rules, other tables will have as many as 30. Again, don't let that scare you off.
After 30 hours in Ghostbusters, I'm still learning new things after all. That's part of the fun.
Every cabinet is like a role playing game.

When you start getting a bit of a feel for a table, go into the instruction manual and read a couple of pages of the goals. Skill shots are always a good starting point as are the basic story oriented goals you should aim for to progress the game. How to get multi balls and extra balls is also something you might want to read up on early on.
Then just take it one step at a time.

Again, it's not the most casual thing, but it's certainly a very rewarding one.
You get as much out of a good pinball game as you're willing to put into it and that's part of the charm.
And sadly also part of the reason why few people today seem to understand the appeal.
They think you just bounce the ball around, hitting some blinky things and make it go fast around some ramps and into a couple of holes before it drains and that's it.

@meppi64 Cheers for the list. The Creature from the Black Lagoon appeals to me greatly, even though I haven't seen the table yet. Loved that movie as a kid. Good to know the Arabian Nights table is a good one. I wonder how much the tables will cost individually?

As for getting a feel for the tables then going to the manual, that's what I do with Pinball FX 3. Skill shots are always my first to learn. Trying to take it all in in one go isn't ideal, play a bit, check the manual, figure out what you've just read, play some more, back to the manual and repeat until you've got it all figured out. Agreed, best way to do it.

Cheers pal

@meppi64
95 tables will be available day 1 (including Tales Of The Arabian Nights, that it comes with for free)
All seven seasons up to date including the awesome Banzai Run. (with more to come
Portrait/TATE mode day 1 (took a while for Stern to get it, I know).

Also 60fps 1080p MSAA docked, 60fps 720p MSAA undocked.

You can trust this info as I am the guy that ported it to Switch

Just a public service announcement for anyone interested: Johnny Turbo put the charge punch in Bad Dudes. Just FWI. Carry on.

@mauhlin12 WOOHOO!!!

@swuthmaster
Omg! That sounds awesome. I'm actually playing Theatre of Magic now on XBLA since I dusted off my good old 360. Trying to get all the wizard goals on that one.

Will it be out in Europe as well tomorrow?
Oh and any idea if there will be a huge bundle with everything included, or perhaps just season bundles?

Oh and I know it's asking a lot, but would it be possible to add the option to rotate the play field in the other way as well in TATE mode?
I've been eyeing that TATE grip that Jeremy Parish is trying to get launched and it only seems to be working when tilting the Switch to the left, otherwise it seems like it would block the vents on top.

@swuthmaster

Congrats on getting that done. I love pinball & will check it out.