Golden Logres	LittleWing
Reviewed:  1998-12-05

- The pinball

LittleWing has been with us for quite some time and has managed to release a number of pinball simulations which have gotten their groups of fans. Tristan was their first pinball and was quite impressing when it came out, though today it doesn't look like so much for the world. Maybe even more of a classic is Crystal Caliburn and Loony Labyrinth, the two pinballs which sort of are prequels (I suppose you can count Tristan as one too) to this one , the sixth pinball of littlewing, Golden Logres. The theme is inspired by the knights of the round table. I kind a like the story and background which connects to the previous pinballs also inspiered by the same theme. Golden Logres is a multitable pinball, that means that the first table is connected to other tables, you advance from the first table to anyone of two other tables. You can play each table separately if you want to practice, but to reach the final goal you need to advance trough them all three and complete the mildly put difficult challenges. The table is titled to give a 3d perspective (see the screenshots for an good idea of how it looks). The table is also a little more than half a screen wide and one high, thus everything gets pretty small, but I don't really mind this kind of table view that much... It works quite ok.


- The Tables

Camelot

Gather the 12 knights of the round table. The knights are divided into groups of 3, 4 and 5. The first three knights must fullfill each a different mission on the Camelot table. Each knight must be accolated before he may take on his mission, accolodating a knight is done by hitting 9 drop targets in stone henge (a part of the table in the top left corner where 9 drop targets form a semi-circle). After that has been done the knight may take on his task (which ofcourse consist of completing some special sequense of ramps or droptargets). Camelot is a very extra ball rich table which is very helpfull as you move on. The table layout is rather good, no idiotic or unrealistic placements of objects even though stdm's occure sometimes from the stonehenge area. You soon get into the table learn where everything is and can play quite efficently. There is also two outlanesavers that you will find usefull. Accolodating the knights get pretty repetitive since you do the same all the time, hit the nine drop targets, hit a sink hole and so on 12 times. It is Lands End and Fisher King that are the real challenging tables. But since you travel back and forth between these three tables (camelot to lands end and back to camelot or camelot to fisher king and back to camelot) during your quest (more on that) it is not so wrong though that Camelot is an extraball rich and easier table than the two others.

Lands End

Having accolodated 4 knights (number 4-7) you are given access to Lands End (a sink hole will be lit). Since Golden Logres is a multitable as I mentioned in the beginning you are now taken to a whole new table. On this table each of the accolodated knights must fullfill a mission each essential to the resurrection of the kingdom of Golden Logres. Once you have completed all 4 missions you can't return to the table. A nice touch is that you play with your extra balls on this table (you do so on Fisher King too), when you are out of extra balls you are dropped back to Camelot... And once back on camelot you must once again open up the path to Lands End to get a second try, and if you once again fail to complete all the knights missions you drop back and so on. The table layout is a bit more twisted than Camelot since you have some more things to accomplish here.

Fisher King

No ballsavers or anything. The layout is a bit weird imo if you take in flipper placements and sinkholes and bumpers, though still it works quite ok and the graphics and objects fits the theme so I wont complain (look at the picture and you might get an idea of the table, I wont bother to talk so much about the exact layouts). Fisher King is accessed when you have accolodated the remaining 5 knights, each knight must fullfill a mission as in Lands End.

Overall - The Quest

Since I belive I have been pretty confusing let me summarize the theme. On the camelot table you accolodate the 12 knights of the round table. Each knight have an important mission to fullfill (find the silver shield of tole, the holy grail, challenge the red,blue,green knight...), each mission leads to the finding of an object that is then returned to camelot. These missions take place on either one of the three tables. Thus there is a constant travel between camelot to either Lands End or Fisher King. On camelot you can get game over, on Lands End and Fisher Kind you play with what number of extra balls you might have (you can also on Camelot collect amullets that award you an extra ball when you enter LE or FK), having used up all extra balls or when you have completed all knights missions you are dropped back to Camelot.

You quest is ofcourse to revive the kingdom of Golden Logres.

Fullfilling the quest is quite hard, GL is by no means an easy pinball. Some parts of the theme feld repetitive, accolodating knights trough the same way, and I wish there had been some more different/varying multiballs etc awarded at times. Though overall the theme is as you maybe expect from littlewing interesting and good.


- The Feeling

I wont say the feeling is terrific, in my opinion it was acceptable but not much more. I found it annoying the way the ball would come to a dead stop when it rolled out on the flipper (very rubbery flipper). Depending on what speed the ball had it would either dead stop or just roll over, was hard to get a feel for setting up a shot. I mostly caught the ball and then tried to aim a shot. Catching a ball is very very easy, almost any ball that goes down an inlane will come to a quick stop as soon as it reaches the raised flipper (normally a very speedy ball might roll up the raised flipper and of the top). You got the impression the table slope was quite big. A caught ball that rolls out on the rubbery flipper will go slow and stuttery and it was quite hard to get away a shot the exact direction you wished, hard to get a feeling for it, though eventually you get quite good at estimating when to flip... Ofcourse the fact that the ball and flipper is quite small played its part, but that wasn't really a real problem for me, I can accept this kind of table view.

You can do death catches, hold passes etc, not that they might feel like the most natural thing when you pull one off but it is possible. Overall you can play, you might not be impressed with the feeling but it is ok.


- The Whole

A fan of littlewings previous releases Loony Labyrinth and Crystal Caliburn will definitively feel at home with Golden Logres. It screams of littlewings style (except the now tilted table perspective)!! The background for the theme is well though out and the implemention of the theme is quite good. The tables look good and the layouts work with the theme, with this comment I mean that it is not an pinball with an alien theme whose tables consist of cute bunnys or something. The tables are quite hard and it will take some time to complete it. Maybe there could have been some more things to do on the side, some more variety on accolodating knights. The feeling isn't that terrific and you will certainly feel annoyed at it when playing, but you wont feel like that all the time and can accept its behaviour since it sure beats much out there.

Overall this isn't an ordinary pinball, the theme and the looks of the tables tell you that. The feeling might not be impressing but the pinball is quite enjoyable and stands above most ordinary mass releases or whatever you want to call lowscoring pinballs. I recommend the pinball to those who know what kind of pinball simulations they like, some might like this pinball and some will not. I found it good though it isn't a pinball I will return to every day...

Fisher King

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