Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection for the Xbox 360 and PS3 is a re-release of the same game that's already available for the Wii, PS2, and PSP, but with some additional tables thrown in and, obviously, a graphics and physics upgrade. The collection features thirteen of the most memorable and challenging games that Williams produced from the '70s up through the '90s. The game faithfully recreates these tables, their sound effects, and the general feel of playing pinball.



What's Hot
First of all, the lineup of games is incredible. All the way from Gorgar (the first pinball game to use digitized speech) up to Medieval Madness (a holy grail of sorts for pinball collectors), each game in the collection is a blast to play. I'm an avid pinball collector and restorationist, and I've played each and every one of these games both in person and on the collection and it really is commendable what the developers were able to pull off. Shots feel satisfying, the physics are believable, and every table is faithfully recreated right down to the tiniest detail.

Graphically the game looks quite nice. Many times in virtual pinball games the ball seems to be floating along and it doesn't feel like it's truly interacting with the pinball machine, but in this collection everything feels right and the graphical execution plays a big part in that. Crisp and clear textures, great lighting, and a silky smooth framerate keep you deeply immersed in the action of the game on whatever table you've chosen.

Also, each game's music and sound effects are pretty much a perfect translation. I couldn't identify any instances where sounds or music had been noticeably altered, which is great because many of these machines had amazing effects and tunes to begin with. Not many people know it, but Tina Fey contributed to the voice acting on Medieval Madness, and she did a fantastic job.

The game's challenge mode has you play through each of the game's thirteen tables in a row, but in order to progress to the next one you have to hit a certain score threshold. You'll have a limited number of continues as you play through this, so it's important that you pay close attention to how each game scores points and how you can complete game modes to maximize scoring. The reward for clearing the challenge is that you're able to unlock a new table for use in other modes.

What's Not
While the game supports online leaderboards, it's a mess trying to navigate them to find your friends. If there was an easier way to filter through the listings to more easily ensure that you're beating out your friends, it would go a long way toward dragging gamers back to play more often. A game like this begs for great leaderboard integration.

The game offers several camera angles, but it's a little funky how it handles changing the views. You can only change the camera view while the ball is in play, which can be a bit distracting to do while you're trying to keep the ball from draining on you. Why you can't just set a permanent default or change your view before plunging the ball is somewhat confusing.

Finally, and this really isn't the fault of the developers, but the lack of licensed games eliminate the possibility of other great titles that Williams produced, such as Indiana Jones, Twilight Zone, and The Addams Family (the latter two were actually Bally games, a subsidiary of Williams). Obviously it would be costly to use these licenses and in some cases it might be near impossible, but it's just a bummer as some of the licensed titles were among the best pinball machines ever produced.



Final Word
Hopefully this isn't a game that's passed off as another cheap or cheesy virtual pinball title. Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection is a must-have for any fans of pinball, and well worth checking out by anybody who is just looking for a fun game that offers something different from the run of the mill shooters, RPGs, and action titles that dominate the holiday release schedule. Coming from a hardcore pinball fan and a collector, giving this game a high recommendation speaks volumes about the quality of the product.