Champions (Pinball FX Table Review)

Champions
aka Marvel’s Women of Power: Champions
First Released September 27, 2016
Main Platform: Pinball FX
Switch Platform: Unreleased
Designed by Zoltan Vari
Set: Marvel Pinball Collection 2 ($29.99)
Links: Strategy Guide – Pinball FX Wiki

 Kickback – Oscar: My rating of THE PITS would happen whether or not we could come to a consensus on if the table even works right. Champions’ scoring balance is non-existent. A simple three-way combo scores as much as many of the game’s modes. The video mode is too easy to relight and scores MUCH higher than most of the pinball modes. Champions needs a complete overhaul of its scoring because there’s little to no incentive to avoid chopping wood. But, I think it’s broken right now anyway. I think the evidence is overwhelming. I don’t take calling the hard work of Zen’s designers “broken” lightly, but Champions appears to meet the criteria we’ve agreed on.

Champions is one of the strangest tables in Pinball FX, and easily one of the hardest pins to review in the collection. In fact, our discussion on the merits of the table stalled thanks to a discussion on whether or not the table is broken. Sometimes, but not ALL the time, your ability to clear the ramps doesn’t feel directly connected to the ball’s inertia at all. What we’ve experienced certainly doesn’t feel like Castlestorm, where the ball is catching something and slowing down. Instead, it feels like the shots aren’t tight enough, as the ball starts wobbling for no reason and that’s why it runs off its momentum while going up the ramp. Dad says “no, it feels like the shot is being blocked by some unseen force.” Either way, we couldn’t come up with a consensus on whether it’s a mechanics thing or a table thing or an engine thing. No consensus = the review must go forward, and honestly, I don’t think Champions is very good.

Signature Shot – Staff of One: In order to summon heroes to help Ms. Marvel, you have to shoot hoops.. literally. I think this is what the Chakram in Xena was aiming for and didn’t quite pull off. Here, the hoop starts elevated, then lowers once struck. It also moves back and forth as well AND you must shoot it from the front, not get a backwards roll-through. Best shot on the table, easily.

Dad is totally right about the lack of balance. As soon as Angela figured out how easy it was to cheese lighting the high-scoring, easy-to-win video mode, she went to town on it. Just shoot the CD-shaped spinner until the end of time, earning tens of millions of points fairly easily. The combo shooting would be too if not for the absurd amount of rejections. The shame is, the modes are pretty much all exciting and fun, but when the scoring isn’t equally rewarding, nor is it based much on risk/reward factors, it’s hard to get invested in table progress. It has the Bram Stoker’s Dracula-like Hawkeye mode where you have to shoot a bomb off as it crawls across the table. Even the overvalued video mode is kind of random and broken. Sparks bounce around the DMD display and chip off the wall where they connect, and you have to get them all before they hit a piece of the wall they already connected with. We’ve started games of this where the sparks are trailing right behind another spark and immediately exit before you could physically reach them. Combined with rails and outlanes that are among the most brutal of the Marvel tables and Champions just plain isn’t that fun most of the time. It’s probably broken, but it’s not very good anyway. When a rejection happens, you hear Ms. Marvel say “come on!” You said it, sister.
Cathy: BAD (2 out of 5)
Angela: BAD
Oscar: THE PITS (1 out of 5)
Jordi: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Sasha: GOOD
Overall Scoring Average: 2.2 – BAD
Some review copies were provided in this review, others were paid for.