Introduction:
It’s slow season so here is some site content, likely back to lurking after
. This is just a compilation of my thoughts of these two games that I’ve been thinking of while playing them. They seemed to always get lumped together when talking about “deep” games. Both of these games are incredible and I’m happy to have them both side by side in my lineup. Any issues I have with either game are really just nitpick points. Chances are that if someone is really fond of one of the games they will also like the other. They have similar style gameplay in the fact that they both have long ball times, lots to shoot for, and incredible depth and strategy to the rules. All that being said, they are not equal. They each play differently. Here is my take on it:
Cabinet Art:
To be honest I don’t really think either game shines much in this department. Both of them have terrible print jobs. I’d have to give the nod to The Simpsons on a head to head though simply because I find it a bit more suiting of the theme and game in general. It sort of reminds me of those Simpsons posters you see with a bunch of the characters on it. I’m really not sure where the blue and red theme on The Lord of the Rings is supposed to fit in. It isn’t like a recurring red and blue contrast between good and evil or anything in the films from what I remember. Either way it’s just cabinet art but they both aren’t great.
Theme and Immersion in Gameplay:
This is one area where LOTR really shines. From the second you hit the start button you feel as though you are on the adventure. To be honest I was never really into the movies and a bit hesitant about even buying the game simply because of the theme. It does such a good job of making you feel like part of the adventure that it can take someone like me, who didn’t even want to be part of the adventure, feel like I’m in the adventure and enjoy it. The Simpsons doesn’t really seem to have that same draw. In a sense it just feels like you are aimlessly wandering around Springfield. It never feels like you are in dire need of accomplishing the goal like it does in LOTR. LOTR without a doubt takes the cake here in my eyes.
Build Quality and Design:
Both games are from Stern and released close enough to the same time that the build quality is similar. LOTR has some very poorly designed aspects to it. Lets start with the Path of The Dead. The POTD continuously drops the ball onto the Arwen plastic directly below it with zero protection thus causing it to break (like mine). Next is the top post diverter into the Orthanc Tower. A bad design that causes it to not do it’s one and only job which is stop the ball and divert it into the tower. This forces people to either angle the diverter post using washers and/ or put a cut down post sleeve tip on it in order to get it to actually work how it’s supposed to. Next we have the Balrog bash which has a normally closed switch, this means that anytime the toy that constantly moves throughout the game gets a frayed wire harness it will randomly award ring hits or start modes. The switch also relies on the whole toy moving to register a bash hit, which can also cause issues if it doesn’t return to it’s home position 100%. What’s wrong with just a simple switch on the front of it and keeping the Balrog solid (obviously still needs to swing out of the way but I’m referring to the up/down play it has to activate the switch). The ring magnet… the main shot in the game. Does it work? Yes most of the time, however it can be unreliable as well. It relies on optos as well as physical microswitches to work. I’ve had it happen a few times where the ball will shoot right through the magnet. Before people tell me to check my spinner switch, yes it works fine. The magnet is activating but it has still happened where a hard shot will launch right through it if the opto doesn’t pick it up and activate the hold. This caused me to get a DTR time of 11 seconds one game and have to reset my Grand Champion score to erase it as it wasn’t valid (nailed every shot perfectly and then first time up to the ring it destroyed it). I realize this shouldn’t happen but it did and it bothered me. But wait there is still more… I’m not sure what angle the people that designed the game were looking from but it wasn’t the players position. The palantir globe doesn’t line up with the glow of the light on any of the games and the Barad dur tower eye mirror is blocked by one of the tower peaks. You have to lean way off to the left in order to get them to match up properly. Overall I find it to be a very poorly designed game. It’s a shame because the build quality I find to be very nice and the gameplay is phenomenal. I’m yet to find anything overly problematic on TSPP however it isn't perfect either. One thing that has always bothered me about TSPP is the fact that the playfield is inconsistent and not intuitive in certain instances. The two instances that I can think of off the top of my head are the 2x bumper scoring light and the couch shot during homers day mode. Every 2x scoring mode on the playfield has a 2x scoring red insert...except for the bumpers. For some unknown reason there is no insert and you have to watch for a dimly flashing #47 bulb flashing under all the artwork. Why? Why not just put a 2x scoring insert like every other shot in the game? I installed some bright red LEDs under the playfield in that spot so it sort of matches a bit but I really don’t understand the logic behind it. The couch shot bothers me because in almost all mode shots that need to be made there are yellow arrows directing you where to shoot except the couch shot in Homer’s Day mode. It wouldn’t be so bad except instead of no light being used, the red Jackpot light is used. Maybe it’s just OCD but it’s bothering. The TSPP is a 5 flipper game. This causes it to be noisier and feel slightly clunkier than LOTR. It also means double stack flipper switches which can be a bit of a pain to get firing at exactly the right time. If they aren’t adjusted perfectly you will get the top two right flippers firing slightly slower or faster than the bottom right flipper. I’m not exactly sure what the purpose of the huge homer head is serving either. It isn’t a big deal because you just ignore it during game play so it isn’t distracting it’s just a huge ugly unnecessary toy that does nothing except for “sort of” loosely follow the ball and look around the playfield.
Sound:
This is another area where both games could use some improvement. When it isn’t uncommon to have 30-45+ minute playtime on either game the sounds can get a bit repetitive. The sound package on LOTR is better though. The music is catchy and there are some really great callouts. TSPP has the humour that fits in with the theme but I find the music can get annoying faster and the sound quality is quite terrible. I do have a later run of the simpsons (2008) and I’m pretty sure they used different sound chips (read something about emulated sound) which are supposedly worse than the original so that may have something to do with the sound quality. As it is now though I cringe anytime I hear the otto horn go off because I know every single time it’s going to be followed by a heavily distorted bus burnout sound whenever anything else is happening (multiball).
It’s slow season so here is some site content, likely back to lurking after
. This is just a compilation of my thoughts of these two games that I’ve been thinking of while playing them. They seemed to always get lumped together when talking about “deep” games. Both of these games are incredible and I’m happy to have them both side by side in my lineup. Any issues I have with either game are really just nitpick points. Chances are that if someone is really fond of one of the games they will also like the other. They have similar style gameplay in the fact that they both have long ball times, lots to shoot for, and incredible depth and strategy to the rules. All that being said, they are not equal. They each play differently. Here is my take on it:Cabinet Art:
To be honest I don’t really think either game shines much in this department. Both of them have terrible print jobs. I’d have to give the nod to The Simpsons on a head to head though simply because I find it a bit more suiting of the theme and game in general. It sort of reminds me of those Simpsons posters you see with a bunch of the characters on it. I’m really not sure where the blue and red theme on The Lord of the Rings is supposed to fit in. It isn’t like a recurring red and blue contrast between good and evil or anything in the films from what I remember. Either way it’s just cabinet art but they both aren’t great.
Theme and Immersion in Gameplay:
This is one area where LOTR really shines. From the second you hit the start button you feel as though you are on the adventure. To be honest I was never really into the movies and a bit hesitant about even buying the game simply because of the theme. It does such a good job of making you feel like part of the adventure that it can take someone like me, who didn’t even want to be part of the adventure, feel like I’m in the adventure and enjoy it. The Simpsons doesn’t really seem to have that same draw. In a sense it just feels like you are aimlessly wandering around Springfield. It never feels like you are in dire need of accomplishing the goal like it does in LOTR. LOTR without a doubt takes the cake here in my eyes.
Build Quality and Design:
Both games are from Stern and released close enough to the same time that the build quality is similar. LOTR has some very poorly designed aspects to it. Lets start with the Path of The Dead. The POTD continuously drops the ball onto the Arwen plastic directly below it with zero protection thus causing it to break (like mine). Next is the top post diverter into the Orthanc Tower. A bad design that causes it to not do it’s one and only job which is stop the ball and divert it into the tower. This forces people to either angle the diverter post using washers and/ or put a cut down post sleeve tip on it in order to get it to actually work how it’s supposed to. Next we have the Balrog bash which has a normally closed switch, this means that anytime the toy that constantly moves throughout the game gets a frayed wire harness it will randomly award ring hits or start modes. The switch also relies on the whole toy moving to register a bash hit, which can also cause issues if it doesn’t return to it’s home position 100%. What’s wrong with just a simple switch on the front of it and keeping the Balrog solid (obviously still needs to swing out of the way but I’m referring to the up/down play it has to activate the switch). The ring magnet… the main shot in the game. Does it work? Yes most of the time, however it can be unreliable as well. It relies on optos as well as physical microswitches to work. I’ve had it happen a few times where the ball will shoot right through the magnet. Before people tell me to check my spinner switch, yes it works fine. The magnet is activating but it has still happened where a hard shot will launch right through it if the opto doesn’t pick it up and activate the hold. This caused me to get a DTR time of 11 seconds one game and have to reset my Grand Champion score to erase it as it wasn’t valid (nailed every shot perfectly and then first time up to the ring it destroyed it). I realize this shouldn’t happen but it did and it bothered me. But wait there is still more… I’m not sure what angle the people that designed the game were looking from but it wasn’t the players position. The palantir globe doesn’t line up with the glow of the light on any of the games and the Barad dur tower eye mirror is blocked by one of the tower peaks. You have to lean way off to the left in order to get them to match up properly. Overall I find it to be a very poorly designed game. It’s a shame because the build quality I find to be very nice and the gameplay is phenomenal. I’m yet to find anything overly problematic on TSPP however it isn't perfect either. One thing that has always bothered me about TSPP is the fact that the playfield is inconsistent and not intuitive in certain instances. The two instances that I can think of off the top of my head are the 2x bumper scoring light and the couch shot during homers day mode. Every 2x scoring mode on the playfield has a 2x scoring red insert...except for the bumpers. For some unknown reason there is no insert and you have to watch for a dimly flashing #47 bulb flashing under all the artwork. Why? Why not just put a 2x scoring insert like every other shot in the game? I installed some bright red LEDs under the playfield in that spot so it sort of matches a bit but I really don’t understand the logic behind it. The couch shot bothers me because in almost all mode shots that need to be made there are yellow arrows directing you where to shoot except the couch shot in Homer’s Day mode. It wouldn’t be so bad except instead of no light being used, the red Jackpot light is used. Maybe it’s just OCD but it’s bothering. The TSPP is a 5 flipper game. This causes it to be noisier and feel slightly clunkier than LOTR. It also means double stack flipper switches which can be a bit of a pain to get firing at exactly the right time. If they aren’t adjusted perfectly you will get the top two right flippers firing slightly slower or faster than the bottom right flipper. I’m not exactly sure what the purpose of the huge homer head is serving either. It isn’t a big deal because you just ignore it during game play so it isn’t distracting it’s just a huge ugly unnecessary toy that does nothing except for “sort of” loosely follow the ball and look around the playfield.
Sound:
This is another area where both games could use some improvement. When it isn’t uncommon to have 30-45+ minute playtime on either game the sounds can get a bit repetitive. The sound package on LOTR is better though. The music is catchy and there are some really great callouts. TSPP has the humour that fits in with the theme but I find the music can get annoying faster and the sound quality is quite terrible. I do have a later run of the simpsons (2008) and I’m pretty sure they used different sound chips (read something about emulated sound) which are supposedly worse than the original so that may have something to do with the sound quality. As it is now though I cringe anytime I hear the otto horn go off because I know every single time it’s going to be followed by a heavily distorted bus burnout sound whenever anything else is happening (multiball).
