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Once again it’s time for old school pinball fanatics to rejoice as a new pack of conversions from the classic collection of Williams tables has arrived. The top billing obviously goes to the revered classic Funhouse, whose animated ventriloquist dummy head Rudy absolutely steals the show! In a great sign of respect for the quality of the original even in enhanced mode the head is left the same, you can’t improve on a classic! That said, the animated full-bodied Rudy to the right doesn’t particularly add much to the experience. Still, this is absolutely a table every pinball fan should want to have ready access to. Next up there’s Space Station, a much more simplistic table with a spread out layout that feels and plays completely differently. A bit older, so it’s lacking in bells and whistles, the enhanced elements for this one I also was inclined to leave off since at best the floating asteroids and all were distracting and only there for ambiance really, never doing much more than float there. Finally, there’s a table with perhaps too much personality, depending on your tastes, Doctor Dude. This has always seemed like a somewhat polarizing table among my friends, but I personally have a weak spot for it and all of its silliness since I got a ton of time with it in my local arcade back in the day. Again, the enhancements in this case don’t play much of a role in enhancing the experience, especially since the animated Dude simply looks a bit weird, even for him. I was at least entertained when his outfit would change with an upgrade because of your success in making him more cool, sometimes it’s small things that can count the most. While I’d say on the whole most of the other packs have more overall star power, Funhouse would be worth the price of admission on its own. Even not being the best Williams Pack available there’s no doubt you could sink a significant amount of time (and, thankfully, at least no quarters) into these well-constructed and recreated tables.
Justin Nation, Score:Nindie Choice! [8.1]