arborelia

Silver Ball Century ep. 62 - Late 1991 - Silliest Season

This episode: Hurricane, Class of 1812, Party Zone, Star Trek, Surf'n Safari. Next episode: Hook, The Getaway, Operation Thunder, The Addams Family, Super Mario Bros, and Super Mario Bros Mushroom World.

I called late 1990 "Silly Season" in pinball, but late 1991 manages to outdo it.

Bally/Williams brings us Party Zone, bringing together the Party Animals, Party Monsters, and Party Dudes from Dennis Nordman's previous tables into one unhinged conclusion. They also conclude the roller-coaster series with Hurricane, which is not exactly their best work. Gottlieb, however, is bringing us their best with Class of 1812, doing the "legally distinct Monster Mash" theme before Bally does, in a game that makes no sense but will put a smile on your face anyway.

Data East's Star Trek (25th Anniversary) just doesn't have the vibe you'd expect from Star Trek, with its uncanny uptempo remix of the Star Trek theme and Scotty and Bones frantically shouting about dilithium crystals. Kat suggests that they are crushing up the dilithium crystals and snorting them. It's a lot.

Surf'n Safari is another Gottlieb that's too much fun to complain about how busted its scoring is.

Silver Ball Century goes live on Thursday, June 25, at 8:30pm Eastern, on twitch.tv/arborelia.

Tables in this episode