Pro Pinball: Fantastic Journey	Cunning Developments Empire Interactive
Reviewed: 2000-02-21

- The pinball

This is the fourth title in Cunning Development's excellent Pro Pinball series. The first title in the series was "The Web", an almost unbelievably cool pinball with the best music ever in a pinball simulation! Next came "Timeshock!" with one of the most complex and challenging tables ever, the table was just great, the theme intriguing, an instant classic! The third title in the series was Big Race U.S.A, a title that sidestepped from the previous two by having a more humorous (sort of at least) non sci fi related theme. The table was filled with modes, talking cars and things to explore and an awaiting final wizmode, the really big race! BRUSA also featured the H2H mode (play other pinball players over the internet). The physics had also improved noticeably from the previous two. Now the fourth title in the series is here, "Pro Pinball: Fantastic Journey". This time the table theme is based up on (inspired by) the works of Jules Verne. You must construct four steam powered contraptions and complete four fantastic adventures in order to reach the fifth adventure where you must penetrate the force field surrounding the mysterious island, the island where General Yagov is holding out! Yagov is holding the world to ransom, if his demands aren't met he will launch one of his own contraptions, a rocket, towards the moon... you must stop him!

Fantastic Journey features all the things one have come to except from Cunning, the Operators Menu with which you can customize and examine pretty much everything on the table, just like you can with a real one! You can change the condition of the table (from 'maintained' to 'neglected) and the table slope, there's also a number of difficulty levels to choose from (or you can customize the table to your own likings with as many balls as you want, well almost as many as you want). The physics and graphics are quite simply great! The music though is "somewhere", it's there, partly moody, partly good, partly annoying, partly weird, partly strange, partly ok, and so much so fort so on. ;) Nah, it's ok.

The pinball comes packaged in a nice looking box. The box I got (not sure if this is true everywhere) included a double-cd jewel case with "Fantastic Journey" on one cd and "The Web" on the other (great deal!). There's only a small jewel-case-sized manual included, not quite as fancy as the luxurious Timeshock! manuals (note the plural), quite adequate though.

One thing you will notice with FJ is that there is considerably less hiscores to achieve. There is the Grand Champion and there is the Buyin Champion. No loop/combo/video champion etc. There is also considerably less alternative sub-games to play (I thought), Timeshock! and BRUSA contained an overflow of different modes, you had to travel all over and complete and/or start a zillion of modes, all to finally open up the final wiz mode. In FJ you focus on completing the four adventures, once that's done you're ready for the Mysterious Island Raid. Somehow I find that with FJ, Cunning Developments have wanted to make an attempt to do something simpler, a table less complex with a simpler more straightforward theme... a more classic styled table... well, read on to learn more!


- The Table

Fantastic Journey is a stunningly looking table in highres (in lowres too for that matter), simple yet very moody colours, ramps, wires, lights, it all comes together and makes the table seems very alive. As I said this table has a more classic cut to it, first off there's two flippers (all the previous titles in the series has had 3 or 4). The magnosave is still there though. The right sidelane has a kickback (still haven't figured out how to light that one) and there's a midpost. The table also has a lot of 'open space' with targets lined up along the sides. The table is pretty simply layed out in the whole: In the lower left corner you have a ramp that feeds the balls to a lock, to lock you first shoot down three drop targets (place in the middle of the ramp), once three balls have been locked you can start the Steam Frenzy multiball (3-ball multiball). Skipping over another ramp and the bumpers in the upper left corner and a loop you come to the Steam Engine in the upper right corner (when one of it's two locks are lit you shoot it to start modes and initiate adventures). Beneath the steam engine there is a hole in the table (which is ofcourse covered over), the cover to the hole is sometimes removed and an object is raised up through the uncovered hole. To the right of the Steam Engine there's another loop that feeds the ball to the bumpers. Lastly there's a lock hole called 'luck' that awards a random award when lit.

The theme is, as I mentioned in the introduction, loosely based up on the works of Jules Verne. You must stop General Yagov from launching one of his contraptions - a rocket - against a dear natural satellite of tellus (the moon). Yagov holds out on a mystic island protected by a strong force field, to penetrate this force field you must construct four fantastic contraptions and collect four special crystals which will form a device that can penetrate the force field.

When you first start to play you will probably feel quite confused as of what to do, though don't worry, you'll quite quickly get into the table (too quickly maybe). The theme is layed out so that you start out in, lets call it "normal mode", in normal mode you try to collect pieces to build one of the four steam-powered contraptions you need to hunt for crystals. You collect pieces to a contraption by shooting lit ramps and targets. Once you have collected all pieces to one contraption the Steam Engine will light up, shooting it will engage "adventure mode". When you engage the adventure mode a model of the contraption you just constructed will be raised up through a hole in the table (quite neat) and be visible all the time while you adventure. Once in "adventure mode" you shoot lit ramps and targets to advance along your journey, at the end of the journey is the crystal, collect it in order to finish the adventure. All the time while you journey the dmd will change as you progress and show different views of the world, in the zeppelin adventure for example you at one point spot the Yeti, it's quite moody and helps make it feel like you actually travel somewhere. If the ball drains during the "adventure mode" you loose the ball and have to shoot the Steam Engine again to continue the adventure.

Once you have completed the four adventures you will be able to make ONE attempt at penetrating General Yagov's force field and enter the Mysterious Island to stop him from launching his powerful tool of destruction towards the moon. If you fail it's back to the beginning... one wonders though if the mysterious island really is the end...

During the "normal mode" and "adventure mode" (that is, all the time while playing except during the mystery island mode) you have access to pretty much the whole table, no locks or features are turned off in either mode (pretty much at least). The only difference between "normal mode" and the "adventure mode" is that you shoot lit targets/ramps to journey in "adventure mode", and in "normal mode" you shoot lit targets/ramps to collect pieces to the contraptions... This is the straightforwardness of the theme, you build a contraption and start the adventure. That's it. No trick to it, nothing to it (ok, that's a lie, the table is hard). Shoot lit targets (ramps/loops/locks etc) to build a contraption, shoot lit targets to journey out on an adventure. You do that until you have completed all adventures, then you make your attempt to penetrate the mysterious island force field, you do that by... shooting lit ramps and targets. Gets a bit repetitive and isn't especially innovative. The adventures are in the ground pretty much exactly the same except different music is played and different animations is shown on the dmd. Playing with 3 balls is quite hard and it will definitively be a challenge to reach the mysterious island and the final wiz mode. It isn't easy hitting the locks or targets, you must keep the ball alive (easier said than done) and make use of the few multiball modes there is. The game does contain a couple of extra balls which is to some help.

There is a number of smaller modes that you can initiate while playing, like blow the boiler (shoot the center spinner enough time to raise steam pressure in the steam engine to blow it up, not so exciting), drop challenge (shoot drop targets to collect a extra ball) and a 2-ball multiball. Completing all these "small" modes (about ~15 of them) will enable a Mystery Multiball, though that's just a regular multiball, not so myseriours once you've started it... None of these "small" modes deactivate any bigger part of the table, once you have started one of them you can still continue to play as usual (and totally ignore there's a mode active if you want). These things, while it's nice they are there, aren't part of the main theme in any way and are more meant to be a distraction from the main theme, the multiball modes and modes that offer extra balls are ofcourse interesting, though overall I just don't find any of the modes very distracting or interesting to aim for. The adventures are constantly the center part of whatever you do and since the four adventures are pretty much exactly the same there's no real variety. Either I would wish that the four Adventures weren't exactly the same in the way I completed them or I would have wished for... well, for something a little innovative!

Wouldn't have been bad with some more modes that enabled that ball saver thing in the middle for a little while (I wish that light was lit for a couple of seconds after you have started an adventure, so annoying to initiate an adventure only to drain the ball the next second), there is really only the Steam Frenzy (3-ball multiball) that is good, this mode is very useful to start during your Adventures since you can keep on journeying during the mode and thus have 3 balls for a while with which to hit lit ramps and targets.

The music and sfx then? Well, as I said in the intro "it's somewhere". Some music bits are quite weird (to be honest), but mostly the music is ok, never really great but partly moody and partly ok... not great, not bad, it's there. I still wait for a pinball that will top the class of the music in "The Web". Some of the voice samples are a bit annoying, the table has a lock called "LUCK" and then an normal lock called "LOCK" (duh), there's a lot of lock/luck lit voice samples played, was quite confusing before I figured out that the voice was saying luck, not lock. The ball, flipper and all the other natural sfx is great though!

So to summary, the straightforwardness of the theme I mentioned above makes it a bit hard to keep up the interest for the table. While I find the table challenging - and I have spend numerous hours trying to get to the wiz mode - I at the same time wish for some more submodes, or subsidiary challenges that distract me from the repetitive main challenge of completing the four adventures (either that or the four adventures could have been a bit more innovative), once you get to the fifth mode it is fun (even though that mode isn't all that innovative either, you do pretty much exactly the same as in the adventures, that is shoot the same lit targets), because now it counts, if you fail it's back to the beginning. Though if you fail it is quite dead boring having to repeat the task of completing the four adventures again. I do find it quite enjoyable to just play the main theme, to complete the adventures and aim for the wizmode. But it gets tedious, there is very little variety in gameplay and the fact all the four adventures hardly differ from each other doesn't help make it more fun to complete them, I don't play the table with as much joy as the previous in the series, I just don't find it very exciting, just hard and challenging. While that might seem like something that equals boring it isn't so, the table is classic styled, simple layout, simple theme, little variety in the gamplay, though still there is that challenge there, the challenge to get to - and to complete the mystery island mode too see what lies beyond.

Oh, just wanted to mention this before I move on, the Video Mode is GREAT! :) It's a rerun of an old classic (fans of "The Web", yes, it is back, the good old video mode is back!).


- The Feeling

..Is ofcourse great!! The first time the ball touched the flipper felt just so perfect, so realistic, the physics are great. There's still moments though where you wonder over the ball movements, sometimes it feels like it is impossible to hit certain targets (the drop targets in the lock lane for example, or the right Steam Engine lock), but it isn't anything unrealistic and the ball/flipper physics doesn't limit your play, it is you who play and if you're not skilled enough... well, then you'll have a though time surviving... practise! The feeling, the physics... are... as always, Fantastic!


- The Whole:

Fantastic Journey (FJ) is less fast paced and less action filled than its predecessors (it doesn't try to be any of that though), but it is still (very) challenging (read hard). It isn't as fun as its predecessors though, it's really only the fact the table is so hard that makes it lasting. The four basic adventures you must journey out on are all pretty much exactly the same, having completed these four adventures opens up the fifth mystery island mode, if you fail in it you must start all over... and is the fifth adventure really the end? You must be skilled with the silverball to complete this table, it is challenging and takes some time to play through. Though nomatter what one might think of the table, too hard, too easy, too plain, it feels great once you complete the final wiz mode!! Though I don't know if one will return to it so much after having won the wiz mode. I didn't find the straightforward nature of the theme so fun, missed some fun subsidiary challenge, one just pretty much concentrate solely on completing the four adventures and managing to complete the fifth mode and what's beyond it. That's all, if you like the challenge you will like the table.

Fantastic Journey is the weakest title in the Pro Pinball series. It lacks all the diversity and colour the previous titles in the series had. FJ sets out to be a more serious looking table, more classic styled (doesn't try to be a superpin with lots of modes and multiballs and whatever you can think of), and it actually succeeds very well in that. The theme is good but quite straightforward (once you grasp what it is all about), this unfortunately makes advancing towards the final wiz mode somewhat repetitious. The lack of anything of any bigger interest to head for besides the main theme doesn't help make the table more fun.

Fantastic Journey isn't fantastic, but it's good.

Platform: PC
Operating System: Windows 95/98/NT (NT with service pack 3)
Pentium 90 (recommended: Pentium 200 / AMD K6-3)
16 MB RAM (recommended: 32 MB RAM)
1 MB Graphics card (recommended: 8 MB)
50 MB hard disk space
4x CD-ROM drive (recommended: 8x)
(recommended: Soundblaster 16 or Windows 95 compatible card)

Also available for: (MAC, soon!), PSX

Fantastic Journey (big picture)

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