Spiderman - What is your Villain level?

[baseballprodigy16]

Can someone please explain exactly how the JJ loop/hole/light system works?

What is that needs to be done, exactly, to start the JJ mode? Sometimes it starts when the JJ light is on, sometimes off.

I can't hit the (supposed) JJ loop shot with any regularity; most balls just jump up to the house. Is there a diverter in there?

Also, is there a reliable way to get the ball to light T-H-W-I-P?

do not get me started again on the bugs and misfeatures with this table.

To start the JJ mode, you need to shoot the mini-orbit that is to the left of the house. However, after you have completed one of the other three modes (Doc Ock, Mysterio, or Green Goblin), something called the Front Page Picture will light up in the same mini-orbit that you need to shoot in order to activate JJ.

If you shoot the mini-orbit while this is lit, you will be awarded some amount of points (not sure how many), and the ball will roll onto the upper flipper.

If the Front Page Special isn't lit, then the JJ mode will activate when you shoot the mini-orbit.

As far as I'm aware, there isn't a diverter to shoot the mini-orbit, but there is a trail for the ball to follow on the playfield. I try to look at that whenever I shoot for the JJ mini-orbit.

For THWIP, the only suggestion that I have would be to shoot the Green Goblin ramp multiple times. You can always trap the ball on the right flipper if you just want the time to run out on the mode while going for THWIP since you'd have to theoretically shoot the ramp five times.

EDIT: Scratch everything about THWIP, I just realized that the Green Goblin ramp doesn't put the ball back on one of the letters, but rather after them.

I hope that helped a little!

[Hypno74]

Oh Womble, i did not understand the question.
Indeed, if you manage a vilain's level (except JJ), gets you a bonus in the JJ'sramp.
Personally when I do a game to increase the JJ's JJ, I never do other vilains, this loss of time.

[Womble]

@baseballprodigy16, thanks for your help.

and...

Personally when I do a game to increase the JJ's JJ, I never do other vilains, this loss of time.

The problem I'm having is bumping JJ.

I just can't make that upper flipper shot reliably. I just rage quit (my poor controller!) because of this bastard of a shot.


If I go a fraction too early, the ball hits the bumpers and rolls back out, usually bouncing on the lanes until it goes out the left outlane. (I just played a game where about 5 of the 6 balls did just that.)

If I go a fraction too late, then it simply does the jump to the house. For a key mission, it's a very unreliable mechanism.

I'm able to get Doc Ock up to whatever I need, and can even get that idiot Green Goblin and his stupid, mal-designed pumpkins of doom up to level 7 or so, but not ole JJ. Grrr.

And then there's the poxy, dangerous right loop Hurry Up shot itself. Aaaargh.

Soooo angry... Time get a cup of tea and settle down.

[blue]

I can't hit the (supposed) JJ loop shot with any regularity; most balls just jump up to the house. Is there a diverter in there?

Unfortunately not. There is simply the ramp which jumps the ball into Peter's loft and a minor orbit which winds around the bumpers.

The trick to this shot is persistence. Use the lower portion of the middle left flipper; the ball will generally fly into the loft. After it is deposited on the upper playfield, let it roll off the right flipper and down to the habitrail for another chance at JJ's orbit. This can be repeated three times for each initial loft shot. Eventually it will sail through the orbit instead of up the ramp.

If you're still having trouble, activate Incredible Jumps (third SPIDEY letter award). This will give you unlimited loft shots to practice as long as you can continuously hit the loft before the time limit expires.

Also, is there a reliable way to get the ball to light T-H-W-I-P?

• Use the middle left flipper to hit the loft. The ball will be deposited onto the right flipper in the upper playfield.
  1. Shoot the ball into Doc Oc's hole at the top of the table. The ball will be dumped onto the middle inlane (assuming the lock is not lit).
  2. Aim for the left websling ramp (winding habitrail), which terminates at the middle inlane.
• Activate JJ's hurryup. The ball will be dumped onto the middle inlane.
• Failed shots to JJ's orbit will cause the ball to roll off the Goblin ramp and sail towards the left slingshot. It will generally bump off the top and fall into one of the three lanes. Be ready with a nudge to avoid the outlane.
• The left kickback will always shoot the ball back through the outlane and into the middle inlane. If you're quick enough with the flippers, you can light three letters in rapid succession whenever the ball is entering the left outlane with an active kickback.
  
  Never light all five letters in this fashion! After a kickback is used, it takes several seconds to blink off. If a replacement kickback is earned immediately after the left kickback is used, it will be eaten by the table. The ballsaver may activate if both kickbacks were active, but this is not 100% reliable.

do not get me started again on the bugs and misfeatures with this table.

What's frustrating you?

Most of the bugs I've encountered on this table do not affect gameplay. There is a unique circumstance which will prevent a kickback/ballsave from activating after T-H-W-I-P is spelled, but this is a rare occurrence.

[Womble]

Thank you for the help.

The trick to this shot is persistence. Use the lower portion of the middle left flipper; the ball will generally fly into the loft. After it is deposited on the upper playfield, let it roll off the right flipper and down to the habitrail for another chance at JJ's orbit.

I've been doing this with very little success. Then, yesterday, I changed my camera angle from 1 to 6. I immediately found my percentage of successful shot increasing. It's still not great, but the removal of forced perspective seems to help with lining up the shot.

Most of the bugs I've encountered on this table do not affect gameplay.

I've found a few. Most notably, anything to do with the Green Goblin mode. The animation sequence gets screwed up, depriving the player of pumpkins. There's a nasty timing bug where you can lose your ball even though the pumpkins are still active. And Doc Ock's tentacles have an unfortunate habit of dumping balls in to outlanes and SDTM.

But mostly, I find the table unbalanced and frustrating because of design issues:

- The JJ shot, with its attendant threat of left outlane drain. If you do make the shot, you get a Hurry Up for what is essentially a danger shot on the move. The initial shot leans too heavily on risk (make enough of these shots and you will drain at some point), especially when it's only the first part of the mode. Which brings me to...

- The right loop shot is far too close to the random hole, which in itself is a dangerous risk/reward affair. A loop shot shouldn't be this risky, particularly when its counterpart is so easy. All that does is, JJ reward aside, promote nudge-passing back over to the left flipper, slowing the game down.

- The Green Goblin mode is painful. Firstly, his pre-launch antics are similar to his launch animations; very distracting! Then there's a variable delay before his mode starts. Then, not only do you have to manage multiball, you have a time limit, the targets change position, the Green Goblin himself obscures your view by changing position (grrrrr!), and targets often fail to register if you hit while the Goblin is moving. Finally, the multiball is a fantastic way to suck up those hard-earned Kickbacks, all for little reward. What a tedious affair!

- The voice-overs are rather silly, even by super-hero comic book standards. I appreciate that all of these characters are dysfunctional ("I don't have time for your derision, spider-boy...") but there's dysfunction, and then there's mental retardation. ("You know what they say, the Goblin is always greener") ;-) I'd like to see audio preferences to disable these on a table-by-table basis. (It might even make Iron Man enjoyable ...)

- The lack of environmental and event audio effects. (Turn off the music to see what I mean; it's an incredibly sparse audio environment once the wall-to-wall music is killed.) And it'd be nice to hear the addition of a Kickback...

- The lack of clear indications for modes and sequences. e.g. the first two phases of Websling have flashing indicators, but the third phase does not flash. Yet there's a marker for all 3 phases. Another example: it's not clear what you need to hit during Mysterio's Phase. It's just something you have to learn. Which is annoying for a timed mode with reverse flippers where pretty much everything is flashing...

- A grossly unbalanced scoring system, not only for the table, but for SuperScore.

- A pre-wizard mode that is more profitable to play, and exploit, than the wizard mode. Worse, this mode doesn't get increasingly difficult. You don't even have to build up a jackpot or try for a risky Super Jackpot. You just have to grind.

- The "Clever Fighter" achievement! Wow. The prosecution's case rests, yer honour...


IMO, for every thing that Zen did right with this table -- and there are lots of them -- there is a frustrating design decision. I feel this table could have done with a lot more QA time.

None of these things are deal breakers, but they add up to frustration and sense of "what could have been". It'd be great to see this table fixed, polished up and re-issued one day, as happened with the Pinball FX 1 to 2 transition.

[Alipan]

Hmm... I have to say I really like the audio for this table and I also dont have a problem with the right loop and the random hole. I dont find the Goblin moving about a problem either - certainly wouldnt want it any easier.
I do agree about the JJ loop leading to drains though and have also had Doc Ock throw a ball straight out of play. Also the pre wizard mode is a ridiculous grindathon!

I would have made the table a bit harder - the ball save for the Mysterio level should just be a temporary one and also if you lose the silver ball in the Goblin stage that should be a drain as well.

Also the 30g achievement could have been defeat all villains when they are all activated at once - that would have been tough but doable.

[ihearawitch]

hi

I was able to improve my jj jameson on a whim to 28. I will sit down soon and really up that one. it is easier than I thought. My gg is getting high around 17 and most of that is luck and activating it what seems like a 100 times. Forcing myself to NOT start final modes is the problem. If I play all 9 balls one each soon I will be in good shape. I'm getting 23 mill a ramp now with my jj improved and I can do better than that.

[Womble]

I was able to improve my jj jameson on a whim to 28.

Well, that makes me a sad panda.

I've hammered that JJ shot four billion times now* and my success rate is probably 1 in 10, at best. I spend most of my pinball session going in to the loft and letting it drain back down to the upper flipper again.

* rough estimate

[lexandro]

Same for me Womble, the JJ loop shot and right orbit are the only 2 shots on the table I have any real trouble with. If I could make the orbit on command I could rack up the mission level. But its a bit tricky trying to get the loop shot and then the orbit because on my table the ball can never be trapped from the loop drop-in on the left flipper. So I have to spend precious time getting it back to the left flipper so I can try and trap it for a shot at the orbit. Any time I hit a moving ball at the orbit it either goes off the bumper and into the goblin ramp or just straight in the goblin ramp.

[Zuprichy]

Same for me Womble, the JJ loop shot and right orbit are the only 2 shots on the table I have any real trouble with. If I could make the orbit on command I could rack up the mission level. But its a bit tricky trying to get the loop shot and then the orbit because on my table the ball can never be trapped from the loop drop-in on the left flipper. So I have to spend precious time getting it back to the left flipper so I can try and trap it for a shot at the orbit. Any time I hit a moving ball at the orbit it either goes off the bumper and into the goblin ramp or just straight in the goblin ramp.

You must stop the ball on the left flipper,saving a lot of time.When the ball drops from the hole after starting the mission, hold the left flipper up, when the ball touches the base of the flipper, nudge left.The ball will make a little jump( if you timed the nudge correctly,othewise be ready to shoot..) and stop there.You have then plenty of time to aim and shoot for the orbit, with a catched ball...easy! Once i learned this trick ( i didn't discover it myself) i was able to improve my J.J. level from 5 to 40...and i know i can do better than that.

[Alipan]

Quick question - when you are collecting the Spidey letters by hitting the orbits one of the rewards lights up the red spider between the flippers - anybody know what that does?

[Zuprichy]

Quick question - when you are collecting the Spidey letters by hitting the orbits one of the rewards lights up the red spider between the flippers - anybody know what that does?

Spider strenght... Every bumper is 100.000

[Lepruk86]

Well, that makes me a sad panda.

I've hammered that JJ shot four billion times now* and my success rate is probably 1 in 10, at best. I spend most of my pinball session going in to the loft and letting it drain back down to the upper flipper again.

* rough estimate

This made me giggle sorry. I am the exact same. And even when I do hit it; I then miss the orbit shot. Which I can hit almost always when I am not in the mission mode

*You're FIRED!*...

[Womble]

I finally managed to get my JJ up to level 26 or so, but it's a grind. And my success rate on the upper-left flipper shot is still about 1 in 10. Heh!

[Dicepticon79]

Stages & the Millions they give

JJ'Jameson : 175 / 52,2 millions on left & right Orbit
Goblin : 44 / 17,6 millions on middle Webslingramp & Main' Goblinramp
Dr.Octopus: 81 / 28,3 millions on upper-left Webslingramp
Mysterio : 25 / 10 millions on captured Ball & upper-right Webslingramp

i would just level the ones up, you realy gonna use in Pre'Wizzardmode