Spooky
Sometimes you find yourself liking a pinball machine and at first it
does not dawn upon you why. Spooky was one of those games. When I
first played it, I fell in love with the machine. I found myself playing
it quite often. The gameplay is nothing special. So what was it
about this game that I liked so much? As I thought about it, I figured out
it was the atmosphere that Spooky created. And in pinball, that is a rare
thing.
Spooky was made by Zaccaria, an Italian pinball manufacturer. The game is quite rare and if not for Pinmame, I would probably never have a chance to play it. The game has a haunted theme to it as you can see from the picture and guess from the name. Ghosts and skeletons adorn the playfield and there is even an owl that blinks its eyes. At first I thought this was a trick done by the person who emulated it, but as I did some research into the game, I found the actual pinball machine also did this. It is a neat little gimmick that adds to the atmosphere I was talking about.
The biggest thing that adds to the atmosphere of the game is the sound effects. Spooky is the perfect example of using special effects to enhance the game but not overdoing it. The game starts off with a hooting owl and then goes to a spooky sounding wind that blows in the background. It really fits well and brings the whole theme together.
Visually the game is quite nice. With the skulls and ghosts and other things that go bump in the night, it conveys the spooky theme of the game. About the only changes I would make is to put something on the targets and to change the color of the purple ramp. It is a little gaudy. Maybe a burnt orange to go with the Halloween theme would work better or a blood red one.
As I said before, the gameplay is nothing special. You have some targets and ramps, but nothing that stands out. It plays well and while it can be a bit of a drain, it is for the most part fair. About the only problem I found is sometimes on the last ball, or what I think is the last ball, the game will freeze up and the ball will go down the drain. It could be that the game is over and you are sending the ball out or something.
To conclude, Spooky is one of those rare treats. They took a typical pinball machine and added lots of atmosphere to it. And this really did make the difference. A fun game to play on a stormy night with the lights out.
This is just a review of the pinball machine. If you are looking for the actual pinball machine, you may want to check out ebay. Click below to see if you can find this game.