I love Amazon’s Gold Box sales. You can get tons of crap that you could have easily lived without if it hadn’t been so cheap. I found myself wasting my Friday two weeks ago purchasing practically every Wii title Amazon was offering. I purchased Crave Entertainment’s Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection thinking that I would play the game once and retire it to my self just as quickly. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Hit the jump to find out why.

Pinball Hall of Game: The Williams Collection is exactly what the title claims; Ten of the finest tables from Williams Entertainment has been compiled into this collection for your enjoyment without having to own the machines themselves. The ten tables available are: Black Knight, Gorgar, Taxi, Jive Time, Firepower, Pinbot, Whirlwind, Sorcerer, Funhouse, and Space Shuttle. In addition to the tables themselves, there are also extras such as promotional posters and unlockable options for each table.

At first, only two of the tables are available for unlimited play. All of the other tables can be played at any time by paying one credit (which you can earn by achieving goals on tables.) The tables can be unlocked for unlimited play by paying 100 credits or by complete all of the goals on a table. Goals are objectives to strive for while playing each table. A common example was to score a certain number of points or to achieve a large score multiplier. The goals add a great deal of replay value, especially when you find that you almost had a particular goal the past ten times you played and refuse to stop until you’ve accomplished your goal.

I had always regretting being born after the era of pinball, and these tables definitely make that feeling much worse. Many of the older tables such as Jive Time and Gorgar are very simple while the newer tables such as Taxi and Funhouse are full of targets and fun things to discover. Step-by-step instructions of every bonus and objective for each tables are included in the game, so you’ll never be left wondering how to activate the 5x multiplier to accomplish a goal.

The table graphics are excellent, and the game flows along smoothly with no slowdown (that I recall.) I did have to disable the glass reflection from the table, because the reflection caused some discomfort in my eyes after playing without blinking for an extended period of time. The controls are very responsive. Bumping the machine left or right is accomplished by flicking the nunchuck or Wii remote respectively. My only complaint about the controls is that the game must be played with the Wii Remote and the Nunchuck. There’s no good reason not to allow gamers to stick with just the Wii Remote. The sound is wonderfully recreated and sounds exactly as it would have on the original machine. Music is only played during the menu screens. I found the music to be somewhat cheesy but enjoyable.

All in all, Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection is a great time. I picked my copy up from Amazon for 13 bucks, and I’ve easily gotten that much of entertainment from the purchase. If you’re a pinball fan, I’d definitely recommend this game. Tell Rudy that Kel sent you.