From: ung (Bill Ung)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: High Speed II: The Getaway
Date: 6 Apr 92 23:00:59 GMT
Reply-To: ung (Bill Ung)
Organization: FileNet Corp., Costa Mesa, CA
Return-Path: <darnold>
Apparently-To: felix!postnews

I finally played this game last weekend.  Here's what I thought.


First Impression (on game #1):  Wow!  This IS a pretty cool looking
AND sounding game.  Same ol' HIGH SPEED style display on the main
playfield, except now it's a tachometer and not a bonus counter
(or is it?)  The music was, well, bitchin'.  The speed loop was
probably the most impressive thing.  I *LIKED* it!  As mentioned
time and time again, the plunger shot doesn't seem to make it over
the initial loop.  It lands in the bumpers >80% of the time.  Oh
well, I'll live.

Second Impression (on game #2):  Wow!  I get to play it again!
Wait a second, the speed loop on this game was not as fast as
the one on the other game.  This was was 2/3 or 1/2 as fast.
Not anywhere near as impressive.  The sound was still good but
the playfield was a little dirty.

Overall Impression:  

It appears that this is definitely a HIGH SPEED type game.  Allow
me to explain...  One of the big problems with the old one was
that as games got older, the plunger would invariably miss the
ramp shot.  This got worse and worse as games got older and older
(unless the games were maintained as they should be).  Williams
seems to have this "feature" "built-in" to the new game as brand
new games have the problem of the plunger shot not making it to
its intended destination.  Quite annoying.  The video mode was
a throwaway to me.  If I want to play Pole Position, I'll go play
Pole Position.  The ONLY thing this part is good for is scoring
points.  ~5 million in 10-15 seconds ain't bad I guess.

I found that the traffic light scheme was kept as a salute to the
old HIGH SPEED, not that they matter all too much in this game.
Multiball is obtainable without the use of the light and I found
that the game would go on even if you totally ignored them.  The
lower left-hand set of lights isn't even accessible from the
flippers, you'd have to bounce the ball up there.  To make matters
worse, a ball that rolls off of the lower left-hand set of lights
is a sure-shot for the center drain.  The outlanes are pretty nasty.
The kickback is kept but isn't re-lit every ball, and boy does that
lane suck 'em in.  Great if the kickback is on because it kicks >95%
of the time to the eject hole/mystery award when lit (BURN RUBBER),
but sucks hardcore if the kickback is not lit.  BTW, the big yellow
traffic light is an ugly piece of decor, IMHO.

Well, I don't know if I'll be playing this again.  The second game
I'll definately not play again.  The first one, maybe, it seemed to
be in better shape.  As suspected, I think I consider HIGH SPEED to
be sacred ground and I was real skeptical about what Williams would
do with a sequel.  The rest of the game isn't bad, but seems to stray
quite a bit from the original HIGH SPEED while keeping the name,
possibly for some added draw.  The plunger shot is unforgivable, though.
Was HS2 released prematurely?  Is the pressure on or something?  In
addition to the plunger problem, TAF has a big software bug in addition
to some playfield pieces that look unfinished.  Data East games are
usually pretty shoddy but I expect only the best from Williams and
up until recently, that's what we've always gotten.  What's happening?

Bill Ung
  ung@filenet.com