Fantastic Four

> "It's clobberin' time!"
>
> - The Thing

***Fantastic Four*** is a *Marvel* pinball table released in 2011 and available for *Zen Pinball 2*, *Pinball FX 2* and *Pinball FX 3* as one of three tables in the *Marvel Legends* pack. It is based on the eponymous superhero team, comprising of Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards), The Thing (Ben Grimm), The Invisible Woman (Susan Storm) and The Human Torch (Johnny Storm), as well as their efforts to protect Earth from different villains.

## Table overview

### The upper half of the table

At the back left corner of the table is a platform comprising of a large disk-shaped diverter mechanism resembling the logo of the Fantastic Four, mounted to the back table wall by a gray platform where a figure of Doctor Doom, a common archenemy of the Fantastic Four, stands. The diverter mechanism, accessed by a green ramp representing him, can divert the ball into one of three destinations: to the back left into a long exit habitrail that threads through the back table wall towards the right inlane, a saucer to its back right or a front-left egress towards an exit habitrail destined for the leftmost inlane that passes through Mr. Fantastic's Negative Zone computer. On the back right corner is a scale model representation of the Baxter building, with an entry sinkhole placed in front of its main entrance and a upkicker on its rooftop that takes the ball down a long exit habitrail that drops the ball down the exit habitrail of the Human Torch crossramp, directly destined for the right flipper.

A large orbit wraps around the table, with the left orbit gated by a flag being one of two table elements attributed to the Human Torch. The right orbit spells INVISIBLE and represents the Invisible Woman, with her figure standing on a force field platform of her making near the Baxter Building replica, which the right orbit goes behind. The front side of the main orbit's apex is open to allow balls to enter a bumper area, but not before passing through one of four bumper rollovers spelling FOUR. Balls that enter the bumper area, placed closer to the left orbit than the right, exit it by rolling down the left orbit. To the right of the left orbit is a saucer that is shot to start missions, and right next to it is the aforementioned green ramp representing Dr. Doom.

To the right of the Dr. Doom Ramp is the light brown-colored ramp representing the Thing. Its path resembles a large, crude question mark, leading to the inner left inlane. A sinkhole also associated with the Thing (and also spells his name) is right next to it, but it is blocked off by a target bank spelling the middle three letters of the word FANTASTIC. The Thing himself stands behind the sinkhole and can throw the ball to the bumpers if the ball goes into his sinkhole. To the right of this target bank is a short lane leading into the abovementioned Baxter Building sinkhole. Lastly, to the right of this lane are two crosslanes: a fiery, looping crossramp that is the aforementioned Human Torch crossramp (spelling TORCH) and a mini-orbit that spells BAXTER. To the left of the right ramp is a pale blue ramp also representing the Invisible Woman, and it shares the same exit habitrail that is used by the rear left exit of the Fantastic Four diverter. In the front left corner of its entrance is a lone target used to claim extra balls.

### The lower half of the table

Figures of Mr. Fantastic and the Human Torch stand on opposite sides of the table, with the former on the left and the latter on the right. This allows Mr. Fantastic to stand near his Negative Zone computer, which the ball passes through while on the leftmost exit habitrail as it comes out of the front-left exit of the sign diverter. Near each of these two members is a target bank that spells the first or last three letters of the word FANTASTIC. A left mini-flipper is installed behind the left target bank, used to make cross-shots into either of the table's two crosslanes.

There are 5 return lanes spelling the word FORCE FIELD, with each return lane representing one letter from both words. There are also two rebounds and two main flippers, with the outlanes each guarded by a diverter kickback representing the Invisible Woman's force field powers. Score multiplier lamps are positioned to the right of the inlane. On the left apron are ramps indicating which of the three optional multiball modes are active and on the right apron, there are lamps indicating whether the bonus multiplier held or whether a combo streak is in progress.

### The mini-playfield

This table has a mini-playfield that emerges from the Baxter Building model, consisting of a fan-shaped area where five tracks of drop targets converge into its conical, front area and connect it with the curved rear end. It represents the workshop of the Baxter Building, which falls under attack from Skrulls. The drop target tracks carry waves of advancing drop targets headed towards the front of the mini-playfield, representing Skrull invaders. There is a paddle mechanism at the front end of the table that can be twisted left or right with flipper operation to propel the ball towards the drop targets.

### The plunger

The plugner is a spring-loaded mechanism that launches the ball up a straight shaft that merges with the right orbit. The goal of the skill shot is to guess the correct amount of force that will drop the ball into one of four lit FOUR bumper rollovers. There is also a super skill shot called the Flaming Skill Shot, which can be attempted with a full-force plunger shot and does not require a successful skill shot, in which the player can shoot the Human Torch crossramp immediately after launching the ball for a big score reward.

## Objective and missions

The goal of this table is to help the Fantastic Four accomplish heroic feats and protect the Earth from great threats through five missions, with one based on each member and their archenemy Dr. Doom. A mission can start by first shooting the Baxter Building sinkhole, then shooting the mission saucer to the right of the left orbit. The player can then choose which mission to attempt within a time limit before it is automatically chosen. Each mission must be completed successfully without losing the ball to unlock the wizard mode.

The following missions must be completed successfully to access the wizard mode:

* **Mr. Fantastic**: Mr. Fantastic must find and assemble machine parts for his next experiment. The player must quickly shoot one of six major lanes that are pointed out by Mr. Fantastic's outstretched arm, with the target lane changing every seven seconds. The player has nearly two minutes to hit six target lanes and help Mr. Fantastic gather the necessary parts.
* **Invisible Woman**: The Invisible Woman must use her force field powers to hold off Dr. Doom. To do so, the player must shoot her ramp within 20 seconds to start up her force field and increase its power to level 1. The player must then increase its power level all the way to 5 by shooting three or four randomly selected lit target lanes, with the level decreasing if the player takes more than 20 seconds to shoot a lit lane.
* **Human Torch**: The Human Torch pushes his incendiary powers to the limit to become a powerful supernova, which is 1 million degrees Fahrenheit. To achieve this amount, the player must shoot the orbits such that the ball passes through the fire flag in the left orbit, but the temperature will slowly decrease over time, resulting in mission failure if the temperature reaches zero. Completing the mission successfully will multiply all scores by 40 for the next 20 seconds.
* **The Thing**: The Thing, becoming a powerful being with stony skin, demonstrates his devastating strength to destroy Doombots created by Dr. Doom and programmed to terrorize civilians. At the start of the mission, the player must race to shoot the Thing's sinkhole (with the middle FANTASTIC target bank going down temporarily) to determine how many points each Doombot destroyed is worth. The value starts at 1 million and shrinks down rapidly across time until the sinkhole is hit or it reaches 100,000. Then, figures of Doombots will block the way to the Baxter Building sinkhole, one by one and the player must hit each one to destroy them. There are a total of 5 Doombots to defeat to clear the mission successfully. If the player takes too long to hit a Doombot, it will attack the Thing and take away 25% of his health, after four hits, the Thing is defeated and the mission will fail.
* **Dr. Doom**: Dr. Doom, otherwise known as Victor Von Doom, is the ruler of the fictional sovereign state of Latveria and a scientist gone insane. The player must defend the Baxter Building in a mandatory multiball battle. At the start of the mission, in which only one ball is in play, the player must shoot the Baxter Building to charge the ball up with Doom's blast energy, then shoot the Dr. Doom ramp to him. The player must hit him four times to repel Dr. Doom's attack and finish the mission, but after each successful hit, Dr. Doom will dispense another ball into play to make it a multiball mode. After the first hit, the mission will fail if all but one ball is lost. Also, balls charged up with Dr. Doom's energy do not stay supercharged permanently and will wear off over time.

Once all five missions are completed successfully, the wizard mode, **The Devourer of Worlds** will begin the same way all the five missions are started. It is a final battle where the Fantastic Four must defeat Galactus, a powerful cosmic being that can devour entire universes. First, the player must shoot the ball into a massive singularity that appears in the open table area. Then, the player must complete the middle FANTASTIC target bank, then shoot the ball into the Thing's sinkhole that the target bank blocks. Then, Galactus will attack the table, firing his laser eyes onto one of four ramps: the Dr. Doom Ramp, the Thing Ramp, the Human Torch crossramp or the Invisible Woman's ramp. The player must hit his eye beams four times, which will change positions across the ramps periodically. After that, the player must shoot Dr. Doom's ramp four times to open up another singularity in the open table area, which the player must shoot the ball into. Then, the player helps the Human Torch activate the Ultimate Nullifier and use it against Galactus to defeat him by shooting the Human Torch crossramp, then shoot the Dr. Doom or Invisible Woman ramp. Doing so successfully starts a time-limited victory multiball where any lane awards a large amount of points and an unlimited ball saver is available. The player is only allowed one attempt at this wizard mode before the table resets.

## Side modes

There is only one side mode proper that is available on the table and it is the **Skrull Invasion**. To access it, the player must spell BAXTER with six cross-shots up the mini-orbit, then shoot the ball into the Baxter Building sinkhole. This will take the ball to the Workshop mini-playfield, where the player must twist a paddle to push the ball towards advancing drop targets representing Skrulls, aliens who can disguise themselves as humans. The player must knock down all Skrull targets for a score reward and the side mode fails if one reaches the paddle. A successful completion of the side mode will increase its difficulty.

There is also another side mode that is tied to a multiball called **Flame On**. It is started by spelling TORCH on the Human Torch crossramp, in which shooting the flag in the left orbit will ignite the ball temporarily. Shooting the Dr. Doom ramp four times with an inflamed ball, with each shot locking a ball, will clear the side mode and start Sign Multiball.

### Multiball

There are three multiball modes available on this table:

* **Clobberin' Multiball**: The Thing likes to clobber bad guys with his immense strength. If the player spells THING on his sinkhole, a multiball mode will begin with 2 balls, which can increase up to 4 if the player scores a Clobberin' Jackpot within its first minute, with one extra ball added per jackpot. The said jackpot is scored by shooting the Thing's ramp when he blocks it with his fists. The mode will continue until all but one ball is lost.
* **Sign Multiball**: The Human Torch uses his fire powers to illuminate the team sign. This mutliball begins when the player locks four burning balls during the Flame On side mode. Two balls will be initially released, with the other two each being released when a jackpot is scored in the first minute of play. Shots up the Dr. Doom ramp score jackpots, with the value of each jackpot increasing with shots through the fire flag in the left orbit. This mode will continue until all but one ball is lost.
* **Fantastic Four Multiball**: The Fantastic Four work together as a team to save the world. If the player spells FANTASTIC across all three target banks, the player can lock one ball into the sign diverter via the Dr. Doom ramp. Once four balls are locked, the player can shoot the Dr. Doom ramp to earn jackpots, with every fifth shot being a super jackpot. The value of jackpots increase every time FANTASTIC is spelled again while the multiball mode is active, which will continue until all but one ball is lost.

## Perks

The following perks can be activated during play:

* **Ball Saver**: At the start of each ball and multiball, a 30-second ball saver will activate. Once it expires, it can only be reactivated as a random reward from the Thing.
* **Negative Zone Ball Saver**: A powerful, permanent ball saver that activates by shooting either the Thing Ramp or the Invisible Woman ramp a total of 7 times, then shooting the Dr. Doom ramp a total of 7-8 times to make the ball pass through Mr. Fantastic's Negative Zone computer four times, as each shot will switch the destination of the sign diverter between the left exit habitrail (where the computer is) and the threading exit habitrail. This ball saver remains active until the ball is lost, and Mr. Fantastic will fish it out of a singularity in the middle of the table when it is used up.
* **Force Field Kickbacks**: The Invisible Woman can defend others with her force field. If the player spells FORCE FIELD (with the lit positions of letters cycling with flipper operation), a diverter kickback mechanism will activate in the left outlane. Spelling it again before it is used will activate the right kickback. Kickbacks will stay on until they are used. Once a kickback is used, the ball will be brought to a standstill and Mr. Fantastic will pick up the ball and drop it into a nearby inlane to resume play after several seconds.
* **Score Multiplier**: Spelling FOUR on the bumper rollovers will advance the score multiplier, which is only good for the current ball unless a multiplier hold is earned as a random reward from the Thing.
* **Gift of the Thing**: If the player hits the bumpers 40 times, the player can shoot the Thing sinkhole (although the middle FANTASTIC target bank may also have to be removed) to claim a random award from the Thing, with possible prizes including a ball saver, advancing (or maxing out) of score multiplier or an extra ball.
* **Invisible Flip**: The Invisible Woman can use her invisibility to gain an advantage over adversaries. If the player spells INVISIBLE with nine shots up the right orbit, the next shot up the right orbit will make the Invisible Woman freeze the ball in place and automatically guide it to the Human Torch crossramp. However, the player can press both flipper buttons to attempt a manual Invisible Flip to earn a big score, with an extra ball awarded on the first successful manual Invisible Flip.
* **Extra Balls**: Extra balls can be earned by maxing out the multiplier, performing a manual Invisible Flip, earning a random Thing award, executing a 10 hit combo or beating 4 waves of the Skrull Invasion at the Workshop mini-playfield. All extra balls are claimed by hitting the extra balls target to the left of the Invisible Woman ramp.

## Tips

* The Human Torch and the Thing missions are fairly easy because they involve shooting one or two lanes. The Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman missions are a little harder because you need to quickly shoot randomly lit target lanes. The Dr. Doom mission and wizard mode are the hardest, due to the large number of balls or stages you need to deal with. To excel at these missions, you need to be a quick sharpshooter, mastering the flipper timing to hit the right lanes.
* Take advantage of table perks to help you keep the ball alive and extend your session! You will need them to help you beat the five missions. The wizard mode can be long and brutal, requiring you to complete many actions before victory can be achieved, and losing the ball at any point means you'll be back at square one completely with your score intact. So ball protection mechanics are absolutely needed if you want to get to the end.
* Some lanes are easier to hit with one flipper than the other. If the ball is on the flipper opposite of the one you want it to be on, master the nudge pass to get it there.

## External links

* Official table trailer
* Table walkthrough by ShoryukenToTheChin (PDF)
* Official table soundtrack on Bandcamp