Pirates of the Caribbean / Simpsons Day II

Pirates of the Caribbean
High: 20,697,600 TOW
Replay at 47,050,000
50 cents for one game, two dollars for five games
http://www.sternpinball.com/POTC.shtml
http://www.sternpinball.com/POTC/POTC-PLAYFIELD-SHOT-MAP.html

PIRATES! It's a whole game about Pirates! Will the pirate meme ever die? I hope not, ninja-impersonation is much less fun than calling people Scurvy 'lubbers.
I've played this one a few times before, and did absolutely horribly. Today, slightly better. The main point is either to find treasure or to sink the pirate ship(s). I chose to focus on sinking the pirate ship, which points-wise may or may not have been the best decision. Visually, sinking the ship is really cool and leads to Kraken Multiball, wherein you have multiple balls to fight the Kraken. Sinking the ship also opens up the center lane which adds a shot which isn't there when you first start the playing; a nice surprise. The most frustrating bit is that, after hitting the ship, the ball is stopped by a gate so an animation can run. Which would be fine except if the ball still has any motion to it when the gate releases it, the ball goes directly between the flippers. 1) Make the shot you're supposed to make, 2) Lose your ball.


The Simpsons Pinball Party - Day II
This round of Simpsons went much better. With the goal of spending more time on the couch (the upper level), my scores went up by an average of one million. I cleared the 4 mil. for an extra game, with a respectable 4,888,860. I had more fun this time, knowing where the ball was likely to go. The upper couch-area, which I initially thought was going to be impossible because of the angle of the flippers, turned out being alright. There's a large barrier between the two flippers which gives you a good opportunity to lock the ball up there. Overall, the Simpsons Pinball Party was an alright table, made much more player-friendly because on the third ball you can get a Special just by going out the proper out-lane.