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nexusstudios.com
Nice write up, and I’m with you in that I could see a good few of these going out into the ‘ABBA loving community’ where something this visual would exceed any other ABBA collectible and would be a great showpiece. ABBA aren’t Guns n Roses & vice versa but that’s music in a nutshell. It looks a lot better than ‘The Beatles’ in play that I felt was a little naff.That’s a good question - I’m sure there are people who were there more qualified to answer that than me (I’m looking at you Mr Ayub) .
So in the meantime…It comes across as quite a simple open playfield with some quite satisfying shots like the lock right at the back and the scoop under the helicopter. I also liked the left ramp with the u turn.
However , I think (actually I know) the 2 machines I played were down on flipper power which made the right ramp a challenge (well for me a way) There was also a sense of bounciness that others also mentioned . PB said the game was only 60% finished so I’d like to think it will evolve - they certainly were around and watching and some good feedback was given.
The helicopter also needs tuning as airballs from drop targets resetting can cause air balls to knock a locked ball out which causing software confusion . But when it works, which was the vast majority of the time , it pretty impressive , especially linked with blade sound effects.
Also, a lower left shot through a tunnel to a dead end or maybe a VUK was not yet implemented.
The hotel shot standup on the lower right was hard to get a came with a certain amount risk for starting a mode - general consensus was it should be swapped with lhs shot
There’s no doubt in my mind they’ve made it rewarding/simpler/easier for the novice player - you get your chosen song immediately - very unlike GNR where there’s quite a bit of tossing around to get the music hit. With Abba it’s immediate - the promo video with crystal clear sound.
However, at the end of the evening, Daniel at PB showed us deeper parts of the game that nobody had managed to get you - glass off and triggering switches with fingers
At this point, having done enough things I can’t remember it drops into the mythical voyage animated world that is played to Eagle in the Voyage show as opposed to a motion captured performance . This explains the LE artwork. This is quite niche, as in it only begins to make sense if you’ve seen voyage , which I fortunately have. I think the average walk up player would find this a challenge to get you and a good player might think WTF is this ?
This is the world
Eagle & Voulez Vous — Nexus Studios
Enter the mesmerising world of ABBA Voyage. Playing now at the ABBA Arena in London, an audience of 3000 fans gathers nearly every day to dance to the band's beloved songs and watch the life-like avatars in an explosive and sensory ground-breaking live experience. Directing trio Shynola were...
So no avatar content as far as I’m aware.
Speaking to Daniel, he’s a huge fan of Voyage but more importantly Ludwig Andersson was a key person in the Voyage team, so this explains its presence. Daniel said Ludwig Andersson was effectively the art director.
Thank Abba for the music and son of b for the art I guess
There’s talk about putting them on free play in the Voyage foyer which would be really cool, although they need a good support guy as well.
And that then brings us to who is this aimed at ? Undeniably me - I think an Abba pinball would have been one of my three wishes .
Being subscribed to pinball groups and abba groups is interesting - most pinball people , or those that have an opinion, don’t like it which I get.
The ABBA people don’t know what it is yet because PB chose to launch it the day after Agnetha Faltskog’s birthday and 50 years to the day Abba won Eurovision. I’ve cross posted but there is so much excitement it’s lost in the noise.
However if it goes in the Voyage foyer I think it will have an impact - these people devour anything ABBA and now here’s a big box that plays all the songs and video on demand with what I think is the biggest Abba logo ever licensed - and that before you get to the pinball !
I’d like to think it will introduce a lot more people to pinball who will walk up because it has the Abba logo on it.
I know there’s a lot of criticism of how it released yesterday but you wound up with 3 abba machine is a crowded noisy bar environment and whilst there were hardcore pinball enthusiasts there, I think there were others who just walked up to it. I remember at one point 4 females playing a game which in my experience, rightly or wrongly, doesn’t happen that often in the bar environment
Personally, I’m so looking forward to getting one and having a neighbours party as I know it will go down a storm.
One final random thing, my 18 year old is in his first year at uni in Scotland and so far has had three balls - at two of these there was an ABBA tribute band and he loved it as did the girls . I took the whole family to Voyage and now my 21 year old daughter is planning to go back with her uni girlfriends .
So you see in a way, I have no choice !
Does that answer you question , probably not !!
Thank you - I recall June being mentioned but there was a lot of alcohol in play so I might have made that up
