Played some Spider-Man today and got a “Great shot” recognition on a right orbit backhand shot from cradle (single ball play). Wonder if this was an intentional backhand nod.
Might have been due a shot award. I don’t remember such though.
Anyone know if this is indeed the game spotting a backhand, or if other games have similar features?
Star Trek recognizes “unusual combos”.
Not exactly the same, but Starship Troopers will recognize shots made from the mini flipper and will score bugs twice. Demo Man gives you an extra million for combos made from the handles.
I LOVE the idea of this…maybe not by just rewarding a backhand, but really incentivizing unique/unusual combos with higher values.
For example, I would love it if say KISS were to give an award for a left orbit to right orbit combo during single ball play which would require a loop pass. Taking it even further, making it for higher values with a cap at some point possibly.
Maybe I’m missing something, but how can a game know you hit a shot with a backhand, versus cradling up, post passing, and hitting the shot normally?
It wouldn’t be perfect, but there are a couple ways the game software could “guess” this (in single-ball play)…
By having the only recent flipper button pressed be the one that would imply a backhand shot (e.g. shooting a left-side ramp where the only recent flip was with the left flipper).
By knowing the recent position of the ball (e.g. an inlane switch) and then having a shot made very shortly thereafter (too short a timeout to allow for a post-pass / bridge-pass first) that would imply a backhand.
As I said, wouldn’t be perfect, but it’d be better than nothing. (#1, though a better solution, also wouldn’t be perfect… e.g. it wouldn’t acknowledge backhands from players who always double-flip)
But think of it like Demo Man’s trigger combos, or Starship Trooper’s mini-flipper-doubler… those aren’t perfect either, but they’re “good enough”.