VP_Cooks-THE MATRIX

@VP_Cooks came on my radar with his Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Poltergeist tables, and I was really impressed with the artwork, layout work, and sound design he put into modding one of JP Salas's tables. Today I was surprised with another gem from the kitchen of this mad chef, and I took the Red Pill right away. Glad I did, I had a smile on my face with the discovery that this uses the Godzilla layout, and has some awesome modes.

Installation: Grab and go, currently no B2S. I put a looping image into my backglass for now in Popper and force that on, but a PUP Pack would be awesome here. I volunteer to make the videos if anyone wants to team up!

Play: So many darn modes! VP Cooks has really let all the bullets hang out here, and I hope you have time to figure out what that Matrix REALLY is. The modes are a pleasure to play, and well thought out. Challenging to complete, and there are some nice smooth shots thanks to the layout roots. JP physics are familiar and make this a very fun play.

Graphics: VP is getting really good at taking a concept, layout it out on a table in a way that makes sense, and then makes it very appealing to the eye. His attention to detail is sharp, and the toys created using his imagination often fit the theme so well you almost are tricked into thinking it was a real toy for this original table. The phone booth is a nice touch VP!

Conclusion: VP Cooks always has something special cooking, and he promised me no rabbits (white or not) were harmed in the making of this table. Take the Red Pill, and grab this for some fun. I had a smile on my face playing it the first time, and I hope you do as well.

What if I told you... I recently played and critiqued the table on my "Arelyel Plays" series on YouTube. And I gave this table a final score of 69 / 100, which is 4 stars on my scale.

(Actually, fun fact not related to the review for those reading... Morpheus never said "What if I told you" in The Matrix. He said, "I'm trying to tell you...").

GAMEPLAY SPOILERS BELOW

My praises for the table in no particular order:

• I immensely enjoy the visuals, especially the animated table toys, some of the visual effects, and the sound effects. When you say you put hours into this table, I believe it. And it shows.
  • The FlipperBlood was a nice touch, and it wasn't too graphic so as to make me squirm.
• This table seems to feature quite a few things to do and explore, especially regarding missions. So I don't think it would be too easy to get bored with the table. The rules were also not overly complex.
• I really enjoy the table layout with all the unique shots one can take. And while they look very narrow and difficult to hit, they are surprisingly easier to shoot than they appear (except for that darn right scoop).
• The artwork is good, and it flows well with the table, although I would have preferred a little more on the playfield... maybe a few more characters faintly in the background where there is currently black.
• I think you incorporated The Matrix movie quite well into the pinball game. I wish I could bend a spoon, though  . Oh, wait, there is no spoon.
• Although I couldn't listen to all the music because, you know, YouTube copyrights... from what I did hear, I made a reasonable assumption that your music selection was really good. I like that you chose thematic / somewhat upbeat music to raise the energy a little while playing it.
• The physics to me seemed reasonable even though I found out after the stream when I looked in the script that you are not using nFozzy. That's the gold standard to many, but the JP physics you're using seemed good.

My critiques for the table in no particular order:

• At least 8 different lights were misplaced or had the wrong shape on the table when compared to the playfield image. Furthermore, it makes no sense using triangle lights on top of the bullet images especially since the bullets themselves are much smaller and not shaped like triangles. Also there seems to be missing a small blue light on the far left target (or there exists a blue light insert in error on the playfield image).
• While I admire your efforts to leave most of the game to mystery, I would have at least preferred the "About" (documentation) to cover as much as a typical rules card on a table would have. Instead, all it said was how to start missions, and a mention of that secret mode. I think a brief mention of the multiball, mystery, hurry-up, target jackpot / super jackpot, Deja Vu, those numbers in the shooter lane, and special should have also been included.
• For a table with lots of missions and game play, the choice of flippers was not ideal IMO. Wide-spaced flippers with a center post are better suited for fast-paced games with quick rules and objectives. I think this table would have been better suited with Stern style flippers (e.g. not as much spacing, and no center post).
• It was a bit difficult for me to determine how to enter the phone booth matrix to light enter mission. I was thinking it was the narrow path directly under the phone booth when it was actually the left orbit.
• I'm not a fan of losing your mystery (once lit) at the end of a ball especially considering you can potentially complete / light mystery from the outlanes.
• I could be mistaking but it seemed to me that lighting extra ball was an item in the mystery. If I'm right, I don't think it should be. Extra balls (and extra credits) are rewards far too great to be awarded randomly. They should be earned.
• I'm also not a fan of losing "enter mission" at the end of the ball, although it might have worked with easier flippers to keep the game going a bit longer.
• I'm not sure what the "special" is; to me, it just seemed like a non-special 2-ball multiball. "Special" usually means an extra credit / free game. So that misled me.
• I think the skill shot is a bit too difficult considering it's almost impossible not to hit that jet bumper.

Overall, I think this was a well-made game (although please double-check your table elements / lights before release). It's fun, has a nice rule set that is just deep enough to make you want to play more than one game but doesn't overwhelm you, and the visuals are impressive. While it's not among the best of the best, it is still a solid and fun original table that pays tribute to The Matrix.

I just like looking at it! Sounds great too. Awesome job 👍🏻

Thank you VP_Cooks and JP Salas! This is amazing as always.

very nice grafics, typically JP´s Physics. Very nice work, indeed. Thankyou!

Love the table and thank you so much for providing it to the community.

My 3rd playthrough I hit some crazy Morpheus Multi-Ball and it just kept spamming me with 'Jackpot' in 19 different british dialects. ha ha

I ended my play with 115M+ which was good enough for number 1 in my household !

Couple of things I'd like to offer as constructive / feedback.

1.) Don't seem to be an abundance of DOF events coded to output lighting triggers. Could maybe be just that the table config isn't fully fleshed out on the DOF side, or perhaps there just aren't that may triggers on the script. Would love to see more and varied buzzes, bells and lights.

2.) The playfield is fantastic and I love the theme (huge matrix fan) but there's little depth to the background image leaving the table feeling a little 2D. I don't know if this was mostly intended for VR where the static IRL presentation doesn't matter as much; but I'd love to see if there could be some shadow, depth or gradient added to the background.  Maybe just some bokeh on a few of the side/back images would offer some depth of field. The Morpheus, Trinity and Neo cameos are great, their precision is sort of sabotaged by the lack of depth in the primary background. Have you considered maybe even doing a mild texture at 40% transparent (carbon fiber may look nice).

3.) Last but not least the previous reviewer on the phone booth entry 'enter the matrix' ; maybe since the table is already pretty busy; some cool audio cues or voice-over cues for the tactics / mechanisms for completion of certain tasks would be cool. This seems like something that someone in the community would LOVE to contribute to if you could agree on a script and where the cues should be inserted.

All in all it's a top flight contribution and an addition to my table that likely will see tons of play from everyone in the house.

Here is a little Matrix Gameplay. What are you supposed to do when the Silver things show up?

https://youtu.be/Dtx706ZmnGI?si=chrDARBMqw1mAzAk

I don't know how you make such amazing tables. Everything is AWESOME!!! This review would be a mile long if I mentioned everything!

Thank you and all for the amazing work.

Awesome table, thank you!

Great work on this table. The visuals really add a cool touch. I'll be playing this a lot to figure things out

Table superbe, dans les graphismes, les missions etc … merci pour les fans de Matrix 

Wonderful, Fun, Exciting and what a surprise. When the table goes dark and the sentinel starts shooting lasers? You had me at first play.

Nice job overall, thanks for your hard work and sharing

Encore un énorme travail réalisé sur cette table.

Merci pour le partage et bravo à la team VP_COOKS.

Vraimant au TOP !

Another huge job done on this table.

Thank you for sharing and congratulations to the VP_COOKS team.

Truly TOP!

looks great. matrix is one of my top 5 movies. great to have matrix as a vpin table now. thank you for sharing. a matching pup pack would be wonderful...

very nice table , thank you ! 

Well done!  Great tribute to the movie

very nice table.very good play.

wow😍, amazing table!!!Thank you so much.🙏  

The sound, the gameplay, the music. Everybody who knows how much work it is to design and script a vpx table, knows how much effort you put into this! After playing some days I catchend myself by playing again and again, this table makes so much much fun!!! Thanks again !!!

Very nice VPX Original, thank you!  I know of someone that converted a real Johnny Mnemonic to a Matrix theme but there's only one in existence. 

What a stunning table you've created. Amazing. great special effects and music and 3d models. Like you are in the movie. Easy to install and working in one go 👍. You creators keep amazing me of what is capable. Thank you so much for the hard work.