The Angry Birds Movie 2 Pinball is a fan-made virtual pinball adaptation of the 2019 animated film The Angry Birds Movie 2, sequel to the 2016 film The Angry Birds Movie. Designed as if Zen Studios were to make it as part of their ever-growing, massive library of well-acclaimed virtual pinball tables, this table has the player re-enacting the events of the film, gathering Birds and Pigs into an unexpected alliance to protect their islands from a figure from Mighty Eagle's past who stops at nothing to destroy their homelands, just to build her luxurious resort upon their ruins.
A full description of the table and its rule systems can be viewed here
.
The Angry Birds Movie 2 Pinball contains the following tropes:
- Anti-Frustration Feature:
- A 30-second ball saver will be granted at the start of each ball. Once it expires, you can turn it on again by shooting Leonard's ramp seven times to spell his name.
- While losing the ball during a mission cancels it, it is possible to prevent this by spinning the submarine flag at the miniloop 50 times, so that the mission saver activates. That way, if you lose the ball during a mission, you can immediately continue it with the next ball, if you have one.
- Once you turn on Bomb's kickbacks, they will stay on until they are used.
- The ball saver will stay on when you're playing the Invisi-Spray test at Garry's Lab, because the ball and flippers are difficult to see while playing that mode.
- During the "On Ice" mode, after you've spun the left flag enough times, a magnet will turn on near the right end of the miniloop that will overcome the slippery surface to catch the ball, giving you a chance to shoot the crossramp for the final shot to finish it immediately.
- Berserk Button: Hit Bomb's bumpers to make him angry and power up the kickbacks. You also have to do this in the Flock Together mission to get him to charge up his explosive outburst and break out of house arrest.
- Button Mashing: The fourth mission, Emergency Exit, starts out like this, where you need to rapidly operate the flippers while keeping the ball in play to help Mighty Eagle carry the heroes to safety from the ice ball coming straight at his cave.
- Call-Forward: During the Speed Dating multiball, if you're given the Bomb-Willow pairing, you'll discover that the latter has been assigned to Courtney' miniloop. That miniloop happens to have a mini-flipper at the right end, giving it some resemblance to Willow's vortex spin ability as the ball is fed through the miniloop to the mini-flipper, which can knock the ball in a different direction. This foreshadows how the Stella table represents her with a larger orbit with a mini-flipper at one end.
- Combo Breaker: Shooting Zeta's orbit or Debbie's ramp will instantly end a Team Combo...because they're the bad gals, after all.
- Combos: You are encouraged to execute "team combos", in which you alternate between shooting Bird lanes and Pig lanes without hesitating. Extending the combo into a 2-way one prevents lit rollovers from being unlit, pushing it into a 3-way combo holds the multiplier for the next ball and stretching it into a 4-way combo or longer boosts the rollovers, allowing for faster multiplier gains. A 5-way Team Combo awards an extra ball, all for encouraging cooperation between Birds and Pigs.
- Critical Annoyance: When you're running out of time to finish the first two phases of the Wizard Mode, Zeta and Debbie will express excitement about having enough ammo to bombard the islands.
- Interface Screw: The Invisi-spray test in Garry's Lab makes the ball and flippers difficult to see due to the effects of the said gadget. The player must shoot lit lanes to reverse the effects of the spray within a time limit. Fortunately, the ball saver will stay on for the duration of the test to compensate for this challenging hindrance.
- It's a Wonderful Failure:
- If you fail the wizard mode by running out of time, the display shows Bird Island and Piggy Island being bombarded by Zeta's ice balls, with the words "Final Mission Failed" ominously appearing in the foreground.
- And once you're out of balls, the Game Over screen shows the muscular Hank holding Red and Silver in his clutches. Even worse, you'll either hear Red admitting that it was all his fault for getting caught, or Zeta taunting them over their futile efforts to stop her.
- Minigame: There is a Hatchling mini-playfield beneath the main playfield. The third mission, Hatchling Misadventure, requires you to play there as you help the Hatchlings Sam, Vincent and Zoe work together to save Zoe's unborn sisters from great peril across the open ocean. Outside of that mission, you can access the mini-playfield to re-enact the war between the Birds and Pigs if you hit Red's spindisk six times.
- Mythology Gag: Silver's crossramp is shaped into a loop, in reference to her looping power in Angry Birds 2.
- Nintendo Hard: Among the three fan-made Angry Birds pinball tables, this is arguably the toughest of the pack. You must beat missions completely without draining the ball, kickbacks are very tough to activate, the ball saver requires some work to get reactivated, crossramp shots need to be mastered and to top it all off, you only get one shot at the 3-phase wizard mode with a middle phase that's easy to get stuck on, and if you fail, you have to start all the missions all over again while keeping your score.
- Obvious Rule Patch: After adding the ability to earn an Achievement Award for each super skill shot made, there was one small problem: it makes no sense to earn a ball saver from it when there's already one. The obvious fix would be to simply remove it from the roulette of possible Achievement Award prizes when one is earned from Super Skill Shot.
- Press X to Not Die: The Emergency Exit mission is made up entirely of this trope. You are only given a short timeframe to complete each step of the mission (i.e. flap the flippers a lot of times, or shoot a lit lane). If you can't pull it off soon enough, it's mission failure as the team fails to survive (or escape unscathed) the ice ball Zeta shot at Mighty Eagle's cave.
- Rule of Symbolism:
- The big orbit not only resembles the spiraling ammo track of Zeta's big ice cannon - it also reflects her selfish obsession about making the world revolve around her.
- Red and Garry are represented by spindisks that can randomly throw the ball in different directions - and even into the outlanes if you're unlucky - because they're known for making an unreliable plan or so to stop Zeta with hit-and-miss results.
- Courtney is represented by a miniloop because of her cool headphones.
- Score Multiplier: Raise the score multiplier by spelling TEAM twice on the rollovers, but it's only good for the current ball unless you get a multiplier hold from Silver's random award or pull off a 3-way Team Combo.
- Shout-Out:
- This table is described to be a conversion kit for Doom (Zen Studios). The "Submarine Ride" mission also plays similar to one of that table's missions, "The Pit", as it involves shooting two sequences of lit lanes.
- The table has a few parts taken straight from Zen's pinball adaptation of Alien vs. Predator. The two-ball Speed Dating Multiball mode is activated the same way Egg Crasher Multiball is started on that table. Both tables also share the same skill shot system, as well as a spinner on the large left orbit. The Invisi-Spray lab test's effects on the flipper and the balls is also similar to how the ball and flippers become more invisible during AVP s Camoflauge mission. Plus, one of this table's side modes, "Sneak Past the Guards" is inspired by AVP s "Stalker" side mode.
- The somewhat huge time limit you're given to finish the first two phases of the wizard mode may remind some old-time wizards of the overarching time limit that one must race against to beat the Williams pinball table Safe Cracker.
- The way you light locks for Teamwork Multiball is almost the same way you light a lock for the Army of Ants Multiball on Zen Studios' pinball adaptation of Ant-Man. The only difference is that you earn fast locks from a random award instead of making 3 consecutive shots up an orbit.
- The use of bumpers to activate kickbacks is a reference to the pinball adaptation of Zen Studios' Castlestorm.
- The second half of the first mission, "Prank Wars", involves defeating a swarm of enemy crabs crawling towards the flippers, similar to horde rushes found on various Zen Pinball tables
- The ability to start up one of three random mini-missions at Garry's lab is taken from the how one can play one of three random Imperial Sabotage mini-missions in Zen's pinball adaptation of Star Wars Rebels, accessed by shooting a sinkhole several times. The first part of the Emergency Exit mission's requirement of flapping the flippers many times is inspired by that table's "TIE Ambush" side mode, where the player must flap the flippers to earn many points.
- The rest of the "Emergency Exit" mission, which is all about shooting lanes on a particular side of the table within short time limits, is reminiscent of the "UD-4L Cheyenne" mission in Aliens (Zen Studios).
- The pop-up toy submarine gimmick was inspired by the Iron Monger pop-up toy in Stern's physical Iron Man (Stern) table.
- Skill Shot: At the start of each ball, you fire Zeta's ice cannon into her orbit, then shoot lit Bird or Pig lanes depending on how strong you made the shot, within a brief time period. After that, you can shoot Silver's crossramp for a super skill shot, which will also grant you an instant random award if you can pull it off.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The entire table is modeled to look like the innards of Zeta's icy lair. And also, spelling FREEZE on the right ramp will turn the playing field into a slippery sheet of ice.
- Spelling Bonus: Spell the names of various characters to trigger side modes or perks. Red opens up the Hatchling Inspiration minigame, Chuck starts a hurry-up mode, Leonard activates the ball saver and Mighty Eagle raises the victory jackpot.
- That One Level: The middle part of the Wizard Mode can be tough to get past. You need to spin the flag on the left orbit 65 times - so that Red and Silver's ice ball generates enough speed to crush the cannon. However, you also need to shoot a lit Pig lane three times as well. With less than ten minutes to work with by the time you've reached this point, you'd definitely be feeling a lot of pressure - but what makes it a lot more difficult is that as you work on the latter task, you need to be careful not to shoot the right orbit. If you shoot it by mistake, you have to restart both tasks again as the timer continues ticking down, and given that the Pig lanes are right next to the right orbit - it's unfortunately VERY easy to shoot it by mistake.
- Timed Mission: Many modes are played on a time limit. The first two phases of the 3-phase wizard mode must be completed with a ten minute time limit, which is the same countdown for Zeta's cannon to load up for a final attack on both Bird Island and Piggy Island. The third phase has its own, short time limit.
- Unwinnable by Design: It's possible to get stuck on the second step of the second phase of the wizard mode long enough (either by not managing your time and shots well, or getting your progress undone just by hitting the right orbit by mistake over and over) such that you run out of time to finish the second phase. At this point, since you can't get extra time, you'll have to wait for the wizard mode to inevitably end in failure, sending you all the way back to square one, with your score intact.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: If, for any reason, you want to be a villain, this table gives you a dedicated multiball that has you siding with Zeta - the Destruction Multiball! Spinning her flag in the left orbit 50 times will allow you to lock a ball inside a lit sinkhole. Locking two more will pop all three locked balls out of the cannon-shaped plunger, and you juggle them all around as the deadly missiles Zeta wants to chuck at both Bird Island and Piggy Island to inflict total devastation! You can even crank up the mayhem further by shooting the right orbit four times to turn on the emulsifier for the next 30 seconds, so if you lock a ball within that timeframe, it becomes a lava ball that inflicts extra damage during the multiball mode. Cue the Evil Laugh once you make one!
- Wizard Mode: Once you beat all five missions, you will unlock a three-part final mission, where you must re-enact the heroes' efforts to destroy Zeta's cannon just as the ten-minute countdown to load its ammunition begins. That time limit governs how much you have to work with for the first and second phases, which is based on Silver's original plan to destroy the cannon with a stolen ice ball, and once you clear both phases, you have about 30 seconds to clear the final phase, which is all about Silver's backup plan after that plan fails. You only have ONE shot at beating this mode and if you fail by draining the ball without the Mission Saver available or running out of time, that's it - you have to start all over again. Those who are skilled enough to beat the clock, destroy Zeta's cannon and save the day will be awarded a celebratory, four-ball victory multiball.
- Zerg Rush: The first mission, Prank Wars, ends with you having to get rid of a swarm of crabs that the Pigs drop on the shores of Bird Island - and they're crawling all over the table! You need to crush them all with the ball, like how Bomb did it in the movie, before one gets too close to the flippers...
