Pinball / Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

The Limited Edition table.

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is a pinball machine designed by Pat Lawlor and released by Jersey Jack Pinball in mid-2019.

Based on the 1971 film of the same name, the player is tasked with collecting a number of sweets while going through various rooms in Wonka's fantastical factory. Their progress is tied to the five children on the tour (which culminates in the potentially potent Kid Multiball). The ultimate goal is to find Golden Tickets (which are tied to the game's various other modes and can provide valuable multiballs along the way). Acquiring all five gives the player a shot at completing Pure Imagination. Also worth noting are the various doodads within the machine: a spinning Everlasting Gobstopper (tied to the Most Secret Machine), a small Wonkavision screen on the playfield, and (in the higher-tier versions) a Wonkavator ball lock that lasts from game to game.

---

This game contains examples of:

• Achievement System:
  • Completing certain goals (ranging from amassing enough bumper hits to the Herculean task of cashing in a full "scrumdiddlyumptious" combo) leads to the player receiving coins that are then spent in a gumball machine. One of the five Golden Tickets is tied to a random one of these achievements, too.
  • An update in 2021 added support for regular achievements through Scorbit. They are only revealed when the player meets the requirements for them, ranging from collecting various Wonka bar thresholds to starting specific modes at least once.
• Author Appeal: Lead programmer Joe Katz's love of Mortal Kombat directly inspired the Candy Kodes, based on the Kombat Kodes from Mortal Kombat 3.
• Ascended Meme:
  • Miss the Super Skill Shot and "you get nothing!"
  • When you lock your first ball, the screen treats you to the shot of Wonka known for the "Condescending Wonka" meme.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The infamous Wonkatania scene makes an appearance in one of the Captive Ball Mystery awards, "Wonkatania Mania". As the lights and poem get more and more intense, the scoring becomes even higher, and the player is tasked with keeping the ball in play for as long as possible.
• Challenge Run: Certain Candy Kodes reverse the flipper controls for the duration of the game.
• Combos:
  • They make progress towards spelling "scrumdiddlyumptious", which adds points to an award obtained by hitting the Most Secret Machine.
  • Certain sequences of combos are required to complete Augustus Gloop for Kid Multiball.
• Company Cross References: The Candy Kodes have a few references to other Jersey Jack games:
  • One of them prints a message alluding to The Hobbit:
  "Have you ever spelled dwarf in order during Orc Attack?"
  • Two others reference Dialed In!: "Crazy!" (accompanied by an appropriate soundbite from that game) and "When you are Dialed In, look to the moon."
  • Two more reference Pirates of the Caribbean:
  "Use random select to choose your character yarrr!"
  "Have you found the 23rd character? Yarrr!"
• Easter Egg: "Candy Kodes" occasionally appear after a ball drains on the Wonkavision screen. Entering a code with the flippers unlocks a screen where they can be input; the bulk of them simply display a message, but some unlock Challenge Runs.
• Edible Collectible: Several of these, fitting the source material.
  • Gumballs are tied to the game’s Achievement System.
  • Wonka Bars are obtained through ramp shots; they add to your bonus, help qualify for Computer Awards, and determine scoring during "Wonka Bar Craze".
  • The Candy Jar similarly determines the spinner's value and scoring during "The Candy Man".
• Gotta Catch Them All: The player must collect five golden tickets in order to reach "Pure Imagination"; the conditions for doing so range from finishing various multiballs completely to fulfilling one of a set of achievements.
• Interface Screw:
  • During Oompa-Loompa Odyssey, the center of the screen is occupied by a reflection of the person playing the game.
  • Two of the Candy Kodes reverse either the main flippers or the upper flippers’ controls.
• Match Sequence: An Oompa-Loompa unveils several other Oompa-Loompas contorted in the shape of the match number.
• Mythology Gag: During the match sequence, an altered version of the massive contract from the original film is partially visible in the background:
  Whereas the outcome of the score match feature [is] random and arbitrary, [no] result is implied nor pledged...
• Score Multiplier: There are no less than four "Super X" modes that boost playfield scoring (anywhere from doubling to quintupling it) for a period of time.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of the potential achievements (tied to adding time to a mode) is "Time Enough at Last," the name of an episode of The Twilight Zone (1959).
  • The Candy Kodes provide several:
    • Their execution and name are directly inspired by the Kombat Kodes from Mortal Kombat 3, which could be input prior to a match and altered gameplay in various ways. Several of that game's Kodes also work here (albeit only producing messages instead of actually affecting gameplay). In addition, the method of activating the screen in the first place^note pressing both flipper buttons, followed by the left one 13 times, the right once, the left 11 times, and the right twice – the 11th and 13th letters of the alphabet are M and K also references the series.
    • Many of them produce referential messages:
      "Abunai!"
      "Screws fall out all the time, the world’s an imperfect place."^note For added referential value, the code unlocking this message is 021585, referencing the day The Breakfast Club was released (February 15th, 1985).
      "There is no knowledge that is not power."
      "Respect 90"^note A reference to the philosophy of former Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon.
      "The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus."
      "An unexamined life is not worth living."
      "Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game."
      "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
      "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."
      "A bunch of savages in this town."
      "What we're showing may not be your reality, but it's ours."
      "It's more fun to compete."^note A common message found on older pinball machines, meant to promote their multiplayer capabilities.
      "Baba Booey!"^note The nickname of The Howard Stern Show's producer Gary Dell'Abate.
    • Another gives a direct shout-out to Buffalo Pinball, who (among other things) streamed the game’s reveal in April 2019; its code (014753) references their Twitch stream’s highest concurrent viewer count (14,753, reached during the aforementioned reveal).
    • A very similar code gives a shout-out to the Chicago Pinball League.
  • The official Scorbit achievements for earning Wonka bars are all given names referencing real chocolate brands. These include "A Little Snicker" (Snickers), "Betwixt Two Points" (Twix), and "Safely Nestled" (Nestlé, which owns several prominent candy brands).
• Skill Shot: Three of them.
  • Soft plunging into the saucer awards points, a W-O-N-K-A letter, and 1 candy for the Candy Jar.
  • Plunging to the upper flipper, then shooting the center ramp adds 5 candies, more points, and a Computer Award.
  • The "Super Skill Shot" (holding the left flipper, then performing a combo from the upper flipper) awards even more points, a bonus multiplier, a Computer Award, 10 candies, and furthers every factory tour shot by one.
• Spelling Bonus:
  • G-U-M lights the Kickback.
  • W-O-N-K-A helps progress the Factory Tour.
  • Perhaps the most extreme is "scrumdiddlyumptious", which is progressively spelled through combos and can be cashed in for points by hitting the Most Secret Machine. (Thankfully, partially spelling it works as well, though spelling the entire word causes the current and future combo value to spike.)
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: The Candy Kodes, befitting a Shout-Out to Mortal Kombat.
• Wizard Mode: "Pure Imagination", which can only be reached upon collecting all five Golden Tickets (which itself requires fulfilling five hefty goals elsewhere in the game).

---