The Moon Knight table

[skidmarkgn]

If you were *theoretically* the prime suspect in the investigation of a cereal killer and two agents had you in an interrogation room, Thor would be the one who beats you with a phone book and burns you with a cigarette while Moon Knight rubs your shoulders and tells you it will all be okay.

The Moon Knight table is by far the most forgiving table in the Vengence and Virtue pack, it's also one of the most entertaining. It easilly has the most variety and creativity, not to mention an exceptional presentation. While I haven't beat the final mission yet (I hit 40 out of 50 targets when I finally failed, I'm still not quite good enough at multiball missions yet to hang) I feel confident enough to write up a tips guide.

Kickbacks and The easy way to activate Extra balls:

Easy to do, tough to describe. I really wish I had pictures for this guide but I don't so we'll have to make due. Directly below the car on the left side of the table and a touch below the far right orbit there are targets, hit either one twice (you'll hear a weird noise that sounds like a smooch on a successful hit) and the crawly target -on the immediate left of the right ramp- will have the word "kickbak" flashing at it's base, hit the target and a kickback will activate (and stay activated until it's used), after both kickbacks are active repeating the process will activate a 30 second ball save and doing it a fourth time (as long as both kickbacks are active) will grant you an extra ball, which can be accumulated multiple times.

Millions of points right off the bat:

One of the side missions can be activated right away and it's possible to start the game off with millions of points (I've been up to 20 million before). The mission is "Midnight multi-ball." When you pull the launcher to begin a game don't let go right away, you'll notice the hands on the giant clock are spinning. Release the ball when they are right around 10:15-10:30. When the ball hits the actual playing field the clock should display 11:55-ish, as long as you're between 11:40 and 12:00 you're good, if you're past midnight then restart until you're in that target range. Hitting the left and right ramps (the ones with the big green signs above them) moves the hands of the clock, left for the big hand and right for the little hand. Hit whatever you need to get the clock to midnight, when you do a light will flash at the base of the right ramp and so will the word "midnight", hit that ramp to start the multiball (and acquire one of the letters you need to begin the final mission). During this mission the balls don't behave normally, Midnight will be controlling them and they move quite spastically, hitting him will give you more balls (up to three) and you can amass quite a bit of points by hitting the various jackpots and the super jackpot.

Spelling M-O-O-N K-N-I-G-H-T:

The ultimate goal of this table is to have all of the letters above the flippers illuminated to access the final mission (and beat it of course).

The word "moon" is lit by completing the tables main 4 missions. "Knight" is spelled by doing 6 of the 11(?) side missions, the other 5(?) side missions have their own rewards but beyond routing the punks in the mini-play field I'd ignore them.

The four main missions, M-O-O-N:

Doing pretty much anything on this table gives you blue orbs, once you accumulate 100 of them the main mission ramp will open up (it replaces the orbit next to the left ramp). Hit the orbit and you'll be able to use the flippers and X button to choose a mission.

Bushman is back:

I don't remember which letter each mission gives but it doesn't matter as you need to do them all. For the Bushman mission you need to hit the left and right ramps -and only the left and right ramps- hitting any other ramp will result in Bushman attacking you instead. Four or five successful shots in a row will win the mission. Try to hit each ramp with a straight up shot from the matching flipper (left for left right for right), it's a bit easier.

The Black Spectre:

Pretty basic, several flashing targets and a time limit. Try to hit as many shots in a row as you can in as little time as possible.

Midnight:

Another super easy mission. Midnight will pop up at the entrance of the right ramp. To beat him you have to alternate hitting a flashing target to get him to "drop his defences", then hitting him directly.

Morpheus:

The hardest of the four. Black ooze will creep towards the flippers from each lane. Hitting the lane that a "tentacle" originates from will cause it to retreat, if one of the tentacles reaches a flipper then the mission fails. the best way to do this mission is to hit as many shots as possible as fast as possible. I tried to control the ball and retreat whatever tentacle is closest to the flipper but it's just a headache that you don't need.

The 6 side missions, K-N-I-G-H-T:

K - Taxi around:

If you look at the left and right ramps you'll see that they each have four missions printed on the big green sign above them. After hitting each ramp once one of the missions we'll be highlighted in yellow, which mission is available (I believe) is dependent on the time displayed on the clock. When Taxi around is highlighted on the left ramp's sign hit the ramp to start the mission. One of the lanes will have a glowing cirlce at it's base, hitting that lane will "pick up a fare" after picking up the fare you have to drop it off, which is done by hitting a 2nd lane with a glowing circle. You only need to pick up/drop off one fare to get the letter

N - Respected Citizen:

The ramps are the 1st way to activate a side mission, the "side mission" hole is another. At the top center of the table there is a hole with three lights in front of it. The middle light is Respected Citizen. Hit the hole three times while the center light is lit to activate the mission. Actually, on the 1st two hits it doesn't matter which light is lit. For the 3rd hit, however, it does. Whichever light is lit on the 3rd hit is the mission you're gonna do. If the wrong light is lit you can cycle through them by hitting the right ramp when "cycle hole" is highlighted. To complete Respected Citizen you have to make a profit by buying and selling... stock... I think. The dot-matrix will display a number that counts up then down then up then down etc. and either the word "buying" or "selling". You can change which word is displayed by hitting the X button. Most of the lanes will be flashing, hitting the ball d through one will buy if the word "buying" is displayed and sell if the word "selling" is displayed. Buy when the number displayed is low and sell when it's high. The catch is, you don't finish the mission until you hit the side mission hole again. There is a one minute time limit to this mission, it's best to buy once and sell once then concentrate on hitting the mission hole again to get your new letter.

I - Moon Knight crossbow:

When the left ramp has Moon Knight crossbow highlighted on the sign shoot the ball through it and the mission will be available. It's accessed by hitting the ball through the right orbit. The ball will be stopped at Moon Knight's feet and he'll pick up his crossbow. You'll go into a FPS mode and have to shoot three thugs in a shooting gallery. The left and right flippers aim the crossbow left and right and the X button shoots. There are five levels total but you only need to complete one for the letter.

G - Rough Customers:

Another mission accessed by the side mission hole. This one begins by having your 3rd shot go in the side mission hole when the left light is lit. The camera will center on Moon Knight and the dot matrix will display a boxing match between Moon Knight and a thug. There's a control scheme that involves blocking and strategy but you'll win 99% of the time by mashing the R1 button. This mission also has five levels but beating the 1st level is all you need for the letter.

H - Nightmare multi-ball:

This is the mission that I described at the beginning of this write up. Initiating it is all that's needed for the letter

T - Whirlybird multi-ball:

When Whirlybird is highlighted on the right ramp's sign shooting the ball through it will make this mission available. After the 1st shot, every consecutive shot through the right ramp will lock a ball. 3 balls locked will begin the mission. it's a typical multi-ball mission, a couple lanes will be jackpots and one specific lane will be the superjackpot. Keep 2 or more balls in play as long as possible, losing 2 balls will end the mission. The letter is given upon starting the mission.

The final mission:

After spelling out Moon Knight the final mission will become available. To begin it just accumulate 100 blue orbs and shoot the main mission ramp.

The final mission is divided into two parts.

Part one:

The left ramp, right ramp and side mission hole will be flashing (midnight will pop up in front of the right ramp again). You need to hit the left ramp once, the right ramp twice and the side mission hole four times(!!). You have an EXTREMELY short time limit to hit the seven shots and will most likely fail time and again until you've practiced the crap out of this table. The good news is... drum roll please... failure during the final mission DOES NOT reset the table. Unlike the "I will kill you" Thor and Ghost Rider tables (no idea if the X-men table resets or not), if you fail any part of the final mission you can try again by shooting the main mission hole. You'll always begin at part one though.

Part two:

After successfully hitting the shots in part one a three ball multi-ball will begin and all of the lanes will be highlighted. 50 successful shots wins the mission. The balls are illuminated and it can be difficult to control them because of this. As long as you keep at least two balls in play the mission will go on, if you get down to one though... mission failed, but hey, at least you can just restart the mission instead of having the whole damn table reset. I'd definitely advise going into this mission with both kickbacks triggered, it's easy to do and it WILL save your ass, if at all possible try and have "ball save" highlighted under the crawly target as well, you'll most likely hit the target accidentally during the multi-ball which will trigger a 30 second ball save... again, quite useful. Completing this mission will grant you 50 million points, a trophy and cause the table to reset.

The Mini-playfield:

While it's not a mission, routing thugs in the mini-playfield is easy and can grant you a lot of points, if you have the patience. Hitting the left orbit will cause the ball to travel to the upper-right ramp which has a flipper. If you hit the ball with the tip of the flipper it will bap the big moon floating above the table. The left orbit will now have a picture of a moon with the word "encircled" through it. Any subsequent moon bapping will put you into a circular mini-playfield. Targets will pass along the top border of the playfield and you want to clear them all. They don't reset of you drain the ball. Also, completing all five levels of thug routing will either get you a trophy or get you really close to one. The cycle repeats endlessly so you can grind points for as long as you want.

I would really like to stress how fun this table turned out to be. i kind of ignored it when I bought the Vengence and Virtue pack because I wasn't familiar with the character (still have no idea who he is) and that was a huge mistake... this table rocks!!

Once again, I hope this guide is helpful (and not too confusing) to anyone out there trying to perfect their skills on this table.

[Wade_VC]

Again, an exceptional write-up and game guide! You do know that I am sooooo going to use these guides to chase your top scores don't ya'!