Just Add GUTS
Skull: "Prepare for the ride of your life!"
No Fear: Dangerous Sports is a 1995 pinball game designed by Steve Ritchie with art by Greg Freres. It was released by Williams Electronics and is based on the "No Fear" clothing line.
For those unfamiliar with the brand, No Fear is based on extreme sports and racing, and the pinball game features appearances by motocross racer Jeremy McGrath, skiier Glen Plake, NASCAR racer Robby Gordon, water skiier Sammy Duvall, and climber Dan Osman. Go over the edge, jump the ramps, shoot the tubes, race on the asphalt, loop the summit, and freefall out of an airplane. For a bigger rush, scream through the playfield accelerator to build up speed, then try to make it across the ramp. After you've gone through all of that, take on the Major Challenges to show what you've really got — all while Skull the Bone Head keeps taunting away.
A digital version was available for The Pinball Arcade until the license for all Williams and Bally tables expired on July 1, 2018.
The No Fear: Dangerous Sports pinball demonstrates the following tropes:
- Angry Eyebrows: The bottom of the playfield features a close-up of a pair of angry red eyes.
- Announcer Chatter: Skull and the Announcer.
- Clumsy Copyright Censorship: Due to licensing issues, the Pinball Arcade version mutes out the names of the athletes and the name NASCAR, as well as redesigning some parts of the artwork that involves the stock car with Valvoline and Ford logos. The edits are inconsistently applied, though - the unedited artwork can still be seen on the main menu and flyer image, the flyer image also lists the names of the athletes, and the Valvoline logo can still be seen in the dot-matrix animation for completing the Asphalt Challenge.
- Company Cross References: To Terminator 2: Judgment Day, from the same designer:
- Skull says "GET OUT!" when you shoot the tube saucer at certain times.
- No Fear's "Payback Time" is the same as T2's version.
Skull: "IT'S... PAYBACK TIME!" - Creator Cameo: Greg Freres and Steve Ritchie voice the Announcer and Skull, respectively.
- Deface of the Moon: The words "NO FEAR" are carved into the side of a mountain.
- Dem Bones/Losing Your Head/Oracular Head: Skull.
- Double Unlock: One of the Kombat Kodes in Mortal Kombat 3 makes a reference to this game. The code displays the message, "No Fear: EB Button, Skydive, Max Countdown".
- Extreme Sports Plot: Like many pinball games, there more or less is no plot - just an extreme sports-focused premise.
- Flaming Skulls: Skull the Bone Head, who's peppered all over the playfield.
- Get Out!: Just like Terminator 2: Judgment Day, shooting the left scoop results in the skull saying this.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Skull has 'em.
- Golden Snitch: Meet Your Maker has the Jump shot lit for unlimited Super Jackpots at 200 million apiece. Considering that "No Limits" caps at 70M per shot, and the jackpot in Fear Fest starts at 80M and increases by 20M per shot, this is worth far more than anything else in the game.
- Have a Nice Death: When you drain the ball down the outlanes, Skull laughs at you, or says the following:Skull: "Crash and burn!"Skull: "No pain, no gain!"
- Hollywood Skydiving: Invoked in the dialog for "Air Challenge".Skydiver: "Wait a minute! I've never done this before! How do I do it? Where's the rip cord? I wanna go back!"Skull: "Shut up and JUMP!"
- Incendiary Exponent: The playfield and cabinet are decorated with flames, just to make everything more EXTREME.
- Kinetic Toys Are Just Better: The jumps loop, which magnetically accelerates pinballs to high speed. However, unlike the Supercharger from The Getaway: High Speed II, the player must use the upper-right flipper to constantly shoot the ball back into the loop for greater speed (and points).
- Match Sequence: Later revisions of the software implement a dice roll match sequence, in addition to the traditional match sequence.
- Name Drop: One of Skull's lines if you get a high score is "Clearly you have No Fear."
- Never Trust a Title: The "No Limits" Major Challenge, where the value of each shot starts at 20 million and each one collected adds another million... only to cap out at 70 million points per shot.
- No Indoor Voice: Skull averts this.
- The '90s: One might even say, extremely 90s. To an extent where it is an
Unintentional Period Piece. - Ramp Jump: There's one in the jump loop, with the accelerator giving it a speed boost.
- Pinball Scoring: This is one of very few pins that can display a ten billions place during normal play.
- Second Place Is for Losers:Skull: "Second place is the first loser!"
- Skill Shot: Similar to Star Trek: The Next Generation, you select the award before plunging the ball. For the Flipper Skill Shot, shoot the left ramp for 50 million points.
- Spelling Bonus: After playing all five minor challenges and No Limits, spell N-O-F-E-A-R to start each of the other two major challenges (Fear Fest and Meet Your Maker, in that order).
- Spiritual Successor: No Fear's playfield combines elements of High Speed (and its sequel), Black Knight 2000, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, while the ruleset is similar to Star Trek: The Next Generation's.
- Stuff Blowing Up:
- In the Water Challenge mode, every time a shot is made Sammy Duvall will water ski right past a mine which blows up about half a second later.
- The same sound effect punctuates every item in the introduction to Meet Your Maker.
- Take That Player: If you drain the ball early, Skull yells, "Play better!"
- Timed Mission: All of the Minor Challenges, as well as Jump This.
- Video Mode: Motocross race with Jeremy McGrath: you control McGrath and try to collect points while racing around the track before reaching the finish line.
- Wizard Mode: "Meet Your Maker", a four-ball multiball with everything lit, and each jump is worth 200 million points. There are also the sub-wizard modes, "No Limits" and "Fear Fest".Skull: "It's time to Meet Your Maker! And I'm driving!"Announcer: "Thanks, Skull-boy, I'm outta here!"
Skull: "Do it again!"
