YMMV / Medieval Madness

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• Annoying Video Game Helper: Merlin's Magic usually awards something that's universally good, like destroying the castle gate (handy on the later castles, which take more hits to destroy), or spotting an award. But it can also light Trolls or start the mode instantly; see Demonic Spiders below.
• Catharsis Factor: Having to deal with the King of Payne’s threats and taunts the entire game, it is very satisfying when you beat Battle for the Kingdom and hear him scream, "No... NO... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
• Demonic Spiders: The aptly-named-in-hindsight Trolls, who block the shots to the Merlin's Magic / Extra Ball / Multiball Madness saucer and castle ball lock shot and make shooting the castle gate more difficult, and can potentially cause ball drains due to your shots bouncing off of them. It's easy to light them up incidentally since shots that try and fail to hit the castle gate will likely instead hit the two targets that advance the Trolls lamp, and Merlin's Magic can start Trolls instantly. You can get Troll Bombs to make life a bit easier, but they require rebounding shots that you are more likely to get through luck than anything else. They are a bit less annoying in multiball modes where you obviously have more balls as a safety net, and in Multiball Madness defeating a pair will add Troll Madness on top of your existing Multiball Madness and replenish your balls.
• Funny Moments: Lots, thanks to clever writing by Chicago Second City writers Scott Adsit and Kevin Dorff.
  • "I am the Duke of Bourbon... it's happy hour!"
    • "I am the Duke of Bourbon... I think."
    • (as his castle explodes) "Happy New Year!"
  • "They took our pinball machine!"
    • "They took our wives!" "YAAAAAAAAAY!"
    • "The castle burns!" "Get the weenies!"
  • "Now hurry up and marry me so we can get a divorce."
  • "You will never defeat the Duke of Bourbon! ...well, maybe."
  • (castle is destroyed) "Big deal! I got another one just down the road."
• Most Wonderful Sound: The game reeling off the Madness modes you've completed, followed by "MULTIBALL MADNESS!!" (sounding more enthusiastic the more Madnesses you have lit)
  • As mentioned above, the King of Payne’s Big "NO!" when you finally beat Battle for the Kingdom.
• Retroactive Recognition: One of the captured princesses was voiced by a then-unknown Tina Fey, who was a member of Second City at the time.
• Sacred Cow: It is widely regarded as one of the best pinball tables of all time with its excellent art and animation, strong table design, tremendous amount of personality, and being more accessible than most pinball games whilst still remaining challenging. You do not want to unjustly insult this pin among fans of the medium.
• That One Achievement: Castle Crusher is by far the hardest objective for Battle for the Kingdom. Similar to Attack from Mars' flying saucers, it requires destroying six castles, each of which requires several hits (4 for the first, then increasing by 2 for each castle, all the way to 14 for the sixth). Unlike AFM, it doesn't stay lit after the conclusion of Battle for the Kingdom, meaning you have to destroy all 6 castles all over again.

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