I’ll be upfront that I love Zen pinball. I spent a lot of my teenage years in a smokey bowling alley killing quarters on pinball games. I am also a huge fan of a lot of the marvel characters. When I heard that Zen was making a pinball game with Marvel characters I wanted it that moment. Fortunately, thanks to the generosity of zen’s contest I got a copy. If you enjoy zen pinball you’ll enjoy this. If you enjoy Zen pinball and are a fan of marvel your in for an amazing treat.
Zen Pinball was a big hit for me. It took insane ideas that probably could have never worked on a real table. However, somehow Zen has always made it feel like I’m at a table. There were some minor annoyances such as loading times and menus though. Now onto Marvel Pinball. From the loading screen of the marvel comics flipping I was surprised to see a slicker, unique interface than Zen Pinball has. The loading times are faster and get you playing in no time at all.
Currently, we have four tables in the game. You can see many more slots while your picking so definitely more to come. You can even vote at marvel pinball.com for the next. From what I’ve read Zen has access to all characters and more importantly story archs. Could we see a secret wars or civil war table in the future? I certainly hope so. The four tables released with the game are Spiderman, Wolverine, Iron Man, and Blade. All of which are very uniquely designed and do put you in the world of the character. If you are a fan of the characters there are all kinds of fun details to notice. If not, they are still beautifully designed tables and very unique to the styles of play.
I honestly don’t want to spoil the surprises and go into each table individually. If you have questions or want more details I’d be glad to go into them. In brief though, on the spiderman table you will have certain challenges included boss fights including Doc Oc, Green Goblin and more. If you can imagine web designed ramps and goblin bombs everywhere that is what you are getting. The wolverine table is very speedy with nice details in forms of adamantium items. You’ll be seeing saber tooth, sentinel and others during the boss fights. Iron man is very mechanical but has Tony Stark’s playboy side going. Whiplash, Mandarin and others will be engaged on this table. Finally, which I almost jumped in joy when I heard, was a table for blade. This table is unbelievable with a functioning day and night shift. Perfect for the daywalker in all of us. It’s truly a beautiful table to look at. I won’t spoil anything for the fans but this should be a fan favorite if you grew up with blade. Incredible looking and functioning table.
So there is a nice breakdown without giving away too many details. I’d just hate to ruin it for the comic fans out there. I think it’s enough detail to give pinball fans alone the details they’d want. On the PS3, we have the dual shock so we can bump the table if needed or you can change it to pushing down the L stick. The tables themselves are full of challenges, unlocks, and multiple boss battles that get insanely tense. I’m sad I had to log off tonight as all I can think of is wanting to play more!
The characters do have voice overs which if you want to find flaws you’ll find here. Although they aren’t the worst I’ve heard they could’ve been better. However, we’re talking pinball and it works. The physics is as good as it can be and the challenges do prove quite challenging. Sometimes it does feel as if you are in auditory overload with all the table sounds, music and voices though. While this can get overwhelming I’m sure I’ll be able to fine tune it eventually to where I’m satisfied.
Unfortunately, still no split screen coop but you can play the old school coop way hot seat and the usually online that we’ve come to love is here. You can train in slow motion and there are quite a few customizable options from the operator menu. Save/Load features are here and if you have a ps eye multiplayer will use the video chat if wanted. Always fun from a social aspect unless you’re shy like me.
Hero and Team force scoring is an addition that I really like. I do wish it would’ve been included in Zen Pinball. Basically, your hero score is your personal score across all of the boards. Team Force scoring is you and your list of friends totaled up. I see it as more incentive to find friends and play in a community aspect. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt sales for Zen either which is a good thing in my opinion. Perfect for the price and with the addictive nature this is a must have in my opinion.
10 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment