Zen Pinball - Pinball Dreams

So Castlevania is giving me the queasies so I decided to play something a little more stable. I’ve always been a pinball fan; I’ve enjoyed it for years. Pinball games are the main reason I’m sad about the decline of arcades in America. It can be hard to find a pinball table, let alone a good pinball table anymore.

Thankfully we have simulated pinball tables and Zen Pinball is probably the best out there. I picked this game up a while back for the PlayStation Network. It was only $10 dollars, well worth the money.

Well worth it

Pinball has always been a physics game so Zen studios created an awesome pinball physics simulator for their game. The ball bounces around in ways that you would expect. It has a random feel to it, but at the same time you know that you can control the ball if you take time to aim you shots. It’s a lot of fun and it can easily steal an hour or two of your life.

The initial game comes with 4 boards, V12 (car based) Shaman (voodoo magic based), Tesla (electricity based), and El Dorado (Indiana Jones based). Out of these boards Tesla is my favorite just for its steampunk look. There’s a lot to do an each board with “quests” appearing as you nail targets. You need to control you ball to succeed and just like regular pinball that takes some time. So it is able to maintain a realistic pinball learning curve which I like.

The game has plenty of DLC tables available. Earth Defense (old sci-fi movie alien invasion based, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (obvious), and Street Fighter II Tribute (also obvious) are the tables that I have picked up. There’s also an Excalibur, Mars, Sorcerer's Lair and Paranormal. They all go for $2.50 a piece. Grab some and give the game some more variety.

Zen Pinball also allows for custom music. Nothings beats whacking a ball around while the Cliffs of Dover plays in the background. Very cathartic.

I was playing on the Street Fighter II board last night and for the life of me I can’t figure out why the game focuses on the car smashing and the barrel breaking mini-games so much. They couldn’t get enough quests from the core game or something that they had to use the mini-games for inspiration? That strikes me as lazy. Plus this is a very small board compared to most of the others. The Ninja Gaiden Sigma II board is awesome. Now why did I just get all wet? How is that related to Street Fighter?

Like any game it has its share of flaws. The ball almost seems too eager to leave the table. I swear I end up using the ‘ball saved’ feature nearly every round. It doesn’t help where on tables like Earth Defense you would almost swear that the ball is purposefully launched to go into the hole between the two paddles.

The load times for each table is pretty horrid. It feels like nearly a minute has passed for some tables before you get to actually play. The main boards have this, but it feels even worse on the DLC boards. Once you get into the table you don’t have to worry about load times. But the length of them can be a detractor if you’re looking to change tables. I really have to contemplate if a table change is worth it.

Also, the screen that tells you what your current quest is really needs some tweaking. It’s just small and out of the way, I barely notice that it’s there until I lose my current ball. My wife kept reading it to me last night. I had no idea it changed as often as it did.

Overall though, the game is fun. I still highly recommend it. But I would recommend Ninja Gaiden over Street Fighter for DLC tables. Ninja Gaiden has some awesome skill shots in it, Street Fighter just makes you wet.