While certainly not an improper score, Marvel Pinball sometimes felt better than the 8/10 I bestowed upon it last December. Zen Studio’s digital recreations of a beloved pastime were the closest one could get to the real deal, and filtering their keen eye for authenticity through Marvel’s lens was a near perfect match. If nothing else, it was safe to say Zen Studios had made better use of Marvel license than the recent movie tie-in shovelware that’s been polluting the console space.
Zen Studios has produced two additional downloadable Marvel-themed pinball tables for $2.99 a pop. A planned Fantastic Four table was beset by the PSN outage and wedged into to the PlayStation Store reprisal in early June. The second, a Captain America table, arrives tomorrow (June 28th). Having now spent a significant amount of time with both tables, I’ve decided to talk about them in the same space. Again, this review is an all inclusive score that reflects my time with the current Marvel Pinball downloadable content; both tables are sold separately.
Fantastic 4 was first out the gate. Immediately one notices the surplus of activity affixed to the table. One would expect Sue Storm, Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, and Dr. Doom to actively take part, but both The Baxter Building and Galactus (can) stop by the make an appearance as well. There is also quite a bit of dialogue between the characters. In Marvel Pinball I had complained that the small helping of one liners were slightly grating (regardless of how authentic repeating voices may have been to classic Pinball), but the back and forth banter among the Fantastic Four team and Dr. Doom is both varied and almost multifaceted. It’s hard to say if the expanded dialogue was reactive to criticism or a natural part for the team dynamic, but it’s clearly for the better.
The fiction is also well integrated into the table’s missions. The most interesting of which is Mr. Fantastic’s ability to stretch his arms out and collect balls; the constant shifting of his hands does well to add a sense of immediacy to his position, and is much preferred over the more common “hit these ramps” challenges that often compose much of pinball mission content. There are actually quite a lot of modes to be engaged; setting up force fields to support The Invisible Woman, heating up the Human Torch until he goes Nova Flame, smacking balls at Doombots to help The Thing, as well as a multiball challenge with Dr. Doom.
Completing the five main missions allegedly summons Galactus. I have no doubt that this can actually happen, but I lacked the talent and/or luck necessary to engage it. Unlike normal videogames where the AI or variation in difficulty can give you a break once in a while, Zen Studios’ digital interpretation of Pinball is slavishly faithful to real-world physics. It’s not totally luck, but it isn’t completely skill either, leaving a delicate balance only precious few are seemingly able to shift into position and master. I can certainly appreciate Zen Studios’ dedication to authenticity, I just can’t, for the life of me, summon the skill necessary to explore and consume the breadth of content pumped into these tables.
The Captain America table also had a lot to offer. Cap’s battle theme seemed far more consistent to a certain mood and time than the other tables (the press sheet support my supposition by declaring the table’s inspiration as lifted directly from The 2006 65th Anniversary Special). Cap and Red Skull are positioned at the top and surrounded by a collection of battlefield relics, medals, and golden ball ramps. Patriotic music echoes throughout and small touches, like gunfire replacing traditional bumper pops, augment the experience nicely. Occasionally Baron Zemo will walk in and out of the left corner, but most often when a ball is lost (forcing the player to wait through his animation before starting another ball, for some reason).
Captain America’s missions are the easiest to engage. Selecting The Resistance tasks the player with nailing two of five lit holes to begin an assault on Zemo. Archives and Dig site also require similar ball movement. Visual flare is spent on Zemo and Red Skull’s specific challenges; Adhesive X coats parts of the table in a gooey compound that must be tagged to clear, Sparring requires the player to hit targets to help Cap duke it out with Red Skull, and Death Ray has the player hitting targets to restore Cap’s power. Searching for the Howlers rounds out the challenges. After they’re unlocked they can be “taken” out on missions, but, again, I didn’t posses the skill necessary to earn that honor (though I was ranked #1 for a fleeting instance, ha!).
A bit of a wild card is thrown in via the Cosmic Cube. Each of the tables in Marvel Pinball feature outlandish visuals not quite possible in reality, but, with a few small exceptions, the mechanics of pinball have remained pinball and not taken advantage of the otherwise impossible benefits provided by the medium of virtual entertainment. The Cosmic Cube slightly conforms to its digital medium as (with some effort) it seems to teleport the ball and, when on a mission, usually in the exact spot it needs to be. It’s subtle, but effective – or maybe, as is generally the case with pinball, just lucky.
Understand that my perspective is one from a passing familiarity with comics and a slightly above average interest in pinball. These tables, and Marvel Pinball at large, aren’t traditional videogames, or at least not in an area where I generally feel confident in my ability to conduct a completely thorough and overly informed evaluation of them. Unlike fighting games, which I can also sort of appreciate and enjoy from a distance, failing to reach the goal in pinball doesn’t actively discourage me from playing it again. Plus, I am a sucker for pinball and happily entertained by the meticulous attention to detail provided by an earnest and inspired development team.
Captain American and Fantastic 4 were reviewed on a PlayStation 3, where they can be downloaded from the PlayStation Store and added to Marvel Pinball. Captain American and Fantastic 4 are both available on Xbox 360’s Live Arcade as well, but as part of Pinball FX2.
