For well over a decade, Zen Studios has been developing stellar pinball videogames. One franchise or license that that they have done for several years is Stars Wars, with releases on mobile, Wii U, 3DS, etc. Now, Star Wars Pinball makes its way to the Nintendo Switch. It’s available now on the eShop and also in physical format (for the first time).
I’ve played more videogame pinball than the real thing, and while I don’t enjoy pinball as much as I do videogames, I’m nonetheless fascinated by a great pinball design and experience. Pinball has been around for a very long time late 1800s even; done right, it’s impressive, and I can get the appeal. Table design — the sights, the sounds, the traps, the bonuses, the risks, the intrigue — is a major factor in determining how engaging and addictive a pinball experience can be. For that, getting back to the topic at hand, Zen has done a superb job with these nineteen different tables. The tables cover the best of the Star Wars film and TV releases to date — Episodes IV thru VIII are represented, as is Rogue One and Solo, and even The Clone Wars and Rebels animated series’ which I am less familiar with. By designing tables around this wide of a Star Wars gamut, you’ll see and hear many familiar sights and sounds, perhaps some not so familiar. Tables offer voiceovers of characters, sound effects like lightsabers and blaster fire, and these evolve as you play further on the table, too. Zen did a superb job with the look, sound, and feel of these tables.
If that were about the extent of the experience, I don’t know that I would complain much given the quick pick up and play nature of pinball, and that of the Switch itself. But Zen Studios went really deep with Star Wars Pinball, certainly further than I personally will ever take it. One cool feature is the ability to link your Nintendo ID and engage in the ongoing Galatic Struggle. Similar to MKX and Mortal Kombat 11, players can pick a side and all of their gameplay counts towards their chosen side in a worldwide battle for supremacy. You can change between Light and Dark sides when you want to, but it’s neat to see that all of points you score and victories you obtain in single player action carry into the Galactic Struggle. Career Mode spurs you on with very specific challenges for each table, giving you the option to take a Jedi route or a Sith route through fifty ranks).
During Career Mode, you unlock Holocron Shards that are used to unlock powerful perks known as Force Powers and Talents. These can be called upon during play, and there are quite a few of these to unlock and some 300 Holocron Shards total to try and collect. Powers and Talents can do things like slow down time and give you massive points multipliers.
HD Rumble, Vertical Play, and the Cantina Jukebox are additional cool bonuses. Vertical Play is just that, you can rotate the Switch and play the long-side, more like a real pinball table’s dimensions, while the Cantina Jukebox lets you listen to any Star Wars music that you have encountered during the course of your play.
For Pinball on the go, you would be hard-pressed to find a better option than Zen Studios’ Star Wars Pinball. From design to execution, Zen did an excellent job.
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