The Avengers: Age of Ultron (Pinball FX Table Review)

Avengers: Age of Ultron
First Released April 22, 2015
Main Platform: Pinball FX
Switch Platform: Unreleased on Switch
Designed by Tamas “Ypok” Pokrocz
Set: Marvel Pinball Collection 2 ($29.99)
Links: Strategy Guide – Pinball FX Wiki

Age of Ultron is a table that tries to be everything, and it fails to accomplish much of anything. We love the Xenon-like tube across the center, though.

Age of Ultron is so prohibitively difficult and so joyless to play that I wondered “were they just in a bad mood when they made this? Were they deliberately making a table designed to not be any fun at all?” If I had to describe Age of Ultron in one word, it would be “hateful.” The ball save is completely worthless because it annoyingly blasts the ball out of the drain like a bat out of hell that’s just as likely to almost immediately drain out anyway. Why even have a ball save if you want to be a complete asshole about it? The decorated balls of the first Avengers table return, but only for multiball modes. What’s annoying is that the physics completely change when the colored balls factor in. You can feel it during the cinematic “prelude” mode. It’s a maddening two-ball multiball, on one of those tables designed specifically to run poorly for multiball and have the balls clear each-other out. There’s no penalty for losing, but pay close attention when you do. The surviving ball transforms into a normal steel pinball, and the physics completely change, the balls stop running like they’ve been dipped in grease, and you no longer need superhero-like reflexes. The colored balls are especially suicidal, running across the rails and down the outlane like they’re opting-out of the superhero life.

Signature Mode – Hawk’s Nest: In this video mode, you have limited ammo to take down as many incoming Ultron Sentries as possible. I don’t know what it says about Age of Ultron that our favorite mode has nothing to do with pinball. Nothing good, I imagine.

Mind you, this is one of the only tables that has “adjustable difficulty” which is so erroneous that it feels like it’s being said with a snicker.You’d also be a fool to play on EASY, which scores significantly less points, with little “ease” gained besides, I think, more time for modes. The fact that I couldn’t really tell the difference says it all. However, on the medium setting, I had some hurry-ups where I never even had a remote chance at playing the ball, as the countdown began and ended with the ball still slowly traversing various elements. I don’t get my father’s enjoyment of Age of Ultron at all. For me, it’s too punishing and asks too much of players. A lot of Zen balls overdo modes, difficulty, etc. You can see it on the relatively low-scoring leaderboards. What frustrates me about Age of Ultron is that it’s a potential masterpiece-level table. Satisfying combo shots. Awesome homage to Xenon with the tube across the upper playfield. All the pieces were here, but it was more important for the designer to show how hard he could make a table instead of letting players, you know, have fun. Zen would never scrap one of their pins and start over, but they should consider it with Age of Ultron. Drop a city on this one.
Cathy: BAD (2 out of 5)
Angela: BAD
Oscar: BAD
Jordi: BAD
Sasha: BAD
Overall Scoring Average: 2.0 – BAD
Some review copies were provided in this review, others were paid for.