Civil War (Pinball FX Table Review)

Civil War
First Released November 21, 2012
Main Platform: Pinball FX
Switch Platform: Unreleased
Designed by Mate Szeplaki
Set: Marvel Pinball Collection 2 ($29.99 MSRP)
Links: Strategy Guide – Pinball FX Wiki

You can tell that the designer was a big fan of the Steve Ritchie classic F-14 Tomcat. Civil War’s center shot pays tribute to the Jagov Kicker from that table. Of course, that table didn’t feel like the outlanes were total serial killers. This one has too much aggression which in turn feeds the slingshots, which feed the outlanes.

Civil War makes me sad, because this should have been one of the best of the Marvel pins. It has some of the most satisfying shots around, with two ramp flippers that completes a delightful shot sequence. God darn it, Civil War is a memorable table with fantastic shot selection. So, why is it among the worst of the Marvel pins? It’s all in the mechanics that are outside of the shots themselves. This is one of those “story-driven” tables that starts with a two ball multiball. There’s no ball save, so about oh, one in three games will end before you even get one single shot at either ball because the balls enter the playfield aggressively, takes a couple bounces or bangs off the slingshots and goes down the outlanes. That applies to every single multiball. Sure, the ball save is on every time but that opening cinematic multiball, but that just means you’ll get to witness the balls have a parade from the chute to the outlane in a way that reminded my father of people riding a water over and over. The VUKs are some of those “blast the ball like a bat out of hell” ones that are so annoying, and there’s two of them that can point at the flippers and slingshots and do that cannon-blast at them. You shouldn’t have to hold your breath for a VUK. You just shouldn’t.

Signature Element – Auto-Shooting: Years and years before Zen’s Knight Rider wowed players with automatic shooting, Civil War was already doing it. When you build up a combo, the CPU takes control and makes a series of shots for you. It hits every shot too. It almost feels like one of those moments in a Sonic game where the character goes off a series of launchers and springs and you, the player, don’t have to touch anything to make it happen. It actually works really well, but everything comes back to those VUKs and slingshots ruining all the fun.

If not for those VUKs, plus overly hostile slingshots, I think this would be hands-down the best of the “Avengers” series of pins. The layout is so good and every shot so rewarding to hit. The modes are great too. Civil War has a fairly ambitious concept of choosing between Iron Man and Captain America and then recruiting 8 other heroes to join your side. You’ll want to play this one using the vertical table view, because sometimes the Iron Man and Captain America digital figures block the view of which shot is lit. This does everything you need to be fun, but on a table with VUKs and slingshots as hostile as Civil War has, it’s all for naught. The slingshots are aimed right out the outlanes, and since the VUKs fire the ball so fast and so violently at the flippers, it’s inevitable the slingshots will come into play. Civil War is one of those pins where it feels like lucky bounces factor in so much more than any amount of skill. Someone should have stepped in and told the designer “the way you’re doing this isn’t better for the table. It just makes it worse with no benefit.” So Civil War is actually pretty crappy, and it didn’t have to be. Instead of being the best Avengers pin, it’s the poster child for Zen needing to go back and redo the mechanics of the old pins. No bad pin has a clearer path towards winning a Certificate of Excellence quite like it.
Cathy: BAD
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.