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

October 11, 2024 by Leave a comment

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.

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Adventure Land (Pinball FX Table Review)

October 11, 2024 by Leave a comment

Special Note: Originally all Pinball FX tables were going to be posted to a single review guide, but there would have been loading issues. I’m splitting the guide into individual table posts.

Adventure Land
First Released December 12, 2017
Main Platform: Pinball FX
Switch Platform: Pinball FX 3
Designed by Tamas “Ypok” Pokrocz
Set: Zen Original Collection 1 ($15.99)
Links: Strategy Guide – Pinball FX Wiki

It’s a beautiful, zany-looking table, but the grinding combined with the hungry outlanes makes this significantly less fun than I think the average player would be primed for on looks alone.

Angela is beside herself that my father and I ranked Adventure Land GOOD and claims our love of theme parks and their artificial reality is what distracts us from a table that flows badly. When she found out Jordi was giving it a GREAT, we had to fetch her fainting couch. Maybe she has a point, and in fairness to her outrage, this is as generic as an amusement park gets in media. I get why people would dislike Adventure Land. It features some stunning scoring imbalance issues and absolutely maddening slingshots and outlanes. Fine. She’s right in that regard, and I’ll throw in that Adventure Land has the absolute worst skillshot in all of Pinball FX. It’s above the right slingshot at a horrendous, high-risk angle that doesn’t seem compatible with the physics. The only time we’ve made it on Pinball FX 4 is via a lucky bounce. Making it opens the super skillshot, where you can light an extra ball, and it’s actually not even worth trying for that. The rest of the table is a massive grind, because that’s Zen’s thing. Adventure Land is the definitive burst-scoring table thanks to some of the most slow-to-active modes in Pinball FX.

Persistent Problem – Mini-Game Rules: Mini-Games in pinball should be simple enough to be self-explanatory, but when that’s not the case, it drags the whole table down. Take the Icarus V here. It’s a minigame where you have to make a Ring of Fire-like ride do loops. And these are the instructions for the mini-game in their entirety: “Once the ball is inside the toy, press the flippers at the right time to make a loop.” That’s about as useless as giving a dog a tuba. What flippers? Both? Alternating? When’s the right time? There’s a bunch of lights. Which light is the one that signals “the right time?” Say what you will about Pinball Arcade and its hundreds of pages of painfully detailed instructions, but at least every question was answered. For Pinball FX, you have to track down what the actual object is on websites or the strategy guide. They need to hire someone to do better instructions. It’s arguable the worst overall aspect of Pinball FX and Pinball M are the instructions themselves. This is why we tend to prize intuitive tables and mini-games above all else. If they insist on complicating these things, practice mode isn’t enough because you still have to grind to get the shot, and then if you fail it in five seconds (like we used to do with Icarus V), you have to start the grind all over. They could fix this by allowing players to practice the more abstract mini-games separately.

Here’s the thing: Adventure Land’s layout is really good. Most of the shots are fun in a vacuum. The reason why I’m settling on GOOD instead of a higher score is Adventure Land’s good shots are rendered meandering thanks to the grind. The table is too big, the shots too spread out, and the time limits are too strict (even with shots that extend the timer) for Adventure Land’s own good. This is one of those pins that’s BEGGING to be saved with a ROM update that cuts the grind and shot requirements. Maybe all of that wouldn’t be a problem, but Adventure Land wants to be both a grind-a-thon AND a brutally punishing table with serial killer outlanes and slingshots. It takes too long for this table to feel rewarding. Too repetitive. Too back-loaded. I like shooting on Adventure Land, but when it takes forever for those shots to pay off, it’s a downer. It’s a slog. And, for a lot of players, it’s a big turn-off. I’m also not a huge fan of the mini-games that act as a buffer because, on a table that shoots this tough, they make it harder to get into a rhythm. Adventure Land is one of those pins that’s showing its age a lot sooner than a lot of much older Zen originals. There’s a chance in another two to three years, I’ll be dropping my rating to BAD as well.
Cathy: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Angela: BAD (2 out of 5)
Oscar: GOOD
Jordi: GREAT (4 out of 5)
Dash: GOOD
Sasha: BAD
Elias: BAD (Pinball FX3 on Nintendo Switch)
Overall Scoring Average: 2.71* – GOOD
Primary Scoring Average: 2.83 – GOOD
*Nintendo Switch version is, more or less, identical to all other versions.
Some review copies were provided in this review, others were paid for.

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A-Force (Pinball FX Table Review)

October 11, 2024 by 1 Comment

 Special Note: Originally all Pinball FX tables were going to be posted to a single review guide, but there would have been loading issues. I’m splitting the guide into individual table posts.

A-Force
aka Marvel’s Women of Power: A-Force
First Released September 27, 2016
Main Platform: Pinball FX
Switch Platform: Not Yet Released
Designed by Thomas Crofts
Set: Marvel Pinball Collection 2 ($29.99)
Links: Strategy Guide – Pinball FX Wiki

Kickback – Angela: I’m in disagreement over how well four out of five modes in A-Force are. They’re modes! You aim at the targets it tells you to shoot and you shoot, no different from any other table. Yes, the lights are badly done and too many that aren’t tied to modes blink at once, but that just slows down how fast you learn a table. It doesn’t affect the quality of those shots. Plus, you don’t even have to win the modes to make progress, which is something my family claims they want from Zen. Frankly, I don’t know what more they could have done that would win everyone over short of removing the timer for them. They even stack with mini-modes to add additional excitement. Maybe they’re a little repetitive, but the shot selection is different for each and they don’t feel much alike. I think A-Force is one of Zen’s best pins, Marvel or otherwise.

The smooth-shooting A-Force is one of the most underrated Zen original creations, and in Pinball FX, it seems the difficulty has even been slightly scaled back. Maybe it’s the placebo effect since it’s subtle, but the rails no longer feel like they spoon-feed the outlanes. The result is a table up for players of all skill levels. What I really love about A-Force is that the act of learning the table’s flow and which shots work in combination with each-other is as exciting as making the shots too. It’s a complicated layout, but not in an overwhelming way, and that “ta-da” moment when you put it together is so satisfying. Awesome shot selection too, and oddly enough, the gigantic Titanium Man head that sticks out in the most smackable way isn’t the key to it all, but let’s talk about him. He’s tied to a multiball mode, his own mode (the 5th mode, specifically) which is also a multiball mode, and to a hurry-up that yields a lot of points. Clearly Thomas Crofts understood how fun this target was.

Signature Mode – Restore the Reality: A-Force’s wizard mode is a timed multiball rush with a twist: instead of flipping flippers, you create a series of explosions at the flippers that launch the pulsating red balls at the orbits. It’s silly but a lot of fun.

What ultimately keeps A-Force out of the Pantheon are the modes. Only the two-ball battle against Titanium Man stands out, and maybe a mode where a helicopter drops bombs on the city that you have to shoot to collect. The remaining three are somewhat bland and uninspired, but at least you don’t need to shoot perfectly or even win in order to get the checkmark for them. This is the way Zen should do every table: if you fail, the mode is still checked-off, and then after you’ve played the wizard mode, the second cycle changes the rules and you must win a mode in order to check it off. I love that. Zen could probably bump the ratings of 20% of their pins by updating their rules for that. With that said, although the final Wizard Mode succeeds in being a visually-striking tribute to late Williams arcade-era final multiball showdowns, getting there is a bit underwhelming. I don’t agree with Angela’s “modes are modes” belief, because I think it matters that it’s often not clear what shots are for what mode. It doesn’t do a good enough job of directing you towards the prudent shots. And while I’m on the subject, I can’t imagine playing this without the vertical table-view, since the playfield is massive but obstructive. I really wanted to make the leap and declare A-Force a masterpiece, because I think it has to be in the discussion for best layout in the entire Marvel brand, but I couldn’t quite work myself up enough to do it. The layout was worthy, but I don’t feel they used it to its fullest potential.
Cathy: GREAT (4 out of 5)
Angela: MASTERPIECE (5 out of 5)
Oscar: GREAT
Jordi: GREAT
Sasha: GREAT
Overall Scoring Average: 4.2 📜CERTIFIED EXCELLENT📜
Some review copies were provided in this review, others were paid for.

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A Charlie Brown Christmas (Pinball FX Table Review)

October 11, 2024 by Leave a comment

A Charlie Brown Christmas
aka Charlie Brown
Pinball FX Debuting Pin
First Released December 7, 2023
Main Platform: Pinball FX
Switch Platform: Pinball FX
Designed by Zoltan “Pazo” Pataki
Stand Alone Release ($5.49)

The second floor you get to via a jump ramp that you activate by smacking Lucy’s booth. Making the ramp shot is SO satisfying. It also activates during the “collect snowflakes” mode.

I nearly had a cow when I found out Charlie Brown’s pitiful Christmas tree wasn’t a target you shoot. My father gave me one of those “I’m not mad, just disappointed” glares as he asked if I really wanted to shoot a sickly tree that nearly died from having a single bulb hung on it. Well, yea, Pops. It’s pinball! Hell, the ball itself should have been the bulb that killed the tree (maybe a magnetic target?), and then after you do that, have the table light various other targets representing the rest of the Peanuts Gang to perform their magic hand wave that heals the tree and turns it into a beautiful, fully-decorated Christmas tree. It’s so obvious and such a missed opportunity. You do decorate the tree in the wizard mode but, frankly, we couldn’t reach it even after twenty-five combined hours of playtime. It’s too much work for what is a fairly tough-shooting table. Charlie Brown is a very good table that comes just short of legendary, with fun angles and excellent scoring that make-up for relatively basic targets, some ho-hum modes, and some eye-popping shot requirements. The lack of pizazz I suppose is befitting of the Peanuts franchise, as is the hidden skillshot: the ball going straight from the plunger to the left outlane. That’s genuinely funny.

Signature Element – False Outlane: It seems like such a small thing, but the way Pazo implemented the right side of Charlie Brown’s rails is probably the most exciting aspect of the table. The O is the inlane that feeds the flippers. No explanation needed. The P is the outlane. You lose the ball, and there’s no kickbacks to be had for it. The twist is in the Y lane: a no-work-needed return to the plunger lane, at which point the ball is auto-plunged back onto the table. That’s right: you don’t even even have to light it. It’s always active, and it’s awesome. It makes the table’s defensive game every bit as thrilling as the offensive side. The only downer is that it’s an auto-plunge instead of a Bride of Pin⋅Bot-like multiple-skillshot generator. I think they probably intended that and cut it, possibly because it was too easy and threw the balance and pace off. I love the element in general so I can’t really complain that there isn’t more to it. I’d love to see Zen do more of this.

Be warned: this is actually one of the hardest shooters among new tables. The director saucer is one of Zen’s most deceptively difficult shots. Lucy’s booth is situated in a way that the ball will just barely clip the corner of it. Thus, what should be the simplest angle in the game is rendered the most challenging. Even more frustrating is that the ball must pass through a gate before reaching the saucer, and if it loses too much momentum it’ll roll-out to the mailbox orbit. This caused some major problems on Nintendo Switch (see below). It’s worth the challenge because the table has such a unique flow, but it’s also a shockingly hard table to clock. The bat flipper is especially difficult, as there’s two possible lanes to hit with it, but aiming at them is quite hard since you can’t really see what you’re shooting. None of us got a feel for it. It’s pretty clunky and likely the main reason why this is the rare table that mostly scored GREAT ratings without anyone even thinking about going MASTERPIECE on it. With that said, we all had a good time and, yea, I could see where people might consider pulling this pin out during the holiday season.

Persistent Problem – Shot Requirements: When you read our Pinball FX reviews, you’re going to hear us complain a lot about grinding and ridiculous shot requirements. I imagine Zen’s designers will tune out really quick, so I wanted to put this in the first review alphabetically. To reach the wizard mode in A Charlie Brown Christmas, you have to play every mode once (win or lose), activate Lucy’s multiball, start all three “design and play” modes, and start the two ball “decorate Snoopy’s house” multiball, which specifically requires you to score five different jackpots to earn its check mark. Activating that mode by itself requires you to repeatedly shoot the target pictured here, which is far and away the most high-risk target on the table. One of the main modes is also shooting the dog dish about four or five shots too many than reasonable. The amount of work your tables expect, WITHOUT failing is so beyond reasonable that I wouldn’t be shocked if only a couple dozen people ever reach the wizard outside of the practice. The problem is, seemingly no consideration is made for how high risk the targets are. Designers just place a target wherever there’s room, bump up the requirement on it until it becomes boring, and then move on to the next table. Another example of bonkers requirement: a twenty-five hit combo is what earns you an extra ball. Twenty-five. WHAT THE ACTUAL F*CK IS WRONG WITH YOU DESIGNERS? It’s Charlie Brown, for Christ’s sake! You can’t even drop this batsh*t mind-numbing grind for a Charlie Brown Christmas-themed table? You have all the talent in the world, and you squander it by turning your fun designs into mind-numbing slogs. There are multiple Pinball FX and Pinball M tables we should be holding up as triumphs of modern pinball, and instead we hold up only a fraction of that because of the rules, not the tables themselves. You are the one who is both building the Porsche and puncturing the tires. I don’t think any of you suck at designing pinball. That’s why it hurts that the tables aren’t as good as they can be. Because you’re so much better at this than the actual final product suggests.

Special Consideration – Nintendo Switch: On the Switch build of Charlie Brown, the Grinch is the director’s chair shot, and it steals Christmas. Even high-speed direct shots right down the middle of the director’s chair target stop and miss after passing under the metal gate. There’s just too much resistance on that gate, as if it’s grabbing the ball by a tail and yoinking it away from the target. It’s weird. Since that shot is the mode start, it’s pretty ruinous. This culminated in a game where Oscar hit the director’s chair shot over a dozen times before it finally registered and started a mode. For this reason, and this reason only, we have to consider A Charlie Brown Christmas on Switch to be ⚠OUT OF ORDER⚠ for the time being, but if they fix this one thing, it should easily cruise to a Certificate of Excellence.
Cathy: GREAT (4 out of 5)
Angela: GREAT
Oscar: GREAT
Jordi: GREAT
Dash: GREAT
Sasha: GREAT
Dave: Projected to be GREAT on Switch after fix.
Elias: Projected to be GOOD (3 out of 5) on Switch after fix.
Primary Pinball FX Scoring Average: 4.0 📜CERTIFIED EXCELLENT📜
Switch Scoring Average: ⚠OUT OF ORDER⚠
Some review copies were provided in this review, others were paid for.

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