Yeah, that’s how it appears in the Steam store. Haven’t looked in game yet to see if it’s possible to buy separately.
Thank you. I had not seen that.
Hello digital pinball fans. I’ve never really been into pinball, so I have never done the digital versions of it. However, I recently went to the 50th birthday party at a buddy’s house, and he essentially has a real pinball arcade in his house. Yeah, I know. He had quite a few tables spread across a few rooms. During the party I went from “meh”, to getting into the specific strategies of different ones. Afterwards, I kinda miss it but no way I am going all in like he has. I got too much space being eaten up by board games as it is. I’d need a second house for a pinball hobby.
As such, I looked at some digital Marvel game table you could buy on Amazon. It looks like one of the pictures above. Kinda small, but with a handful of Marvel games on it. But then I started wondering about the Zen stuff that I knew was popular here, but I never got into.
As such, I am new to it. I don’t have the roller coaster of feeling tied to either the DLC model or the super awesome way they make folks buy new tables. I am just new to both pinball and video pinball. I am strongly considering getting the Pinball FX on PS5 to have some family pinball competition. After the party, besides it not being the real thing, I think it would get some family wide attention in the living room. This is why I am specifically looking at PS5. And I am hoping the controller feedback would be a decent echo of the real thing.
Is Pinball FX good? Is the PS5 version solid? If someone is playing can they input who had the score or is it all rolled into the one PSN account? I am looking at Marvel tables for sure, but probably a handful of others to start then just wishlisting more for over time. I am not messing with renting digital tables.
So keep in mind that a lot of the grumbling and grousing in this thread is from those of us who’ve been with Zen Studio’s videogame pinball for a long long time, and who’ve been alienated by Zen’s shift in business strategy. But an important point to keep in mind is that all their great work is still available, even if we don’t like how it’s packaged, propogated, and curated.
So for someone like you, coming new to videogame pinball and Zen Studio’s years and years of wonderful work, you can’t really go wrong. Just grab the free-to-play Pinball FX, sample some of the tables at no risk, and see how it feels. I predict you’re in for a real treat.
As for your questions…
…my answers would be:
- It’s complicated
- Almost certainly
- Historically, Zen’s games have maintained separate offline leaderboards. I’m pretty sure that’s still the case in the latest free-to-play iteration
Be sure to come back and let us know what you think once you’ve explored!
Knowing the initial game was free, with a few tables, I went ahead and tried it. My initial impressions are:
- I was hoping for more from the PS5 controller. The triggers are dead flat and not too much was even setting off any rumble let alone localized rumble. I know the controller can do more, but I guess the focus was on PC support. Coming from real machines, I was hoping for more emulation of the rumble felt in the palms as things go off. Or something that helps portray the weight of it all. The digital experience, at first brush, feel floaty.
- The high score feature seems to not be applied uniformly. I am not at all interested in how my score compared to online folks. That is a very asymmetrical time competition. I was hoping for high score entry at home for localized comparison between players in the house. Some tables offer this, some do not. I am not sure what the difference is on why some do. This is kinda a big deal and a major disappointment in a, “what the hell designers!” sort of way.
- The game forces you to unlock the 24 hours pass as soon as you start the game. This sucks. There are waaaaaay too many tables to try before I am ready to decide on tables. I’d have liked some time just experience what digital pinball is first and to have the giant trial when I would be ready to have the family try all the tables.
- Two of the tables in the free trial were ones I played the physical version of at the buddy’s house. I think they were Get Away and White Water? It was sort of cool to have a comparison for the experiences.
- This is a “duh” impression, but the digital experience initially leaves me in the “meh” camp. In fairness, not only is it digital, but the real tables did too until I spent some time with them. But due to the trial timer, I am jumping all over the place to sample them.
I also saw there is also Pinball M on PlayStation 5. Is Pinball FX the one to stick with?
I have WAY too many tables to try in 19 remaining hours. What are some of the favorites? What should I aim at with my time? I expect to get Marvel ones as they are on sale and they are Marvel. I will then pick out some more maybe and wishlist the rest. Suggestions?
Initial specific table thoughts (only tried some and none of them very much):
- Adam’s Family= Interesting variable goal thing as I have to seek out Cousin It or the chair. I was mad this one won’t let me set the local high score to the person that just played
- Band of Brothers= It starts super quiet and slow, but then has a mission selector that is kinda fun to pick out then go through the action sequences
- Fishing game= Easy to read table and almost hypnotic audio feedback.
- Wild West game= Seemed interesting, but not enough time to understand the goals
- White Water= Yep, quick and fast games; just like the real thing. Not too much fun in person or digitally for this newb.
- Get Away= I like the red burnout video game effect that the real table doesn’t have. I feel like I could get into it more if I learned it. This is the same feeling I had about the real version.
- Grim Tales= Fun book theme and seemingly like missions to finish. I would have stuck with this one a while if I didn’t feel the trial time pressure.
Pinball M is Zen’s horror-themed tables, relatively new and only a few tables available so far.
I didn’t jump into to Pinball FX until quite recently. I didn’t even bother with the free trial. I just waited until a big Steam sale, and went nuts on all different kinds of tables at a large discount. Then I add more every time there’s a sale. But then again, I enjoy every table to some degree, so I don’t feel like I’ve wasted any money.
I am 50/50 on if I will grab a bunch after the trial is over. Which tables grabbed your early attention?
IIRC, I grabbed the Starter Bundle first.
And then, since I’m a fan of Williams tables more than anything, I began collecting the Williams bundles, Volumes 1 through 6. After I had all those, I just bought a bunch of random bundles, like Universal Classics and a few others.
But I think they’ve done a nice job with every table I’ve tried, so you can’t really go wrong.
Omg! And Eight Ball Deluxe and Crystal Caliburn!
Well, I made the best of my 24 hour pass. I had the family doing their level best to be pinball wizards until they dropped from exhaustion. We got through nearly all of them with at least 1 play per table and some played a few times (Trolls). Overall, I think it was a hit as a family activity with competition for high scores. I certainly went from “meh” to digging it as I played more. Now I need to decide what to buy…
Some very newb (1 table or less, so that means I probably missed GIANT parts of each table) thoughts on the speed pass experience:
- Local high scores work for a lot of the tables, just not the Wiliamson ones
- Not a fan of most Williamson tables. They are generally much harder, very busy visually, have large gaps between the paddles where the ball loves to drop, and just seem to lack the story telling of other tables.
- I really don’t like White Water in either digital or physical form.
- The exception to my dislike of Williamson tables was Grim Tales and Medieval Madness. Maybe a few others that slip my mind right now. Boy, storming the gate against the trolls in MM is kinda a hoot.
- I really liked the RPG elements of gold and spending of the Gloomhaven table
- I am mixed on Star Wars. Some were pretty cool (Starfighter Assault and Battle of something), but many were boring misses.
- I expected more from the Star Trek tables given their praise, but I didn’t find them that interesting.
- Trolls, Exploding Kittens, and Pony were the family favorites. I think the color and table readability helped along with content.
- I didn’t touch Marvel at all as its not part of the pass, is on sale, and would be my guaranteed purchases if I got anything at all.
Do bear in mind that after the 24 hour pass expires you still get a free trial for every table. Just a single play though, I think.
Re business, by default the Williams tables have added VFX to make them look more like the Zen tables. On Xbox you can toggle it off with B, so I imagine it’s Circle on PS5. I always turn it off for precisely that reason.
Attack From Mars plays very similarly to Mediaeval Madness but with a really nicely done cheesy 50s sci fi theme. I’d also highly recommend Monster Bash, though it has a different feel. Indiana Jones is also great if you want a licensed table.
You may want to try Epic Quest.
Which Star Trek tables? The Zen originals are not particularly rated. The ones people like are the Williams TNG and the Stern one based on the JJ Abrams movies, which is not in PinballFX (but is available via Pinball Arcade/Stern Pinball). I admit I’m not as much of a fan of the TNG table as most, but I love the Stern table despite not liking the movies much…
As others have said, unless there’s a specific table you absolutely must have, the best approach is to wait for one of the regular sales (well, they’re regular on PC anyway, don’t know about Playstation), and pick up a bunch of tables on really steep discounts. Anything that wasn’t released in the last year or so usually goes for around 80% off
Sadly, most of the tables based on real-world machines reflect their design as quarter-eaters.
The biggest disappointment for me apart from the business model has been the performance hit and the change in the physics model from FX3 to FX.
They’ve clearly adapted the game to better suit the real world tables, and I don’t think it’s quite as fun.
Zen Pinball started off being extremely kinetic. The balls were clearly flying and bouncing around in ways that weren’t particularly realistic, but I liked that a lot. I don’t need videogame pinball to correspond exactly to reality, I just want it to be exciting.
I can understand why they did it though. Suddenly they had a bunch of licenses for real world tables, and now they’re being compared to actual simulators.
Can’t you tweak parameters like gravity and ball weight? Maybe I’m thinking of the Pro Pinball games
Ok. This makes sense. Some (most?) of the Williamson tables last a matter of seconds to a minute whereas we can get into the table of the others. White Water is just annoying with the nearly instant loss as the ball jets back down between the paddles and Sasquatch laughs at you during the “too bad” sound. It makes sense as a taunt to put in quarters, but it’s not fun as a game. Even on the real thing.
I probably didn’t get far enough to see the gameplay of Epic Quest. The Mars one looked fun, but I was not up when that got played and I tried not to redo any.
There are 4 Star Treks. One is areal TNG table which struck me as underwhelming (but maybe that is the “quarter eater” element). The other 3 seemed okay enough. I think Deep Space 9 has some faction/battle mechanics that I didn’t understand in my one play. The JJ Abrams one was my favorite, but not worth the price for all of them at full price.
Not with any degree of granularity. A handful of tables let you change between “Normal”, ie Pinball FX 3, and “Realistic” physics. Supposedly they’re bringing that to all the tables eventually. And the Williams tables have a pro mode with a steeper playfield
Yeah, I think there are a lot of people in the virtual pinball community who are into the idea of simulating actual pinball tables with real world physics and faithful copies of existing tables from arcades etc and I certainly don’t begrudge those people their fun, but I don’t play pinball on real tables and have only ever really enjoyed myself on virtual pinball games, preferably with original tables. The Williams stuff I have poked at through Pinball Arcade (mostly as more variety to explore) but I never found them nearly as enjoyable as what Zen was doing, and the emphasis on those emulated tables has been a big turnoff for me in their more recent endeavors.
I’m not even in the virtual pinball community and I vastly prefer actual tables, though I definitely play the Zen originals as well.
Different strokes & customers to some degree.
I much prefer the real tables and I’m kinda peeved that the license moved companies and tables are now stranded in a few places. And who knows how long that will even last since we live in a DRMd world where we don’t own anything.
Makes me wonder if I shouldn’t REALLY be using things like PinMAME in the first place.