Zen Pinball Game Review - Playstation 3

OUR RATING:

8.9

GREAT

TANGIBLES:

Gameplay:		9
Visuals:		9
Audio:		8
Value:		9
Quality:		9

Why you should buy it: If you enjoy Pinball or want to find out what all the fuss has been about, then you should get this game.

Why you should rent it: If you have an aversion to flashing lights, this might not be the game for you.

UNIQUE RATING:

8.9

SUGGESTION:

Buy It

Zen Pinball

Written by: Filippo Dinolfo | Tags: Zen Pinball, Playstation 3

May 18,2009 - One type of game that you rarely see anymore is the Pinball game. It's becoming harder and harder to find a pinball machine in the real world these days, so people who enjoy playing the silver ball have to turn to home consoles to get their fix. That or invest a lot of money and space to buy the actual pinball machines they're interested in. Zen Studios is hoping to bring the best possible pinball experience to the PS3 with their latest offering Zen Pinball.

Zen Pinball on the PS3 is based off of the same technology that powers Pinball FX for the Xbox 360. This essentially means that the quality of the graphics, audio, and ball physics is as close to reality as you can get on a home console. Zen Pinball offers up four unique tables that are exclusive to the PS3. You get V12, Shaman, Tesla, and El Dorado. Each of these tables has its own unique rules and objectives. Some of the tables are slanted more towards frantic flipper action, while others a bit more open and methodical. All of them are a lot of fun to play. New tables will be made available via the Playstation Store as time goes on. We can only hope that Zen Studios acquire the rights to reproduce some of the classic pinball tables from Williams, Gottleib, Data East, and Bally. It would be great to be able to play Bride of Pinbot again.

The game offers many modes to play. There is of course the single player mode where you simply pick a table and shoot for a high score. There are also hot seat and online multiplayer modes where up to four players can compete for the high score. Tournaments are also available in the game, although at the time of this writing there weren't any running. You also have the ability to save your game at any time, which is great if you're in the middle of a great run and have to unexpectedly leave the PS3.

Playing the game isn't a chore in the least. The default control layout works well and is very responsive. You are able to change the controls to suit your tastes if you'd like to. Zen Pinball has five different camera views for you to choose from, the default view works very well, as it lets you see the whole table at once. If you'd prefer to get closer to the action you have that option. There is even a mode that follows the ball around. It's quite difficult to play in this view, but it's there if you prefer. You can also explore the table by holding down the Square button and tilting the controller. While this does work, it doesn't seem all that necessary. Pushing the analog stick in a direction would have worked just as well.

Each table has a number of customization options. They're presented in a clever Operator's Menu, just like a real pinball machine would have had. Sure, this is nothing more than a neat way of showing an options screen, but it's a nice touch and adds a bit of authenticity to the whole pinball experience. Changing some options will prevent you from submitting your high scores to the online scoreboards. This is a good thing, since you know that anyone on the scoreboards is playing with the exact same settings as everyone else.

Zen Pinball also offers one unique twist as well; the ability to slow the game down. This option is disabled by default, and enabling it will prevent you from posting scores, but it's nice for people just getting started. It gives them more time to react to what's going on, and in the end helps to get them familiar with the tables.

The game is very well done in terms of visuals. It's presented in High Definition 720p, so everything is sharp and well defined. All the tables look great. This is largely due to the excellent lighting effects that Zen Pinball has. The table lights all look natural, in some cases you can even see the bulb itself. It may be a small detail, but again, that helps make the table feel more like a real table and less like a polygonal representation of one. An interesting touch are the special effects applied to the ball. When the ball picks up speed it will start to glow and leave light trails in its wake. It's quite a cool effect, however if you prefer to not have these effects you can turn them off.

Each table has its own unique soundtrack that reflects the theme. V12 for example has a Rock themed soundtrack, while Shaman has something more Tribal. Some of the voice clips used on the tables are a little on the cheesy side, but that might have been intentional, some of the best classic real world tables have had their share of cheesy sound clips. The sound effects of the flippers, bumpers, ball rolling and bumping into things, that is all top notch. On the whole, there's more good things about the audio than bad. If you'd rather use your own music, you have that option open to you as well.

Zen Pinball is a great pinball game. It's easy to jump into and play, but learning the nuances of each table will take a long time. For $10 it's hard to not recommend this game. It's just a simple and fun game that can be enjoyed by just about anyone. We hope this game does well, because we really would love to see Zen Studios recreate some of the all time classic tables and bring them to Zen Pinball.