Pinball hits the Playstation 3 PSN.

Review by Sean A. Foster

After years and years of waiting the Playstation 3 finally has a pinball game to call its own. Being an old-school gamer like myself I am happy to see something retro and nostalgic come to the PS3.

The game features 4 various pinball machines that you can play. The first is “V-12”, which is a pinball machine based on muscle cars and car engines. The second is “The Shaman” which is based on Voodoo and witch doctors. I personally liked this board the most because I love things with a horror and gruesome edge. The Shaman also has a whole bunch of cool things on the board that you slap your ball into.

The third board is “El Dorado” which is a based on something kind of like Indiana Jones. This board has various tombs and ancient artifacts. This board is a lot of fun. The fourth and final board features in Zen Pinball is “Tesla”. This board has a “scientist” theme. The insides of this board features gadgets and items that looks like something you would find in Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory.

Even though there are four boards the price of $10 is well worth it. Each machine is very detailed, very unique and very fun to play. Zen Pinball also has a “download content” section which I am sure will have many great additional machines in the future. I am hoping for some really cool “horror-based” pinball machines. Either way, having the ability to download future pinball machines is a nice touch.

Zen Penball plays just like the real deal. Playing is really quite simple and easy. The “R1 and L1” buttons are used to control your right and left flippers. The left analog stick is used to “bump” the table. And the “X” button is used to shoot your ball. The controls are pretty precise, but you can change the settings in options to fit your gaming needs.

The online mode of Zen Pinball will set you against other players at the same time. Offline mode (hot seat) features you taking on your opponent turn-based. Your score can be tracked online and the game features a leader-board from around the world. Both online and offline modes features in Zen Pinball are excellent.

Graphically the game looks pretty damn good. Each board has very nice detailed graphics. These boards look like the real thing. Each board has very nice depth as well, as you can see the upper and lower part of the insides of these machines. You can change the views of the pinball machine by simply pressing the “square” button. You can also move around and change the size of the cool “LCD” screen at the top of your screen. This LCD screen is just another very cool detail that shows info, graphics and sometimes storylines before; during and after you play the game. If you know pinball machines then you know what I am talking about because pretty much every pinball machine I have seen has this little LCD screen features.

As far as music and sound, Zen Pinball has custom soundtrack support. If you are not happy with the games music then you can just load up some of your songs from your Playstation 3’s hard drive. The games music is surprisingly very good for a pinball game. The music reminds me of something you would hear out of Unreal Tournament III. So you don’t have to worry about cheesy music being played when you load the game up. The sound department is also top-notch with all of the great sounds and details you would hear from a pinball machine in an actual Arcade (hey, remember those?).

Those of you out there that are Trophy junkies will be happy to know that Zen Pinball has full Trophies support. It’s nice to see 3rd party companies finally putting this in to PS3 games, especially games on the PSN.

Zen Pinball is surprisingly jam packed with great features. The first thing that you will notice is the game supports video chat during gameplay. This feature supports up to four people online with the Playstation 3 EYE camera. You can see your opponents on the top of the screen as you play. This is one feature that is an excellent addition, especially for a pinball game. I really do wish that more developers would take these kinds of leaps and add these features. I have to give huge kudos to the developers for implementing this into Zen Pinball.

Bottom Line:

It is finally nice to see a Pinball game hitting the Playstation 3. I also think it is a great ideal to bring it to the PSN for $10. Zen Pinball is well worth the price for many reasons. The first is the game has some great online features. How many games out there have full online video chat and custom soundtrack support on the PS3? Zen Pinball also keeps the door wide open for some great downloadable content.

The most important thing about Zen Pinball is that it is a very fun and addicting game. That alone is worth the price of $10 in my book. These $10 games are very much overlooked at times. Remember that $10 is around the price that you spending for two people at McDonalds.

Zen Pinball Final Score:

(8/10)

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