The subject of this installment: the pinball tables available in the recent release Pinball M, developed and published by Zen Studios.

I already reviewed Pinball M as an entire package and highly recommend it. Since then, I have logged nearly twenty more hours, and wanted to highlight a few things about each individual table.

*

Wrath of the Elder Gods — Director’s Cut: Themed around Lovecraftian horror, this is an updated version of the Pinball FX table of the same name — this time with more blood and madness! It features one of the easiest starting skill shots I’ve ever come across, and multiple in-game events make regular lanes and ramps easy pathways to racking up million-point shots. This table comes free when downloading Pinball M and is an excellent place for players to start without any financial commitment.

*

Chucky’s Killer Pinball: Themed around the incredibly long-lived horror franchise Child’s Play, this table is the one that has grown on me the most. The table is well-themed, which I would likely appreciate more if I was a fan of the source material, as it includes references to all the films in the series. I found the sound bites in Chucky’s Killer Pinball to be the least repetitive of the entire bunch, which is a plus since one of my overall complaints in Pinball M was the repetitive dialogue. Also, a couple of the paths were difficult to hit consistently, but others allowed me to amass huge scores while engaged in multi-ball mode. While not my favorite table, this one is by no means a dud.

*

The Thing Pinball: Based on John Carpenter’s classic sci-fi horror film, The Thing quickly became one of my most frequently-played tables. Sound and movie clips make it an excellent homage, though the quotes quickly become repetitive. Activating the in-game events and modes is relatively easy, tasking the player with completing scenes from the film like dealing with the assimilated dog. It also has a unique event where a blizzard hits the table and creates wind that impacts the ball’s movement. I’m not completely sold on this weather mode, but I do appreciate the effort and novelty.

*

Duke Nukem’s Big Shot Pinball: If there was an award for capturing the essence of its source material, this table would win. Based on Duke Nukem 3D, this table mimics the look of the classic FPS to near-perfection. Activating one mode puts players behind Duke’s firearms — flippers are used to turn left and right, while the plunger button shoots the alien invaders. This looks so much like it’s out of the original, it’s uncanny. The Duke one-liners become stale quickly and I can’t hit the opening skill shot to save my life, but the table is still enjoyable.

*

Dead by Daylight Pinball: Out of all the licensed tables, this one I knew the least about. It was also a table I generally shied away from, but over time I’ve come to enjoy it. Based on the videogame of the same name, Dead by Daylight Pinball has players choose one of two paths — the victims or the villain! This alters the in-game modes, as ramps are used to either escape or capture the characters. The ramps on this table are very player friendly, as is completing events, which in turn help accrue massive scores. Overall, an excellent table.

*

System Shock Pinball: Based off the cult-classic videogame, System Shock Pinball is the latest addition to the Pinball M library. Players navigate through various modes to defeat mutants, cyborgs and infamous villain SHODAN. This table has a unique three-level, three-flipper ramp that leads to a video mode. I enjoyed this challenge, but it can become frustrating once the multi-ball mode is unleashed. Despite that frustration, I was a little surprised with how easy it was to complete the Campaign Modes here, but that’s not really a complaint. One other bonus — purchasing this version also unlocks a less gory version in Pinball FX. It’s the exact same table, and I only played the family friendly version once, but it’s nice to see something for “free” in the current age of micro-transactions.

*

As a whole, I highly recommend these tables for anyone who enjoys pinball and doesn’t mind a little horror to go with it. System Shock is the only table sold by itself — the other four can be purchased individually or bundled together for a small discount. Pinball M also has trials of each table, so interested players can try before buying.

The post This Is Not A Review: Pinball M Tables appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH New challenge modes.

LOW Repetitive sound bites.

WTF Pinball blood trails.

Learning Pinball M was from the crew at Zen Studios, some of the best in the biz at creating quality digital pinball, I wondered why they would release a second, simultaneous title beside Pinball FX. Now that I’ve played this horror-influenced offshoot, it’s clear why Zen Studios would want something separate from their more family-friendly options. Thankfully, the same top-notch pinball experience gamers have come to expect is still more than present in Pinball M.

Pinball M has the same high-quality presentation and controls as its FX sibling. Flippers and plungers react with precision, and the ball physics remain lifelike. Players can adjust the viewing angle of the playfield and classic challenges like Time and 1 Ball, all make a return. Players who have enjoyed Zen Studios’ pinball offerings in the past will feel right at home.

Pinball M also contains a few upgrades that surpass last year’s mainline release, apparent in two areas — visuals and challenges. I was underwhelmed with the slightly bland presentation and in-game trophies that could be earned in Pinball FX, but Pinball M improves upon these by making each table its own corner, separate from the others.

By completing the newly-added Campaign mode, players can earn visual upgrades to each of these corners — basically, props from each of the source materials. There are seven per table, but each of the seven has three different versions based on high scores earned. While this doesn’t impact gameplay in Pinball M, it is a great way to brag about high scores since players can post their corner, complete with unlockable props, as part of user-created tournaments.

The same Campaign mode utilizes the new Pinball M challenges. One tasks players with reaching a pre-determined score in the shortest amount of time possible. Another is the Madness challenge — basically five-minutes of multi-ball to rack up huge scores. My favorite new mode is probably Shiver, where gamers have a nearly pitch-black playfield with only the steel ball and a few of the table lights to guide them. These new challenges (with or without their slight horror twist) would be fantastic additions to any digital pinball title.

As for the tables themselves, Pinball M includes originals based on a variety of properties. The core game itself is a free download and comes with a single table, Wrath of the Elder Gods. This is an updated version of the same table from Pinball FX. This time, the playfield is a little darker and a lot bloodier. This is a solid table and a great place to start without a financial commitment.

There are four other tables currently offered in Pinball M. These are based on movies (The Thing, Child’s Play) and videogames (Duke Nukem, Dead by Daylight). Zen Studios did an excellent job capturing the style and atmosphere of each, whether it was by using video clips from the movies or graphics that appear to be ripped directly from the source, the atmosphere here is top notch.

Each table plays well too, but I found my enjoyment of each to be more tied to how interested I was in the property — Duke and Thing definitely received more playtime than the other two. Thankfully, each table can be purchased separately or in a bundle, and there’s are even demos that players can test before sinking some money in. No new tables have been announced yet, but hopefully Pinball M receives expansions for the foreseeable future.

Ultimately, Pinball M is another solid outing from Zen Studios. Their typically-excellent pinball physics complement well-designed, original tables based on icons of film and videogames. For those who aren’t fans of the source material, the excellent new modes alone make it a worthy addition for any pinball fan.

Score: 7.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by and published by Zen Studios. It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S, PS4, PS5, Switch, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBS. Approximately 6 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, unlocking many, but not all, of the in-game visual upgrades. Zero hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence. No official description is available, but the descriptors are accurate. Tables contain plenty of blood and four-letter language directly from the sources, often repeated regularly. Nothing was too over the top, but this game is not for youngsters. Parents not comfortable with their kids playing the games or watching the movies the different tables are based on, will want to steer clear of this pinball game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not offer subtitles. Menu text size cannot be changed. In game commands like, “shoot the left ramp,” are accompanied by flashing lights or icons on the pinball table. However, I did come across one game mode where a sound cue did not have a visual accompaniment. On the Duke Nukem table, one video mode requires players to shoot alien enemies — they make a sound when they pop up and aren’t always on screen. As such, this game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable. The face button actions can all be switched, but the flipper actions can only be mapped to the trigger buttons.

The post Pinball M Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

The subject of this installment: the new tables available in Pinball FX, developed and published by Zen Studios.

There are 86 pinball tables available to purchase in the newly-released and rebuilt version of Pinball FX, but since there are so many to cover, I’m going to focus on a select few and give a simple recommendation — “buy” if I think the table or collection is great, and “try” if I found the table or collection to be less than an instant purchase. Fortunately, there are trial versions for all tables in Pinball FX, so gamers can try these (and any of the 67 legacy tables) before dropping any cash.

Physical Tables — these are electronic versions of actual real-world pinball machines.

World Cup Soccer

A fantastic recreation with absurdly high scores. Great ramps, a unique spinning soccer ball, and a goalie guarding the net help create fantastic flow and fast-paced action. If I had to buy only one new table, this would be it. Recommendation: buy.

The Addams Family

The best-selling pinball table of all time. No seriously, it is. Good licensing is key, but it has a great layout to boot. It’s relatively easy to hit skillshots and get high scores started from the beginning, but turn off the enhanced animations — they’re possibly the most distracting ones I’ve ever seen on a Pinball FX table. Recommendation: buy.

The Machine: Bride of Pinbot

Another great recreation of an iconic machine. The changing face of the Bride still haunts my dreams, but the easy-to-hit ramps usually result in long playtimes. Recommendation: buy.

Swords of Fury

I really dig the artwork, but found myself returning to other tables almost immediately after one round. Not a bad table, just not memorable. Recommendation: try.

Licensed Originals — these tables are unique digital creations, but have licensed properties as their theme.

Dreamworks Pinball (Three-pack)

Includes three tables based on the Dreamworks movies Trolls, How to Train Your Dragon, and Kung Fu Panda. Trolls is my favorite of the three — it’s an excellent, simple table that’s great for rookies. How to Train Your Dragon has a great layout too, but slightly more complex shots are required. Kung Fu Panda was my least favorite — I found it mundane and repetitive. Still, two of the tables in this pack are quite good. Recommendation: buy

Gearbox Pinball (Three Pack)

Includes tables based on the Gearbox properties Homeworld, Brothers in Arms, and Borderlands. My favorite of the three was Brothers in Arms: Win the War. It feels like a table that could almost be made into a physical version, but with subtle animations that don’t distract. Borderlands: Vault Hunter is a good table, and I have a feeling fans of the series will enjoy it more than I did. There are lots of great shots, but I found it difficult to keep the ball in the top back playfield. The final table, Homeworld: Journey to Hiiagara was one of my least favorite of all the new tables, not just this pack. It didn’t have enough to keep me entertained, and I only played it twice. Recommendation: try

My Little Pony

It’s not my personal favorite theme, but a great table and visually faithful to its source. it’s also an excellent one for newer players, as it’s not too complex and has many easy-to-make shots.  Recommendation: buy.

Garfield

This is a middle-of-the-road table. There’s lots of variety, but I felt that I was always hitting the same ramps and table actions, even when I was purposely aiming at other things. Out of all the licensed tables, I found the dialogue to be the most repetitive, even during short games. Recommendation: try.

Peanuts: Snoopy

While I really enjoyed this theme and all the key points of the comic strip are here, the table wasn’t the most engaging. Snoopy’s doghouse activates events and was fairly simple enough to engage, but the baseball field location went unused for large portions of each game. Still, a good table for beginners. Recommendation: try.

World War Z

I still enjoy zombies, but this table didn’t keep me coming back. It’s an okay layout, and not too difficult. There’s also an enjoyable minigame where players get behind a gun and mow-down hordes of zombies as they march across the table, but outside of that, it’s a fairly mundane experience. Recommendation: try.

Zen Originals — these are tables that are completely original creations from Zen Studios. They often utilize unique animations that could not be created on a physical table, such as a wandering mummy or a tentacle monster that grabs the ball.

Grimm Tales

Out of all the newer tables, this is the Zen original that feels like it could most easily be made into a physical one. Sure, there are a few animations and actions that wouldn’t translate, but it has great ramps, bumpers, and excellent theming that make this the stand-out of the originals. Recommendation: buy.

Wrath of the Elder Gods

Player friendly routes and a generous ball save help propel this Lovecraft-themed table towards the top. I played some of my longest games here, and it was one I kept returning to play. Recommendation: buy.

Secrets & Shadows Pack (Three Pack)

Includes Pinball Noir, Curse of the Mummy, and Sky Pirates: Treasures of the Clouds. Of the three, Pinball Noir was my favorite, in part due to the excellent theming. Sky Pirates was probably my most played, thanks in part to an online event — while not my favorite, it was good enough to play multiple times. Curse of the Mummy was my least favorite — a good theme, but it didn’t offer much to make me want to replay. Recommendation: try.

The post This Is Not A Review: Pinball FX New Tables appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Large number of tables available right away.

LOW Another game adopting a season pass model.

WTF Stupid, sexy, 3D Bride of Pinbot animation.

Editor’s note: Below is the review for the latest installment of Pinball FX. The game (plus over 80 tables) could take up multiple reviews. As such, we have written a separate write-up for the new tables, which will be posted later this week.

Pinball FX is the fourth installment in the popular Zen Studios series. This next-gen installment has been rebuilt from the ground up in the Unreal Engine. As such, Zen has foregone the numerical sequel naming and reissued the name of the original release from 15 years ago.

Much like previous installments, the base game is a free download and comes with one table — Wild West Rampage. Players are able to access all the features and modes for this individual table. While a decent play, most pinball fans will soon want more variety. Thankfully, the console edition launches with over 80 tables to choose from — 3 brand-new, 16 tables previously only available during the Pinball FX Early Access soft launch, and 67 returning tables from previous installments.

Players who have bought these tables in previous versions of Pinball FX will find that for the first time, tables purchased will no longer unlock for free here. Yes, with all of the tables being remade in the Unreal Engine, players will now have to repurchase favorites. While slightly frustrating for longtime fans who have amassed a large collection of digital tables, it’s understandable with a new engine and the associated work that went into re-creating the assets.

This time around, Pinball FX has also adopted a subscription service model. Players can buy monthly ($14.99) or yearly ($99.99) subscriptions that allow them to access almost all of the available tables, as well as gain access to future releases while subscribed. Notable exceptions are Indiana Jones and the Marvel Pinball Collection — these must still be purchased separately.

Players opting to purchase any individual tables can still do so. Many are sold individually ($6-$15 for a single table) and many are part of larger collections. The collections are definitely the better deal, examples being Marvel Pinball (11 tables) and Williams Pinball Collection (9 tables — both $23.99). But regardless of how ones chooses to buy tables, it adds up quickly.

Machine selection still spans a wide variety of options, from completely original tables to recreations of famous (and not so famous) physical tables. Original tables use the basics of pinball, but also include characters and obstacles on the playfield that could not be possible in reality — such as warping pinballs, waterfalls, and enemies that literally grab the silver ball from the playfield.

Those based on real tables are accurate down to each ramp and bumper, with additional side artwork and 3D models that add animation to gameplay events. These can be a huge distraction, making it difficult at times to see the table (The Addams Family) though some are more subtle and don’t get in the way of the field (Bride of Pinbot). Thankfully, these effects can be toggled on or off at any time.

All of the 80-plus tables have multiple modes to choose from including Classic (three balls, get the highest score possible) and Pro (no extra ball, wider lanes, steeper difficulty). Some favorites making a return include One Ball (highest score with a single ball) and Time Mode (5 minutes to score as many points as possible). There are a couple new modes as well, like scoring as many points as possible with a limited distance the ball can travel. My favorite fresh addition has to be the Flips challenge — players try to amass huge scores with a limited amount of flipper flips (usually 200 presses). All of these provide plenty of variety and challenge.

For players craving something even fresher, there’s an Events mode. The Events are run by Zen Studios, with a handful of tables rotated in and out every few days. Players compete with others around the world trying to top the leaderboards. Many events use challenge modes (One Ball, Time, Flips), but there are also Grand Tournaments that follow the standard three ball/high score rules. Players can only participate if they have the right table(s) downloaded, but Events is a welcome addition. This mode kept me playing on a wider variety of tables, especially those I found to be good (but not great.)

An addition that might need some tweaking is the game room collection. Each table has five collectibles earned by reaching new score milestones. The scores vary for each table, but can be accumulated across any of the various modes for that individual machine. Digital trophies can then be displayed on the virtual game room shelves. It’s slightly limited, as collectibles can only be displayed on shelves next to other trophies from the same pinball collection. I earned a few and haven’t used the feature since.

Overall, Pinball FX has come out of the gate with a strong launch. There are dozens of great tables including all-time favorites as well as plenty of new ones, and new modes and events provide even more variety for players. However, the pricing options may frustrate players on a budget, or longtime fans who’ve already bought many of the tables in previous versions. If there were some way to honor those purchases and that player commitment, Pinball FX would go from good to great.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by and published by Zen Studios. It is currently available on XBO/X/S, PS4/5, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBS. Approximately 16 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, playing all the available single-player modes across a wide variety of tables. Zero hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood, Violence, and In-Game Purchases. No official description is available. While I can’t claim to have seen all the in-game events and actions, a few that I did witness were gunning down zombies, lightsaber fights, and explosions. However, most were relatively light on the blood and barely noticeable. There are plenty of kid-friendly tables, but parents should probably test out the ones about war and zombies before letting younger players enjoy.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not offer subtitles. Many tables have voice announcements like, “hit the left ramp,” or something similar, and these are accompanied by flashing lights on the table. Menu text size cannot be altered and/or resized.

Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable. The flipper buttons are designated to any of the four trigger buttons. Any of the face button controls can be swapped between one another and the stick actions can also be switched.

The post Pinball FX (2023) Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH An excellent, digitally recreated pinball table.

LOW Price compared to other tables on Pinball FX3.

WTF For such a common shot, I rarely activated the bumper event.

Zen Studios is about to release a new pinball platform, Pinball FX, for next-gen hardware. Their current platform, Pinball FX3, will slowly ride into the sunset, but they picked an excellent table as one of its last hurrahs — Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure.

This is a single offering — players will get the excellent Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure (Williams, 1993) table. All ramps, bumpers, and point pathways from this well-loved table have been faithfully recreated. Players can play the standard mode (highest score with three balls) or the Zen Pinball modes, like Single Ball or Five Minute Challenge. The latter have always been some of my favorite inclusions and things are no different this time around.

Regardless of which mode players prefer, the action takes place on an excellent layout. The Pinball Adventure is well known, not just for its movie connections, but also for its fantastic design. Smooth ramps, relatively easy-to-activate events, and an absurd six ball multi-ball all make for a table worthy of play with or without the movie tie-in — but for fans of the movies, there’s plenty to love.

Table events are based on scenes from the original trilogy — things like finding Marion in Raiders of the Lost Ark or the rope bridge showdown from Temple of Doom. Each event has quotes from the movies, with audio that sounds just similar enough to the actual actors who made these characters famous.

All great touches, but the best part is the inclusion of the iconic Indiana Jones theme song. In addition to the table’s original artwork, Zen has once again added enhanced graphics — side wall artwork, particle effects, and an animated Indiana Jones that moves around and reacts to different events. Like previous tables, the option is available to turn these enhanced graphics on or off mid-play — always a welcome feature.

Honestly, there’s not much to dislike about The Pinball Adventure. One complaint for the table layout is that some shots appear to return down a path directly into the center drain. It’s infrequent enough (and I haven’t played the real table enough to know if this is a common problem) but it’s not a huge deal — for me, shots like that are just part of pinball.

The only other complaint would be the price point — at $15, the price seems a little steep for a single table. While it’s not the best value in Pinball FX3, it’s a steal compared to spending ten grand on a working Indiana Jones table…

The price may be a deterrent, but for fans of the movies (and of course, pinball!) Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure comes highly recommended.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Zen Studios. It is currently available on XBO, PS4, Switch, iOS and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and two out of three challenge modes were completed. 0 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated Everyone 10+ and contains Fantasy Violence, Mild Language. No official description is available, but the violence and language is just a milder version of what one might experience while watching the Indiana Jones films. There is one video mode where players use the flippers to move a gun to shoot enemies — this, and all video scenes, are recreated in the orange and black pixelation one would find on older pinball machines. Parents comfortable with their children watching the movies should feel safe letting them play this as well.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All in-game events that have audio cues also have some form of visual cue — text on the display panel, flashing lights on the playfield, or a camera zoom to the action’s focus. Menu text size is not adjustable. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable, and the game will give players 3 or 4 button options for each action. Players can also play with touchscreen on the Switch.

The post Pinball FX3: Indiana Jones – The Pinball Adventure Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Not a bad table in the bunch.

LOW Timers that keep running while the ball is not in play.

WTF Missile launchers on a golf course!?

Lately, Pinball FX3 has been adding more real-life tables to their catalog, and the latest is the Williams Volume 5 Pack. This group includes Tales of the Arabian Nights (Williams, 1996), No Good Gofers (Williams, 1997), and Cirqus Voltaire (Bally, 1997). They’re not all bona fide classics, but these three are welcome additions to the Pinball FX3 library.

All three tables are available to play in their original format, but also include the other modes common in Pinball FX3 — standard singleplayer, alternating multiplayer, and the three usual challenge modes of Single Ball, Five Minute, and Survival. I tend to play challenge mode most, but there are plenty of options to keep players busy.

Also included in Volume 5 are the graphical updates that players have come to expect in Pinball FX3. This time around, gamers will be treated to a more animated genie, a juggler, and even a missile launcher on the golf course! While they’re all well animated, many of the enhancements disrupted my view of the playfield and were unwanted distractions. I found myself turning these off more frequently than I have with past tables.

Tales of the Arabian Nights is my favorite of the three. Challenging, but well designed, players will be able to awaken a good genie in the magic lamp, ride a flying carpet around Baghdad, and even battle an evil genie on the playfield. The object is to collect seven jewels and rescue a princess by hitting different targets.

There are numerous objectives to earn a jewel, but certain paths will lead to a wish being granted, allowing for instant collection of a jewel. Players can hit this target as many times as possible and wish for all seven jewels — not a simple shot, but it can be achieved with skill and I appreciated that there was a way to skip actions.

My only complaint with Arabian Nights is that occasionally hitting the blue, evil genie results in a ball sinking right between the flippers — frustrating, since the blue genie is one of the easiest targets to hit. However, the instant-drain is still infrequent so it doesn’t detract from the overall quality of this table.

No Good Gofers revolves around a golf course overrun with “gofers”. This table features a couple of pop-up gophers (think whack-a-mole) and a unique ramp that allows the ball to be hit up to an elevated platform. This platform contains the figurative green — hit the ramp at the right time and players are treated to pinball’s famous hole-in-one shot.

Players wanting a table with a low frustration factor should look no further than No Good Gofers. The left outlane regularly kicks the ball back into the playing field, and I also benefited from numerous Lazarus balls (a rare event when a ball is saved after going through the center drain) — I even got two in one game! No Good Gofers has a great flow and is very player-friendly.

My one minor complaint with Gofers is that the back of the table is a little difficult to see while using the default camera. I’m not sure if this is true on the physical table, but much of the rear is obscured by the top ramps and paths, making it difficult to see the ball and use the top-right flipper effectively.

Cirqus Voltaire is the weakest of the three in Volume 5, but it’s far from the worst I’ve ever played. This table centers around a circus and its crazed ringmaster. There are many interesting targets like the ringmaster’s head, a bumper that lowers and raises during play, and even a free-moving Menagerie ball contained in a small, caged area on the left of the table. All are unique features that help Voltaire stand out. Unfortunately, I found its design rather limiting.

Most quick shots ended up interacting with the ringmaster target or the ramp just to its left. After a few plays, I felt like I was primarily attacking the ringmaster, with the other targets virtually forgotten. I still enjoyed my time on the table, but it felt too much like a one-trick-pony.

While this is a great trio overall, one other issue with the Volume 5 pack involves the challenge timers. Usually, when a ball is held at a location on the table, a scene plays out on the display panel and the timer will pause. However, I encountered two events (one in Cirqus and one in Gofers) where the timer kept running for almost ten seconds while I waited for the ball to reenter the playfield. Both events were uncommon, but it was still mildly frustrating to experience this in modes where every second counts.

Putting those mild issues aside, Williams Volume 5 is a welcome addition to Pinball FX3 that contains two great tables, and one decent one, and all three can be had for less than it costs for a night at the local pinball arcade.  

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Zen Studios. It is currently available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Players will also need the base Pinball FX3 game (a free download) to play these tables.This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 6 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and one challenge mode per table was completed. Zero hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10+ and contains Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, and In-Game Purchases. Parents should feel comfortable letting young ones play these. The violence is tame and most notable when the enhanced animations are turned on, but there’s still no gore or bloodshed. The gophers’ comments can be a little salty, but there are no major concerns with language. These three tables are the DLC for the main game — there are no in-game purchases for either table.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All in-game events that have audio cues also have some form of visual cue — text on the display panel, flashing lights on the playfield, or a camera zoom to the focus of the action. Text size cannot be changed. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable — the game gives players 3 or 4 button options for each action. The Nintendo Switch version also allows for touchscreen controls.

The post Pinball FX3: Williams Volume 5 Pack Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The Monster Bash multi-ball.

LOW It’s only a two-table pack.

WTF The whole idea behind a monster rock band.

Offering two recreations of real pinball tables, the Universal Monsters Pack is the latest DLC for Zen Studios’ Pinball FX3.

Included with this pack is Monster Bash (Williams, 1998) and Creature from the Black Lagoon (Bally, 1993). Both can be played in the original format or with remastered versions that add more graphics and animations to the pinball field.

In addition to graphical updates, all the usual gameplay modes people are accustomed to with Pinball FX3 are here, such as challenges, leaderboards, and multiplayer modes. While I’ve never played either physical pinball table, both seem well-translated to digital format.

Monster Bash is based on the concept that the Universal Monsters have started a rock band to tour the world, and I found it to have the better layout of the two tables in the pack.

The playfield is designed to allow players to smoothly move the ball from place to place, and it’s always clear where to target a shot. With six classic movie monsters like Frankenstein, the Mummy, and Dracula each activating a new table event, actions quickly stack and lead to opportunities for ridiculously high scores. The multi-ball takes scores even further with hectic (but manageable) four-ball madness. It’s one of the better multi-ball events I’ve played.

Creature from the Black Lagoon, while based on the classic monster movie, is actually themed around a drive-in movie theater showing the film. While this one isn’t as tight as Monster Bash (too much of the table is hidden by ramps and other features) I found it easier to hit multimillion-point shots multiple times in a row, and once I learned the best path, high scores quickly grew.

The only negative part about this table is the multi-ball — it’s tough to activate and I found the second ball was often quickly lost down a side drain. However, the more I played Creature the more it grew on me, and it soon became my favorite of the two.

Both of these tables are a joy to play and the Universal Monsters Pack is a solid addition to the Pinball FX3 library. It’s a slight shame the pack includes only two tables, but the price still beats buying a pair of working machines.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Zen Studios. It is currently available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Players will need the base Pinball FX3 game (a free download) to play these tables. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 4 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and one challenge mode per table was completed. No time was spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated Everyone 10+ and contains Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, and In-Game Purchases. The violence is tame and there’s never gore or bloodshed. Nothing comes to mind for language, so this one is definitely mild. The two-pack is the in-game purchase for the main game — there are no in-game purchases for either table. As long as younger gamers are okay with the monster depictions, parents should feel safe letting them play these.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All in-game events that have audio cues also have some form of visual cue — text on the display panel, flashing lights on the playfield, or a camera zoom to the action’s focus. Menu text size is not adjustable. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable, just not fully, as the game will give players 3 or 4 button options for each action. Players can also play with touchscreen on the Switch.

The post Pinball FX3: Universal Monsters Pack Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Finishing off a tank with a manually-thrown grenade.

LOW The whole desert map, really.

WTF How weirdly deadly medics are.

VR as a medium is still figuring out exactly how it’s going to fit pre-existing genres into its mold. How, for example to handle cutscenes that provide vital visual information while the player is free to just stare at the floor? Out of Ammo addresses a similar limitation of the RTS genre. Historically the camera looks straight down at the action, and the player is in charge of putting up the best possible defense while enemies skulk around outside the camera’s view, crafting sinister plans. How, then, does that mechanic work when the player is standing sixty feet over the field, free to look at any part of the map with a glance or press of a button?

Out of Ammo‘s answer is to swamp the player with so many foes that they’re barely able to keep up with their surroundings. It’s hectic, and it’s kind of a mess, but if players can keep their heads on straight and plan their defenses properly, it can even be a little joyous.

An RTS/FPS hybrid, Out of Ammo‘s main mode puts players in the role of a hovering commander in charge of defending one of six different locations. After a minute of preparation, enemies start to attack and they never let up, rushing in a few at a time at a rate of roughly three waves per minute. The player has only two things on their side – a constant resupply of troops and structures brought in by helicopters every minute or so, and the ability to jump into any troop and manually fire weapons at the encroaching blocky hordes.

The strategy part of the design works fairly well. Players can station troops – snipers, soldiers, rocket troopers – anywhere they like, either out in the open, or in the structures that engineers can build. When enemies approach, the soldiers will automatically fire at anyone in range, so it’s the player’s job to constantly reposition the troops to make sure they’re ready for incoming attacks, while also ensuring that the support troops responsible for keeping the fighters alive don’t get wiped out. It’s very basic as RTSs go – just three main unit types, a couple of emplacements, and only a handful of enemy varieties. The challenge – and the pleasure – is in the way Out of Ammo keeps the pressure up right from the start by sending a constant torrent of foes and ensuring that there’s never time to do anything but triage and call in the occasional airstrike before it’s time to jump manually into the fray again.

At any time, the player can take control of any troop. They’ll see through their POV and hold whatever weapon is in their hands. This is a vitally important tactic because AI allies aren’t fantastic shots, and it’s almost always a good idea to help them out by getting into a skirmish and gunning down a wave of enemy troops or wiping out a tank with a well-placed RPG round. The game would be considerably easier if players could remain inside their ground troops indefinitely, so the devs use the titular restrictions to keep the player in check. Every soldier has a limit to the number of rounds they can fire before the player is forcibly kicked from their body, and a cooldown starts before one can be used again.

This time limit on active ground-level participation adds an extra level of strategy. Should players have one or two troops covering every possible approach, so that they can jump anywhere at any time, even though that takes their eye off the state of the camp? Or should they concentrate troops in the highest-traffic areas, and then leave a small number of troops at the other approaches, knowing that they’ll have to handle any surprise attacks single-handed? The eight different levels all have vastly different layouts with a wide variety of enemy formations, ensuring that each one requires a different strategy if players are going to last more than a few minutes.

The only real objective in Out of Ammo is surviving as long as possible, and enemy waves will increase in frequency and strength until the player’s base finally falls. This time can be extended by bringing along additional players – having accurate shooters on the ground while a decent strategist arranges the base is the optimal way to play. There are also a couple of extra single-player modes. In one, players provide sniper overwatch cover for soldiers awaiting extraction, and there’s another where they have to teleport around a playfield, scrounging ammo and shooting enemies. Both are solid expansions on the main game’s premise, especially since it’s visually interesting to spend extensive time at ground level in a blocky world drawn with basic colours and minimal textures. They’re all simple shooting modes, though – for all its charms, Out of Ammo doesn’t have much depth.

The game’s biggest problem, however, is how clearly it was designed for room-scale VR with 360 degree tracking. Out of Ammo demands that the player constantly spin to keep an eye on different parts of the base, stoop down to place a machine gun nest, or step over to a tower to take control of a sniper. Constantly turning and leaning to accomplish tasks is required, and it’s incredibly easy to lose track of where the camera is – and understandably, this often causes the camera to lose tracking.

Pressing controller buttons allows players to spin 90 degrees to the left or right, which is a great idea in theory. In practice, suddenly having the entire base shift around the player’s feet is quite disorienting. The whole game is built around the player developing and keeping situational awareness, so constantly spinning the whole world makes that difficult. If the developers patch in smooth rotation at some point I imagine this will be mitigated somewhat, but for now, I’d guess that it plays much more smoothly on the Vive, where turning and tracking aren’t issues.

Out of Ammo can provide thrilling RTS action, both in single and multiplayer modes. It’s never been this easy to keep track of a base and get right into the action, and there’s enough variety in all of the freeplay levels to keep strategy and action fans busy for a while. The lack of objectives or any kind of mission structure does hurt the game, though, and the lack of a clear goal to shoot for makes the whole thing feel a little too basic. Still, Out of Ammo suggests interesting new developments for the RTS genre, and I’d be interested to see a more fully-featured effort. Rating: 6 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Rocketwerkz and published by Zen Studios. It is currently available on Oculus, Vive, and PSVR. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PSVR. Approximately 4 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game is not complete-able. 1 hour was spent on multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood and Violence. The game isn’t too bad. Enemies shoot out voxels of blood when struck, while explosions blow them to pieces and headshots send their skulls bouncing to the ground. It’s grisly, but in a cute and silly way, no a lot scarier than Minecraft, really.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: You’ll be missing out on audio cues letting you know when new enemies waves and resupply helicopters are coming, so the game will be more difficult. Also, the text cannot be resized.

Remappable Controls: No. It is played with two single motion controllers.

The post Out Of Ammo Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The high-quality cartoonish backdrops.

LOW A slew of terrible user-generated levels on quickplay.

WTF Making players complete each difficulty mode sequentially.

Infinite Minigolf is a cartoonish miniature golf game from Zen Studios that focuses on user-generated courses to create a near-infinite amount of content. Although mechanically simple, the game exudes character and style while also providing one of the more content-rich PSVR experiences available today.

The game features small minigolf courses across three central settings including a boy’s bedroom, a cemetery, and a Christmas wonderland. Each of these areas features four tournaments with pre-designed courses and three difficulty levels. Unfortunately, players are forced to start at the casual difficulty before unlocking more challenging (and engaging) higher difficulties. This choice certainly promises that players will return to the same courses again and again, but the slight differences between difficulties doesn’t justify this forced progression system.

Other than tournaments, players can go through courses online in one of several modes, create levels themselves, or choose the quickplay option that cycles randomly through user-generated content. While many of these user courses are awful and probably created just to earn a corresponding trophy, some users have actually created courses that rival the developer’s.

Outside of virtual reality the visuals are serviceable, but I highly recommend using PSVR. In VR, the cartoon aesthetics combined with skillfully-constructed environments and high-resolution textures create some of the most vibrant and immersive worlds for the platform. Although the areas are largely backdrops, they do add a lot to the experience. The christmas-themed world is especially delightful thanks to its upbeat holiday-inspired music, and the bedroom perfectly captures the tropes of boyhood including pizza, a pet dog and remote-controlled drones.

As with most minigolf titles, the core of Infinite Minigolf is straightforward. Using the DualShock 4, players can adjust the direction they putt the golf ball and use the right thumbstick to control the power of their stroke. While an option to actually swing the putter using a Move controller in VR mode would have been nice, being limited to a DS4 means the game becomes a relaxing couch experience.

Variations on putting come in the way of environmental aids and power-ups in the courses themselves. These include rockets to speed up the ball, joysticks to give the player direct control of the ball, and springs to jump the ball over gaps. Similarly, each tournament features an NPC that players can use to redirect the ball. For instance, in the cemetery, if players hit the ball into a scarecrow figure with a pumpkin head, he’ll use his cane to shunt the player’s ball toward the hole.

Players earn coins and tickets by completing tournaments and an ever-shifting series of goals. Coins can be exchanged for more tickets, and these can be used to purchase aesthetic upgrades including hairstyles, clothing, and accessories. However, unique tickets are tied to every aesthetic upgrade, and I found myself awash with tickets to buy pants but rarely encountered tickets to purchase new hair. While it’s just a small nuisance, I would have preferred tickets that could have been used to buy whatever upgrade I fancied.

When players get tired of premade courses, the course editor provides a robust set of tools for building original ones. The devs give access to almost all of the assets they’ve used and all of the basic course elements such as straightaways, curves, hills, dips, loop-de-loops, power-ups, environmental obstacles, and basic geometry. After briefly familiarizing myself with the creation controls, I was able to quickly create an engaging course, test it, name it, and share it via on the online servers for others to try.

Although it offers a simple premise and equally simple mechanics, Infinite Minigolf actually ends up being one of the PSVR’s more promising titles. The tournament content is engaging despite having to play through each difficulty, but the real future of Infinite Minigolf depends on an engaged community of creators. The tools are here, but the devs will have to come up with a method of purging the servers of one-slab, featureless courses if they want people to continue to build on the “infinite” amount of content suggested in the title. Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Zen Studios. It is currently available on Steam, PS4, and XBO. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PSVR using a PS4 Pro. Approximately 4 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. I could not play the robust multiplayer options before the game’s release, but the course-sharing features work wonderfully.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E for Everyone. There is no questionable content here, just cute visuals and mini golfing.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Sound isn’t necessary. The game does not feature any significant dialogue.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

The post Infinite Minigolf Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Watching a boar get into a fight with a giant spider in the background.

LOW Trying to make consistent headshots from a football field away.

WTF Oh, exploding sheep… I’ll always love you.

To be clear, this is the exact same game as Castlestorm: Definitive Edition, which Sparky liked a little less than I did in his main review. It’s still a hybrid castle-breaking/troop management game set in a brightly-coloured world of Vikings battling Knights, with a surprisingly expansive campaign and truly broad set of weapons, abilities and troops. Players already familiar with the title shouldn’t come for anything more than a new point of view on already-great game.

So, how does one move Castlestorm into the world of VR? First person ballistas leading to stomach-churning journeys as players are thrown on parabolic arcs into the walls of an enemy castle? No, there’s nothing so ambitious here – it remains a steadfastly 2D experience. No, what the developers have done is pull the camera back and put the player in a choice seat a few hundred feet from the action, allowing them to watch the whole field at once.

I’d say it takes some getting used to, but it’s actually a completely natural way to play. Being able to look around is completely intuitive, with the player free to glance left and right to immediately get a sense of how the two competing castles are faring. Aiming the ballista is also a cinch with the preview arc clearly visible and hovering in midair. It’s actually easier to play on hard difficulty now since being able to watch the full flight of every shot makes aiming without a reticle considerably simpler.

The art design works quite well in this format – while the soldiers can look a little blocky and low-res when zoomed in for cutscenes, from the spotter’s view they’re a set of animated miniatures, wading into combat as the player covers them with wildly-flung boulders or well-aimed lasers. The developers have even gone the extra mile and fleshed out the background of each stage. There are now elaborate vistas stretching back, often filled with cute comedic details to catch the eye. However, such distractions can quickly prove dangerous during more intense levels.

Even the game’s cutscenes have received the VR treatment – before each level begins, players are dropped into a fully-drawn virtual movie theater where a few characters join them in tiered seating, watching the plot as it unfolds. It’s an effective and common-sense solution for menus in VR – just give players a virtual screen to interact with before the walls fall away and they get a look at a fully VR world.

There is one drawback to playing in VR, though – there’s no way to zoom in on the action. While the original let players aim carefully at troops and control their hero with the screen centered on the action, Castlestorm VR never adjusts its discrete distance from the fray. This makes headshots a little harder to pull off and it’s possible for heroes to get lost in a crowd of troops, but the advantage of being able to have a clear overview of the flow of combat and improved castle-to-castle combat pretty much balance out the two versions.

Right now, the vast majority of PSVR titles focus on the first-person experience. While it’s easy to see why developers default to this idea, Castlestorm VR is the latest title to show that many other genres can not only work, but thrive in virtual reality. Castlestorm was already a solid action/strategy game, but putting players into the world and letting them freely control the camera by simply looking around raises it to another level. In addition to providing PSVR players with a cute medieval strategy game, Castlestorm VR poses a question – what other games might benefit from an unlocked camera in VR? Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Zen Studios. It is currently available on PSVR. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PSVR. Approximately 5 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood and Violence. It’s pretty harmless, as T-rated games go. No ribald humour here, and only minimum amounts of blood. There are hints of boozy Vikings that aren’t mentioned in the rating, but it’s pretty tame stuff.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are no audio cues that don’t have visual accompaniment, so you should be fine.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

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