“Star Wars Pinball” feature awesome gameplay and challenging pinball with very good physics, beautiful table graphics, cool audio (in this case, also fantastic music) and special effects. “Star Wars Pinball” continues to raise bar for digital pinball games and for fans of “Star Wars” or pinball in general, you can’t help but be addicted to these games.  These tables are not just challenging but among the most enjoyable digital pinball games I have played. Highly recommended!
Screen Captures are from Steam gameplay. “Star Wars Pinball” is under the copyright of Zen Studios. 2013 Lucas Film Entertainment Company Ltd. or LucasFilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
VIDEO GAME TITLE: Star Wars Pinball
TYPE OF GAME: Pinball
PLATFORM: PC Steam, PC Windows 8, XBOX 360 and Sony PlayStation
PLATFORM GAME REVIEWED: PlayStation 3 (PSN Download)
DEVELOPER: Zen Studios
PUBLISHED: Microsoft Game Studios
RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2013
Use the Force to guide the silver ball in Star Wars Pinball! The first pack of tables includes Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Having reviewed Zen Studios “Pinball FX2” for Steam, this time around, I take on “Star Wars Pinball” for the Sony PlayStation 3 (downloaded via PSN). Star Wars Pinball features three tables – “Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back”, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Boba Fett”.
Three pinball games based on the American epic space opera “Star Wars” franchise created by George Lucas, each of these three tables not only gives you more than one can expect from a digital pinball game but so many areas that pinball fans and fans of the films or animated series will be excited about.
To start off “Star Wars Pinball”, you have a choice to contribute your skills to the side of light or darkness. The more you play, the more you see your skills go up and benefit you as a Jedi or Sith.
You can play single player or multiplayer. Single player allows you to play each game and build up your level, while multiplayer for each table is about who can accumulate the most points and reach a certain goal and the game restarts once the person reaches that goal. Multiplayer can automatically search for players and quite often, you may get an invite from a player you have played with before.
But one can play the game to be on top of the leaderboards, to open up PS3 trophies or to challenge oneself and opening and beating many scenes as possible.
With “Pinball FX2”, Zen Studios takes the concept of pinball for the digital realm by introducing various acts, special effects, audio and gameplay elements that you won’t typically experience on a real machine.
For pinball purists who have played a digital pinball game, yes the game requires you to shoot the ball, use your flippers to hit the ball and you can briefly nudge the machine (nudge it too much and you are in danger of tilting). You lose a ball each time it falls down through the center (between the flippers) or far left and right boundaries of the game. The good news is that if you quickly lose a ball not long after a launch, you are given another chance with a free play ball.
So, a lot of the newer tables add a lot of extra gameplay features that make it worth your time to learn, not only for achievements but also because of certain bonus areas or scenes that you may not know about and also finding out strategies on how to get a high score or how to open up various areas.
For example, one may focus on their main bottom flippers, but some games have flippers on the top that if you time your hit, you can see your score multiplying and building up to millions of points. Some require quick thinking where one flipper must be pressed and immediately released, so a ball heading towards the top flipper will not come in contact. Or other strategies that may initiate a kickback (most pinball games have the frustrating area on both ends that will make you lose a ball) or something that may pick up your ball and shoot it so quickly that by the time you hit the flipper, the ball has gone through the center hole and you lose your ball.
COMMON QUESTIONS ASKED ABOUT THE GAMEPLAY:
Are there difficulty modes? While playing a table, you can pause and select “OPERATOR” on the menu, it allows you to install a difficulty mode such as extra easy, normal, extra hard, etc. BUT this is good if you do not want to play with other players and compete in leaderboards. Easy allows for extra balls and better scoring. But once again, it’s important to note that you will receive a warning that if you change settings, your high score will not be included in the leaderboards.
First, let’s take a look at “Star Wars Episode V: Empire Strikes Back”.  Of the three “Star Wars Pinball” tables offered, this is the most challenging table.  The concept of pinball is the same of any pinball game in the fact that you use the plunger to send the ball for gamplay, use your PS3 triggers to move the flippers up and down (this will control and top flippers), the left analog stick activates a bump but do this too many times and you will tilt (flippers will no longer work). Your turn ends if the ball falls down the center or on the far left or right sides. Fortunately, you get three balls.
Fortunately, Zen Studios implements a “Shoot Again” if your ball goes down the center early in the game, so you do have a second chance. Also, if you hit the ball in the ramps multiple times, it will activate a “Lite Kickback” which kicks the ball back to play if it goes on the left or right side of the table.  Meanwhile, there are ways to get free extra balls as well.
With your plunger, you can send the ball to go to various areas (top, middle or lower) section and obtain a “Skill Shot” by hitting a spinner. To score effectively, you want to spell out the letters, which require the ball to fall in certain areas or by sending a ball to various ramp.
Visually, it may seem simple but the challenge is that you have Tie Fighter targets on the lower left, orbits and ramps. Sending a ball to the left of the ramp, you can spell “R2D2”, sending a ball to the left ramp can activate a “Lite Kickback” (left side), “Jedi Jackpot” and spell out the word “EMPIRE”, send the ball towards the center and you can spell out “VADER” (Super Skill Shot), send the ball to the right ramp allows you to activate “Lite Kickback” (right side), “Jedi Jackpot”, “Yoda” or “Cloud City”, while the farther right section allows you to spell “FORCE” and can lead to a free extra ball.
So, it’s one thing to play pinball by hitting the ball and getting mass points and be on top of the leaderboards but for a game like “Star Wars Pinball”, you find yourself holding a ball with your flipper and trying to see if you can master that ball by letting it fall down to the tip and see if you can spell out “FORCE” or get the ball to a Tie Fighter Target.
But this requires a lot of practice and time with the game. But once you start mastering it, you’ll be able to not only increase your multiplier, assemble C-3PO, bring out Darth Vader and also take part in Jedi Training.
Jedi training is a little diversion from the pinball game as you will be taken to screen where you must deflect blasts from a droid using a lightsaber and get a free ball.
But a mode that comes on that most people will have fun with and increase their score is “Force Hurry Up Modes”, which will only happen if you light up all “FORCE” letters and from this mode, you will notice you can increase a massive amount of points quickly.
There are modes that allow for “Multiball” in which you can have several balls locked and sent out all at once. While great for points, managing 2-4 balls at one given time is not easy.
“Star Wars Pinball” also offers scenes. By hitting various areas on the table, you can activate up to six scenes. For example, selecting scene one gives you 40 seconds to hit the left sink hole a total of three times. Watching where the lights are flashing on the table gives you an idea of where to send the ball. The challenge is how to come up with your own strategy to make the ball go where it needs to go.
But definitely one of the most challenging tables from Zen Studio.
The next table is “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and is based on the animated series. This table is the easiest in terms of amassing a large amount of points. It’s also a table in which your top flippers are highly effective of earning a lot of points if you can keep the ball up in the top section.
While any of the ramps can lead to combo jackpots, it’s the maroon ramp on the right that allows you to activate the “Council” in order to take on various missions. Unlike “Star Wars V: Empire Strikes Back”, the missions are non-timed. “War on Christophis” puts up a purple shield and you need to find a way by collecting bombs on a ramp and then detonating it on the purple shield.
“Cloak of Darkness” features a fight against Asajj Ventress but the goal is to hit the ball where you see flashing ramps. This one is timed and you have only 30 seconds to do it.
“The Monster” is non-timed and Savage Opress is on a floating platform, you just need to hit the platform with the ball but you have to be careful because each hit sends the ball back quickly and it may lead to the ball goiong down the center.
“Attack on Kamino” is about hitting the flashing lanes.
“Weapons Factory” is another that you have to hit flashing lanes or ramps to destroy a weapons factory.
The game also offers “Training Mode”, if you spell “Training” (left of the T6 ramp on top), you will be taken to a training playing field. The object is to hit the ball on various areas with lights. Sounds easy, until you need to hit the farthest left or right light, which requires patience and figuring out how much you should let the ball roll to the tip of the flipper.
But this is a table that I found to be a lot of fun and probably one where people may want to start playing first because of how much easier it is compared to the other tables.
For the “Boba Fett” table, this table is probably the second easiest of the three “Star Wars Pinball” tables currently available. It’s also one that you want to plan and figure out where you are hitting the ball as you can open up extra scenes if things are properly spelled out or amass a large number of points.
While you can open up various bounty missions by spelling words like “Boba Fett” by hitting the ball into those areas with letters, there are some bounty missions that require to hit the ball on each ramp or opening and you get a million points easily for each ball traveled into the area.
There are missions that require quick thinking and areas that require hitting the ball in the same area. For example, “Escape from the Sarlacc” has Boba Fett captured by tentacles. If you can hit the tentacle 4 times, you can free him.
A crazy mode is “Triump of Mandalorian” which requires you to play with five multiple balls at one time and you have 60 seconds to get as many point as possible.
Unlike the other two tables, you have only one top filter and one that I don’t find too effective but great to slow down a ball, just in case that you want to stop it in order to use your left flipper to hit the ball to a certain ramp.
It’s also a game where you can use homing missiles to destroy a flashing lane also a table where you can take part in a sharpshooter mini game. There are certainly many modes I discover the longer I play but there are various bounty jobs in which Boba Fett can earn quite a bit of money. But the game has a mix of easier elements for people to get into and also some challenging sections.
CONTROLS:
The controls for the PS3 is fast and fluid, no lag whatsover, even during multiplayer, I was able to play the game with no lag.
How are the physics of the game?
Some table physics are good, at times, it felt the physics were off. For example, I can tape on the edge of a flipper with great power and sometimes the ball only goes a short way up. Sometimes I hit a ball not hard enough but yet it goes farther than what I expected. But I never expect a digital pinball game to have a perfect replication of gameplay digitally but it comes close and once you get to learn each table, the better you will do each time you play.
GRAPHICS & AUDIO:
The graphics for each of the tables are absolutely gorgeous. A lot went into table design and character models but there was good planning when it came to the actual tables. On my HD big screen, colors were vibrant, tables were amazingly well-detailed. The game looks great on the PS3!
The audio for the game is also fantastic! “Star Wars” not only features the voices from the film but also the popular music from the film.
REPLAY VALUE:
“Star Wars Pinball” is a game with a lot of replay value if you are into getting high scores. With the number of tables available, it gives one a chance to focus on a table and learn it and move on to the next table and continue getting high scores, topping a table leaderboard and obtaining PS3 trophies.
Growing up, pinball machines were a big part of my life as a child. Playing them at the local burger shop, even receiving a Superman pinball machine as a child, pinball machines were fun, addictive and I continued to play them even when everyone moved towards “Pac Man”, “Street Fighter II” and other popular arcade games for each decade.
My pinball experience would eventually lead me to playing the game on NES, Gameboy and dedicating hours to getting the highest score on “Pinbot”. Then came “Super Pinball” on the SNES, “Devil’s Crush”, “Metroid Pinball” on the DS, “William’s Pinball” and “Akira Psycho Ball” for the PS2 and recently playing various pinball games on my iPad.
But Zen Studios have really taken pinball to bigger heights with innovative table creation, obtaining licenses to utilize popular franchise’s or iconic characters and making pinball so much fun again! It’s not just about hitting the ball and getting the high score, there is strategy involved in playing a Zen Studio pinball game.
“Star Wars Pinball” is pinball crack. Once you play, you become addicted to the game and find yourself playing it for hours and trying to figure out various strategies. And while the single player game is fantastic, the multiplayer is OK. It’s more or less a contest of who can reach the most points and the game restarts and you keep on playing. What would be nice is to find out how some of these players during multiplayer can get up to 12 million points in a short amount of time, so if there was a watch mode, where you can see other players playing a game realtime, that would have been cool to see and also learn from.
These three “Star Wars Pinball” tables are also quite creative in gameplay and each are very different from each other, requiring different strategies, so one can expect to put a lot of time playing and replaying to see how things work, especially how to defeat various missions.
As for playing the game on the PS3 versus on a PC, I will say that I felt physics and fluidity and smoother gameplay was noticeable on the PS3 but for those who prefer having the monitor right near them, so they can see things clearly, I’m sure it’s subjective to each player. But the PS3 feels smooth and experienced no lag.
With each table, some require strategy and quick thinking. For example, one would not want to let the ball roll too quickly down your flipper as momentum is so quick that by the time you press the button the flipper, the ball falls quickly through the center and you lose a ball. And sometimes, the placement of a ball will end up in the far boundaries, making you lose the ball. So, you come up with strategies of how to get a kick back (so, if the ball goes out on the left or right boundaries, the ball is kicked back on the table) or to regain a “Shoot Again”, so a lost ball will result in free play ball.
The most challenging is when you have multiple balls in play. This will give you a chance to rack up enormous points but it’s not easy when you have four balls all coming down all at once, so sometimes you act erratically by hitting the flippers repeatedly. So, it requires patients and finding out new ways to deal with multiple balls.
But the big part of the strategy for this game, for me, is to figure out ways to utilize the top flippers and where I should have the ball aimed. Some tables reward nicely if you use those top obscured flippers correctly.
So, each table, I have had a lot of fun playing and trying to learn what the game has to offer and with the addition of playing with friends via the leaderboard or gaining achievements, it adds to the replay factor of the game.
Overall, “Star Wars Pinball” feature awesome gameplay and challenging pinball with very good physics, beautiful table graphics, cool audio (in this case, also fantastic music) and special effects. “Star Wars Pinball” continues to raise bar for digital pinball games and for fans of “Star Wars” or pinball in general, you can’t help but be addicted to these games. Â These tables are not just challenging but among the most enjoyable digital pinball games I have played.
“Star Wars Pinball” from Zen Studios for the PS3 is highly recommended!
PROS:
+ Awesome and creative gameplay and you discover something new each time you play the game.
+ Additional replay factor to challenge others and win trophies!
+ Wonderful graphics for each table!
+ Great use of sound effects, music and dialogue!
+ Physics are very good for these tables on the PS3, smooth gameplay, no lag!
NEGATIVES:
– Gameplay for some people may be a little frustrating.
– Purists expecting perfected physics may be disappointed.
