Nintendo Okie

There’s just something about a good pinball game that brings out the kid in me. I spent many an hour and countless numbers of my parents quarters playing pinball games in my youth. Some of the tables were memorable like the Back to the Future table, or the Addams Family table. I remember one that would blow cold air on your face like you were in the Arctic. There have been many others that I couldn’t name unless I saw them.

Maybe it’s just the simplicity of the game itself. Launch a ball onto a playfield, watch it bounce around as gravity brings it to the bottom of the table, hit it with the flippers and start the process all over again. Maybe it’s the fact that many designers created some wonderful gaming experiences with two flippers, a steel ball and a lot of rubber. Whatever it is, I really like pinball games. It’s hard to recreate the magic of those times in a digital form, but Zen Studios is working at creating some new pinball memories in the digital age.

What You Need to Know

Zen Pinball 3D is a port of sorts of the console version of their pinball platform, Pinball FX 2. There are four tables in the initial release of the game, two of which, Shaman and El Dorado, were exclusive to the Playstation up until this point. The other two, Earth Defense and Excalibur, were available in all versions of the game. They’ve brought the tables to a handheld platform in full stereoscopic 3D with many of the same features as the console versions, like online leaderboards and achievements, in tact.

You Are So Beautiful, To Me

The first thing I noticed booting the game up was just how gorgeous the graphics for the menu were. The 3DS isn’t as powerful as an Xbox 360, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at this game. The still pictures showing the logos of the tables are so crisp, clean and vibrant you’d swear you were looking at them in High Definition. Once you get to the tables themselves you see that, while they have been shrunk to fit on a smaller screen they don’t lose any of the clarity or definition that was present on the console versions of the game. Every detail is there. All of the flashing lights are present and each of the tables are quite nice to look at.

I was blown away by how different they look in 2D compared to when you see them with the 3D cranked all the way up. In 2D you see all of the elements of the table, but they all look sort of flat and smashed together. You know that the ramps are up off the surface of the table, but they don’t look like it. I cranked the 3D up and everything popped into place just as if I was looking at a physical table. You see every little space and everything looks like it takes up real area. The metal of the ramps pops up off the table, the bumpers all form into nice three dimensional shapes. It was staggering how different these tables looked in 3D and I loved it.

The Physics Are Just As Good

One of the best parts of Pinball FX 2 was just how well the tables themselves played. I could anticipate exactly how the ball was going to react to every move I made. Each bounce felt right and looked right. The physics were quite nice. Zen Pinball 3D keeps all of that true to life feeling and does it all with a steady frame rate that never dips and is in 3D. I’ve never seen a performance issue at all while playing the game.

Full Online Implementation

Everything from the console versions of the game is present. Those versions of the game kept track of numerous different scores and leaderboards. It would show you all the scores set locally, among your friends, across the country and the world. It kept track of scores that showed your total combined score across all tables and listed those in all those different leaderboards as well. There are plenty of leaderboards out there for those that liked seeing how they stacked up against other players.

All of those leaderboards are present in Zen Pinball 3D. The 3DS is a system that isn’t always connected to the internet, but you don’t have to worry about that. It keeps track of your scores and as soon as it recognizes that you’re in the game connected to the internet it updates the leaderboards with all of your scores so you never have to worry about not having your best score represented.

It Is a Bit Small

Everything from the console tables appears to be present in this handheld version of the game and it looks great, but it is a bit small. There can be sometimes where you might find it a little difficult to follow the path of the ball, especially on busy tables like Earth Defense.

It’s nice to have this game, but some people might find that the small screen might make it a little less enjoyable to play than if they were looking at their 42” HD TV’s.

There Are Only Four Tables

The biggest thing going against Zen Pinball 3D is that there are only four tables available initially. The developers have said that there will be DLC coming down the pipeline and many of their most popular tables will be coming to the 3DS, but it will be down the road a bit. The four tables that are in the game are really good, but it won’t take you very long to play them. There are plenty of things to find in each of the tables and each one has four achievements that can be difficult to obtain, but you might find yourself wishing there were more tables to play on. You’re going to get them, but you’re going to have to wait a bit for them.

Conclusion

I really like both Pinball FX and Zen Pinball 3D. I’m a huge fan of pinball and the one thing about the console game that I didn’t like was that I couldn’t take it with me when I left the house. Now I have a portable version of the game that has all the features of the console game with some quality tables to choose from. The Sleep function of the 3DS means that I can play the game, but if I have to put it down I just close the system and resume play when I can. Zen Pinball 3D is a great game whether you’re playing by yourself or you’re passing the system around among friends. It’s only going to get better as more tables are added in the future.  As it is right now it’s already a perfect pinball game to have with you wherever you go.  Maybe we’ll see a Nintendo themed table in the future.

Final Score: 

Review copy of the game provided by Zen Studios
Played all four tables dozens of times, temporarily held the North American High Score for Excalibur and Earth Defense.
Total Play Time: 7 hours