When Pinball FX 2 arrived on Xbox LIVE Arcade a few weeks ago, it opened a whole new social door for players everywhere, with online leaderboards, tournaments and a variety of old and new tables to choose from. (The fact you could integrate previous Pinball FX tables into the game was a smart idea, too.) Now comes a download pack that will boost its business even further, the Marvel Pinball pack. For 800 points, you won’t find a better reason to “flip out” this holiday season. The pack consists of four tables, each lovingly created and based around official Marvel properties. You can stalk vampires and other unspeakable terrors in Blade; fend off Sabretooth and Sentinels with Wolverine; swing against villainous types in Spider-Man; and blast off for adventure with Iron Man. All four tables have pinball authenticity aplenty, including flippers (upper and lower), bumpers (love the Sentinel ones), ramps, loops, and launch ramps. There’s even an LED screen on each table, complete with dot matrix displays, featuring Marvel heroes and villains in action. (You can enlarge and decrease its size however you wish.)
Zen Studios is no stranger to making great pinball games (Pinball FX 2 impressed us greatly). However, Marvel Pinball is its best work to date. There’s not a “dead table” in the bunch here, as each one is enjoyable to play with. There are times the ball speed can get a little out of control, emitting a light trail behind them as they bolt along. However, once you get used to the style of play (which should only take a minute or two), you’ll find a welcome, comforting feeling with these tables. And like previous Pinball FX 2 releases, Marvel Pinball gives you unlimited options for replayability. Along with going for single-player scores (and competing against your friends locally), you can also log your best attempts through online leaderboards, boosting your Wizard score and adding a few Achievements to your record. Tournaments will also take place over the next few weeks, and you can easily challenge other players, should you manage to knock off their best scores. There’s literally no end to what you can do here. Our only gripe would be that Thor and Captain America didn’t get their own tables, what with the upcoming movies and all. (Personally, we’d like a Psylocke one, but, hey, we’ll take what we can get.)
Visually, Marvel Pinball’s tables are incredible. The design of each table is very intricate and detailed, right down to enemies that pop up onto the playfield (occasionally blocking the view, but not stopping the way the game plays) and bonus round activations. There were times that a few objectives needed clearing up, like how to defeat Whiplash on the Iron Man table, but that’s a minor complaint. The audio’s very good, too. Though the game doesn’t feature the exact Hollywood talent from the films (not even poor-as-hell Wesley Snipes), the voiceovers are convincing, and the villains sound great. The music’s pretty good, too, even though they’re not the official themes from the films. Hey, those probably would’ve taken a while to get the rights to anyway. Don’t hesitate to pick-up the add-on Marvel Pinball tables for Pinball FX2. Even if you’re not a complete comic book junkie, there’s more than enough to see and play here to get your ten dollars’ worth out of it.
