The final pinball board is the James Bond themed Agents. This board suffers from bad artwork and object placement. Decorative palm trees and a ramp obscure the upper left corner of the board, making it impossible to see the lights the player will need to activate to earn a bonus. The primary ramp that the player will need to use is placed so that only the upper flipper can reach it. Unfortunately, the ball must pass through the same visually obstructed area to reach the flipper, making for a very difficult shot to hit the ramp. The majority of the side challenges use this ramp, which makes getting a high score a frustrating experience.
Pinball FX’s sound effects are fairly representative of an actual pinball machine, whether it be the click of the flippers, or the sounds of the ball hitting a bumper. The soundtracks and effects tend to be loud, and a little over the top, similar to an actual pinball machine.
Pinball FX took a more favorable approach to multiplayer than alternating turns. Up to four gamers can play simultaneously, racing for a goal that the host determines. For instance, the host can challenge the players to reach 50,000,000 points, with a penalty of 5%, 10% or even 100% for a lost ball. A huge blunder on Zen Studios’ part is the placement of gamer pics at the top of the screen, which entirely block your view of the action at the top of the board. You do not have the option to turn these off, so you will not be able to see a portion of the board in any multiplayer game. Zen did not allow for local multiplayer, which is yet another blunder.
Pinball FX allows for camera owners to play by motioning with their hands, rather than using a controller. This is a novelty, and likely to get tiresome quickly, but Xbox Live keeps separate leaderboards for gamers using cameras.
Overall, Pinball FX might be worth 800 points to gamers that enjoy pinball video games enough to over look the inaccurate physics. Unfortunately, this game does not reach its full potential and most gamers will patiently wait for the next pinball game to come along.
