Feature

Community Review: Marvel Pinball

Our community knows its games. Besides playing the latest and greatest games, you all constantly critique and discuss them on our forum. We want those valuable contributions to be heard by all.

With that in mind, we are pleased to present you with our second Community Review (Dream Chronicles was our first). We worked with five PSU Subscribers to create the following reviews of Marvel Pinball. PlayStation Network codes were distributed to participating subscribers in exchange for 200 words, give or take, on what they thought of this pinball game. Check out their reviews below.

ToonAssassin

As I started playing Marvel Pinball, I was quickly reminded of how interactive and fun a virtual pinball game could be. Marvel Pinball from Zen Studios continues the strong tradition of great design, multiple table features and excellent ball physics that we have come to expect from the studio.

The developers at Zen Studios crafted tables with multiple ‘missions’ to achieve against each enemy. They utilize many of the PlayStation 3’s features to enhance the experience, such as Sixaxis motion control to nudge the table if your ball gets stuck. You also get excellent autolog-style updates as you play, telling you how many more points you need to beat your friends’ online scores on each table. Plus, the ‘Hero’ and ‘Team Force’ scores, which build up with all of your combined efforts, add a cooperative element to your progression through the tables. 

Speaking of tables, the game has four available from the start, based on the adventures of Spider-Man, Wolverine, Blade and Iron Man. All feature great graphics and animated characters from the comics.

There are spaces for more DLC tables to be inserted (to be chosen via an online vote), so this game should provide you with months of gameplay. If you love pinball, or the characters included, you could do a lot worse than Marvel Pinball. I have enjoyed it, and so should you.

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.RAID3N.

Marvel Pinball, created by Zen Studios, is a standalone, comic themed pinball game. Like its predecessor, Zen Pinball, Marvel Pinball ships with four tables: Wolverine, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Blade. Each table offers different missions and challenges to keep the game interesting and to provide an objective for each table. 

The game looks and plays great. Zen Studios paid a lot of attention to detail, from the table design down to the music and dialogue used for each table. Features include local multiplayer (up to four players) and online play (race to target score), an ‘Operators Menu’ to tweak table settings, in-game music, and numerous PlayStation Network trophies.

I was disappointed with the view options the game provides. There are seven different views to choose from, but they all felt either too close or too far away from the table. My only other complaint is how confusing each table can be. Trying to progress through the previously mentioned missions can be a daunting task, as it can be unclear what you are trying to accomplish. There are rule sheets, but they are only text. It would have been helpful had the game shown you on the table how each rule could be accomplished.

Complaints aside, at $9.99 USD, Marvel Pinball is a must own for any pinball fan. The game offers nearly unlimited replay value as you will constantly be trying to improve your score or best your friends.

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DarkVincent07

Marvel Pinball by Zen Studios is very similar to Zen Pinball in terms of graphical quality and overall polish. The game comes with four tables: Wolverine, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Blade. The overall design of the tables is much stronger and more varied than Zen Pinball’s tables. As a result, the game is more enjoyable to play.

Featuring near-perfect ball physics, Marvel Pinball is a ‘pick up and play’ title with simple controls. There are multiple camera angles ranging from a top-down view of the table to one that closely follows the ball’s direction. 

The menus are slick and easy to navigate. Using the left stick, you control what table you want to play, as well as single and multiplayer options. With the right stick, you can control a separate set of panels that display friends’ high-scores, trophy information, local and online high-scores and more.

The music is decent and has a few catchy guitar riffs, but the voice acting is serviceable at best; the repetition of phrases quickly grows tiresome. Thankfully Marvel Pinball supports custom soundtracks, which aids in drowning out the dreadful voice work.

Marvel Pinball, though simple to initially pick up and play, is a challenging game with a high replay value. Completing objectives can be painfully frustrating, but the game encourages you to keep going that one extra step as it constantly teases you with your friends’ scores. Plus, with more tables coming via downloadable content, I’ll keep coming back to the game in the future. Marvel Pinball is one of the best recent releases on the PlayStation Network.

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Galvanise_

Marvel Pinball is a highly polished and extremely fun pinball game. The pinball tables feature 3D animated character models of your favorite Marvel heroes and villains standing on the field of play. Currently there are four playable tables, with more expected to arrive in the form of DLC.

Players are required to get the highest score possible and complete missions, which have certain requirements. Initially, these missions can be extremely hard to grasp or achieve as the game gives minimal guidance on how to complete them. After a bit of practice, however, these missions form the most enjoyable part of the game.

Community features like leaderboards allow players to try and best their friends’ highest scores. Players can also use custom soundtracks, though the music present in the game is very good as it doesn’t distract from the task at hand. In addition, some of the trophies will take a long time to achieve.

For its price, Marvel Pinball is definitely a worthwhile purchase and has a lot of ‘pick up and play’ features going for it. It is an excellent addition to the PlayStation Network.

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Agriel

Marvel Pinball: the name say it all. It’s a mix of great pinball fun featuring four of your favorite Marvel heroes: Wolverine, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Blade.

All tables have their own unique challenges and trophies, with the main objective of getting the highest score possible. The game uses real time updates, so you know the exact time you beat your friends’ high scores for the day, week, and overall. There are also tournaments, and up to four-player hot-seat multiplayer. Each table also features voice-overs for all heroes and villains, from Spider-man’s "witty" remarks to Wolverine letting you know just how great he is for the job, over and over again.

While the voice overs can be a little annoying, and the objectives on each table aren’t all that clear, Marvel Pinball still gets a lot right. Strong community features and vastly improved load times over Zen Pinball are really a breath of fresh air. In the end, Marvel Pinball is a great pick up and play game with features for both high-score junkies and casual players.