Developer: ZEN Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Platform: Xbox LIVE Arcade
Rating: E for Everyone
Price Point:
Pinball FX 2 Platform: FREE
Pinball FX 2 Core Collection Price: 800 MS Points
Original Pinball FX Content + DLC remains the same price
Achievements & Gamerscore: 39 Achievements, 650 Gamerscore
Released: October 27th, 2010 as part of “Game Feast presented by Microsoft Game Studios”
Get it Here!
Zen studios, known widely for their very successful Pinball FX on the xbox360 console, granted alot of respect from gamers for bringing out a very detailed and simple game-play, that we know as pinball for our trigger fingers for the home consoles. Now they return with Pinball FX2, with a great collection of tables, each varying with difficulty and special objectives. As mentioned in the title this game is a full blooded Pinball game that will take alot of pinball wizards slap on their Converse shoes and slap some side buttons (or their bumper or trigger buttons). The interface was sleek and stylish to look at as you entered, and made your selection on the Table menu. The music, and sound effects were true Pinball, nothing with Zen went unnoticed. The physics with the game were the Best we have ever seen in a pinball console/PC platform, Ever. Period.Today we will review, the Core Collection…
Starting off on the list we have “Secrets of the deep”. A deep sea adventure theme, the board to a simple glance looked very basic, having not alot on the board that could make any person with A.D.D. rage with confusion. To us this title seems simple, but is one of the few that gave us trouble in difficulty due to alot of focusing on some of the objectives during the game. A great thing to see with this type of game its here to challenge you, and we love that! The theme made us think slowly about Black-hole with the upper deck constructing a sort of wrecking ball/ Mine. With a talking shark on the top left corner the whole table reminded us of early 70’s boards. If your planning to go deep sea diving attack this table, we had a blast with it.
Next on the list was “BioLab”: Think of creepy crawlers, and a Lego kit and your all set. This science experiment style table is sci fi where you have to construct custom monsters for a major score ranking. We found this table to be the easiest to understand and follow through with the objectives during the segments within the game. The cute texture reminded us of the Creature games that were once on PC, and a bit like Spore inspired. Overall a fantastic table.
Rub the lamp for “Pasha”: All Persian based. Also the most beautifully designed with the textures. The design is simple, make the story push forward. Something we found ourselves overly addicted too.
“Rome”: The sounds of horses, and cheering crowds give that sense of being in well, Rome. The difficulty is on par, and was enjoyable.
“Speed Machine”: If you enjoy the racing scene, this game will torque your need for speed, sorry bad pun. The Table reminding me of a micro machines play set, the whole board looks flashy and reminds anyone of the whole Drift racer feel. We noticed some of the female characters on the board as being placed cleverly where the flippers are present, that could distract the player who plays *thinks* that explains why my score is so low. *sighs*
“Xtreme”: The whole urban settings for this table, to some they would have expected Skateboarding, the skate boarders grinding on the “rail” on the lower left end was a nice touch to this very challenging table. We felt the setting was great and we didn’t really have any complaints overall.
“Agents”: This table would make any 007 fan proud. featuring two agents of ether sex, and plenty of interesting subplots for you to uncover. A pretty challenging and also easy to get into.
And finally for the FX2 Table line up is “Buccaneer”: If you enjoy the high seas, booty, adventure, hot dogs, photos of me in pirate outfits.If you were still reading! Giving the whole approach of Pirates of the Caribbean, and many of the classic novels, the whole theme was classic and fantastic. BTW pirates own ninjas *coughs*.
5 Classics return and are backward compatible with this title meaning all you would have to do is download the platform and play straight away. The 5 are: Nightmare Mansion, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Super Street Fighter 2, Earth Defense, and Excalibur.
Overall for the price of free, and if you already own these tables, you can compare your scores online with friends and random zillions of hardcore pinball players across the globe. The Price range for each of the tables are quite reasonable, and wouldn’t put any person out.For the online score keeper it is a bargain to see you outdo a friend on “Pasha”. Another feature is multiplayer, offering Live Vision Camera support and 4 player Game-play. Though personally this idea was presented with Texas hold em’ and UNO, we wont mind mooning a good old friend to distract his high-score every once and a while, brings character to the game. The in tare experience over all was a well rounded and excellent example of why Microsoft branches themselves on the media of arcade based game-play. We give this game..
10.0!
+True to Table Physics
+ Backward compatible with your older Tables
+ Great soundtrack
+ Pirates!!
+ The hope of a perhaps Megaman themed dream theme in the future *crosses fingers like a fanboy*
+ Solid Multiplayer experience(Dont moon your friends, you tend to loose them that way)
