Pinball FX 2 (Xbox One) - Review

So we all now about the addictive pinball game that graced the last gen. Now it has made the leap over to the Xbox One, bringing with it the opportunity to move any of your past purchased tables over too. There's also been the release of the new Walking Dead table to look forward to, so thanks to the great guys over at Zen Studios I've had the chance to do a write up of a few of the tables gracing the Xbox One version of Pinball FX 2. Read on for reviews on the following tables: Deadpool, Guardians of the Galaxy, the four Star Wars: Heroes Within tables and the new The Walking Dead table!

Deadpool

The Deadpool table seems a little busy...

I have to admit, whilst I love Marvel films I'm not really a comic lover so Deadpool is someone I don't know much about. I am sure that as my son grows bigger this will probably change but for now Deadpool isn't really on my radar.

This table is loud, brash and in your face, which (I am told) kinda fits the character well. Deadpool himself can be seen flitting around the table, muttering to himself A LOT and occasionally sending grenades at your ball. He gets in the way a fair bit too.

I am not the best pinball player ever...in fact I pretty much suck at it. But I'm a trier. My son, rather annoyingly, is pretty good at this (and insanely good at Angry Birds!) but I rather meanly put it down to dumb luck. So we both had a go at this table and Zach did do much better than me. Although the table does look really busy I found it quite hard to get a decent score, but this could be down to me being rubbish.

The general feel of this table is good though and it appealed to my son because of all the action. There does seem to aways be something happening on screen and the voice acting and soundtrack is really good too. Overall I'd say it's probably worth a punt for any comic book fans or pinball aficionados, but otherwise I'd overlook it for some of the better ones.

 Guardians of The Galaxy

The Guardians of the Galaxy table stood out for me!

This table really stood out for me. When I first got it, I hadn't seen the film yet (we went to see it this week and LOVED it!) so I did worry that I wouldn't 'get' it. But I needn't have worried as I really enjoyed this table.

The music to it is great and just adds to the fun of this table. I found it easy to see what was happening too, much easier than the Deadpool table, but it didn't feel sparse either. The voice acting was good, although Quill could get pretty repetitive and doesn't have the presence of Chris Pratt, but I feel like I'm nitpicking there really.

All the characters have their own ball and each is seen right at the beginning of the game as the table starts with a multiball. The beginning of the table does feel a little bit mental, but this is not foreshadowing the rest of it, as for the rest of the table I felt it was pretty clear what you had to do to trigger special modes.

I feel that this table has plenty to keep anyone happy but is especially good for any GotG fans out there. And Groot fans. And who doesn't like Groot?!

Star Wars - Heroes Within

There are four tables included in this pack - Han Solo, A New Hope, Masters of the Force and Droids. My partner and son are both huge Star Wars fans so they dived right into it, without even a backwards glance at me! 

This table felt a little tedious.

The first one we put on was the Masters of the Force table, which is Sith vs Jedi and features Count Dooku, Darth Sidious and Darth Maul pitted against Yoda, Qui-Gon Jin and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The table is set out with the Sith on one side and the Jedi's on the other. 

Each side of the table is the same as the other but themed to either the Sith or the Jedi, so that at the top there is Yoda's hut on the Jedi side and Darth Sidious' throne room on the side of the Sith. Both of these open up into mini tables that really can add to your score.

I liked that the launcher was a lightsabre and I thought the music and the voice acting were generally good but I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something missing with this table that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I guess it felt a little empty, which in turn made it feel pretty tedious. It is just one part of the whole though, and I do feel like this table is possibly the weakest in this pack.

The biggest challenge of the pack.

A New Hope features Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan, C-3PO and R2-D2. I really struggled to get anywhere on this table and found it really quite difficult to rack up any semblance of a decent score. My son however, did not struggle quite as much and did activate some pretty cool modes, he especially enjoyed the multi ball that activates the Death Star.

We all soon got a little tired of trying on this table too, it proved itself a little too difficult for our rookie pinball skills (or lack thereof!). But for all those people that seem to have an innate ability that allows them to excel at Pinball this table may offer a bit of a challenge that doesn't result in feeling completely inept.

C-3PO's comments really make this table.

This table features the brilliant duo that is R2-D2 and C-3PO. This table looks really cool and is set inside of a Sandcrawler with Jawas supervising the action. The Jawas can interfere in your game too, which - whilst it could be frustrating - did introduce a fun gameplay mechanic.

This table was my sons favourite, mostly because of the Jawas, but I found it enjoyable too. The setting of the table is perfect and C-3PO's comments are hilarious and get the character spot on. This and the Han Solo table are by far the stand out tables of this pack, and really do make the pack worth buying for everyone who loves Star Wars.

Who doesn't love Han Solo?!

This table was my favourite, not least because it revolves around my favourite character, Han Solo. This table features the song from the Mos Eisley Cantina which immediately brings a smile to your face. The voice acting was really good too, and fit Han Solo's character well.

I found that the modes were pretty difficult to activate, but it wasn't frustrating like some of them are. You can just coast through this table as it is easy to keep the ball afloat, but in doing that you are never going to get the high scores.

This table was by far the most enjoyable of the pack in my opinion. It's brilliant for any Star Wars fans and presents enough of a challenge to the seasoned Pinball players without alienating the ones that aren't as good.

The Walking Dead 

Honestly the best table I've played

On hearing that there would be a table for The Walking Dead I was pretty sceptical of how it would work. How could they take the amazing story that Telltale games wove and transfer that to a PINBALL table?!

Well I don't know how they did it but they did, and most importantly they did it REALLY WELL! The table manages to seamlessly join the brilliantly fun gameplay of Pinball FX 2 with the tear-jerking moments and horrible heart-rending decisions that players make in The Walking Dead.

There are some really good special modes to unlock on this table, but I won't go into how you get them. There was one mode that sees you sniping zombies which was really cool. Zombies invade the table and hitting them with your ball does feel really gratifying.

I felt like this table was set up way better too, in that the ball seems to fly nearer to the flippers more often than some of the others. I found this table to be a fair bit easier than many, but at the same time just so much more fun and engaging. This table is an easy 'must-buy' for literally anyone.

Codes were provided for the purpose of this review.