WELCOME BACK AND WELCOME HOME

Earlier this year FarSight Studios had to deliver the bad news that the rights to the Bally/Williams tables were lost and that after June 30th all those tables would no longer be sold for their game Pinball Arcade. At that time I worried, as a fan of pinball, that these tables would be no longer be available to play or worse; that the rights would be handed to an inexperienced team who would do a poor job recreating the tables. I did the unreasonable thing and dropped over $200 to buy every single table Pinball Arcade had to offer (a purchase I still don’t regret) to make sure I would be able to enjoy these classic pinball tables at my leisure. Well of course months later it’s announced that the license holders for Bally/Williams didn’t go with an amateur team, but with one of the best virtual pinball creators around, Zen Studios. I can save some time and just say I recommend this pack for The Getaway alone, with Junk Yard and Medieval Madness being great tables rounding out to make this pack a steal at $10. To anyone wondering how this compares to Pinball Arcade’s version though I luckily can dive into that too.

First off the presentation of Pinball FX3 in general is a more welcoming experience, cognitive of the fact that it will be some people’s first experience playing pinball. Each table has a training mode as well as a single player and classic mode. Single player acts like Zen Studios’ previous pinball output with lots of 3D models interacting with the table, lots of visual flair as the ball hits objects and a score pops up or the ball is set aflame. There are multipliers and special powers that can be activated to increase score or playtime. Essentially, single player is aware that these tables are a video game reproduction of a real product and plays with that fact. Classic mode by default lacks the visual flair (which can be activated with a press of a button) and changes the ball physics to act more like a real pinball table; this mode is for the pinball purists. I like that both these modes exist and I jumped between them for review and can say that the changes (other than score) weren’t super noticeable outside of the ball definitely reacting differently.

PLATFORMS: XB1, PS4, PC, SWITCH, MAC
MSRP: $9.99
PRICE I’D PAY: $9.99

Classic tables also have both the arcade and tournament setups which change the rules of the table slightly (the tables don’t change, but the calculations by the computer does meaning no extra balls for example). As far as I know this was a feature I would have to pay more for in Pinball Arcade (which I did not) that was included in the base price of this collection. Each table also has single ball, timed and score attack challenges that help change up gameplay on these tables as well as unlock powers for use in single player mode. Before each new game on the Williams tables the camera does a float around the 3D model and gives unique information and history on it. Finally each of the Williams tables allows players to view the back of the table (the upright part) at anytime using the right stick and while being fairly useless during gameplay is extremely nice to see the back art of these tables. Overall I am extremely impressed with the Pinball FX3 game, but the tables are what really matters.

First table is The Getaway: High Speed II, a 1992 sequel to the 1986 pinball table High Speed. The Getaway’s motif is a car chase that instead of a plunger has a gear shift. To shoot the ball I shift up and throughout play the table will tell me to shift up when I hit the proper ramps to increase my score modifier. Even in a virtual pinball setting, having to manually shift gear to increase a modifier is a neat element and it has me focusing on more than just hitting the ball. Fair warning that the multiball is probably the hardest to get out of the three tables but each time a ball is locked for it there is a unique video on the dot matrix display that is pretty cool. There is a video game portion that has me steering a car through traffic with the flippers and speeding up using the gear shift that I am terrible at. However, the main focus on the table is probably the electromagnetic accelerator called the Supercharger that makes the ball whip around it’s track extremely fast and is super satisfying to hit, especially in Single Player mode where the ball catches on fire. This is while a rendition of ZZ Top’s “La Grange” plays in the background. The new graphical additions include the ball burning at high speeds and a police officer who uses a radar gun when shooting the ball into the field. Out of this pack this table feels the least dated.

The second table is Junk Yard. A visually busy table from 1996 with schematics littering the playfield, the main feature is a pinball wrecking ball that can be hit by slamming another pinball into it (and yes, it actually swings around and is accompanied by the sounds of objects shattering). This table is probably the simplest table in design that is made more complex by its programming. Junk Yard features a few different mini-games played on it’s LCD as well as a series of odd contraptions made out of junk collected via gameplay that unlock more elements of the table (the hairdryer and toaster allow access to a minigame where I shoot toast at the guard dog). There’s also odd angel and devil characters to go along with some plot of breaking into a junkyard to build a flying machine, and these two will give advice on what objects are needed still. Obtuse is the best way I’d describe this table however I would still say it is fun; it’s definitely the easiest table to get multiball on so Single Player scores are definitely enhanced by the multiball score modifier. It is however also the hardest game to tell whether the ball saver is active. The new visual additions are pretty minor to hardly noticeable, but the table is already so busy that I’m glad Zen Studios didn’t go all out on this table.

I had a slight glitch on this table. I won another game when the last two digits of my score were met after a game over which meant I had a great opportunity to boost my score, however the flippers failed to work as if I had titled the table too much. I received a mediocre bonus score as it shot the ball six times without any flipper input from me. This did however give me an easy achievement and brought my multiball score modifier up to level 10. I could not replicate this so I’m unsure what happened but it is important to note.

The last table is Medieval Madness. Despite the fact this is a table from 1997 making it the newest of the three tables, it feels like it’s the oldest. To no surprise the table’s motif is standard medieval fantasy with a large dragon and castle being the two centerpieces. I recommend starting on this table because it is by far the easiest to play with easy targets to hit and simple concepts. Shoot past the dragon enough times to save a princess, shoot the drawbridge enough time to storm the castle and make it explode, etc. This is a great table to learn how to aim a pinball off the flipper. Plenty of dialog (some of which is delivered by Tina Fey) helps the feel of the motif, and there is plenty of animation on the LCD screen. This is by far the best table for switching to the new visuals because the static dragon switches to a fire-breathing, more animated being that will get up and fly around during certain events. For how straightforward this table looks, there are plenty of modes to be activated and it means that this is probably simultaneously the easiest table to grasp and also the deepest in gameplay. There isn’t much else to say other than the website Pinside rates it as the best pinball table of all time.

So how do these tables compare to their previous Pinball Arcade counterparts? Well I expected the differences to be larger but for the most part it is the physics that feel different and I can’t fully say which one is more accurate to real pinball or which one is better. There’s the previously mentioned ability to choose between arcade and tournament modes for each table which again, I believe was more included in the more expensive Pro tables in Pinball Arcade and included free here. There’s the Zen Studios flair as well as bonus modes of course to which there is no equivalent in Pinball Arcade. A weird option I wish I had was the ability to choose ball color in FX3 because sometimes playing on Classic I would lose sight of the ball, but at the same time rarely is the pinball anything but the standard chrome. I did find the table graphics a bit sharper on the Pinball Arcade version and I also noticed the ball reflected the table, but they looked really good in both versions. The view options in Pinball Arcade seemed a bit more restrictive than FX3’s options which at times allowed me to see parts of the table I wouldn’t but then at other times made it hard to see the ball which never happened in FX3. In The Getaway: High Speed II for Pinball Arcade it seemed to shift gears automatically and I’m unsure if that was a setting that was on by default, but in FX3 the default is the manual shift. The final difference is that when these tables switch to the video games on the LCD, Pinball Arcade moves the camera to look at the back of the table.

Overall this is a great pack of three classic tables. Any fan of pinball of any skill level should add this to their collection, even if they already own the Pinball Arcade renditions. The challenge modes bring new life into these tables and the Single Player enhanced versions of tables allows for whole new ways to get big scores (and knock pinball fan, Ubisoft and Palette Swap Ninja’s own Dan Amrich, down a few notches on some leader boards). Zen Studios really brought their own style into these tables that make them feel at home alongside their own Zen Studios designed tables. Williams Pinball Vol. 1 covers various levels of skill and I am excited to see what Zen Studios and Bally/Williams has next for players.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.