When there is a new Marvel property lurking around the box office you can be sure that Zen Studios is making the most of their license to spin off a new pinball table. Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron Pinball has arrived for PC, mobile and nearly all the consoles (Wii U coming soon), so suit up and assemble for some more rousing pinball action that only Zen Studios can deliver.
The Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron table will allow players to relive the struggle of Earth’s mightiest heroes, including Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye against Ultron and his seemingly endless army. The table features dedicated game modes for each member of the Avengers team, including a first-person sharpshooting mini-game starring Hawkeye, a spectacular aerial melee combat sequence between Iron Man and Ultron, and selectable difficulty levels to cater to each player’s individual skill level.
You can see the game in action in our live gameplay demo:
The table design and even the structure of the gameplay was very evocative of the Guardians of the Galaxy pinball table that also featured an ensemble cast that combined individual character focus with collective teamwork. While the new Ultron table fills every square inch of its surface area with awesome artwork I did find the architecture a bit lacking in that there just wasn’t that much to do; especially when compared to Zen Studio’s more elaborate tables like The Walking Dead and South Park. The flipper geometry seems to favor a horseshoe chute in the center, so you really have capture and aim the ball if you want to go for any of the peripheral chutes or lanes. The extra flipper near the top-right is poorly located and requires superhuman reflexes to even connect with the ball let alone propel it up the intended chute.
One could argue that Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron Pinball table is perhaps a more realistic notion of pinball. Many tables in the Zen library go well beyond what could actually be achieved with a real-world design, but then again that often adds to the level of fun and challenge and frankly, I just wasn’t having as much fun as I felt I should be having. The game has some interesting side objectives, fun bonus challenges and some great multi-ball action as well as the ability to change the difficulty of the table prior to launching the first ball. Cranking up the difficulty will boost scores but also shortens your timers and increases the table pitch causing the ball to rush towards those flippers at frightening speeds.
Having played the table prior to watching the film and then after, I will admit I did appreciate some of the design elements and the voice clips once I understood their context. The sound effects and music combine to create an exciting ambience, but as always, if you play this table for more than 15 minutes the voice clips will start to repeat heavily.
I played Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron Pinball table on both the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 and for the most part the experience is identical. I found the DualShock 4’s L1 and R1 buttons offered slightly more responsive flipper action than the LB/RB combo on the Xbox One, but Microsoft’s console seemed to offer a smoother camera movement when using one of the closer views that requires fast panning to track the ball. As always, your PSN redemption code will grant you access to this table on PS3, PS4, and Vita with a single purchase.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is without a doubt my favorite of all the Marvel movies, but sadly the same can’t be said for this pinball adaptation. While Zen Studios has captured the visuals of the film, both in 2D art and 3D animated models, and managed to stuff ever relevant quote, sound effect and audio cue into the soundtrack the simple fact is that this table just isn’t that “fun” to play.
