For all you Pinball FX3 players out there looking for your next table fix, Star Wars Pinball: Solo has arrived for all the available platforms. As always (and to maintain our perfect table library) we are reviewing for the PS4. Solo comes with its own set of baggage, and while the film wasn’t a critical success I had no serious issues with the movie, so I went into this review from a very neutral position. And while my indifference of the subject matter may have contributed to my overall feelings toward this set of three new tables, it was ultimately the poor table design that landed this smuggler in carbonite.
Before I get into the specifics of all three tables I will tell you the issues had with all of them, those being poor table design, architecture, and geometry. Unlike any of the 70+ other tables in my collection it was an insufferable chore to actually get anything done. The first several games of the first table (Solo) had the ball draining so fast I was unable to even experience the table. I would launch the ball and it would rip down the middle or head for the far drain lanes, immediately using my Ball Save, and often after the subsequent relaunch it would do the same. Somewhere around my fifth or sixth game I was actually able to keep the ball going for a few minutes, although it always felt more like luck rather than skill.
The other big issue I had with all three table designs is the geometry. Normally you can find your groove of where on the flipper to launch the ball, but in all of these tables there was no predictability, so most of the time it was impossible to send the ball up a ramp or hit a specific target with any reasonable expectation of reliability. Half the time I was simply struggling to just keep the ball from draining, and when your entire pinball game is about defense you can’t really explore the rules and tasks of the table to invoke those special modes and combos. To put it in perspective, after 10-12 games on each of the three tables I only experienced a multiball moment ONCE. In most other tables I can get multiball going once per ball, or at least once per game.
Star Wars Pinball: Solo delivers three tables based on the recent movie of the same name, borrowing on characters and scenarios from that film as well as your favorite moments from the previous movies. The content is really all over the place as is the artwork on the Lando table, which seems to use Billy Dee for the table art and Donald Glover for the 3D character model. Perhaps the best featured model in the game is the Millennium Falcon that is the centerpiece of the Solo table and will even take off and fly around the table. I hope to see this in VR someday.
Up first is Star Wars Pinball: Solo, which has some really great set pieces if you can keep the ball alive long enough to experience them. Many of your favorite moments from the movie have been recreated in pinball form including the Kessel Run and the ultimate monorail train heist that whips your ball around the table. There is this cool rotational ball lock designed around everyone’s favorite droid, L3-37 that will build up for multiball if you last that long. You’ll encounter Chewbacca, Lando, and Beckett and hear lots of famous quotes while enjoying that classic Star Wars theme music.
Star Wars Pinball: Calrissian Chronicles is all about Lando, and much like how he stole the show in the movie, his table is perhaps my favorite of the three in this new set. It’s just a more joyful table that is brightly lit and set against the cloud city of Bespin from Empire Strike Back. There are also selectable scenes from Return of the Jedi as well as the new movie and even a few guest characters from the Rebels franchise. You get to play cards and try to beat Han one minute then help him escape the Sarlacc pit the next or even pilot the Falcon and go up against a swarm of Tie Fighters. And hopefully your targeting is as precise as Lando’s when 15 of his signature enemies start popping up around the table for target practice including Vader and Boba Fett.
What was rather a small part of the latest movie become an entire table in Star Wars Pinball: Battle of Mimban where you re-experience all the chaos and grime of the battlefield when you take command of Imperial forces and attack hostile natives, defend your territory with turrets, and unleash devastating attacks with all the might of an AT-DT stomping across the table. There is even a Wookie in a pit that might need an occasional feeding. This table also has one of the most insane multiball moments if you can manage to trigger the event.
While the Lando table offered up the most fun as far as content, the Mimban table was ultimately the most fun to play from a pinball perspective, as the ramps and chutes seems to be more in line with the flipper ball angles, meaning it was easier to advance the score and the various triggers to reach higher stages and game modes. Ironically, the Mimban table also has the least Star Wars flavor about it.
Priced at $10 for the triple-table bundle, there is admittedly some fun to be had here but it won’t be as instant or as gratifying as it has been with past Pinball FX3 table packs. Prepare for a lot of frustration and ball drains beyond your control, and it might take hours before you can reliably get the ball to go up a ramp or hit a target with repetitive precision. But when the tables do start clicking, Star Wars Pinball: Solo is great fun and does justice to the franchise.
