Originally Reviewed on December 28, 2017
We’ve come a long way from Space Cadet as far as pinball video games go. Pinball FX3 is the newest installment in a series of pinball games by Zen Studios. The base game and initial table are free to download, with a whole slew of other highly detailed and varied tables that allow for a wide variety of gameplay and challenges for your pinball wizardry to try to overcome.
To me, playing on an actual pinball table was always something that I did with friends. When pinball games started coming to the digital medium, there always seemed to be something missing, but I was unable to put my finger on it. Now, with the multiplayer aspects of Pinball FX3, I realized that it was that joy of playing with other people. Not only can you play with friends in a hot seat mode locally on the Switch, but you can also join multiplayer tables online and play with others around the world. There are also global leaderboards available for people who want to compare their skills against everyone else.
Now, I’ve never considered myself a very skilled pinball player, but there were a few things that bothered me about this game. The first thing was that there seemed to be a slight amount of lag between when I pressed the button and when the flipper actuated in the game. Even if this is only a minor delay, it is still enough in a game all about timing to ruin your experience. I looked online and found other people reporting that they had a lag-free experience, so I don’t know if I’m being particularly picky, or what. In other words, your mileage may vary. One thing I noticed was that this flipper lag was only noticeable when I was playing on my TV. So, it could be that there is a slight signal delay with my display and that it doesn’t have to do with the game itself.
The other issue I had was that with the few tables that I was able to play on, some of them are so colorful and busy that it can become difficult to keep track of the ball all the time. I’m sure that if you put enough time in on a table and get to know all of its ins and outs, it’ll get easier to track the ball and know where it is at all times, but at first, it can be rather confusing and difficult to know what’s going on, or where you need to be trying to aim the ball. “Aim for what’s flashing” is usually the advice that I’ve heard when it comes to scoring high in pinball games, but when it seems like everything is always flashing, it can get kind of confusing to know what’s “hot” and what’s not.
The only other downside that players should know going into the game is that even though the initial table is free to download, there are dozens of other tables that are not free. Many come in packs of tables that you can purchase, while others come individually. There are brand name tables that you will recognize from many big franchises, including Portal, Bob’s Burgers, Archer, Alien vs. Predator, and many, many more. The packs aren’t horribly priced, so getting a few of the ones that are particularly interesting to you aren’t all that pricey, but if you were to want to buy all of the tables, you’d end up spending a mint.
The thing that is really nice about the different tables is that they aren’t just simple reskins or the same table with a different coat of paint. They are vastly different in not only their style, but also in the way they are played. Some are very flat and others have many layers. Some have huge roller-coaster-esque features while others have simpler approaches. Some have only the two main flippers, while others have one or two secondary flippers scattered throughout the table that, when taken advantage of, can seriously enhance the way you play the table.
The physics of the game are, from my perspective, almost perfect. I love the way the ball really conveys a sense of its weight. The way it reacts to the bumpers and other table features really feels authentic. There weren’t, as far as I can remember, any moments where the game made me feel like it was “wrong” in the way the ball reacted. You can even use the left stick to nudge the table in any direction, which when you get the hang of it, can save you from certain death when you use it just at the right moment.
Even if you only have the one table, there are plenty of different challenges and ways to play that it’ll take a while for you to get bored. There are single-ball challenges that see how high a score you can get on one ball. There is a 5-minute challenge that sees how high a score you can get in five minutes, with unlimited ball-saves. There is also a survival mode that sets ever-increasing score goals that you have to get within a certain time in order to keep going. And there are rewards for completing these challenges too, which are called wizard bonuses. You can activate one of these to use during your games. One such is a ball rewind, which allows you to turn back time for a brief period, allowing you to make a save that you missed.
Another thing that stood out to me as a nice feature was the many different camera views that you have available in order to look at the table in the best way for you. There are views that are zoomed way out and almost directly over the table, while others are really zoomed in and low, which follow the ball around. In all, there are about 8 different camera angles, plus the ability to change the orientation of your view when the Switch is in portable mode so that you’re looking at the screen lengthways instead of horizontally. This is really nice since pinball tables tend to be oriented in this way, anyway.
Overall, I highly recommend Pinball FX3 to anyone out there that considers themselves a pinhead. There really is no reason to not at least try the free table. Though, if you do end up enjoying the game, it isn’t hard to spend a few extra bucks on a couple of tables just to keep things interesting.
New Tables Update on January 12, 2018
I was able to play on the Universal Classics pack of tables, which is a set of three tables: Back to the Future, E.T., and Jaws. Each of these tables features an incredibly detailed set of 3D models of characters and sets from the movies that do a lot to add to the atmosphere of each table. The settings are chock full of details from each of the movies that fans will truly appreciate.
The Back to the Future table is full of references from each of the movies, allowing you to experience the game from the different times featured in each movie and basically presenting you with a different table for each experience.
The E.T. and Jaws tables are both similar in that they are full of really detailed and fun nods to their reference material. And they’re not just there as set dressing, either, they feature into the different puzzles and goals of the table and will react accordingly when you activate them.
Finally, I also got the Portal table, which is another that is just plastered with references, sound effects, and voices from the game for anyone who is familiar. The addition of actual portals that will teleport your ball from one location on the table to another is really great, but makes for a sometimes confusing and unpredictable experience. I loved it, however, even though it was probably one of the harder tables that I played on. One of the main features that I really enjoyed was the elevator. When you get your ball into it, you can then go through a selection of several different tests, each of which has different goals and bonuses.
Overall, I would say that each of these tables was well worth the cost and they each added a huge amount of enjoyment and replayability to my experience with the game as a whole.
