Zen Pinball: Excalibur
Score: 88% Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment America Developer: Zen Studios Media: Download/1 Players: 1 - 2 (Online) Genre: Classic/Retro/Arcade/Online
Introduction: Goodness. By the time 2011 rolls around, reviews of Zen Pinball tables may very well constitute half my body of work for this website. As long as they keep sending me codes (and as long as I can keep coming up with new ways to describe pinball), I will continue to happily vouch for Zen Studios and their fantastic PlayStation Network game. Zen Pinball: Excalibur is the fourth downloadable table for last year's critically acclaimed video pinball game. It holds up well against the rest of the tables, which means it's a pretty great release.
Graphics & Sound: Well, I've been proven wrong yet again. It seems Zen Studios wants to be unpredictable when it comes to table themes and layouts. The stream of downloadable content began with a one-two punch of homages to classic video games like Street Fighter II and Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. Then, out of the blue, out came the goofy Earth Defense table. So it's only logical that the next table would tackle the Arthurian legend! I'm game; one of my favorite pinball tables is Williams' Medieval Madness -- which is featured in Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection. Zen Pinball: Excalibur looks fantastic, though what's on the table is more or less a conventional approach to the Arthurian legend. The playing field will make you feel like you're at a Renaissance fair; the ramparts of Camelot stand tall while Arthur clashes with Mordred. Merlin waves his wand with a flourish for every saved ball, and the sorceress Morgan le Fay assumes a rather seductive pose. The plunger is flanked by two windlasses; pulling the plunger back will cause them to wind up. The sound design follows the art direction in lockstep; we've got clashing swords and music that almost sounds like it was pulled from the trailer for the latest Ridley Scott movie. When you ball out, Merlin asks: "Are you a knight or merely a squire?"
GamePlay: Here's how you play pinball: you pull a plunger to launch a little metallic ball onto a slanted table filled with mechanisms, traps, and targets. You have control of two flippers that are situated at the bottom of the table. Using the flippers allows you to keep the ball in play while you're racking up points and multipliers. Be sure to keep an eye on the dot matrix at the top-left of the screen; sometimes it lets you know what you need to be aiming for. If the ball rolls out of play and the ball save isn't lit up, you lose it. You have three balls. Go nuts. Forgive me for the snarky pinball rundown and the Beavis-and-Butthead wordplay (what's amazing is that it was actually unintended). Zen Pinball doesn't play any different from any other game of video pinball; it just does it better than any of the others.
Value: If you've read my coverage of Zen Pinball and all of its downloadable content, it's here that my words make me sound like a broken record (a laughable expression for someone who deals with the written word). Yes, I may be cut-pasting my thoughts from review to review, but honestly, there's not much to think about when it comes to these downloads. Zen Pinball: Excalibur costs $2.50. I know that our country is dealing with a pretty bad recession that may very well get worse, but come on. Do you honestly think you won't be able to afford to pay the rent or your next car note if you part with four pictures of George Washington's mug? I've been to arcades that charge you that much for a single game of Time Crisis 3. Sure, that's unforgivable on the part of the arcade, but my point remains valid. If you own Zen Pinball and love it, you should be downloading these tables. If you're not, you're a fool.
-FenixDown, GameVortex Communications AKA Jon Carlos
Related Links: Official Website of Zen Pinball PlayStation Illustrated's Review of Zen Pinball PlayStation Illustrated's Review of Zen Pinball: Street Fighter II Tribute PlayStation Illustrated's Review of Zen Pinball: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Table PlayStation Illustrated's Review of Zen Pinball: Earth Defense Game Vortex's Review of Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection
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