Review: Pinball FX2 “Deadpool” DLC table

I consider myself a geek and wear that label with pride. However, there is one glaring hole in my Geekdom cap: that I never got into the whole comic book scene. I feel like there is a large part of my childhood that others experienced and I missed out on. When Zen Studio initially started releasing Marvel-themed pinball tables I was apathetic. Sure, they were new pinball tables and I love pinball, but I never developed that connection with super heroes so the actual subject didn’t do much for me.

I played the “World War Hulk” table along with the “Thor”, “Fantastic Four”, “Iron Man”, “Spider-Man”, “Captain America” ones and a host of others. I played them because I love pinball. Then I watched the Captain America movie and knew who Bucky was and what the Cosmic Cube was… because of pinball. It was an odd moment realizing I learned something from a game. Fast forward to the newest pinball table from Zen Studios: “Deadpool”. Aside from another Deadpool game released in 2013, I had zero idea who Deadpool was. I quickly learned that not all super heroes are created equal.

The first thing I do when I load up a new table is to let the cinematic fly by play out to see everything on the table. This table seems to pull some things from a couple previous tables in terms of general layout and flow. For ardent Zen Pinball fans this table feels a lot like the “Ghost Rider” table crossed with the “Excalibur” table, with a little bit of “Captain America” mixed in. Playfield-wise the table seems to play from the centre outward. There’s a centre target ramp and then lays and orbits spaced out with bumpers in the upper left hand part of the table. Two sets of flippers, the obvious two normal flippers at the bottom and two set midway up mostly used for orbits and combo shots.

When I first looked at the table I thought it had potential be a high scoring, easy combo, and lower difficulty table. Boy was I wrong. The first hour or so I spent on it was just short of frustrating. Shorts that appeared to be easy were tricky, shots that appeared to be tricky where difficult, and shots that looked like they could be difficult were… well they were a bitch. They will no doubt become easier the more I play, but it doesn’t seem like this will be one of the easier tables by a longshot.

The core gameplay isn’t much different than most tables. There are missions to complete, spinners to hit and the usual mix of ramps and orbits. There are a few things about the “Deadpool” table that make it stand out in a unique way. For starters there’s the “Blind AI” mode in which the entire table is blacked out except for the ball, flippers, and scoring lanes. It’s a new way to play pinball when you can’t see the table aside from a few items on it. Once and awhile Deadpool himself will get bored and cause havoc on the table. He’ll throw smoke grenades, destroy your ball, nudge the table to mess with your shots, and even push a ramp or two down completely changing the layout of the table.

Visually, the table looks amazing. Audio wise the classic rock music fits the table and theme well. It’s catchy, easy to listen to and keeps things upbeat. The little I know about Deadpool, I know that he has the ability to throw out one-liners like the Easter Bunny throws jelly beans; that’s the case here as well. Some are self-depreciating towards Zen Studios like talking about the Iron Man table. One talks about another Zen title Kickbeat. Others are the more traditional wise cracks towards bad guys and things in general. There were times I genuinely laughed, yet the more I played and heard those same lines repeated time and time again they lost their charm for me. I realize there are only so many lines of dialogue for a single table, and maybe it’s my lack of experience with Deadpool but I found myself just zoning out his dialogue fairly quickly.

I have never been shy about expressing my admiration of Zen Studios work with Pinball FX2. Across Xbox 360, Steam, Vita, and Android I’ve logged some serious time playing every table. It’s rare to find a game that I feel I need to own on multiple platforms. Sure, I have my favourite tables — “Epic Quest” being at the top of the list – so it’s an odd feeling for me to sit here and think to myself, “I’m not sure I like this table.” It has all the things that make a table good, but for me they don’t come together in a way that makes me want to run out and buy it on all four platforms.

It could be partly that I’m not a comic book guy and some of the Deadpool coolness is lost on me, I’m not sure to be honest. Maybe the table will grow on me over time; I will by no means never play it again. It’s pinball after all, I’ll play anything. I just have this feeling that it won’t be the first table I load up. The good news is there’re 40+ other tables and with that amount there’s something there to please everyone. Pinball and Marvel fans should give this one a look there, who knows maybe one man’s consternation may be another man’s game of the year.

The “Deadpool” table is available now for $2.99 USD on Xbox 360, PS3, PS Vita, PS 4, Steam, Mac, Android, iOS, and Amazon.

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