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Hands-on with Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles | PSNStores

Hands-on with Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles

Posted by on June 19th, 2012 | 2 Comments | Tags: ,

A new set of tables hit Marvel Pinball this week for $9.99. Due to the fact that we don’t really review DLC here at PSNStores, I will just give you my impressions of all four of the tables released. Due note that you will need Marvel Pinball to access this content. It will however be available to use whenever Zen Pinball 2 launches later this summer for PS3 and Vita. Check our review of Marvel Pinball to view our thoughts on the base game.

The Avengers (Click For Trailer)

While this table may be based off of one of the biggest movies of all time, it sort of fell flat for me. In it you get to choose your Avenger at the start of the turn. Each Avenger is a different ball, as you can see from the trailer, with there own set of goals to accomplish. The only part I really liked was during multi-ball, seeing all types of different colored balls on the playfield was a trip. To get each Avenger ready for this you have to have them board the Hellicarrier in which you need to perform a small balancing act with the ball. Get them all loaded up and have the coolest multiball ever.

The table art features some of the characters from the movie but you can see that Zen didn’t have the licenses for the likeness of each actor. I guess you could see Scarlett Johansson if you squint really hard. Doesn’t take away from the table play obviously, but it is really noticeable. Visually this is the weakest of the bunch. But as I mentioned each ball has their own perks, for example Hawkeye will enable kickbacks and Iron Man will increase your bonus faster. Certainly this is the most unique game of pinball I have ever played.

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Fear Itself (Click For Trailer)

The Serpent has the world all wrapped up and it is your job to put a stop to this. Fear Itself features a really interesting table mechanic where the ball can swing under the flippers on a lane and shoot back out into the playfield. Really cool stuff and I have never seen anything like it before.

To defeat the Serpent you have to take out the “Worthies”. Each one has a different set of rules you must follow to do so. Many of these involve hitting ramps or the circle lane within a certain time period. The level also has a rather interesting ball save, where a magnet is used to bring the ball back to the playfield. To top it all off there is even a table event where you stop playing pinball. During this you are transported to a stage where the game actually turns into a brick breaker. Really out there and it was kind of interesting to see something like this in a pinball table.

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World War Hulk (Click For Trailer)

This right here is a table for you high-score junkies. By far it is the easiest to rack up huge mutlipliers and atmospheric highscores. In World War Hulk you are on a rampage throughout New York City. There are tons of lanes and ramps to hit with even a Madison Square Garden mini-playfield. Hitting lanes in succession will have you in the 10s of millions of points in no time. I did notice a small amount of lag when using the flippers in the mini-playfield, but it is so easy to get back to it I didn’t really find it a problem.

The whole time while playing you have other heroes trying to calm Hulk down, it is pretty funny to hear some of the dialog. Activating the table games has you bringing one of the heroes (Wolverine, Iron Man, The Thing or Dr. Strange) to the table in an all out war. Puny heroes, Hulk Smash. This table is fun and fast, definitely one to play.

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The Infinity Gauntlet (Click For Trailer)

Probably my favorite table of the four. In Infinity Gauntlet you battling Thanos and trying to recover the six Infinity Gems. In order to do this you must hit the “invisible ramps” that lead up to the Gauntlet. They are really easy to hit and there doesn’t seem to be many areas that cause weird bounces. After doing so 3 times you will activate a table game based around one of the gems.

This is where the table really shines. You will be doing all sorts of different things like a mini-playfield where you have to use magnets to knock over pillars, time bending slow motion effects on the ball, playing the game while the screen is inverted and other craziness. The skill-shot on this one is timing based, making it really easy to get the perk you want. There is also a ton of spoken dialog on this table too, over 100 different lines so you can actually follow the story that is being told. This table to me is easily worth the price of admission.

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Zen really delivers with this DLC set. Once again it goes to show that realistic pinball is not always the best pinball. I love the spin that Zen puts on these tables, I mean there is even a brick breaker mini-playfield. Having these unrealistic events makes the game stand out, for me at least. These tables are really fun to play and seem like some of the most polished tables released to date. I really can’t wait for Zen Pinball 2 to drop, just so I have these on the go. They are that good.