Star Wars: Clone Wars (Pinball FX Table Review)

Clone Wars BackglassClone Wars
First Released February 27, 2013
Main Platform: Pinball FX
Switch Platform: Star Wars Pinball
Designed by Ivan “Mad_Boy” Nicoara
Set: Star Wars Pinball Collection 1 ($23.99)
Links: Strategy Guide – Pinball FX Wiki
STOP! If you’re not able to play Clone Wars in the vertical table view mode, it will affect your enjoyment. You could probably drop our scoring average by a full point, if not more. Clone Wars already has massive visibility issues due to the loudly busy playfield, but in standard horizontal viewing angles, you just plain can’t see some of the shots. This NEEDS to be viewed like a standard table. It’s criminal that this wasn’t included in their Arcade1Up.

Ah. Clone Wars. You sweet, sweet thing, you. I was actually surprised to learn this is a more polarizing choice for the Pantheon. I mean, it was close for most of us. Myself, Angela, and Jordi would consider this the lowest of any of our MASTERPIECE votes, while only Oscar is tapping his wrist and saying “more of this. Put it in my veins. Nom nom!” Clone Wars features a layout that feels like a real, honest-to-God Stern table, probably more so than any other Zen original. Is it really that hard to imagine this sitting alongside their versions of Godzilla, Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Maiden, etc? And it’s not that Clone Wars is hated outside of our circle. I’ve never seen anyone say it’s a bad pin. They just don’t think it’s as good as we do. When Elias joined our team and gave it a GOOD rating, we were disappointed, but not surprised. If you had told me “Elias is going to put the screws to one of our Pantheon pins” I would have said “is it Clone Wars?” Any of us would have guessed Clone Wars, but why? Maybe the loud visuals, or the fast running flipper zone, or maybe unforgiving rails and outlanes. Or, perhaps it’s too life-like, and those playing Pinball FX, or Star Wars Pinball on Switch are seeking a more video game-like experience. Well, no, that can be it. This thing has modes that cannot be done in real life. Really, really good modes, at that. There are plenty of reasons to not rate this as an elite pin.

Signature Mode – War on Christophosis: You’ve never seen anything like this in pinball before. In this mode, a gigantic force field that you can’t penetrate from the outside covers the playfield, leaving only two entry points. You have to convert your ball into a bomb, then flick the bomb against the designated targets. A microcosm of Clone Wars in general, the mode is fun and intense, but far too visually loud. I think every player who genuinely wants to make a go at this one will want to experiment with the visual settings, because it’s too damn hard to see what’s going on. On a lesser table, we’d probably score against it. Elias, who didn’t love Clone Wars as much as we did and, in fact, seems to have barely tolerated it, for sure scored against the visuals. And you know what? We can’t argue with him. It’s totally fair.

So, why do most of us rate Clone Wars a MASTERPIECE? Because gameplay is king. Clone Wars is chock-full of unconventionally-angled orbits that are a joy to shoot combos on. And, unlike many Zen finesse pins, it doesn’t grossly overvalue basic orbital combos. Part of why the shots feel so rewarding is Clone Wars is one of Pinball FX’s fastest-running tables, especially around the flippers. Oh and for anyone who read the last several table reviews and thinks I can’t handle mean-spirited outlanes, hey, I think Clone Wars is a MASTERPIECE, and it has serial killers for outlanes. Clone Wars is probably the most difficult Zen original design to enter the Pantheon. I think that’s why a lot of people think we’re nuts for rating it this high. It can be quite unforgiving if you brick your shots, and snap-shots are harder to pull off here than on any other Star Wars table. You need Jedi-like reflexes for this one. On the other hand, this is one of the few Zen tables that awards extra balls automatically. It’s just a shame they didn’t go all the way with “this is a REAL table” concept and have a replay extra ball after a certain point threshold, like say, 60,000,000. Actually, Zen really needs to start adding replay EBs in general. They’re just fun.

Signature Mode – Clone Training: We’re not big fans of Zen’s mini-fields in general, but Clone Wars stands out for having one of the best ones. Or two of the best, really. Spelling TRAINING while shooting targets lights the sinkhole to the mini-fields, which have their own physics that feels more like a handheld novelty game. The flipper gap is huge, which is normally a problem, but even a grazing shot should be enough to save the ball. Like everything else with Clone Wars, there’s too many shots required, but at least it’s fun.

Admittedly, all the modes have the same problems common to Zen’s original pins, IE “why have a mode require six shots when it can require ten? Why ten when it can be twelve?” Like the force field mode above? That’s twelve total shots, assuming you shoot completely perfectly. Six shots to turn the ball into a bomb and six to deliver the payload. I’ve spent a lot of time pondering “what if Zen reduced the required shots in Clone Wars by 40% or so? Would that finally put Clone Wars in the discussion for Zen’s best table?” I honestly don’t know. You can’t know until you experience it firsthand. Clone Wars is in the 99th percentile of Zen pins, and also none of us feel that it’s even within sniffing distance of Mimban. Is Clone Wars an ELITE digital pinball table? Absolutely. It’s one of the best shooters in Pinball FX. Is it one of the best digital-only tables ever made? Now that’s a debate, and it shouldn’t be. Not with a layout THIS good. Not with scoring this balanced. Not with gameplay so elegant. *I* think it’s one of the best, but I can see why someone wouldn’t. Clone Wars might be the ugly duckling of the Pantheon.. but it belongs in the Pantheon.
Clone Wars SmallCathy: MASTERPIECE (5 out of 5)
Angela: MASTERPIECE
Oscar: MASTERPIECE
Jordi: MASTERPIECE
Sasha: MASTERPIECE
Elias: GOOD (3 out of 5, Star Wars Pinball)
Overall Scoring Average: 4.66 🏛️PANTHEON INDUCTEE🏛️
Primary Scoring Average: 5.0 🏛️PANTHEON INDUCTEE🏛️

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Author: Indie Gamer Chick

Indie game reviews and editorials.

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