Tag: Avengers Pinball FX

The Avengers: Age of Ultron (Pinball FX Table Review)

Avengers: Age of Ultron
First Released April 22, 2015
Main Platform: Pinball FX
Switch Platform: Unreleased on Nintendo Switch
Designed by Tamas “Ypok” Pokrocz
Set: Marvel Pinball Collection 2 ($29.99)
Links: Strategy Guide – Pinball FX Wiki
Age of Ultron is a table that tries to be everything, and it fails to accomplish much of anything. We love the Xenon-like tube across the center, though.

Age of Ultron is so prohibitively difficult and so joyless to play that I wondered “were they just in a bad mood when they made this? Were they deliberately making a table designed to not be any fun at all?” If I had to describe Age of Ultron in one word, it would be “hateful.” The ball save is completely worthless because it annoyingly blasts the ball out of the drain like a bat out of hell that’s just as likely to almost immediately drain out anyway. Why even have a ball save if you want to be a complete asshole about it? The decorated balls of the first Avengers table return, but only for multiball modes. What’s annoying is that the physics completely change when the colored balls factor in. You can feel it during the cinematic “prelude” mode. It’s a maddening two-ball multiball, on one of those tables designed specifically to run poorly for multiball and have the balls clear each-other out. There’s no penalty for losing, but pay close attention when you do. The surviving ball transforms into a normal steel pinball, and the physics completely change, the balls stop running like they’ve been dipped in grease, and you no longer need superhero-like reflexes. The colored balls are especially suicidal, running across the rails and down the outlane like they’re opting-out of the superhero life.

Signature Mode – Hawk’s Nest: In this video mode, you have limited ammo to take down as many incoming Ultron Sentries as possible. I don’t know what it says about Age of Ultron that our favorite mode has nothing to do with pinball. Nothing good, I imagine.

Mind you, this is one of the only tables that has “adjustable difficulty” which is so erroneous that it feels like it’s being said with a snicker.You’d also be a fool to play on EASY, which scores significantly less points, with little “ease” gained besides, I think, more time for modes. The fact that I couldn’t really tell the difference says it all. However, on the medium setting, I had some hurry-ups where I never even had a remote chance at playing the ball, as the countdown began and ended with the ball still slowly traversing various elements. I don’t get my father’s enjoyment of Age of Ultron at all. For me, it’s too punishing and asks too much of players. A lot of Zen balls overdo modes, difficulty, etc. You can see it on the relatively low-scoring leaderboards. What frustrates me about Age of Ultron is that it’s a potential masterpiece-level table. Satisfying combo shots. Awesome homage to Xenon with the tube across the upper playfield. All the pieces were here, but it was more important for the designer to show how hard he could make a table instead of letting players, you know, have fun. Zen would never scrap one of their pins and start over, but they should consider it with Age of Ultron. Drop a city on this one.
Cathy: BAD (2 out of 5)
Angela: BAD
Oscar: BAD
Jordi: BAD
Sasha: BAD
Overall Scoring Average: 2.0 – BAD
Some review copies were provided in this review, others were paid for.

The Avengers (Pinball FX Table Review)

The Avengers
First Released June 19, 2012
Main Platform: Pinball FX
Switch Platform: Not Yet Released
Designed by Thomas Crofts
Set: Marvel Pinball Collection 2 ($29.99)
Links: Strategy Guide – Pinball FX Wiki
Kickback – Sasha: I can’t believe they don’t like Avengers more! I like that Thomas Crofts set the table on the Helicarrier from the film. They didn’t have Avengers Tower yet! This is their first adventure! Most importantly, I think Cathy is wrong about the color scheme. I think the gray-metal setting works because it’s the characters that are supposed to be colorful and stand out, not the setting. The modes follow the movie and the shots use the character logos to guide you. That wouldn’t look as good without the chain-link floor. Avengers has complex rules and six different balls, each with their own unique attributes (see the next caption), but having the lights and character logos contrast everything else makes it easier to find the shots. The slingshots are really bad, which is why I can’t give it MASTERPIECE, but I was very close. Come on, Zen! I want to play this on my Nintendo Switch!

Between this and Han Solo, I think Zen should avoid metal-grated settings. It just never works out for them. In fairness, Avengers is hardly a bad table. It’s just not really a remarkable one, either. Besides the balls being individually decorated to resemble the Avengers themselves, I found the setting here is so drab to the point that it’s exhausting. This wasn’t unanimous, as my niece’s kickback noted. In terms of themes and modes, it’s such a safe table, you know? That’s how I felt about the first Avengers movie, too. Given how the property has, again and again, produced predictable, boilerplate-type PRODUCTS, I have to believe there’s someone from Marvel with arms like tree trunks brandishing a wiffle bat who provides the one mandate from Disney overlords: don’t f*ck this up! Thomas Crofts didn’t. Zen’s first Avengers pin is FINE. Not great. Not bad. Fine. Kind of bonkers, really, since this is essentially Attack from Mars with a superhero theme. The funny thing is, one of our inside jokes is that if Zen Studios had made Attack from Mars, the saucers would have required more hits to open and more to kill, and the slingshots would have been aimed at the outlanes and the game would be anything but generous with extra balls. And that’s basically what Avengers is.

Signature Element – Custom Balls: You’re not just picking a load-out for the score display. In Avengers, the balls are painted to match their corresponding hero. The gameplay effect is tied to the grinding, as each character reaches one their corresponding mode and/or bonuses in fewer shots. I put a LOT of stock in tables having enough flexibility that it allows players to come up with their own strategy. By all rights, having six balls with unique abilities and perks should open that up in a way few tables can offer. But, Avengers load-outs are wildly imbalanced. One of the balls is so overpowered that it becomes a no-brainer. It’s Captain America’s ball. It grants you longer ball save and a longer grace period for combos AND it makes the Loki fight easier AND you get more time in the Repair the Engines mode AND if you manage to pull off an eight-way combo, it lights the extra ball. None of the other five come close to offering that much value. In fact, no other balls offer exclusive extra ball opportunities. Like so many Zen pins, this is begging for an update that balances the scoring. Come on, Zen. Stern updates the rules to their older pins. We’re talking about excellent layouts not reaching their full potential.

Oh, it could have been a lot better. A potentially great table driver, placed smack-dab in the center, had potential to one-up the saucer with three side-by-side targets and accommodating rows of lights. Easily the most satisfying shot on the table, but all it does is launch predictable, bland modes. It’s also got some maddening difficulty spikes. The slingshots spoon feed the outlanes too much. It’s not just the actual spring mechanism, either. The heads of the slingshots are actually more dangerous than the moving parts. That’s a weird one, right there. For whatever reason, if the ball bounces off the head of the structure, it’s likely to say “good bye, cruel world” and plunge straight down the outlane before you even get a chance to defend against it. This isn’t the Defenders, after all. It’s the Avengers. Also, the rails are practically bibs for the outlanes. Why would you make a table based on a movie that’s supposed to be for everyone be so focused on demoralization? If not for the razor-sharp scoring balance, probably the best of that era from Zen, I would have been inclined to give Avengers a rating of BAD. But the shot selection is top-notch and the tilt-table ball lock I personally like better than the one on Indiana Jones. It’s just too bad about the difficulty, which turns a solidly GREAT pin into one that’s just barely, BARELY okay.
Cathy: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Angela: GOOD
Oscar: GOOD
Jordi: GOOD
Sasha: GREAT (4 out of 5)
Overall Scoring Average: 3.2 🧹CLEAN SCORECARD🧹
Some review copies were provided in this review, others were paid for.