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Zen Pinball: Iron and Steel Review

 
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At a Glance...
 

Formats: PS4, PS3, PS Vita (Cross-Buy)
 
Genre:
 
Year:
 
Publisher:
 
Final Score
8.0
8/ 10


User Rating
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We Liked?


  • More Zen is always good
  • Tables are more creative than licensed material
  • Add to your wizard score multiplier

Not So Much?


  • Non licensed may not hold your attention as well
  • Convoluted ways to open up the best multipliers


Final Fiendish Findings?

Zen Studios releases another original IP table set with the Iron and Steel set. Two tables, two time periods.

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Posted March 26, 2015 by

 
Final Fiendish Findings?
 
 

Zen Pinball 2 is constantly growing. If you’re a true pinball nut who has been with the game since it’s inception, it’s scary to think how much dough you could drop into it. Lately, Zen has been making a lot of licensed game tables, such as the South Park tables, Walking Dead, and more Marvel tables than I care to count. Those, of course, are very popular tables, drawing off the fervor of the movies and shows they are based on. This time, however, Zen has gone back to the drawing board and crafted two original tables for your consumption.

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Okay, so Castle Storm isn’t a brand new IP, but it does belong to Zen. Bringing the characters from that series over to pinball, you find yourself sieging castles, battling fierce dragons, and fighting back the invading armies with your little metal ball. The table is more mystical than some of the others Zen has put out, feeling like a castle terrace. Stone, wood, and rivets hold the whole thing together, with grass outcroppings near the top, and a platform with a fierce dragon who breathes fire across the board.

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Meanwhile, Wild West Rampage puts you in the boots of a bounty hunter named Cindy looking to clean up the one-horse town that is the pinball table. Unique features on this table involve a saloon you can get in barfights in and a train in the process of being robbed. Activating either of these turns into mini-games where you do extra stuff for extra points. The train, is my favorite of this set, requiring quick reflexes as you bing your way up the train one car at a time.

Even though, or maybe thanks to, the lack of a license to please, Zen was allowed to think outside the box and craft a couple very fun tables. The minigames are a lot of fun, though I recommend reading the individual tables’ instruction manuals to learn how to activate them. Some of the best ones are rather convoluted to open, and if you’re not a pinball pro, you may only see them with a lucky strike.

Zen Pinball is everywhere. You can demo the tables for free, or get them for $4.99 on the Sony network. Other places have them as well, including Steam, mobile options, and Xbox consoles. True pinball fanatics will want to pick them up and add to the Wizard Score multiplier. While they don’t have that grab of a licensed character, these two tables possess a unique charm that moves them to the top of my Zen Pinball play cycle.


Ryan Johnson

 


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