We love our pinball here at Neowin, and nobody does the game better on a console than our friends over at Zen Studios. Today they’ve released a new four-pack of tables that relate to the recently released Joss Whedon blockbuster movie, The Avengers. How do these tables hold up and how do they compare to the other tables available on the Pinball FX2 platform?
Avengers
The first table we tried was the collection’s namesake: Avengers. The table looks great with 3D renderings of Thor, Iron Man, and the antagonist Loki, while the table itself has pictures of Nick Fury, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Captain America. Loki stands in the middle and is where various missions are started, while there are ramps on either side of him, each related to one of the six Avengers.
This table, like the Avengers table, consists of a variety of different ramps that span across the entire table. While it’s difficult to determine exactly how to start most of the missions (we were only able to unlock the battle between Hulk and Wolverine during our limited gameplay), the action is still very fast and extremely fun.
There’s a target at the top-middle of the table that you hit five times to spell out ARENA, and hitting it a sixth time pulls the ball into a basketball court where you have to hit various ramps to win. Another mission has Hulk giving you 24 hours to rescue as many civilians as you can before he destroys the city. Hitting the ramps and targets loads them up into trucks and helps them make their escape.
Overall we really enjoyed this table. The graphics are top notch, the gameplay is fast and exciting, and the voice acting is decent, although we would’ve preferred to see more targets and less ramps.
Conclusion
So the question remains: Is this pack worth 800 MS points (or $10)? Two of the tables, Avengers and World War Hulk, are definitely excellent and worthy of any collection. Unfortunately, we didn’t really enjoy Infinity Gauntlet or Fear Itself. Part of it might be that we had no familiarity with the concept and therefore fans of these crossovers may enjoy them more.
We’d definitely rank this Marvel pack as less impressive than the original, so if you’re new to Pinball FX2, pick up the original four pack (Spider-Man, Blade, Iron Man, and Wolverine). If you already have the original, this pack is a toss-up compared to the Vengeance and Virtue pack. In our opinion, the Avengers and World War Hulk tables are both better than anything in the V&V pack, but Infinity Guantlet and Fear Itself are far below.
Giving an overall rating for this pack is difficult. If we had to rate the tables individually, we"d give Avengers a 9 and World War Hulk an 8, but we"d give Infinity Gauntlet and Fear Itself a 4. So it comes down to whether you think paying 800 MS points ($10) for two great tables is a worthwhile investment or if you’d rather have four decent-to-good tables for the same price from the Vengeance and Virtue pack. It"s unfortunate that you can"t purchase the tables individually since it"s a no-brainer to buy the Avengers and Hulk tables.