Do you like Marvel? Do you like pinball? Alright, you’re set. Go buy this. Go on now! What, do you need more convincing? Well worry not, because Marvel Pinball is a four table DLC pack for Xbox Live Arcades Pinball FX 2 as well as a standalone game for the Playstation Network, so if you’re worried about how this feels like as a pinball game go and read my review on PFX2 http://www.giantbomb.com/pinball-fx2/61-32513/user-reviews/?review_id=20488. Everything said in that review as far as the control and feel of the game still stands true about the Marvel pack. In short, it feels just like a real pinball machine, which is exactly how you would want it to play like. So because I’ve already talked about the feel, the options with the operators menu, the social leaderboards and everything, this review is only going to be focusing on the four tables included in this pack.
So let’s start the show with a showstopper, the Amazing Spiderman! Something that each of the new tables focuses on is boss fights. Boss fights are basically a concept that has been in pinball machines forever, but taken to the next level. All good machines have certain special areas that when you shoot the pinball in there, it will activate a special times multiplier or a bonus area or minigame. So in this case, let’s say you hit the ball into the Green Goblin’s ramp three times, he then throws pumpkin bombs at you (which look like bombs but still play like pinballs), you then have to hit him with his own bombs to defeat him and gain a giant point bonus. Or go through Doctor Octopus’ area a few times and he will come down into the table and you have a time limit to hit your ball through certain ramps. Or take on Mysterio who again you’ll have to get through specific ramps to defeat, but this time he will reverse your flipper controls! There are also plenty of other challenges and quests to do, but the bosses are defiantly to most exciting, as each time you activate them the lighting changes, the characters move and speak, and they get harder each time you challenge them (Doc Ock will use his tentacles to attack your ball, Green Goblin will throw more bombs ect.). Spiderman’s table is the most colorful, bright, and definitely the most beautiful looking of the four offerings that we get out of the Marvel pack. Hell, it’s the best looking table out of everything Pinball FX has to offer!
Up next is the Invincible Iron Man! This table has a striking bright Gold and Red style that reflects his suit perfectly. Whenever you activate a boss fight Tony Stark, who’s standing at the top of the table the whole time, suits up and the table lights go haywire! When you’re actually in the this boss challenge and the ramps are all lit up the table is really cool, unfortunately you spend most of the time trying to get into the boss fight and this table seems to be particularly easy to lose your ball. As soon as you lose the ball, the suit goes away, the boss stops attacking, and it’s back to trying to hit that middle piece to activate the boss again. One very helpful thing that every table has is a rule sheet in the options menu that tells you how to activate every crazy little mission and quest. All the original tables have them as well, but the new Marvel tables rule sheets are easily two to three times longer.
Wolverine is next on the list. Shoot the ball in the center disk to reduce the number of days until the “annual fight” between Wolverine and Sabertooth! When that happens Sabertooth will jump down and you will have to hit certain areas to preform different attacks to beat him. You can also get into fights with the Silver Samurai and a sentinel. As with all the other machines, there is hidden depth to be found in every corner, however much like the last table, this one seems to lose the ball too easy as well. I know what you might be thinking. “Maybe he’s just not that good?” I actually have very high placing leaderboard scores on a few of these PFX2 tables and I know how to keep the ball going for a long time, it’s just something about Iron Man and the Wolverine tables that I just can’t seem to hold onto the ball for very long, and sometimes when the ball comes out of the center spinner it falls directly down the middle where there is absolutely nothing you can do to recover it.
Blade however takes the cake. The amount of things to do on the Blade table is insane! Tons and tons of (relatively) easy to access minigames and a separate small play area to start missions. The most unique thing about this table is that it has a day and night cycle! I know right!? At night the table goes dark and looks like it’s lit only by moon light, the vampires come out, different missions are available, and certain ramps and areas have different affects from when it’s day. At night you can take on missions to fight vamps and search for treasure. Completing challenges will give you different amounts of money depending on what you do. During the day, hitting this one ramp will take you to your workshop, where you can spend the money you’ve collected on equipment that give you upgrades ranging from ball savers and point multipliers, to one time giant point bonuses. With persistent attributes like money, treasures, and time of day, this table feels more like a mix between an RPG and a pinball machine (like Pinball Quest on the NES, why hasn’t anyone ever remade that!?). I have to say that I am just hooked on this one table, after playing just about everything Pinball FX has to offer, this is bar none THE BEST pinball table of out them all.
Even though it may have sounded like I was coming down harsh on Wolverine and Iron Man, they aren’t bad tables at all. In fact they rate about the same as any of the core PFX2 tables to me. Spiderman and Blade are just so much more fun and colorful than the others, it’s like they’re a different beast all together. Comparing them to each other is like apples and oranges… or night and day as the case may be with Blade. Spidy and Blade alone are more than worth the 9.99 price this bundle holds, having the other two is just a sweet bonus!
So in conclusion I’m gonna say the same words I opened with. Do you like Marvel? Do you like pinball? Then what are you waiting for? Marvel Pinball is the best at what it does, and what it does is very nice.