I've been happily following along with the development of the new iteration of Pinball FX, Zen Studios' new pinball platform which is in Early Access on Epic Games Store. Zen's platforms are something I keep constantly installed on every console I own, just because I love having the ability to fire up a table for a few minutes of unwinding in the middle of a rough day. Playing pinball doesn't do much to lower my blood pressure, but I still find it a nice getaway.
Zen is today releasing four new tables onto the Pinball FX platform. Three of these (Funhouse, Space Station, and Dr. Dude and His Excellent Ray) have been released previously as part of the Williams Pinball: Volume 6 collection, but The Machine: Bride of Pin-Bot is brand spanking new.
I took a quick look at a few of these tables. As usual, some of the tables work better for me than others; I just tend to lock in on certain tables and ignore others. Within this round, I definitely favor Pin-Bot and Dr. Dude. I find Funhouse to be a little creepy. I mean, I know it's supposed to be creepy, but you know, sometimes I'm not up for creepy. I much prefer the retro-sci-fi femme-bot in The Machine, and the totally over-energetic flailing of Dr. Dude. Here's a video of my session this morning, which gives a decent look at these tables.
The Machine: Bride of Pinbot was released in February 1991. 8100 tables were produced, and they now sell for an average of around $5000. Fun fact: this was the last machine produced by Williams that used a segmented score display before they converted over to the more modern dot-matrix screen.
Bride of Pinbot might be my favorite of the Williams tables on Zen's platform. It's just so weird, and I love the fantasy elements that Zen has added to the mix. The little bride-bot on the left of the table is great, and I really enjoy the way various spaceship whir across the table as you play. As usual, Zen has got its hooks in me, as I'll be clacking away at this table for at least a couple more weeks. Take a look, you'll find me happily nestled at the mid-bottom of the leaderboards.
Pinball FX can be downloaded for free on Epic Games Store.
