Overall, I’ve really enjoyed my time with Pinball FX and can definitely see myself continuing to play down the road. I’m excited to see what tables are coming next, and as a casual pinball player I’d say the physics here feel pretty great on current-gen consoles. Also, you can give it a try for free, as the base download will grant you one free table. If you complete the tutorial mode, you’ll also get a free 24hr Pinball Pass that’ll allow you to download and try out every table available, so you can really decide for yourself if the latest iteration of Pinball FX is for you.
In a vacuum, Pinball FX is for the most part a sensational pinball game, and to be fair the closest competition is Zen Studios own fantastic pinball games themselves – who, for yet another installment, remain the kings of pinball in videogame form.
For the most part, FX has grown into an infinitely replayable video pinball platform. It has a few new features (like the flips challenge), and I assume it has some visual polish for high-end hardware users. FX currently boasts 38 new tables not featured in previous FX games (and 121 tables total). For new players, FX now has 3 completely free tables, and the Events area often lets you play a limited number of full games of one table you might not have paid for yet. All tables have a 2-minute trial mode. FX is available on Steam now too, and some tables are available on Switch.
Unfortunately, it has been a long road to get to where FX is now, and I personally still prefer FX3 overall. While more previously released tables were announced for FX at first, like the coveted ALIENS, they have not manifested yet, and the Switch is still missing half of the Marvel tables from FX3. Newly released tables often have a glaring bug or scoring imbalance. Overall, the new layouts seem mediocre, like Borderlands, Kung Fu Panda, World War Z, Star Trek: Kelvin Timeline, and Godzilla Pinball (no, not Stern's Godzilla, and no, not the Sega Godzilla either). Some of the new themes are great, especially in the Williams collection, and some are a miss (Homeworld, Sky Pirates). Gameplay has been tweaked closer to real simulation in FX, which is fine for real-life tables like Theatre of Magic but creates a big spike in difficulty on Zen originals like Darth Vader and Secrets of the Deep. A "Normal" difficulty is being slowly rolled out to compensate for this, but it is not available for most tables yet. For high level players, nudge passing breaks the simulation by making ball control much easier. Sale prices have been very sparse on the Xbox platform, so now my FX collection is split between Xbox One (my preferred platform) and Steam - ugh. I have still not repurchased most of the Star Wars collection, which I have already bought multiple times in previous versions.
I could go on, but the point is that Pinball FX can be great one day, when more of us have super powerful graphics processors and more fixes have been implemented and even more features and tables have been added. It is fun enough for today, though, especially for pinball enthusiasts. Since you can see quite a bit for free, FX is absolutely worth a try. If you are a longtime player, get some opinions on the new releases and check those out. Steam has had really good sale prices already. See you on the leaderboards!
Pinball FX brings virtual pinball action back to our consoles with this brand new iteration of the game. While it doesn’t feel great that previously bought tables don’t transfer to this game, it’s a great starting point for new players and there are options for returning. The premium pass is a good idea as a way to experience most of the tables that Pinball FX has to offer if you are okay not owning the tables once the subscription is up. Otherwise I’m happy with what I’ve played. It’s been fun to get a few rounds in each day and tackle the events to experience tables I otherwise might skip over. Worth the price of entry at free, but the microtransactions are a deterrent for some.
Pinball FX is looking to make a comeback on console with this reboot, though your enjoyment is solely going to depend on which tables you enjoy and how much money you’re willing to invest into it. For recreating an actual pinball experience digitally, no one does it better than Zen Studios, it’s just a shame that the cost of entry is quite high to accumulate a decent pinball collection once again and you’re constantly tugged in multiple directions to open your wallet. Pinball FX as its own gaming experience is entertaining and a great way to spend a few relaxing hours on numerous tables once purchased, but the pricing structure is something to check before you dive in head first and sure to massively disappoint those that have already previously bought tables in the past.
Overall, Pinball FX has come out of the gate with a strong launch. There are dozens of great tables including all-time favorites as well as plenty of new ones, and new modes and events provide even more variety for players. However, the pricing options may frustrate players on a budget, or longtime fans who’ve already bought many of the tables in previous versions. If there were some way to honor those purchases and that player commitment, Pinball FX would go from good to great.
In its current state, the Xbox version of Pinball FX still feels like a work in progress and isn't an improvement from the prior version of the game. For a product that targets a niche market, that's a hard pill to swallow. I really wanted to like Pinball FX, but every time I fired it up, I found myself switching back to Pinball FX3. It's best to wait for improvements before investing a lot of money on upgrading and rebuying tables you already own.
Very few (if any?) upgrades from the previous version. Zero interest in earning trinkets to display on virtual shelves. No way to import previously purchased tables. Not going to spend $100-$200 to buy them all again. Extremely disappointing
I have Pinball FX3 with all tables. I don´t want to bye Tables, that I have bought less than 1 year ago again in Pinball FX. Sorry, but that is a shame . I have tested the FX Tables and they are minimal different to FX3. They were ported from FX3 to FX with the same bugs in it. Zen Studios, what are yout thinking? Is this the way to honor your existing Customers? I can,t understand this form of greed! No thanx!
I hope Zen does a quick back peddle after they see a sharp decline in user numbers and profit generated off of DLC table purchases. I won’t be re-purchasing my entire collection of tables again anytime soon and Incant imagine the customer who would be willing. Even at 33% discount coming at a later date for some tables that is far too expensive to carry your purchases over from one version to the next. Imagine the amount of purchases happy customers would have made today instead of picking and choosing which one of their favourite tables they want to pay full price for again for a minor graphical upgrade. Did a team actual sit around a board room table and actually think this was a good idea and their fans and customers would support them? Discuss
SummaryPinball FX
Pinball FX is digital pinball evolved. Get the highest score on tables inspired by the biggest brands in entertainment.
Biggest brands in pinball form
Discover brand new exclusive tables created for Pinball FX, or find your favorites among more than 40 unique and visually enhanced favorites from Zen's extensive digital pinbal...