Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na, Ant-Man! Wait — wrong character, sorry about that.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock you know that the latest Marvel movie Ant-Man is releasing this week. As par for the course Zen Studios has released its latest Marvel-themed pinball table of the same name. Here’s the thing though with me and superheroes: my knowledge about them is mediocre at best and abysmal when you get to secondary, or smaller (pun intended) characters. So, like a couple tables before it, the “Ant-Man” table will need to teach me about who Ant-Man is.
My first impressions of the table were that the middle seemed very open. The past few tables the middle was either fairly tight, or dominated by ramps and switchbacks. Not so with this one, in fact the majority of the action will be taking place in the upper third of the table as that’s where all the ramps are located. There is a fairly good sized recessed playfield, but don’t plan on spending too much time down there. It’s utilized when you are ant sized and it a frenetic pace which you’ll be in and out of quick.
The large middle area is open to use a lot of 3D models and art when you activate certain modes, such as when Yellowjacket shows up, when you’re riding around on the back of a flying ant, and when you are sparring and trying to hit targets. A hurry up mode where you are being chased by two cops, that according to the dialogue never leave Ant-Man alone. There are a couple other modes that are here as well but I am still trying to figure out how to activate them. Overall there seems to be a good assortment of modes and a solid story progression to shoot for to reach Wizard mode.
I play a lot of pinball, and I mean a lot – over 270 hours between the 360 and Xbox One last I checked – so I think I have developed a pretty good feel for how tables work. Yet, there is something about this particular table layout that just doesn’t work for me. It was equal parts frustration and head shaking. Only the far left/right loop and the middle ramp were any semblance of a decent flow.
The outer drain lanes seem to have vacuums installed in them because whenever the ball got close to them it was gone. Usually, this is a case of me not understanding the table to start with, but even then it’s fun to just bang the ball around. I never really felt that “hit it around for fun” with this table. To me that’s the hallmark of a great table, where even if you don’t know what’s going on you can still play and have fun.
Some bright spots for the table though are the music and sound effects. Every pinball fan who ever played a physical table knows the sound the bumpers made. It’s one of those iconic old school arcade sounds. Some of those vintage sounds have found their way into the table and it’s spot on. I smiled when I heard it actually. All the sound effects and general musical score are well done.
The voice work though is hit and miss. Let me rephrase that, the actual actors who do the voice work are fine, sure they aren’t the actual movie actors but I don’t expect them to be. What bothered me was Dr. Hank Pym’s actual lines. He says things like “Hold the left flipper to try a super skillshot.”, “Hit the center lane.” “Hit it harder.” I think my frustration here is that when I am playing pinball I want to be in the table. Playing just like I would any other game. When there is dialogue like that, it’s telling me what to do instead of showing me with flashing lights and other cues. Even just phrasing them differently would still keep the player in the table. The old book adage of ‘show don’t tell’ is maybe the best definition of what I mean.
Sure there are things to like about the table; it tells a good story of the battle between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket, it’s looks great, and the music and sound effects are well done. But, at the same time frustrating table layout and not the best character lines really dampened my enjoyment of the table overall. Maybe I have just been spoiled by the last few table releases and it’s hard to compare against the “Age of Ultron”, “Star Wars Rebels”, and “Portal” tables that have all been released in the past couple of months. It could be I am just not used to the table yet, but my gut is telling me that this will not be one of my most played tables. It’s certainly not one I’d recommend to people just looking at starting playing Pinball FX2 because of the frustration level. For Marvel fans, and hardcore pinball junkies this is probably a no-brainer just because. For others, there are other tables I’d recommend first.
Pinball FX2’s “Ant-Man” DLC table was reviewed using a promotional code on the Xbox One, as provided by the publisher.
Review: Pinball FX2: Ant-Man Table
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