Game Reviews

Marvel Pinball

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iOS
| Marvel Pinball
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Marvel Pinball
|
iOS
| Marvel Pinball

Virtual pinball is never going to match the tactile, clunky feel of a real pinball table.

Still, plenty of pinball games come close, and the ones produced by Zen Studios come closer than most. Zen's latest iOS pinball game, Marvel Pinball, is another decent ball-bouncer with the depth that veterans will be looking for.

Time for avengeance

Each of Marvel Pinball's tables is based around a set of characters from the Marvel Universe, just in case you hadn't already guessed.

All the bases are covered, from the Avengers to X-Men to lesser-known comics like Moon Knight and Fear Itself, and there are plenty of ramps to launch the ball over, and chutes to spiral around.

Amid the random hammering of the flippers you'll discover plenty of special events that keep the action fresh and Marvel fans well serviced.

The controls are simple and responsive, entailing nothing more complicated than touching the left or right side of the screen to push the corresponding flipper or move the corresponding elements of the table.

And then there's Game Center support with leaderboards and achievements, pass-the-handset multiplayer, and a "hero score" that adds up all your conquests and feats into a single total.

Enter coin to play

Unfortunately, the price of the game and its in-app purchases will be a sticking point for some players.

The game costs 69p / 99c, but you only get a single Avengers table with that. For the other tables, you need to fork out £1.49 / $1.99 for each and every one, for a potential total cost of over £20.

Now, at first glance this isn't great at all. However, compare it with other versions of the game and it suddenly seems like a good deal. Both the 3DS and Vita version of the game are £6.49 for four tables, and then £1.99 for each subsequent table.

This means that the mobile version of Marvel Pinball is, in fact, the cheapest overall. Of course, that doesn't automatically make it good value - that's up to you.

The cost isn't the only potential problem. There are some pretty quirky ball physics at times, and it's frequently difficult to see the ball when it's moving rapidly towards the top of each table - especially on a smaller iPhone screen.

But let's be honest - you already know whether you'll enjoy Marvel Pinball, based on whether you like pinball games. If you're a pinball fanatic, this is well worth a swing.

Marvel Pinball

Marvel Pinball is exactly what you'd expect - a well-designed pinball game based around the characters of the Marvel Universe
Score
Mike Rose
Mike Rose
An expert in the indie games scene, Mike comes to Pocket Gamer as our handheld gaming correspondent. He is the author of 250 Indie Games You Must Play.