Pinball and PS4 codes? Guess its my turn for a review! Zen dropped their latest two pack of tables dubbed Iron & Steel which features two Zen originals. Its been 3 years since they did a non-franchised original table so I was excited to check these out. I think it gives designers more free reign to put in cool pinball features if they don’t have someone like Marvel or Disney breathing down their necks making sure everything stays cannon (or you know not, I’m still confused about Bro-spiderman from the Venom table).
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Wild West Rampage
This table has a completely new wild west theme featuring a corrupt Sheriff and the bounty hunter who's ready to take him down. What’s not so wild west cannon is that instead of going with a mode to save a damsel in distress Zen made the bounty hunter female so kudos there. Although sadly I didn’t love here really grating hootenanny accent y’all! Its hard to have a western themed pin without conjuring thoughts of the very popular, very rare, very expensive Bally Williams table Cactus Canyon. Just like Cactus Canyon, Wild West Rampage (WWR) features a train and guns on the bumpers so there is definitely at least some homage going on there.
Cactus Canyon Playfield
Wild West Rampage Playfield
The graphics on WWR look fantastic on the PS4. The bounty hunter and sheriff look like they just stepped out of a next gen version of Red Dead Redemption. The train is really detailed and I love the spinning gun distraction effect every time you hit a bumper. Sizing of the playfield is spot on and perfect to leave in static mode and be able to see everywhere without straining your eyes to see tiny things at the top. The haptic feedback from the bumpers really feels dead on for this game and had me wondering if all PS4 Zen tables had that (they do but I never really noticed it playing other tables).
This game actually has a full on story mode if you are skilled enough to make it through. It shows how bounty hunter Cindy takes down the sheriff and even provides some back story on how she ended up in town. Yeah pinball with character development! There’s a ton of interesting stages to advance the story complete with explode barrels and breaking windows. One of my favs is there’s a train mode with three separate mini-playfields to progress through on top of different train cars. Another is Kaboom mode where you have to shoot down dynamite. I was of hoping an 8 bit guy in a prison sweater was going to make a cameo. There are a ton of modes and lots to master that will keep you playing for days. I give this table two guns up. Pew! Pew!
CastleStorm
I had forgotten that Zen isn’t just a pinball house. CastleStorm is based on their popular action RPG our own Sarcasmo Jones reviewed a while back. In this table Sir Gareth is back to protect the kingdom from Vikings. For some reason this playfield really made me think of Smurfs. I’m not even 100% sure why, I guess the art style of the castles and the episodes where they were friends with Johan and Peewit (how’s that for a Smurf deep cut?).
Castelstorm Playfield overview
This is really solid table with lots of cool features and fun medieval cliches like a donkey kick ball launcher and an evil dragon. You can’t go wrong with a pin that has a Tap Keg mode! It is a little harder to follow the ball t in static mode than WWR was, but its still not too bad to play without the screen scrolling on. For the upper playfield, I did find the timing of switching to zoom view and when you need to hit the flipper overly difficult. You basically have to just hit the flipper before you can see the new view or you’ll drain back to the regular playfield.
CastleStorm has a little Rollers of the Realm type RPG action going with a mode that sends some Vikings out to pillage. You’ll need to vanquish them by rolling over them with the ball. There’s a wave in a separate mode that sends ghosts out after you and you have to knock them out as well. Another RGP type mechanic is there is a Arms Drill multiball where you are trying to hit specific shots before time runs out. Its a pretty cool “practice” mode that helps you learn shots and rack up points. My favorite mode for this one has you loading a ballista with sheep to catapult smash your enemies. Even with all this wackiness it still plays like a normal pinball game instead of something with weird game mechanics bolted on. The one thing that was a bit strange for a pin was I almost never hit the slingshots (the bumper things just before the flippers for the pinball illiterate). I actually had to play a few times and really aim for them to make sure they even bounced (they do). Overall a this is a solid table though Wild West Rampage was my clear favorite of the 2.
Should I pick them up?
These are both great tables and I hope Zen gets into a groove of doing non-licensed ones more often than every 3 years. Super double bonus points if they want to stick with cliche themes and the next one is Pirates! These are definitely a buy it new for me!
