Star Wars Pinball review

I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan. I love The Empire Strikes Back; think A New Hope is alright; find Return of the Jedi a tad annoying; and when it comes to the new trilogy, I don't like any of the new movies, but I don't have a passionate hatred for them. Does any of this matter? Yes, because, despite not being the biggest Star Wars fan, I still enjoyed the hell out of the new Star Wars-themed Pinball FX 2/Zen Pinball tables.

What stuck out first and foremost was the audio. As much as I don't have a lot of affinity for Star Wars, there's no doubt that the franchise is overflowing with strong music and sound effects that elicit feelings of reminiscent joy. Even if the audio doesn't sound familiar, it all fits so well in the setting of a pinball table. The bleeps and bloops or R2-D2; the sheathing and unsheathing of lightsabers; the heavy breathing of Darth Vader; the sound of blasters; everything sounds right at home, as if they were always meant for pinball tables.

Now, Star Wars Pinball comes with three tables: one themed around The Empire Strikes Back, one around The Clone Wars (TV show), and one around Boba Fett. All three tables do a great job of bringing their specific source materials to life, with fully realized 3D models of key characters and, best of all, ships and vehicles that fly and walk across the table, needing the player's help in taking down—like bringing down an AT-AT walker or shooting down a Tie Fighter; bringing down an AT-AT walker in any game never gets old.

So each table has the looks, but what about the gameplay? As always, Zen Studios has delivered three great tables that are all fun and have great moments for fans of Star Wars, but as I said from the start, there's no fandom needed to enjoy these tables.

My favorite table is the Empire Strikes Back table, not because I'm a fan of the movie (though that doesn't hurt), but because it's extremely well-designed and full of action and interaction on a frequent basis so that the table is always exciting. I never once thought, "When is something cool going to happen?" while playing The Empire Strikes Back table. The Boba Fett table is also quite exciting, though, at times, it can be a bit too exciting, overwhelming me with the elaborate table setup that is both beautiful and sometimes distracting; I found the Boba Fett table more challenging than the rest, but in a way that made me want to keep playing, always eager to beat my high score. Last and least (though not at all bad) is the Clone Wars table. The Clone Wars table is fun and colorful, but the level of interaction wasn't on par with the other Star Wars tables and while I enjoyed playing it, I wanted to play the other tables more. The Clone Wars table suffers from being a pretty good table paired with two great tables.

Surprise, surprise, Zen Studios has done it again. Whether you're a Star Wars fan or not, there's plenty to love with these tables and the price is, as Bob Barker would say (or now Drew Carey), right. All I can say is I hope Disney buys Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles so one day I could enjoy some TMNT pinball bliss. That would be sweeter than heaven. Star Wars Pinball was reviewed on the Xbox 360, but is also available on PS3, PS Vita, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android, so you have plenty of options for enjoying these great new tables. ($9.99 on XBLA/PSN/Vita, $2.99 per table on the Mac App Store, and $1.99 per table on iOS and Android.)

Star Wars Pinball (Full) (XBLA)