But will it last?
For years now, I’ve been looking for a replacement for Pinball Arcade — a generally great app that contained nearly 100 tables from various companies; they lost their licensing (or something like that), and stopped updating or supporting that app. I’ve tried Zen Pinball (one of the first from this company, I think), which mostly featured cartoony originals; I’ve tried Zen Pinball Party on Apple Arcade; I’ve spent $ on Williams Pinball (which only features about 10 Williams tables); I’ve even tried Pinball FX3 (and spent money) and Pinball FX (unfortunately, in that order) on PS4. There are others I haven’t tried because of disinterest — all the apps catering to specific franchises, like Star Wars Pinball. I’m excited for the promise of Zen Pinball World: will it truly be an app to house dozens, hopefully over a hundred, tables in ONE app?? But I’m also very cautious about spending any more money on Zen stuff. This group has a history of developing an app and then just leaving it in the dust for a shiny new project. What’s left is that users have half a dozen abandoned apps they must continue to use to play a handful of favorite tables. [Apple won’t let me create a line break, so here it is:] For gameplay on this app, so far so good, but I can’t quite get the camera views right. Landscape mode has the tables too small to see, while I can’t seem to find a good angle in portrait mode. (Can Zen just use the 1-4 views from Pinball Arcade? Simple yet effective.) Every table seems to need a different camera angle, but there’s not one that works really well for any table out of the 7 or 8 to choose from.
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Graphical mess on m4 iPad
Currently this game runs very poorly on the m4 iPad. Hopefully the devs can fix this soon.
Disappointed
I am so grateful to have these recreations of my favorite 90s pins, but this new iteration of the app (I’m coming from Williams Pinball) is a shadow of its former self. The graphics are mediocre compared to Williams, the ball has latency/its choppy. The graphics are a bit almost…fuzzy/blurry in places, quite frankly, just not as crisp. I was incredibly excited to see Addams Family, Twlight Zone, World Cup ‘94….but after a few plays, I realize they’re basically almost unplayable. 😞
EDIT: when playing on an older device (iPad Pro 10.5), it’s not capable of keeping up (yet Williams Pinball and Pinball Arcade handle it perfectly fine, likely because they haven’t updated in a while). Playing on iPad 10th gen it’s much better. HOWEVER, this app still has bugs to work out. Ball physics need improvement, and why can’t you enter your initials after breaking the high score? Where’s the satisfying “clack clack” of becoming Grand Champion? If you’re going to re-create it, re-create it fully. I’m ready to fork over the $30 for the Williams collection, but not until little bugs get worked out.
How could the Williams Pinball app with Zen be such a quality product, and the follow up is just….not quite all the way there? Hope there’s some improvements coming in the near future…
EDIT: when playing on an older device (iPad Pro 10.5), it’s not capable of keeping up (yet Williams Pinball and Pinball Arcade handle it perfectly fine, likely because they haven’t updated in a while). Playing on iPad 10th gen it’s much better. HOWEVER, this app still has bugs to work out. Ball physics need improvement, and why can’t you enter your initials after breaking the high score? Where’s the satisfying “clack clack” of becoming Grand Champion? If you’re going to re-create it, re-create it fully. I’m ready to fork over the $30 for the Williams collection, but not until little bugs get worked out.
How could the Williams Pinball app with Zen be such a quality product, and the follow up is just….not quite all the way there? Hope there’s some improvements coming in the near future…
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Response from developer
Hi, thank you for your thorough review! We are always trying to improve, and your feedback helps us a lot! We are working to eradicate any bugs that we can, and you feedback helps us a lot in that ! Thank you for your help!
Watch ads for extra balls? Really?!?
I have mixed thoughts about this release. I’m one hand, the tables play great. If that is all that mattered, then five stars.
That said, there are some glaring issues. The most troubling is that you are given an option to watch an ad for an extra ball. This kills the integrity of the game. I don’t begrudge them using ads as a means to encourage buying tables, but the extra ball is too far.
I also think the graphics are not as crisp as they should be, especially for a new game. Something looks a little muddy with the tables.
My third issue is that this is the fourth iteration of Zen pinball on the App Store and there is still not any kind of tournament or multiplayer support like we’ve seen on consoles for years. This app was a chance to start fresh and entice players over from their older apps with new features and right now the only reason to play this is to try out the new tables that aren’t in vanilla Zen or Party. As it is, my experience playing is virtually identical to the original app from years ago.
That said, there are some glaring issues. The most troubling is that you are given an option to watch an ad for an extra ball. This kills the integrity of the game. I don’t begrudge them using ads as a means to encourage buying tables, but the extra ball is too far.
I also think the graphics are not as crisp as they should be, especially for a new game. Something looks a little muddy with the tables.
My third issue is that this is the fourth iteration of Zen pinball on the App Store and there is still not any kind of tournament or multiplayer support like we’ve seen on consoles for years. This app was a chance to start fresh and entice players over from their older apps with new features and right now the only reason to play this is to try out the new tables that aren’t in vanilla Zen or Party. As it is, my experience playing is virtually identical to the original app from years ago.
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Response from developer
Hi, thank you for the detailed review! Watching ads for extra balls has been a feature we have already used in the past. That said, we are always trying to improve our model and looking into more possibilities, so I have sent your review to our developers!
Letdown
Compared to Williams pinball (the app) this is a huge letdown. Really bad input lag, blurry textures, and an ad every time you load into a game. Such a shame because they have some cool classic tables (black knight 2000, Addams family)
Response from developer
Hi, thank you for the review! We apologize for not hitting the mark, the ads option is in the game to ensure there is free content for everyone to enjoy! If you would like to play without ads, you can buy them from the store, and you can play them anytime you want!
Try before you But
A great way to try pinball tables before you buy them. Also, a great variety and a good amount of tables to play. I recommend buying at a discount on PC if you like any of these.
Response from developer
Hi, thank you for the positive review! We appreciate the feedback, have fun playing pinball!
Needs rewind
This really needs wizard powers, especially rewind on tables we pay good money to own.
Otherwise this is promising. I’m cheering for Zen Studios I hope they can make this a great way to play.
The game modes are OK but not fantastic. I don’t know why Zen has gotten so obsessed with “200 Flips” and “Distance Challenge.” They aren’t that fun. Time challenge is fun, but they set it down to 3 minutes. I wish there were different time challenges. 3, 7, and 15 minute challenges would be amazing. 15 minute timed challenge would land a very good sweet spot on a lot of tables. But it would also be way funner with score boost. Survival Mode from FX3 is also way funner than the other modes in this new game.
The casual audience that is new to pinball is not going to play this game at all without the “Rewind” power up to alleviate the frustrations inherent to pinball. So please make that priority one. Then add funner modes (survival from fx3) and a 15 minute timed challenge with score boost power up.
Otherwise this is promising. I’m cheering for Zen Studios I hope they can make this a great way to play.
The game modes are OK but not fantastic. I don’t know why Zen has gotten so obsessed with “200 Flips” and “Distance Challenge.” They aren’t that fun. Time challenge is fun, but they set it down to 3 minutes. I wish there were different time challenges. 3, 7, and 15 minute challenges would be amazing. 15 minute timed challenge would land a very good sweet spot on a lot of tables. But it would also be way funner with score boost. Survival Mode from FX3 is also way funner than the other modes in this new game.
The casual audience that is new to pinball is not going to play this game at all without the “Rewind” power up to alleviate the frustrations inherent to pinball. So please make that priority one. Then add funner modes (survival from fx3) and a 15 minute timed challenge with score boost power up.
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Response from developer
Hi, thanks for the detailed review! Different game modes are always something we are exploring, and the rewind function could be a great addition! I will forward your review to our developers with your inputs!
Unable to download additional tables
Great first table - but no luck on downloading anything else!
Great start
Very good start for a new mobile pinball game, please change two things though: allow us to adjust or remove the top LCD board, it’s way too big and makes the table too small for several tables. And add shake to nudge. So much better to have that.
Thought we’d be getting the FX experience
Intrusive ads, UI feels pieced together, and the graphics look pretty miserable. Hoping this evolves but I doubt it’s something I’d put any money into in this current state. (I was ready to buy all the tables like I have in FX.)
Response from developer
Hi! We're constantly striving to improve the user experience, thanks for your feedback, it'll help in the future! We hope you will give us a chance in the future!