To fans of video game pinball, the good people at Zen Studios are best known for creating original tables based on movies (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Princess Bride), TV shows (Battlestar Galactica, Twilight Zone), and other video games (Goat Simulator, System Shock), as well as accurate recreations of classic real pinball machines by Williams (Funhouse, Dr. Dude And His Excellent Ray).
But they’ve also, on occasion, put their considerable pinball design skills to use on original ideas, such as 2022’s Wrath Of The Elder Gods.
Which is where we find them again with Camp Bloodbrook, a new table for their horror-themed pinball simulation system, Pinball M (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, Switch, PC).
For those unfamiliar with Pinball M…
— or its sister system, Pinball FX — it’s essentially a free platform for which you can purchase different virtual pinball tables, such as the ones I mentioned above.
The only difference between it and Pinball FX is that most of the tables for Pinball M are horror-ible: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Chucky, The Thing, Dead By Daylight, and, now, Camp Bloodbrook.
But while, as I mentioned, Zen Studio’s tables based on real pinball machines are faithful recreations, their original creations — like their licensed ones — play fast and loose with the rules by pairing realistic physics and sound effects with mechanics that would be physically and / or financially impossible.
Well, unless you had billions and access to whatever technology makes the T.A.R.D.I.S. on Doctor Who bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.
How this works for the Camp Bloodbrook table is that, among other things, there’s a masked killer who will sometimes stalk across the table, getting in the way of the ball, even to the point of temporarily rendering a pathway inaccessible.
The tables in Pinball M…
also have far more options than real pinball machines, most notably a variety of camera views that include numerous aerial perspectives, as well as ones that follow the ball around.
Pinball M‘s tables are also far more forgiving than real pinball machines. Hence why the two flippers on the Camp Bloodbrook table are slightly closer together than they would be if the table was in your local bar, while the save ball function, which gives you another ball if you lose yours, lasts a lot longer here than it would in a pinball machine that runs on quarters.
This is especially handy when it comes to the Camp Bloodbrook table, which is as tricky and clever as a serial killer who hunts teenagers in and around some summer camp.
Yes, boys and girls,
as the name suggests, the Camp Bloodbrook table is inspired by such slasher flicks as Friday The 13th. So much so, in fact, that if I didn’t know better — and I don’t — I’d think this was going to be a Friday The 13th table, but that when Zen had to abandon that idea for some reason, they decided not to toss out all the hard work they’d already done, so…
Hence why the “camp” part of the name refers to a summer camp, not the kind of camp that Freddy Krueger verbally dished out in his later movies. Not only does the table look like it was made of old wood, but the structures look as if they’re two summers away from falling apart.
It’s also why the Camp Bloodbrook table is rather dark and foreboding, and comes complete with spooky music and atmospheric sound effects.
Oh, and there’s also a guy in a mask chasing after some teenager, while one of the ramps is a bloody and rusty machete that will occasionally swing out over the table.
Even the plunger…
(i.e., the thing that shoots the ball onto the table) is horror certified, as it’s a flashlight that doesn’t work right.
More importantly, the Camp Bloodbrook table, befitting its horror movie roots, is full of narrow and partially concealed passageways. The upper half of the table is especially dense, with several pathways in and out, as well as numerous bumpers that can cause the ball to bounce around before exited from somewhere unexpected.
Which is why the Camp Bloodbrook table ranks among one of the better original tables the Zen Studios crew have made (and they’ve made quite a few).
Granted…
the Camp Bloodbrook table may not be as scary as a movie about some guy with mommy issues and a hockey mask fetish who expresses himself through the mediums of sharp instruments and pliant flesh, but as virtual pinball tables go — especially original ones by the Zen Studios crew — Camp Bloodbrook for Pinball M is (forgive me) scary good.
SCORE: 8.5/10
