In all my years of reviewing the pinball tables made by Zen Studios for their virtual pinball games Zen Pinball and Pinball FX, and their sequels (and it’s a lot of years), the only tables I’ve done have been ones based on movies, TV shows, and video games that I was already familiar with. Not on purpose; they just never made any games based on movies, shows, or games I didn’t watch or play. But that changed recently with the release of the Crypt Of The NecroDancer table for Pinball FX (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X /S, Xbox One, PC), which is based on a roguelike rhythm game that I’ve heard of but not played (it’s not my kind of thing). But as I quickly learned from playing this pinball table, you need not be a fan of the original game, or even know anything about, to enjoy this virtual pinball machine…though it helps if you like old school pinball tables (and have Google).
Before we get into the table itself,
let’s provide a little primer for those unfamiliar with Pinball FX: It’s a pinball delivery system for which you purchase individual tables. While some are recreations of real pinball machines — such as the recently released version of 1993’s Twilight Zone table — they’ve also designed tons of original ones based on the Star Wars movies, Marvel Comics, Family Guy, and such video games as DOOM, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and the Fallout series.
Except that, unlike their recreations of real pinball machines, their original tables have mechanics that would be physically or financially impossible in real life. So while the balls on the Crypt Of The NecroDancer table may move, and sound, like a real metal balls rolling across wood, the table also has, for instance, an animatronic statue of Cadence swinging her sword around.
(And yes, I did Google her name; thanks for asking.)
In addition, the original tables for Pinball FX are also more forgiving than ones that were built to suck down quarters at a bar, and they have multiple options when it comes to the viewpoint. These include both static and dynamic cameras, as well as a twenty-one point slider so you can see how the real table would theoretically look if you were 4’10 or 6’1 and multiple heights in between.
As for the particulars of the Crypt Of The NecroDancer table,
like the game that inspired it, it has a decidedly old school feel. Or rather, a deceptively old school feel. While the lower half is relatively open, save for some bumpers and the flippers, the top part has a rather uncomplicated mix of alley ways and ramps, some of which lead to two railways, one on each side. There’s even a cul de sac where two skeletons sometimes hang out, daring you to hit them.
Because of this, the ball has plenty of room to gain speed, making for a real test of your trigger fingers. But it’s relative simplicity also means it feels more like a pinball machine from the ’70s, as opposed to the original tables Zen Studios have made for Star Wars, Marvel Comics, and, most recently, the King Kong and Godzilla movies, which sometimes feel like they’re from the ’90s, ’00s, or, in the case of the super elaborate ones, a future in which the technology exists to make objects bigger on the inside than the outside.
And no, Zen Studios have oddly never made a Doctor Who table.
As for the Crypt Of The NecroDancer table,
its impossible mechanics are highlighted by the pairs of Blue Slimes, King Kongas, and some line dancing zombies who shake and shimmy in the middle of the table, disrupting the ball’s trajectory.
Well, unless you hit them a bunch of times.
All of which makes Crypt Of The NecroDancer one of the better original pinball tables Zen Studios have made in recent years. Maybe even the best since the Family Guy and South Park ones.
That said,
playing the Crypt Of The NecroDancer table did not make me want to play the original game. Though, admittedly, nothing would; I don’t like games that are “roguelike,” and I’m not big on rhythm games (hence why I played Metal: Hellsinger with the music off, and loved it). But no matter. As a fan of pinball, and especially old school pinball, this was still a really fun and engaging table…even if I did have to Google everyone’s name.
SCORE: 8.5/10
