morenoquinteiro
New member
- Oct 16, 2013
- 28
- 0
I really, really want to like Zen Pinball. And I kind of like it. The thing is: the table designs are not that good. I just play them and they are boring as hell, nothing really cool happens. The tables are gourgeous, they have great art, but the rules really don't get me. For example: you activate a mission, and then you have to do like, 5 or more things in a sequence to win that mission, and it really doesn't make sense. Sometimes they have a time for a task, sometimes don't, sometimes the time is very generous, sometimes they are really short (like, 5 or 10 seconds only), and if you don't manage to make it in the given time, that's it, the mission is lost. This is just an example, but this is very common in a lot of tables.
Don't get me wrong, it is really a great game, probably the best virtual pinball that there is around (maybe Pro Pinball is better, but they only have like, 4 or 5 tables only, so it doesn't count, and Pinball Arcade is definetely much better, but they just simulate tables, they don't design them, so I'm not counting it too). But I play once in a while and it really don't appeal to me, especially because the table rules and the game design. Another example: Star Wars table, Episode IV: you activate the mission lane by... completing the in-lanes? What the hell? How am I supposed to aim for that? And when the ball is dropping there, it is just to fast to change the lanes, simultaneously getting control of the ball... it doesn't really make much sense. No real table activate a mission like this, and you might say "but that's not real pinball, so whatever", but well, I think there is a reason why real table designers don't do that, because it makes no sense. It is just random and luck to activate a mission like this.
Some tables are really, really good, like Fear Itself (this table is really great), and some others, but I would say that, at least, 60% or 70% have real issues about game design. Another example: Portal. That table has a ramp right above, that it is hard to shoot (one which is "hidden"), and I would expect something cool to happen if I manage to shoot it, but then... it increases my value for the skill shot! So boring. Why that? And if you hit a portal, it just appears far away, in another portal that, because of the camera, you can't even see there is a portal there (in the upper right side of the table) and nothing really happens, so it is not satisfactory to shoot it. I mean, shooting the portal should be the most cool thing to do in the table, and nothing really happens.
The voices are way to repetitive, like in a Star Wars table, when Darth Vader say, in EVERY ball you lose, "Just as I expected", and very quickly it starts to annoy you. The music doesn't change much, it is basically the same music in the background all the time. Take, for example, a real table like Medieval Madness and it changes the music all the time, getting a more thrilling tone, a more tense tone, depending on the mode you are in, and so on. The Zen Pinball tables just don't seem to react, it is like they are all dead. Sometimes they have some minigames (like, videomodes, miniplayfields and so on) and it is hard to understand what they want you to do (to this day, I don't know what a Excalibur miniplayfield want me to do), and when you discover what it is, it is not really cool, it is really dumb and boring. Sometimes they have minigames like videogames (like Starfighter Assault, from Star Wars), and this one was really really bad, it looked like a bad shooter for PC from the 90s, I mean, c'mon. It was not good at all. Why that? Why not making a cool thing to do in the table itself? Or a minigame that really works well (I'm not against it if it is well done). Well, just some thoughts.
Street Fighter table: the table is so boring! It is gourgeous, as all Zen Pinball tables. But the rules are boring! It is like playing a Street Fighter game and having a bad time only to select a character to play (like, getting stuck in the selection screen).
As I said before, don't get me wrong, it is a good videogame and it is worth playing, the tables are very beautiful and the rules sometimes are good (some tables are very good), but there is something wrong with it. It is like the Zen Pinball art designer is a genious, but the table designer himself is like, just ok. I know it is impossible to hire a Steve Ritchie to design them, but there should be a way to have more talented table designers or give them more time to work on the rules. And that's a pity, because the tables look very very good, they are wonderful just to see it (pressing the zoom button and just looking at it), but they are not very fun to play. And they are really screaming to have a good table design, which they mostly don't.
Just some impressions I wanted to share, and forgive my bad english, this is not my native language (I'm brazilian). See you.
Don't get me wrong, it is really a great game, probably the best virtual pinball that there is around (maybe Pro Pinball is better, but they only have like, 4 or 5 tables only, so it doesn't count, and Pinball Arcade is definetely much better, but they just simulate tables, they don't design them, so I'm not counting it too). But I play once in a while and it really don't appeal to me, especially because the table rules and the game design. Another example: Star Wars table, Episode IV: you activate the mission lane by... completing the in-lanes? What the hell? How am I supposed to aim for that? And when the ball is dropping there, it is just to fast to change the lanes, simultaneously getting control of the ball... it doesn't really make much sense. No real table activate a mission like this, and you might say "but that's not real pinball, so whatever", but well, I think there is a reason why real table designers don't do that, because it makes no sense. It is just random and luck to activate a mission like this.
Some tables are really, really good, like Fear Itself (this table is really great), and some others, but I would say that, at least, 60% or 70% have real issues about game design. Another example: Portal. That table has a ramp right above, that it is hard to shoot (one which is "hidden"), and I would expect something cool to happen if I manage to shoot it, but then... it increases my value for the skill shot! So boring. Why that? And if you hit a portal, it just appears far away, in another portal that, because of the camera, you can't even see there is a portal there (in the upper right side of the table) and nothing really happens, so it is not satisfactory to shoot it. I mean, shooting the portal should be the most cool thing to do in the table, and nothing really happens.
The voices are way to repetitive, like in a Star Wars table, when Darth Vader say, in EVERY ball you lose, "Just as I expected", and very quickly it starts to annoy you. The music doesn't change much, it is basically the same music in the background all the time. Take, for example, a real table like Medieval Madness and it changes the music all the time, getting a more thrilling tone, a more tense tone, depending on the mode you are in, and so on. The Zen Pinball tables just don't seem to react, it is like they are all dead. Sometimes they have some minigames (like, videomodes, miniplayfields and so on) and it is hard to understand what they want you to do (to this day, I don't know what a Excalibur miniplayfield want me to do), and when you discover what it is, it is not really cool, it is really dumb and boring. Sometimes they have minigames like videogames (like Starfighter Assault, from Star Wars), and this one was really really bad, it looked like a bad shooter for PC from the 90s, I mean, c'mon. It was not good at all. Why that? Why not making a cool thing to do in the table itself? Or a minigame that really works well (I'm not against it if it is well done). Well, just some thoughts.
Street Fighter table: the table is so boring! It is gourgeous, as all Zen Pinball tables. But the rules are boring! It is like playing a Street Fighter game and having a bad time only to select a character to play (like, getting stuck in the selection screen).
As I said before, don't get me wrong, it is a good videogame and it is worth playing, the tables are very beautiful and the rules sometimes are good (some tables are very good), but there is something wrong with it. It is like the Zen Pinball art designer is a genious, but the table designer himself is like, just ok. I know it is impossible to hire a Steve Ritchie to design them, but there should be a way to have more talented table designers or give them more time to work on the rules. And that's a pity, because the tables look very very good, they are wonderful just to see it (pressing the zoom button and just looking at it), but they are not very fun to play. And they are really screaming to have a good table design, which they mostly don't.
Just some impressions I wanted to share, and forgive my bad english, this is not my native language (I'm brazilian). See you.
