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Zen Studios
Table Talk: Zen Originals and Licensed Tables
Zen Pinball - Star Wars
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<blockquote data-quote="shutyertrap" data-source="post: 56014" data-attributes="member: 134"><p>I don't see Zen as being cookie cutter. And I find Sorcerer's Lair to be as close as they've come to a traditional modern pinball layout with mostly traditional rules. Wolverine is a close second to that.</p><p></p><p>I spent a ton of time on Iron Man pre TPA coming out, and personally loved the elements on that table that were purely 'only in a digital world' type things.</p><p></p><p>That being said, here are my gripes with Zen (and I can already tell the Boba Fett and Clone Wars tables fall into these traps)...</p><p></p><p>1. A lot of Zen tables have no flow in ball movement. Blade is a good example of this. Fantastic wizard mode, unique day/night mode, but the ball is so stop and go. To me it feels like shooting into nothing but dead ends. Many other tables suffer this fate, not all, but many. Am I alone in feeling this way?</p><p></p><p>2. A lot of the tables are too crowded, thus making the tables feel short. Paranormal feels like half a table, as does V12 for example.</p><p></p><p>3. Other tables just have really strange shots, like X-Men and El Dorado. This goes a little into table flow, where shots can just feel awkward.</p><p></p><p>4. They're use of color and graphics on the table is often a visual mess that your eye just can't make sense of. I really want to love Tesla, but everything is the same color and I can't figure out what's happening half the time! I tried the demo to Ninja Gaiden, and that was technicolor throw up. Same thing with Plants vs. Zombies, where there's just too much going on. Too me this is the single biggest difference between classic Williams tables and modern Stern, and here Zen does the same thing.</p><p></p><p>5. They also haven't figured out how to make what you need to do on a table clear. I started playing TZ, and within an hour I was starting to get it, and by the end of the night I understood enough of the rules to accomplish what needed being done. I still don't know the intricacies, but it'll come. With Zen, it sometimes takes me days to even have a rudimentary understanding of the table. To this day I have no clue what I'm doing in El Dorado or Shamen, and I learned most of the Marvel tables only by going online and reading up on them (pre Zen 2 with instructions).</p><p></p><p>6. The music. The techno trance thing they got going on, it's numbing. I'm actually excited for the Star Wars tables just because there'll be some real composed music...I hope.</p><p></p><p>All that being said though, there is a polish to Zen that I wish TPA could attain. The way they connect you to friends, the online multi-player battles, the team scoring, stats, plain awesomesauce. I do find a feeling of soullessness in a lot of their tables, but there are some gems too. I honestly think the no limits aspect of digital pinball creation hurts them, as they're allowed to do too much. The tables that show some restraint, those are the ones I like the best from Zen. I only own maybe half the tables available, and it was that way before TPA entered the picture. I've booted up Zen maybe 3 times since, while TPA is almost a daily thing for me. </p><p></p><p>Not to mention the TPA community here on these forums is amazing compared to the Zen forums!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="shutyertrap, post: 56014, member: 134"] I don't see Zen as being cookie cutter. And I find Sorcerer's Lair to be as close as they've come to a traditional modern pinball layout with mostly traditional rules. Wolverine is a close second to that. I spent a ton of time on Iron Man pre TPA coming out, and personally loved the elements on that table that were purely 'only in a digital world' type things. That being said, here are my gripes with Zen (and I can already tell the Boba Fett and Clone Wars tables fall into these traps)... 1. A lot of Zen tables have no flow in ball movement. Blade is a good example of this. Fantastic wizard mode, unique day/night mode, but the ball is so stop and go. To me it feels like shooting into nothing but dead ends. Many other tables suffer this fate, not all, but many. Am I alone in feeling this way? 2. A lot of the tables are too crowded, thus making the tables feel short. Paranormal feels like half a table, as does V12 for example. 3. Other tables just have really strange shots, like X-Men and El Dorado. This goes a little into table flow, where shots can just feel awkward. 4. They're use of color and graphics on the table is often a visual mess that your eye just can't make sense of. I really want to love Tesla, but everything is the same color and I can't figure out what's happening half the time! I tried the demo to Ninja Gaiden, and that was technicolor throw up. Same thing with Plants vs. Zombies, where there's just too much going on. Too me this is the single biggest difference between classic Williams tables and modern Stern, and here Zen does the same thing. 5. They also haven't figured out how to make what you need to do on a table clear. I started playing TZ, and within an hour I was starting to get it, and by the end of the night I understood enough of the rules to accomplish what needed being done. I still don't know the intricacies, but it'll come. With Zen, it sometimes takes me days to even have a rudimentary understanding of the table. To this day I have no clue what I'm doing in El Dorado or Shamen, and I learned most of the Marvel tables only by going online and reading up on them (pre Zen 2 with instructions). 6. The music. The techno trance thing they got going on, it's numbing. I'm actually excited for the Star Wars tables just because there'll be some real composed music...I hope. All that being said though, there is a polish to Zen that I wish TPA could attain. The way they connect you to friends, the online multi-player battles, the team scoring, stats, plain awesomesauce. I do find a feeling of soullessness in a lot of their tables, but there are some gems too. I honestly think the no limits aspect of digital pinball creation hurts them, as they're allowed to do too much. The tables that show some restraint, those are the ones I like the best from Zen. I only own maybe half the tables available, and it was that way before TPA entered the picture. I've booted up Zen maybe 3 times since, while TPA is almost a daily thing for me. Not to mention the TPA community here on these forums is amazing compared to the Zen forums! [/QUOTE]
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