There are two pinball games available on Xbox One at the moment. There’s Pinball FX 2 which focuses on fictional tables that relate to various popular culture trends. For example, Pinball FX 2 has a Portal table and a lot of Marvel ones. However, on the other end of the spectrum, there’s The Pinball Arcade which tries to capture history. While both have their merits, The Pinball Arcade goes beyond just fun and tries to bring the history of pinball to gamers. I’m a massive fan of antique pinball machines and absolutely love what the developers are trying to do. While the game provides dozens of important tables, the quality of the tables varies a lot and performance issues detract from the experience.
The base game adopts a free-to-play model and includes the Arabian Nights table. This has been lovingly recreated and the attention to detail is exemplary. Unfortunately, some of the more recent tables like the Dracula recreation seem to have poor textures and issues with aliasing. I’m not sure why this is the case. Maybe the team at FarSight Studios were rushed when it came to some of them. It’s a bit jarring to see the difference in visuals from one table to the next. Apart from that, there are frame rate drops in some of the more recent tables. For example, the Arabian Nights one runs perfectly but if you play Starship Troopers, there are noticeable drops. The team should go back to each and examine these problems. I’m sure they can be fixed with a patch or two.
Another problem I had was with the camera. The camera always focuses on the ball and it can be a bit disorientating. There needs to an option to fix the camera in a position that you want. Patching in that option will greatly improve the experience. The tables have a lot of detail so it can be hard to track it at times. Allowing the user to choose their position will only improve the title. Luckily, those are the only complaints I have and thought I’d share them with you before going into the overwhelming positives.
Each table comes with the original ads and history behind the machine. This is one of the best features the title has to offer. It makes The Pinball Arcade more than just a game. Incorporating history into the title demonstrates FarSight Studios’ love for the material. It reminds me of how the developers behind Forza incorporate car culture into their games.
You have to realize that many of these tables had their little quirks when they first released and the team has managed to capture them too. If you were to buy an Arabian Nights table nowadays, it would cost you more than $8,000 for a properly refurbished one. The Pinball Arcade has dozens of these significant tables and while the pricing structure that goes by seasons can get expensive, fans of pinball machines who wish to experience the best the makers had to offer will love this title. The attention to detail, especially when it comes to the mechanical aspects of each table, is truly astonishing.
Summary
The tables have a lot of replayability in the sense that you can try to beat your high score but there are other features for dedicated players that include goals of hitting specific objects and accomplishing other tasks. You can spend hundreds of hours in this game because there is so much to do. The developers keep on expanding the list of tables every year. The Pinball Arcade is an ever-expanding experience that keeps on getting better and better. While we could’ve docked down the game when it initially came out due to the lack of variety, we can’t say so anymore. There is so much amazing content here. Gamers who love these machines or loves pinball should play this title. While the performance and visual issues can be annoying at times, they don’t detract too much from the package. It’s free-to-play so all of you should at least try to play the amazing Arabian Nights table. Give it a shot and I bet that you’ll love it. If you do, start exploring the seasons, you won’t be disappointed even though they can be a little expensive. This is definitely a recommended title in my book.
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.