I’ve been avirtual reality enthusiastsince the early days. I’ve played hundreds of VR games going all the way back to the Oculus Rift CV1, and I always make sure to hold space for excellent VR experiences onmy Game of the Year lists. So when I tell you Pinball FX VR is the most impressive VR game I’ve played since Half-Life: Alyx, trust me when I say no one is more surprised than me.
Pinball FX VR is so much more than a VR port. Zen Studios has gone through a frankly absurd amount of effort to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of every pinball machine down to the rubber rings, while delivering the most immersive arcade environment imaginable, whether you’re in the game’s virtual playroom or designing your own private virtual pinball machine collection in mixed reality. FX VR has everything a pinball enthusiast could want and several things they don’t even know they want yet. This isn’t just a great pinball simulator, it’s also the kind of fully-realized virtual experience that makes me excited for the future of VR.
The Doors Are Always Open And The Machines Are Always Set To Free Play
One of the most common ways developers will try to build immersion in VR is by taking regular non-diegetic elements like menu screens and transforming them into physical spaces. Instead of picking a character from a select screen, for example, you’ll find yourself in a room with all the characters, and you’ll need to walk up and give a high five to the one you want to select. VR games do this all the time, but Pinball FX VR is the only one that makes it feel like an essential part of the total experience.
The arcade is a hub where you’re able to choose which pinball game to play, but it’s so much more than that. As you walk the neon-lit building you’ll see all of the hallmarks of a classic ‘80s arcade. Posters, dart boards, a soda machine. A stereo system connected to an old-school tape deck. A giant wall where the trophies you earn will be displayed. All of it is there to build the ambience of a real arcade, and all of it is interactive. Take a coin out of your pocket and plop it into the soda machine, then pick a flavor, push the button, and watch a can pop out of the dispenser. Pop in a tape to change the mood, then toss some darts to get your flipper fingers warmed up. If you don’t like the 80s vibe you can change the entire color palette and aesthetic of the arcade. Change all the posters, add some decorations. Make it your own.
All of the currently available pinball games are present in the virtual arcade, organized into different rooms by publisher, whether you own them or not. As the library grows, the arcade itself will as well to accommodate new games.
If you really want the full custom arcade experience, swap to mixed reality and build your own arcade from scratch right in your living room. You get to choose where the arcade cabinets go, as well as the posters, the gadgets, the life-sized statues, and all of the other decorations you’ve unlocked (the virtual arcade has a giant prize wheel you can spin to unlock cosmetics). If your room isn’t big enough to fit your entire collection, you can just walk into another room in your house and add some more. Over the past week, I’ve transformed my entire condo into the two-story pinball arcade of my dreams.
Zen Studios didn’t have to add working vending machines or the incredible mixed reality mode. If this was strictly a VR pinball simulator it would have still been plenty impressive and fulfilled its purpose. But all of the extra features make it more than a game - it’s truly a third space (or 2.5 space in MR). This is the kind of purpose-driven experience all those metaverse mouthpieces keep promising us, and I see so much potential in what Zen has created here.
I want more. I want it to be a social space where I can hang out and play pinball with other people. I want the arcade to fill out with not just pinball machines, but every kind of arcade game. Imagine a virtual arcade filled with people playing Time Crisis, Street Fighter, and Skee-Ball together. That’s the platform Zen has built here, and I hope it continues to grow.
The Best Virtual Pinball, Hands Down
I’ve gotten really into pinball over the last year, but I never really got on with Pinball FX. Pinball doesn’t look right in widescreen - not without the camera moving all around - and although its collection of classic and original pinball games is incredibly impressive, playing pinball with a controller just feels wrong to me. I love the physicality of playing a pinball machine, and virtual pinball just isn’t the same.
With Pinball FX VR, Zen is getting as close to the real thing as possible, and it’s made all the difference. Being able to actually stand over a 3D pinball machine, see my virtual hands grabbing the table’s edges while I spread my arms out, and popping the triggers on the Quest 3 controllers like I’m really hitting the buttons on a real machine - the simulation issoclose to the real thing. Nothing beats playing real pinball, but if you can’t make it to the arcade or you just want to practice without spending $20 in quarters, FX VR offers the best substitute imaginable.
I’ve spent a lot of my playtime with Pinball FX VR using X-Arcade’s new Arcade2TV-XR, a VR-compatible retro arcade machine that has controls for just about every arcade game imaginable, including flipper buttons on the sides. Using this to play Pinball FX VR increased the sense of realism tremendously.
To recreate the pinball as accurately as possible, Zen Studios borrows original machines from the Budapest Pinball Museum and completely deconstructs them so that every individual part can be scanned. They also take the audio files directly from the machine and bring them into the game exactly as they are, and give the same attention to everything from the lights to the dot matrix displays. Zen goes to extreme lengths to ensure that all of the machines look and play perfectly, and that level of commitment comes through when you play these games.
Pinball FX VR Never Forgets It’s A Video Game
Zen takes full advantage of both the video game and VR opportunities it has by enhancing the visuals of each game in a number of ways. Not only do you get a truly authentic recreation of each game, but several layers of (optional) graphics, special effects, and game options add so much to the experience.
When you saddle up to Indiana Jones, take a quarter out of your pocket, and pop it into the machine, you’ll be presented with a whole bunch of ways to customize the experience. You can play classic mode with three balls, an endless free play mode, or turn on power ups to add more decision points and variety to the experience. There are also a half-dozen challenge modes, which tie into the game’s campaign and league features.
Completing specific challenges will allow you to progress the campaign and unlock rewards to decorate your machines, your arcade, and your avatar, while participating in leagues will let you compete against other players around the world. Each game also has a global leaderboard based on total points earned in classic mode, so you can always see how you rank and push for a higher score.
When the game starts, the arcade goes through a transformation. Suddenly Indiana Jones himself is standing right there next to the machine, tipping his hat to you and saying one of his famous lines. As the ball zooms around the play field bouncing off of bumpers and racking up points, giant numbers fly off the table like damage numbers in an RPG. Meanwhile, a tiny version of Indy stands on top of the glass, occasionally tossing out his whip and swinging across to the other side.
It’s an incredible spectacle, and every game has its own unique features. On Knight Rider, a stretch of highway wraps around you while you play with cars that drive up and down the road. Battlestar Galactica features space battles activated by in-game achievements that fly around your head. When your ball drains in Pinball Noir, a downpour of rain starts falling on the glass. I love it all, but it can sometimes be distracting when you’re really trying to lock in. Luckily, it’s easy enough to turn the extra effects off for a purer experience.
You may want to consider doing that if you start having performance issues. I’ve noticed the occasional frame dip, and times when my ball would disappear and reappear somewhere else. These things are normally easy to excuse, but pinball has to be perfect. It’s a game of milliseconds, and the whole point of this is to simulate real-life games. Any little flaw is a big deal, and I think ironing those out needs to be Zen’s highest priority.
As a novice, Pinball FX VR is unbelievably valuable to me. It’s giving me the opportunity to practice pinball in an accurate setting, and with the included guide for each game, I can really dig into the rules and learn how to master these machines. I’m especially impressed by the visualization that shows which part of the table each rule refers to, since pinball lingo can be hard to understand for beginners.
Competitive players already use Pinball FX to practice, and now they have an even better tool to do so. I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t enjoy playing this, including the pinball-averse. At the end of the day that may be my favorite thing about Pinball FX VR and why I’ll end up getting more mileage out of it than any other pinball game. Now when I introduce someone to VR I’ll be able to put them in a familiar setting with very little movement and let them play a game they already know how to play. This offers the best intro to VR ever, and the fact that it’s such a high-quality and meticulously designed game just makes it that much better.
