Pinball FX - Williams Pinball: Twilight Zone by developer
and publisher Zen Studios—SonyPlayStation 5 Review written by Nick with a copy
provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Pinball FX - Williams Pinball: Twilight Zone is one of the
many classic tables that has gotten the digital treatment from Zen Studios, and
it’s a great representation of the original.
Having grown up on pinball machines and playing a variety of
now-classic tables (typing that makes me feel old) over the years, I haven’t
always had the good fortune to have played these in their original form. That
being said, I have had the opportunity to play quite a few, including this one.
Twilight Zone was already kind of in my head due to a very
recent trip to Disney World with my wife, and multiple rounds of riding The
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Completely unrelated to this table but firing it
up tickled a part of my brain all the same.
This is a fun table, but like most of the ones based on
actual pinball tables from years past, it tends to be more challenging than most
of Zen Studios’ strictly digital offerings. These tables were often meant to
swallow quarters in rapid fashion, so the first couple of plays were brief for
me. However, once I got a feel for the tempo of this very busy table, I was
able to get some really solid scores and experience the numerous mechanisms built
into it.
There is a sort of chaos to the design, which is fitting for
a table themed on Twilight Zone. Ticking clocks, shlocky sci-fi robots, “magna-flips” and more
made this a very zany table with a lot going on. Heck, most pinball tables when
you unleash a multi-ball, you get three, maybe four going at once. This table?
You get six. I usually lose one or two almost right away – it’s just too much
to keep track of, but goodness – you can rack up some huge points if you can
keep them in play for a bit.
From a presentation perspective, this has always been a very
cool table that translates really well digitally. The sound effects are varied
and appropriate, and the visuals are really fantastic. It’s sort of a dark
table, both on the walls and the table itself, with soft blooming glows at key
locations. Watching the ‘door’ open in the middle of the table is always fun as
well.
As a single table, Pinball FX - Williams Pinball: Twilight
Zone is a lot of fun, if challenging. There’s a certain nostalgia it tickles
with me due to having played the original table once upon a time, and the
digital recreation of it is a solid one that makes it worth playing.
Score: 8 / 10
