Marvel Pinball 3D Review: Ball Bouncing Fun

Zen Studios has recently had a hit with Zen Pinball 3D for the Nintendo 3DS eShop. Zen Pinball 3D’s realistic pinball action was a great use of 3D effects which made it stand out in the crowd. Can they do the same thing with Marvel Pinball 3D?

Zen Studios prides themselves in making great realistic pinball video games. By doing this, each of their tables feature realistic ball physics and table layout and design. This means no crazy stuff is added to their tables if it’s not possible in real life. Of course that doesn’t mean there is no flash or fun to these tables. A lot of them are quite alive with models moving around the table.

This game happens to come with four Marvel pinball tables. There is Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Captain America and lastly Blade. Each table brings with it, its own universe and feel from its perspective series. For example, the Blade table, which deals with vampires, will completely change the light and mood from bright to dark as time goes on. The Iron Man table actually features you unlocking Tony Stark’s Iron Man outfit. Each of the tables really come alive with each of the super heroes and super villains taking to stage to help or defeat you.

Since this is a glasses-free 3D system, the game takes full advantage of the 3D abilities. Unfortunately, this means that the entire pinball table is limited to the upper screen. This can lead the action to be cramped. There are eight different views to help you decide which view on the action you like best. I tend to prefer the view that has the pinball close up and follows it as it goes to the 2nd half of the board. The lower screen is left to show your current score and any info related to what’s going on in the game. All of this is displayed in a nice dot matrix grid that makes it feel like you are playing a real pinball game.

One of the main complaints against Zen Pinball 3D was its long loading time while going to play any table. Unfortunately, the same annoying loading time can be found here. Although, it does appear that the loading time is not as bad as it once was in its predecessor. So while the game might take a little bit to load each table, it will at least do it must faster now.

Just like its predecessor, Zen Pinball 3D, this game features local and online leaderboards for each table. Along with all-time rankings, there is weekly, hero score, team force, and my country rankings. All-time, weekly and country rankings are what they sound like, but you might be curious what hero score and team force rankings are. Hero score is all your table top scores combined and then divided by a million. So if you happen to have 58 million total, your score would be 58. This is what the ranking is based upon. Team force is your hero score number plus all your 3DS friends’ hero scores combined. This helps to make this a competitive pinball game as you and your friends start to out score each other.

For any pinball lover out there, Marvel Pinball 3D is another great game to add to their collection. Even if you are not a Marvel fan, this is a very fun pinball game. After you get past the slightly long loading time for each table, you will have a blast. The online leaderboards will help you challenge you and your friends to new top spots.

Rating: 8.5/10

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