Pinball FX VR

When it was released in 2019, Pinball VR Classic made perfect sense for a VR platform. Considering how unique some of Zen Studios' creations were in Pinball FX, it was a fascinating prospect to see them re-created in VR. The execution was done well, even if some parts could sometimes make the experience feel too busy. After a brief detour with Star Wars Pinball VR, Zen Studios has returned with Pinball FX VR, which was built with the Meta Quest 3 in mind.

When Pinball VR Classic hit in 2019, it made perfect sense for a VR platform. Considering how unique some of Zen Studios’ creations were in Pinball FX, it was a fascinating prospect to see them re-created in VR. The execution was done well, even if some parts could sometimes make the experience feel too busy. After a brief detour with Star Wars Pinball VR, Zen Studios has returned with Pinball FX VR, which was built with the Meta Quest 3 in mind.

Those already familiar with Pinball VR Classic will immediately come to grips with what’s presented. By default, you’re placed in a classic arcade with a few rooms separating some of the machines based on licenses and manufacturers. You can wander around the place to change out the floor and wall patterns, but your main business is to walk to a machine, insert your virtual coin from your hip, and play some pinball.

None of the tables are new to the Pinball FX series, and the base pack comes with three Zen originals. Curse of the Mummy has a wide-open middle but features two mini tables on the upper halves of the board. What’s interesting is that while you can use the ramps on the sides to reach the tables, you can also use the ball’s lighter physics to “jump” and reach those tables. Pinball Noir lives off its hardboiled detective aesthetic, but the middle features a giant bullet chamber for a revolver that sets up multiball. The winding road on the upper left is a minigame where timing your flipper means speeding up the ball through the gates for big bonus points. Sky Pirates: Treasures of the Clouds is the final original table, and its main gimmick is a minigame where you’re shooting cannons at enemy ships from a first-person perspective. As original creations go, all three tables are a ton of fun to play once you understand their nuances.

The DLC tables you can purchase are all licensed and a decent mix of both classic and modern stuff. The latter is represented by three Zen-developed tables using the licenses of a few Universal TV show hits of different eras. Knight Rider represents the 1980s, and the table feels like it came from the era. The middle is a big, wide-open space, and all of the action resides in the table’s top third. Xena: Warrior Princess was Universal’s big 1990s'

syndi- cated hit spin-off of "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys," and while its play space seems open in the bottom half, there are plenty of pop-up targets to hit, and the ramps are expanded to cover half of the table. Battlestar Galactica is based on the Sci-Fi channel remake, but the table feels like a mix of Knight Rider and Xena in that the open space is wider but has plenty of targets to provide high scoring capabilities.

The other five tables are all real-life classics from the Bally/Williams era. World Cup Soccer might not be the first of the licensed real tables you'd think of gravitating toward, but Tim Kitzrow is the announcer. You’ll also change your mind when you see that this comes from the era where scores in the hundreds of millions was common — especially if you have fond memories of similar games, like Medieval Madness. The rest of the tables share a similar layout, where ramps and targets are plentiful, but they each come with their own gimmicks to stand out. The Addams Family features a flipper on the side that plays by itself once you activate the right trigger. Twilight Zone has a door built into the board that is just a screen but provides a mesmerizing effect. Star Trek: The Next Generation features ball-launching cannons on the side to return the ball to the field. Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure is the last of the tables, and its mini-playfield is tiltable when multiball is activated, so things are even more chaotic.

DLC shouldn't surprise anyone familiar with Zen's previous work, but this points out two items of concern. The first is that you can't port over any of the tables you purchased for Pinball VR Classic. As demonstrated by Star Wars Pinball VR, part of this may come down to licensing, but it is irksome to see that the Zen originals from the first game aren't present, forcing you to go between several games instead of being in one title, like on the PC and other platforms. The second concern is with future DLC. Pinball VR Classics had some DLC tables, but they stopped after four tables. The plan was that owners of the original Pinball VR Classics will be able to port those tables into this game, but no such thing is in the works for Star Wars Pinball that we know of. It will take some time to see if this comes to fruition, so don't bank on that happening right away.

The game provides a great deal of modes to play with