Platform: PlayStation Vita(PS3/PS4)

Developer/Publisher: Zen Studios

# of Players: 1-4

ESRB Rating: E10+

Official Site

Score: A (95%)

Zen Studios has been making some outstanding digital pinball games for years and each new table they’ve added to Zen Pinball 2 has just about outdone the previous ones. Their latest, a wonderful riff on the first set of five chapters from Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead is probably their strongest tables to date. With the exception of a sniping section and offline scores not being able to be added to leaderboards, this one’s as good as it gets and then some for pinball fans. Granted, if you’re new to pinball or someone who’s always avoided it for some reason, you may not be convinced by what’s here and that’s your loss. The game’s fast pace and addictive “one more try” play will hook you in and with practice, you’ll become a master of the skill shot and start racking up that score into the stratosphere…

The table itself is really nicely designed and modeled after Telltale’s first five-chapter TWD game and includes lead characters Lee and Clementine as animated avatars (with Dave Fennoy as Lee Everett and Melissa Hutchison as Clementine reprising their roles) acting out bits from the game as you play. Yes, it makes sense to have played that adventure game in order to understand some of the choices you’ll be making and the mini-games that pop up during play. But you can also go in as a total novice and have a ton of fun. Knowing the story, however, adds a nice layer of tension to the game when you need to decide during key moments when you hit the proper targets and a choice pops up. Playing this in hot seat multiplayer with a friend who’d never played any of the Telltale games made for an interesting experience because he’s into pinball and not other types of games, but wanted to give TWD a shot because he had so much fun with this table.

The nice thing about the Vita version is you can hold the system normally or flip it vertically if you like. Multiple camera views selectable on the fly allow you to get the perfect angle, although I’ll admit holding the Vita vertically takes a bit of getting used to. While the top down views allow for more strategic play, I tended to score more using the default settings and playing around with the viewing angle until I found one that worked best. The great thing about Zen’s games is take away the animated polygon characters and other distracting elements that wouldn’t fit or work on an actual pinball table still makes for a fantastic pinball experience. The character interactions here aren’t as flashy and weird as in Zen’s Marvel or Star Wars tables, but it can be jarring for pinball fans new to Zen’s highly stylized tables to see characters moving around and adding life to the game.

Like previous tables, playing with a constant online connection allows scores to be updated and information about high score runs to be doled out in real-time. I had a very good day during one session where I was informed that my score would be the highest of the day (temporarily) once I scored a few million more points. It was pretty thrilling to get updates on my progress, but also daunting because failure wasn’t an options at that point. I did manage to make that target and definitely walked around for a few hours grinning because the game did s fine job at cheering me on. Sadly, offline scores aren’t counted at all save for updating the high score listing. This is a bit annoying because I’m not tethered to a wi-fi signal 24 hours and day and shouldn’t have to be.

You’re also ranked according to how your PSN friends score at the game, so there’s a not so subtle promotion effort going to get you to spread the word about this one and have a few pals join your pinball team. Amusingly enough, I only have one other person on my friend’s list, but I think he’s not much into pinball at all, so I’m going it alone. The highest rank I reached until this point was about 480, but I know that’s dropped a bit because it’s been a few days since I picked up and played online. Personally, I think the game should take into account any offline scoring (save for scores where users play with the operator settings) and add it to the leaderboard tally simply because you actually LOSE your current ranking when others who do play continuously score all their points in online play.

My only other gripe is one with a sniping sequence where you use the flippers to guide a scope and the launch button to shoot. It works just about as well as you’d think because the scope’s movement is limited and not free or touch enabled. Granted, this sequence is supposed to be tense and feel as if it’s from Telltale’s original game. But it’s initially tricky to aim and hit those zombies without a bit of practice, so expect to not nail a perfect score on this section the first time through. Then again, your mileage may vary – I’m older and slower these days, but you may be a bit more spry than I am (little in-joke there). So, this one’s a must buy, but make sure you have space for more of Zen’s older and upcoming tables on your memory card. Once you play one of their games, it’s VERY hard to not want to buy more tables from their growing variety…