Two Farsights and one Zen

Farsight came up again with two new tables. The first, Central Park, 

is an oldie, five-ball pinball. However I did not appreciate it a lot. The gameplay is not particularly interesting and the ball drains far too easily.
The second, Cactus Canyon,

is a game that I liked really a lot. Quite funny with many interesting things to do, it managed to get me hooked despite the rather cluttered playfield and the Farsight-classic invisible ball.

The Zen pinball is not a new one. On an impulse I went back and purchased the table Paranormal

of Zen Studios. I came across it while browsing the manuals of the Zen games and I did like it. Indeed it is a decent game and, what I do appreciate a lot, it has fewer moving gewgaws than the other Zen tables. Still, why on earth do they have the Loch Ness monster, on the lower left side, move its head?

Star Wars by Zen Studio

Zen pinballs have expanded their pinball collection adding three new tables based on a Star Wars theme. They are Boba Fett

Clone Wars

and Empire strikes back

The tables are very nice graphically and have plenty of gadgets. I have only purchased and played the third one. If you are like me and do not care much about gadgets but rather look for an interesting gameplay you will not be very happy with the new pinballs. One thing that was really annoying were the constantly flashing lights: they distract you and you cannot concentrate on the ball. Speaking of the ball I must admit that, given the colour theme of Empire strikes back, it was clearly visible. However, judging from the screenshots, I am afraid that for the other two tables we will be in a near-Farsight situation. I cross my fingers and hope that this will not become a trend.


On the last count Zen studios are up to 18 different tables for iDevices. Only Farsight is doing better. Although I do not like their games a lot (I gave a positive review only to Tesla) I must acknowledge the fact that they are regularly providing new pinball games for iOS. When are they going to release Plants vs. Zombies? That's the one I would like to play, gadgets or no gadgets. 

Addendum. Zen Studios has released the Star Wars tables for Mac, as well. I haven't tried them but the experience should not be too different from the one on the iPad.

The new Farsight tables

Two more Farsight tables made their appearance this week but I prefer to start with a table that I had missed when it came out: Genie.

I love this table. It has an uncluttered playfield and the five (!) flippers add extra spice to the game. Moreover the graphics allow you to follow the invisible-farsight ball without too much eye-strain. Moreover it is an old-school five-ball game something that I consider a plus.

The two new games are Firepower 

and Dr. Dude. 

I did not appreciate Firepower despite its uncluttered playfield. I find the gameplay uninteresting. Moreover this pinball is a very fast one and thus the ball drains a little bit too easily to my taste.

Dr. Dude on the other hand is pure fun. It has a really cluttered playfield and the graphics help making the ball invisible (try to locate it on the screenshot) but still I do love the game. It has a je ne sais quoi that I find appealing. After all pinball preferences are a pure matter of personal taste, so ...