Balance of the Force Has Balls
Take a television or movie property you enjoy and combine it with one of your favorite hobbies. Seriously, just try it. For example, maybe you enjoy the BBC drama Sherlock, and bicycling through the park on the weekends. You can’t watch Sherlock while riding your bike, that wouldn’t be safe. Maybe you could cover your bike in beautiful painted renditions of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, but then you might just get some strange looks. What’s the point of all this? Well, Zen Studios has combined Star Wars (one of my favorite movie properties of all time) and pinball (one of my favorite hobbies) to create a new set of pinball tables for Pinball FX2 on Xbox 360. The end result is Star Wars Pinball: Balance of the Force, and I love it.
This isn’t the first time Zen Studios has lovingly created a set of Star Wars pinball tables. This isn’t even the first time they’ve made any video pinball tables. Hell, they’ve got a catalog of over 40 other tables that have nothing to do with Star Wars available right now for Pinball FX2. But earlier this year, they released the first set of tables in the Star Wars series which included The Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett, and The Clone Wars (which is based on the cartoon TV show, not the terrible movie). I thoroughly enjoyed all three of them, especially the one based on everyone’s favorite bounty hunter. With this new trio of tables, Zen Studios have done it again, if not outdone themselves. Balance of the Force includes three more with Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader, and Starfighter Assault.
Let’s start at the end, which we all know when it comes to Star Wars is the classic 1983 film Return of the Jedi. This puppet-laden movie has always been my favorite in the original trilogy. It opens with the eccentric palace of Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine, and concludes on Endor with the Rebel Alliance and an army of furry Ewoks running amok over the Empire. Zen Studios took these two settings and fused them together in the design of this table. All the flippers, lights, bumpers, and multiballs are included, but with a Return of the Jedi theme taken beyond the limits of physical pinball machines. The forest moon of Endor grows over the right side of the table, while Jabba’s palace and the deserts of Tatooine cover the left side. Luke Skywalker greets you a familiar line from the film at the start of every game. You launch the ball with a wooden battering ram crafted by Ewoks instead of a traditional plunger as a Scout trooper hovers nearby on his Speeder bike. Jabba laughs from his palace as you try to bash down the doors with your ball to enter and gain a random reward. There’s an AT-ST poised ready to fire, and it will blast your ball to bits sometimes. And they even managed to get Salacious Crumb in there. One of my favorite sequences is the Battle for Endor which immediately launches four balls onto the field, and then you have to hit all the lit ramps to complete it. It’s a loving homage to Return of the Jedi. And while it’s the end of the trilogy, it’s just the first in the set of three tables.
The second table starts with the assembly of the baddest dude to ever wield a lightsaber, Darth Vader. It’s completely devoted to him. It’s filled with all of his most iconic moments. But one of these iconic moments is laughable, and it’s recreated in this pinball table as soon as you piece together the Sith Lord. Upon completion of the “Assemble Darth Vader” sequence, you can hear the hilarious “Nooooooooo!” from Vader when he learns of his beloved Padmé’s death. This scene from Revenge of the Sith plays out like a living diorama in the backglass of the table, complete with Darth Vader breaking free from the table like Frankenstein. You can skip this opening sequence, but then you’re giving up the chance to gain 10,000,000 points right at the start. It’s a small price to pay for your high score. After that, it’s nothing but the best of Darth Vader’s exploits from Star Wars IV-VI. The plunger which launches your ball on this table is actually the Death Star’s laser cannon, complete with sound effects from the films. You can accept missions from the Emperor, which includes the lightsaber battles with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker. Just like the opening sequence, these scenes come to life in the backglass diorama as you do your best to hit the lit ramps and bumpers. The dominating red color scheme of the table lets you know there is nothing but the Dark side of the force to be found here. And luckily, no representation of Hayden Christiansen can be found on this table. It’s all classic Darth Vader.
The final table in Balance of the Force is very different from the others. While the first two are based on specific characters and moments from the Star Wars films, Starfighter Assault is based on the starship battles and faceless pilots of the Star Wars universe. You’ll choose at the start whether to side with the Rebel Alliance or The Empire, which gives me the distinct feeling that whoever designed this table was a big fan of the X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter PC games. The table is divided down the middle, with The Empire on the left and the Rebel Alliance on the right. Depending on which side you pick depends on which side you’ll launch the ball from since they have separate shooting lanes and plungers. The sequences play out like space battles, with hitting the right lit ramps and bumpers causing cannons to fire on your opposition or with your ships taking evasive maneuvers. It’s the most frantic of the three tables as X-Wings and TIE fighters are engaged in dogfights above the playfield at almost every moment. And you’ll take control of either side in a sequence that’s a simple vertical shooter like an arcade game out of the 80s. Starfighter Assault was a pleasant surprise for me, since I had no idea what it would be like when it was announced. Now, it may be my favorite in the set. It’s like a pinball table that could exist in the Star Wars universe, like the F-14 Tomcat pinball table that exists in ours.
Like I said at the beginning, I love the Star Wars: Balance of the Force downloadable content for Pinball FX2. All of the tables have the distinct touch of Zen Studios with incredible ball physics and attention to detail. All of the sound effects are perfect, except for the spoken dialogue. All the memorable quotes are recreated by voice actors impersonating the characters portrayed by the original actors and actresses. It’s a minor quibble, and does little to impede my enjoyment. The art design is reminiscent of the pinball tables of the past, while it utilizes the technology of the present to create an immersive experience you could never get with a physical pinball table. Zen Studios are the top of the crop when it comes to video pinball. And with even more Star Wars Pinball promised for the future, I’ll be itching to test my skills against whatever they put out.
Star Wars: Balance of the Force is available for:
– Pinball FX2 on Xbox Live Arcade, Steam, and Windows 8
– Zen Pinball 2 on Playstation Network for Playstation 3 and PS Vita as Cross Play entitled content
– Zen Pinball on the Apple App Store
– Zen Pinball HD on Google Play.
About the Author
Keith Hanson is a podcaster currently residing in New Jersey. He can be found weekly on Sidecast where he rambles on about video games, wrestling, movies, Muppets, and other very important topics. If you want to find him right now, he's probably posting something to his Twitter.
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