Balls of Glory Pinball Review

In case you hadn’t noticed from my excitement over things like Pang and Dizzy, or the ridiculous number of owned consoles on my profile here on GameGrin, I’m something of a retro gamer. Don’t get me wrong, I love my current-gen (I’m reviewing this via the PS4) but there’s something about a shiny old arcade game that I particularly love. Sadly, arcades are all but gone in the UK nowadays and as the game cabinets are replaced with penny push machines and one-armed bandits, so too are the pinball machines that used to nestle between them.

Whilst the machines themselves are a rarer and rarer sight nowadays, pinball at home has never been healthier, with Pinball FX 2 being the best-selling game on XBLA back in 2011. With the increased interest in home pinball comes more competition, so in order to keep up, it’s up to Zen to keep releasing things that keep their players happy. Step forward Balls of Glory, an addon featuring some of the most popular adult cartoons of the moment.

You get four tables for your £7.99 and each is themed after a different TV show. You’ve got four of the Fox network’s finest here, namely Bob’s Burgers, Archer, Family Guy and American Dad. Each table is unique with a theme, based around the show it’s portraying with the characters taking centre stage.

Graphically, they did a Sterling job with all the flashing lights and colour that you want from pinball. It’s a game you would want to play on a large sized screen. There’s a lot going on with some of the tables which could make it difficult to see what’s going on. I found that playing on the TV itself was fine as long as I was sat in the right place on the sofa, but when I played via remote play on my tablet or Vita, it was just too cramped to really tell exactly what you were doing. The actual Vita version scrolls and does away with that issue, however Cross Buy works from Vita to PS4 and not the other way round. If you plan on playing on both systems then you’ll want to buy it on the Vita then import it to your PS4. This was a little irritating to me as if I’d known I would have got it the other way around.

The tables aren’t just flat, but they’re rich with bonuses and extra features. I’ve put a good 10 hours into the game so far but still haven’t seen everything it has to offer. The game makes use of the fact that it’s not restricted by what can be crafted mechanically. It has a number of features that probably could be created on a real pinball table, but it would be a particularly extravagant one that would likely be too expensive to actually make. For example, one of the bonuses on the Archer table sees the backdrop flip around to reveal a moving train on which Archer pops up alongside a terrorist; mimicking the famous scene in the show where he realises that fighting on the top of a moving train isn’t as cool as the movies make it look. In the Family Guy table there’s a mini shmup as one of the bonuses where you control Stewie on a mission to blast Bertram and his flying army out of the skies.  The American Dad table sees Francine and Stan take to the middle of the table itself for an

ice skating session.

The game features a number of voice samples from the shows themselves. For the adult-rated shows, only family friendly phrases are picked. The game is aimed at all ages so there’s no rude words in here. This doesn’t really detract from the game as there’s plenty of non-rude quotes to pick from. Some of the references may be a little obscure if you’re not a long time fan of the show in question, but they all make for good fun even if you haven’t seen the episode from which the idea is taken. However, some of them play a little too much. For example, there’s a number of phrases you’ll hear on the Archer table for losing a ball, but there’s only one for a saved ball (Lana shouts “Do not use the nerve gas!”) so you hear it a lot.  It’s not a deal-breaker but more variety on some of the samples would have been nice.

The main cast of each show is generally represented but some of the second string characters get very little prominence. The Archer table is a prime example of this: I’m a big fan of Krieger and I was hoping to see some of his more esoteric creations like Pigsley. His role in the table however is limited to two voice samples; “nope” and “yup”, and an LCD screen power-up selection.  It’s a disappointment but not one that I can’t live with. Just be aware your favourite character might not be represented as much as you’d hoped if they’re not the main star.

Overall, despite a few little niggles, I thought Zen did a great job here. It’s great fun and if these were real pinball tables then I’d happily stick coins in them and waste my money by being really awful at pinball. The fact that I only have to pay the equivalent of 24 credits is even better, I’ve definitely already got my moneys worth in! If you’re a fan of pinball and a fan of even a couple of these shows, chances are then you will really like this game.