JACKPOT! JACKPOT! JACKPOT!
Loot your change drawer, Zen Studios has confirmed that Pinball FX is going to drop on Switch next week. July 6, 2023, to be precise.
To be clear, this is the–I don’t know–reboot of Pinball FX. Because they got up to Pinball FX3 and then decided to start the sequence over. This is especially interesting because you can already get Pinball FX3 on Switch. Pinball FX is kind of built from the ground up in Unreal Engine 4. I’m not sure why that’s necessary, but it means that your tables don’t carry over from the previous Pinball FX games. That kind of puts a damper on things.
But, hey, it’s free to play. You get a one-day pass to try out everything. Afterward, you’re left with three tables you can play in unlimited fashion: West Rampage, Fish Tales, and Sorcerer’s Lair. Tables after that are bought a la carte, or in small bundles. Other versions allow you to buy pinball coins or a pinball pass as another way of playing, but this won’t initially be part of the Switch version. The Switch is getting 21 tables that the platform hasn’t had before, so that’s something.
I still feel scorned by the fact that Zen Studios got their hands on the Williams and Bally licenses, which were previously held by Farsight Studios for their game, Pinball Arcade. I loved Pinball Arcade because it felt like it was trying to be extremely faithful to the tables. It was kneecapped after losing those licenses and never recovered. However, Zen Studios seems to have gotten better about their authenticity, so maybe I’ll eventually finally migrate. It just still hurts, you know?
Pinball FX is currently available for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms. It releases on Switch July 6, 2023.
