There aren’t many video game companies out there that are synonymous with quality. You have the likes of Telltale with their adventure games, Nintendo with their first-part offerings, and Zen. While that last name may not be as familiar to you as the others, the company consistently puts out quality virtual pinball tables on a pretty regular basis. Their latest table is another in their long line of Marvel inspired tables, only this time it ties itself in directly with Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Tie-in games are always concerning, and are usually nothing but quick cash-ins, but as with most of Zen’s offerings this one is quite different. The table itself isn’t their flashiest, or most challenging, but it does offer some nice lanes that require a bit of skill to figure out. If you are new to Zen’s tables, or just virtual pinball games in general, you’ll probably find this table pretty barren of content. I was the same way when I initially jumped into the game, but if you give the board a little time, you’ll find it has some nice surprises in store.
That being said the table comes as a single download which is to be expected, but I really would have loved to seen a mult-table pack like they have done in the past. Sure, at $2.99 you really can’t complain as you are getting a stellar amount of gaming content for the price, but I still think that the rigid Ultron motif does hold the table back a bit. Visually though, the table looks fantastic. The playfield is backed by a shot of the inside of a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier lab area with Thor’s hammer and Loki’s staff on display. It’s a really nice touch and I wouldn’t put it past Stark of having a table like this (minus the Ultron theme of course) in the work area.
The table itself is set up nicely with a two-tier play area, but the upper level does feel like kind of a waste. You do get an additional flipper above, but it really only serves a single purpose and makes it kind of a throwaway section. Also, when you do get the ball up the board you’ll lose visual contact with it as it goes nuts off the tables semi hidden bumpers. For a table that is pretty light on tracks and extra features, it would have been nice to get a clearer picture of what your ball was doing at all times. Still, I have to give a lot of credit to Zen as they have Black Widow front and center on the lower half of the table fighting Ultron goons. It works in much the same way that the Walking Dead table did back when I reviewed that table. To be honest, it’s probably the best representation of Black Widow in any marketing campaign for the film. Although I do question why she isn’t included in the games title card (see this reviews title photo).
You also have Iron Man and Ultron near the top of the board that can be activated with the right combination of play. As with the other Zen tables, you work your way through the film by playing out it’s different parts. As you progress you’ll open up new special events as well as voice-overs. But here is where my big gripe with the game comes in. The voice work is an utter mess. This is strange because Zen usually does a really good job of capturing the voice of characters represented (See their Star Wars Original Trilogy tables), but with Age of Ultron it’s just so hit and miss. The problem is that some of the voices are so spot on that you’d be forgiven for thinking it was the actual cast (Robert Downey Jr. and Chis Evans are darn near perfect), while others don’t even come at all close to even being considered okay.
Thor for instance sounds nothing like Chris Hemsworth, instead sounding like an effeminate man auditioning for a bad off Broadway musical. Look, it’s not that his voice actor is doing a bad job, and I would be completely fine with it as I was with Zen’s Infinity War tables, but when you have half of the cast sounding like their movie versions and the other half sounding like their 90’s cartoon equivalents, it really becomes a problem. But beyond the terrible voice work implementation, the game itself works incredibly well. If you are a fan of Zen’s work then you’ll enjoy this table. If you are a fan of The Avengers film(s) then you’ll also get a lot of fun out of it once you get past the sound issue.
For the $2.99 that Zen is charging for the table it really is worth every penny. Hell, it’s probably the cheapest licensed piece of merchandise that you can get for the film. Have you been into a Toys R’ Us lately? The amount they are charging for Avengers merchandise is out of this world. I reviewed the PSN version on PS3, but the game is available on all platforms so be sure to pick it up before the movie hits theaters.
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