The Walking Dead Pinball is a strange little title from Zen Studios. A downloadable pinball table for Zen Studios Pinball FX2 that is as niche as one can get. As you may have already surmised The Walking Dead Pinball is based on said series, only in the form of a pinball table, something that was the norm in the days of the arcade. What makes this take slightly different is that the game isn’t based on the comic book series, it’s not even based on the wildly popular television series, but instead based on the Telltale adventure game.
While shooting zombies and fighting for survival doesn’t seem like something that would transfer well to a pinball environment, Zen does a pretty remarkable job keeping the feeling of the game intact with their table. A big part of that goes down to the fact that Zen teamed closely with Telltale to help craft the table and it shows. They have managed to capture the look, sound, and feel of the game within the limitations of a stationary pinball table.
The table is compatible with Zen Pinball 2 and was recently released on the Playstation Network with a wider release not long after. I have personally had the pleasure of trying out a number of different tables based on large properties before, most recently with the Star Wars compilation that Zen released earlier this year, but The Walking Dead table easily stands out as the best the company has released so far.
This is the sort of table that will continue to surprise you with its level of detail. There were a number of times where I would let the table overview run just so I could spend a few minutes admiring all the little touches and Zen’s attention to detail. The team have managed to cram an amazing amount of content from season one of Telltales The Walking Dead game on a single table.
This being a digital table allows the team to create situation and produce story elements that one could simply not accomplished from a mechanical table. The first thing players will notice is the level of detail surrounding the table itself. You could be forgiven for looking at screenshots of the table and asking just where the table is. The town where the game takes place lines the tables borders and does a great job of sucking you into the experience as well as taking an active role itself.
The games main characters, Lee and Clementine are both always present on the lower left and right of the table. Both are fully 3D modeled and will react to the events taking place throughout the course a a play session. When you trigger certain events the two will come together and just as in the Telltale game require you to make a choice in dealing with a situation. Do you attack the incoming zombie, or do you let your former friend go about his business? Having these nods back to the game makes for some really fun moments and gives it a fair bit of replayability.
The table layout itself it quite busy, but never becomes so cluttered that it becomes hard to follow the ball. It’s broken up across two main playing areas; a lower table that will see the bulk of the play filled with lots of ramps and paths for your ball to travel, and the upper table with a set of backward flippers that houses a giant bumper with a whack-a-mole style knockdown game. If both of those things weren’t enough, the game will sometimes pull you away from the table onto the streets of Savannah. This segment will have you shooting zombies in a shooting gallery style setting to earn some big bonus points.
It’s the little details that help The Walking Dead Pinball stand out. The plunger that launched the ball into played being replaced by a swinging axe, the boarded up door with zombies trying to break through just under the ball drain, and the sound design are all superb. The only thing that I didn’t much care for was the difficulty. Compared with Zen’s other offerings, The Walking Dead Pinball is pretty tough. This is mostly due to the space between the flippers feeling like it’s just too big, resulting in many a lost ball.
That being said, if you are a fan of the Telltale games, or just a fan of good solid pinball games, then you won’t be disappointed if you pick this one up. For the amount of content that you get, $2.99 is a good price for this DLC.
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