The Walking Dead Pinball

Editor's Notes

PS4 and PS3 versions tested.

Introduction

Telltale Games is wrapping up its second season of 'The Walking Dead' in a week or so, no doubt plunging poor Clementine into the most dastardly of scenarios. You'd think that spending the waiting period playing a round of pinball might lighten up the mood a bit, but that's just not what Zen Studios, in collaboration with Telltale, wanted for poor you. With 'The Walking Dead Pinball,' headed to every version of Zen Studio's pinballing platform, they wanted you to again feel all the horrible feels of the stellar first season in snippets of the dire, the surreal and the touching, all the while chasing a high score.

The Game Itself: Our Reviewer's Take

The basic structure is actually similar to another table based of a video game license – 'Plants vs. Zombies' (one of my favorite tables). As you fire through the orbits, filling out minor objectives (scavenge, scout, fortify), you're also trying to unlock missions by knocking a flailing zombie out of the way of a portal. Once entered, you choose one of the five episodes of season one and attempt to complete the matching mission. 'No Time Left,' for example, requires that you knock down approaching zombies before they reach your bumpers, in the exact same fashion as 'Plants vs. Zombies.'

'Around Every Corner,' on the other hand, throws you into a sniping mini game, where you guide the sight left or right along a set path and shoot zombies, Old-Western Carnival style, again, reminiscent of the watermelon toss in 'PvZ.' Other mission objectives are a little convoluted, requiring multiple steps to victory, so it's a little bit annoying having to look at the scoreboard to figure out what to do mid-mission. One might consider that a part of the difficulty though.

So, with a fairly familiar structure, I was able to jump right in and go after missions without a hitch. They're tough at first, but as you acclimate yourself to the orbits and objectives, you'll come ever closer to completing each and every episode. That's the end goal, aside from the high score.

Another element that gets thrown in, of utmost important to the original series, are decisions. When you grab a mission, before it starts you're prompted to make a call. Side with Kenny or Larry, Save Carly or Doug, take the food, etc. These are all choices swiped directly out of the campaign, and even something as subtle as whether you high five Duck is going pinch players of the original series right in the gut. Okay, maybe high fiving Duck is especially pinch worthy. If you're nodding your head in agreement right now, you'll enjoy the table.

Honestly, though, the payoff for decision-making is essentially null on the pinball side of things, so I consider it as much a cosmetic inclusion as Lee and Clementine on the outskirts, but it's an important one.

As far as the (virtual) physical construction of the table goes, there's nothing too radical going on here. The Everett Pharmacy serves as the primary diversion from the regular objective-hunting, with your ball caught in a tiny little arena, mini-bumpers at your disposal to take down a board of zombies. A couple of video-gamey elements, like 'Plants vs. Zombies,' are present as well. Already mentioned are the sniping mini game and hordes of zombies trouncing the table. It doesn't go much beyond that, mostly keeping in tone with the realism that makes 'Zen Pinball 2' such a treat for enthusiasts. Mostly, it makes physical sense while taking advantage of the fact that it's a video game. As with most Zen tables, the balance is pitch perfect.

The only real hitch in construction is, upon losing your ball to an objective or some kind of portal, the kickback into play is just a wink too swift, causing me early on to lose balls as I was reading the scoreboard for the specifics of my next move. Acclimation is all it takes to overcome this problem, but it does result in some early frustration.