Marvel Pinball Collection – “Captain America” Review

Captain America is approximately three weeks away from visiting a cinema near you, but you can catch a glimpse of the man behind the shield on June 28/29 when he joins Marvel Pinball and Pinball FX2’s Marvel Collection.

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The story behind this latest table from Zen Studios was inspired by the 65^th Anniversary Special comic. You take on the role of Captain America, and along with assistance from Bucky and the Howling Commandos, you must infiltrate Baron Zemo’s castle and take him down. In addition to Baron Zemo you’ll also need to deal with the Red Skull who’s been working alongside Zemo.

Amidst the flashy lights, shiny ramps, and generally colorful design the table features full 3D models of Captain America himself, along with the Red Skull and Baron Zemo. Allegedly you can also deal with The Sleeper who was features in the 65^th Anniversary Special though I haven’t had the pleasure yet. All models are accompanied by voices of course, though I’m not at all familiarized with the Captain America universe so I can’t say whether the true fans will love it or hate it. If you want to know what I think, let me say this – the voiceovers sound great, and I think some quality actors had a role in it.

You’ll find a variety of missions on the table; some missions are take the side of the offense against Baron Zemo and the Red Skull while other missing play a defensive stance to locate your friends on the table. Zemo’s missions are easily activated and you’ll have your choice of “Death Ray”, “Adhesive X”, and “Sparring”.  You’ll need to use the spinner, bumpers and lit ramps to complete the missions, and due to the difficulty of hitting some of the required areas you’ll likely be trying his missions a few times each before completing them.

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The defensive missions for Cap himself are the more difficult based on my personal opinion and time spent on this table.  “Resistance”, “Dig Site”, and “Archives” often require hitting all lit ramps or pocketing the ball in a specific hard-to-reach hole on the table. Beyond the standard missions for Cap you may also find some hidden mini-games on the table. These games include a seemingly difficult round of blocking projectiles with Captain America’s shield – sounds simple, but the order of what area they shoot from is randomized and it’s a small enclosed space which ramps up the difficulty further.

There’s a ton of potential for some high scores to help push up your Superscore and Wizard Score – but there’s also a lot of work involved.  With the upcoming film release of Captain America the hype train is moving fast and this is likely a table that most Marvel Pinball/Pinball FX2 owners are going to pick up just to get on board.

For your hard earned $2.99 / 240 :MSPoints: you will have at least eight missions to complete on the Captain America table. Achievement/trophy fans have the chance for three new achievements totaling 50G or three new trophies. A friend recently commented to me about the price of Zen Studios’ DLC and he called it “price-gouging” – but look at the content hidden in these tables and calculate approximately how much time you’ll spend playing it – I’m sure you see the true replay value.

Captain America will be releasing on PSN on June 28^th as an addition to the Marvel Pinball collection and on June 29^th to part of the Pinball FX2 Marvel collection. Whether or not you’re a Captain America fan, or even a Marvel fan, this table is a fantastic addition and it holds some pretty tight-locked secrets to discover.