Zen Studio's 'Zen Pinball series has finally made its way to the Wii U eShop on Wednesday with the release of "Zen Pinball 2" as a free download. Don't get too excited though, because players will only have access to trial tables which are either score or time limited in their use. But sure, you can play them over and over again as much as you want, just don't expect to do so well.
If you're looking for a list of available tables, just scroll on past the next two sections.
Presentation and Table Download Experience
First off, "Zen Pinball 2" on the Wii U features off-screen play on the GamePad by adjusting through the options menu.
The game has a clean, mostly white and blue interface, similar to the Wii U's home, which makes visually understanding the available content fairly easily. While perusing your table collection, leaderboards are consistently presented to the player on the right hand side of the screen, begging the player to climb and climb. Additionally, the game feature's achievement style "Awards" to entice both extended play and instigate a desire to learn each table's ins-and-outs, as seen in previous "Zen Pinball" releases. It's all very direct, the background music is elevator-soothing and getting to the tables within the game is easy to do. Additionally, you can pause gameplay at any time and access nearly every feature outside of the actual list of tables, which means heading into the options, viewing leaderboards and awards, etc. It's all very convenient and intelligently laid out.
Available Tables
Zen Studios dug deep into its catalogue of pre-produced tables to give "Zen Pinball 2" a proper coming out party, though no brand new tables make the Wii U collection anything special for "Zen Pinball" fans. Most notably, the "Star Wars" collection of tables did not make the Wii U cut, though chances are they will appear eventually. The developer is promising "Regular table releases through the Nintendo eShop," according to a release.
Each individual table will run you $2.99, while specific four-pack deals go for $9.99. Here's the initial list of available tables and package details, all of which are available as trial downloads as well:
Zen Classic Pack featuring Tesla, El Dorado, V12, Shaman
Marvel Pinball featuring Spider-Man, Wolverine, Blade and Iron Man
Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles featuring Marvel's The Avengers, Infinity Gauntlet, World
War Hulk, Fear Itself
Marvel Pinball: Vengeance and Virtue featuring X-Men, Thor, Ghost Rider, Moon Knight
Individual DLC Tables: Excalibur, Earth Defense, Sorcerer's Lair, Paranormal, Mars, Epic Quest,
Plants vs. Zombies, Fantastic Four, Captain America, Civil War
