Kevin C. Wong

Zen Pinball Party (2021) [+]

Zen Pinball Party is first of all a pretty good arcade pinball simulation. There are over a dozen pinball games:

Animated Heroes - 6 children's pinball cabinets featuring Garfield, Snoopy, How to Train Your Dragon, Trolls, Kung Fu Panda, and My Little Pony. Although a bit simpler than the other cabinets these games are still challenging.

Zen Originals - 5 original games (Biolab, Son of Zeus, Wild West Rampage, Adventure Land, Castle Storm)

Williams Pinball - 7 games based on real arcade machines (Theatre of Magic, The Getaway, Attack from Mars, Medieval Madness, Champion Pub, Black Rose, Junk Yard)

Star Wars Pinball - 4 Star Wars themed games: The Clone Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, The Force Awakens, Boba Fett.

Each game has a table guide which goes over the various targets and combinations to achieve power ups and multi-balls and such (and modern pinball games can be fairly complicated).

Controls are simple. Tap on the left or right for the flippers. Swipe left, right, or up to tilt in that direction.

You can play in portrait or landscape, with landscape being more squashed so you can see the whole (or at least the main) playing area at once. Portrait is closer to what it looks like in real life but I kind of prefer landscape as the ball doesn't track as fast vertically.

I didn't try the party stuff. Four players on a special party game. Each player plays in their own table but your actions affect other players. Every 30 second or minute the lowest scoring player is eliminated.

I appreciate that it is a realistic pinball simulator rather than a fantasy computer pinball-like game. Not really a pinball fan but I'll probably keep this game around just in case. There is also Zen Pinball which is the regular version without I guess the party game and with more pinball tables but they're in-app purchases.