A couple years ago, Zen Studios were almost in a pre-Telltale like position. They had just acquired the rights to a couple of major franchises for use in their games such as South Park, Spider-Man, and even the 1 billion dollar behemoth Star Wars, but they had to wade through the overwhelming wads of skepticism first, until eventually finding their great groove. And while stages such as Deadpool, Portal and The Walking Dead were never less than a blast to play, there were always missing the element of surprise found in modern horror. So with a new gain like this one, is Zen Studios ready to change their formula in a great and intriguing way, or is it the same old but still fun path?

Gameplay:

Franchise purists will be happy to see that Predator makes a worthwhile appearance

The Aliens franchise has been a mixed bag over the years, with the long awaited Prometheus serving as a divisive and flawed precursor to a franchise so many loved so long ago. Yet, the celebratory nature of Aliens is truly present in these new tables. Characters including the prized antagonists make their classic appearances in full force, yet none of this veers too far off into over-annoyance. Zen Pinball’s structure may have stayed the same over the past couple of years, but the awe still exists.

Story and Design:

As with most tables, the true magic resigns in the front

Each Zen Pinball stage is a labor of love, but this feeling has become more subtle as Zen Studios has gotten more comfortable with certain brands. Yet with these Aliens stages, these great feelings reemerge. For example, more mini-games have been added, and while some of these are hit and miss, they are all creative in their own right, instead of feeling inspired and tacked on. With something like this, Zen really hit the nail on the head.

Presentation/ Visuals & Audio:

Why hello there..

There’s no denying that Zen has placed more pizzazz into these assortment of licensed stages than ever, but this doesn’t entirely come through in the presentation, visuals, and or audio. While clips from the movie are nice, there are no discernible attempts to break new ground by using these clips in new ways, leading to a lot of repetition for hardcore players. And as much as I’d like to continue playing these stages, this is the biggest and most unfortunate problem of this game.

Conclusion:

Zen Studios has knocked it out of the park again, and there’s no definitive telling to if they’ve reached their pinball peak yet, which is a true testament to not only the great gameplay, but also design choices at hand. It’s not perfect, but Aliens VS. Pinball has the most retained sense of direction I’ve seen in a very long time, making the first good sign out of many.

Aliens Vs. Pinball (Zen Pinball 2) gets a 9/10 (Very Good)

We’d like to thank Zen Studios for sending us a code!

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