Pinball Arcade by FarSight Studios for the PlayStation 4 continues an excellent series of pinball games started way back in 2004 on the PlayStation 2. I was looking forward to this game’s release on the PlayStation 4 for a while now, and it does not disappoint. It’s available on the PlayStation Store, and now apparently it’s available on retail disc as well. On the PlayStation Store you can download just a couple tables at a time, or download all 22 current tables for a reasonable price of under $30.
The tables are recreation of actual pinball tables, and there is a nice selection ranging from 1973’s Big Shot all the way to modern tables like 2004’s Harley-Davidson. Chances are good that you’ll find at least one pinball table that you have played in real life. If your favourite game isn’t in the list, just wait a little while, because there are 21 more tables to be released in the first half of 2014, and FarSight Studios is always working on new ones. The game play is excellent, and I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary as far as ball physics go. The controls are responsive, and couldn’t be more simpler. You pull back on the right analog to activate the ball plunger, and press the R1 and L1 bumpers to use each flipper. In pinball your goal is to get a high score, but the developers added some fun lists of objectives for each table. The objectives might includes things like activating multiball, hitting all the drop targets, etc. It’s another thing that adds to the replayability.
An actual screenshot for once. Taking a picture of my TV with my phone does not do justice to how great the game looks.
With each new generation of consoles released, FarSight Studios comes closer and closer to replicating the real thing. Playing the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 4 versions back to back, I noticed the PlayStation 4 version has noticeably sharper graphics than the Xbox 360 version. I always thought the Xbox 360 version looked great, but now I see jagged edges that the PlayStation 4 version just doesn’t have. The lighting of the pinball tables in the PlayStation 4 version is fantastic too, and is another upgrade over the previous generation. There is now an option to change the ambient lighting from bright, neutral, to dark. Setting it to dark really makes the tables pretty as it would on a real life table. However it is sometimes hard to see the ball using this setting. The only minor gripes I have with this game is some low quality sounds, and a lack of rumble support. These are going to be addressed with a patch in the near future. It still sounds pretty good though, and I’m happy to be able to play it now rather than months down the road.
Sadly it is harder to find real pinball machines to play today, and sadder yet that I am not rich enough to afford all of these pinball tables, and the space to store them. I can tell that FarSight Studios are big pinball fans as well, as they always put a lot of care into making them. Highly recommend for pinball fans.
TheBandit2006 
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