The new table is due out on November 12th, and while I am not seeing a price in the press release, I'm sure it'll be in line with previous expansion tables at around 200 points. It's two great tastes that taste great together!

ZEN Studios Partners with Capcom® to Bring Street FighterTM to Pinball FX!
Officially licensed themed table is the latest expansion for the best selling Xbox LIVE Arcade pinball game

Budapest, Hungary –November 5, 2008 – ZEN Studios, a videogame developer and digital publisher known for its innovative arcade, strategy and action games, announced today it is working with Capcom® to release an officially licensed Street Fighter™ table for Pinball FX in celebration of the soon to be released Super Street Fighter™ II Turbo HD Remix. Pinball FX is the latest in a wide selection of pinball tables for one of the best selling titles on Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. The table will launch on Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 on November 12th, 2008.

“It is so great to bring this awesome intellectual property of Capcom’s over to Pinball FX. I’ve long been a fan of the Street Fighter franchise and felt they made the best fighting games regardless of platforms,” said Zsolt Kigyossy, managing director of ZEN Studios. “This is our fourth expansion table for Pinball FX, and we will continue to work hard to give our fans the best possible pinball game with loads of tables and variety.”

“Capcom is pleased to team up with ZEN Studios to kick off our celebration of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix immanent release,” said Christian Svensson, VP of Strategic Planning and Business Development at Capcom Entertainment Inc. “Capcom aims to be one of the top providers of digitally delivered game content in the industry and teaming up with ZEN Studios adds an entirely new dimension to our portfolio of competitive titles.”

With this new table, the legendary Street Fighter franchise comes alive in an all-new Pinball FX experience. Street Fighter™ II Pinball FX comes loaded with the characters that revolutionized the fighting genre and created a global legacy like no other. Experience the arcade thrills of traditional pinball with enhanced gameplay, unparalleled graphical detail and innovative features not found in any other pinball game, such as:

* Enter the World Warrior Championship fighting as Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Guile and battle against Sagat, Evil Ryu, Vega, and Balrog, then win the final round of the championship against M. Bison!
* Discover special combo shots, animated punches, kicks and special moves as you fight against opponents using ramps and a variety of orbit shots.
* Multiple in-game challenges featuring objects, art and memorable items from Street Fighter™ II.
* Table soundtrack, sound effects and voices from the original Street Fighter II.
* Brand new hot-seat multiplayer.

For more information about Capcom or the Street Fighter franchise, please visit www.capcom.com. For more information about ZEN Studios or Pinball FX, please visit www.zenstudios.com.

The Moose is Loose on XBLA! Pinball FX Gets Zanier With Rocky & BullwinkleTM

ZEN Studios Releases Themed Expansion Table in Anticipation of Rocky & Bullwinkle XBLA Game

San Francisco, CA - April 3, 2008 - ZEN Studios has announced the release of the Rocky & Bullwinkle themed expansion table for the popular Pinball FX game on Xbox LIVE® Arcade. The Rocky & Bullwinkle table delivers the same wacky, irreverent and heartfelt humor and traditional art styling that made the classic cartoon series "Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends®" so popular and is now available for download.

Pinball FX, released on Xbox LIVE Arcade in 2007, combines the arcade thrills of traditional pinball with enhanced game play, unparalleled graphical detail and exciting, innovative features not found in any other pinball game. The Rocky & Bullwinkle table will cost only 200 Microsoft Points f or gamers looking to join up with Rocky, Bullwinkle, Boris Badenov, Natasha Fatale and all the rest of the gang from Frostbite Falls. The full version of Pinball FX is required and is available for 800 Microsoft Points.

The release of the Rocky & Bullwinkle table for Pinball FX is in anticipation of the release of the full Rocky & Bullwinkle game for XBLA from Zen Studios in partnership with Bullwinkle Studios.

With several modes of gameplay and loads of bumpers, slingshots and kickbacks, the Rocky & Bullwinkle table is a great compliment to the already impressive array of tables for Pinball FX. In addition to the Speed Machine, Extreme, Agents tables that come bundled with the game, Rocky & Bullwinkle joins the recently released Nightmare Mansion table and the free Buccaneer table to give extended life to an already deeply replayable title.

For more information about ZEN studios, the upcoming Rocky & Bullwinkle XBLA game, the Rocky & Bullwinkle table or Pinball FX, please visit www.zenstudios.com.

The main ingredient to any pinball game is the ball itself. You can have the most beautiful table in the world, filled with ramps, spinners, bumpers, floaters, roofies, and any number of odd items that may or may not be pinball terms and it all means nothing if the ball physics are off.

I'd say Pinball FX completely nailed it.

In this game, the ball is a pinball, no doubt about it. It takes spin, reacts to the table surface, and even does that damn thing pinballs tend to do right between the flippers where it feels like they are being magnetically pulled to their doom. For better or worse, it plays very much like the real thing.

Along with the excellent ball physics, Pinball FX has one of the best implementations of the rumble feature I've ever encountered. Along with the realistic sound effects, I could almost imagine I was getting my hands jarred by an actual machine at an arcade and not a console facsimile. Very well done indeed.

The game comes packed with three tables. Speed Machine, which is all about racing, Extreme, which is about trying to be hip but failing, and Agents, which is about real estate sales. Or spies. Probably spies. Let's give them each the once over, shall we?

Speed Machine

The only table available in the demo version, Speed Machine has the best lines of any of the three initial tables in Pinball FX. By lines I mean the way the ball flows about the table, allowing for more fluid movement and less randomly hitting bumpers, hoping you don't lose the ball. Some very well placed ramps and loops on this table. It's fast and flashy with some great sound effects, and it's the one I'm the best at, which of course makes it my favorite.

Extreme

It's all about rap, skateboarding, and other hip, extreme things, and it comes off feeling like a Jamie Kennedy joke. The table is effectively split into two sections, with the lower half consisting mainly of a hidden loop that just returns the ball right back to you. There is fun to be had here, especially when you get three balls going at once, but it's all a bit too hokey for my tastes.

Agents

It really was neck and neck between this table and Speed Machine. In terms of style, Agents wins out, with modeled pistols, what looks like an industrial complex, a yacht, and a random bird. While the lines don't flow quite as smoothly Speed's, you can get some really nice loops going, and I love the spy-themed missions.

More to come

Even if none of these tables tickles your fancy, Zen promises the release of more tables as DLC later down the line, much like Epic Pinball for the PC back in the early 90's - the best game Epic has ever released. Take that, Gears of War!

Multiplayer

I don't like the way they multiplayer set up, though I suppose it is for the best. Instead of taking turns playing as you would in a bar, everyone plays at the same time, with scores tallied at the end. You might as well just rely on leaderboard scores, as you really aren't playing with other players as you are playing at the same time as other players. It makes sense from a time standpoint, and I guess watching another person play pinball in a bar is only fun because you are in a bar.

Vision Camera Support

No. I will not. Knock yourself out, but there is no reason to control a pinball game with a camera. That's the great thing about giving impressions rather than posting an actual, scored review. I don't have to do silly things like this.

One of the Best

I cannot recommend the game enough to pinball fans. It is one of the best pinball simulations I've come across, and I've been playing these things since Pinball Construction Set back in 1983, before some of you were born. Zen Studios has done a stellar job with Pinball FX. Michael Fahey