Pinball FX2/Marvel Pinball: "Civil War"

In 2006 there began an epic Marvel mini-series that was unlike anything the fans of the longstanding comic book franchise had ever seen. This series was none other than Marvel's "Civil War". The event lasted through seven epic drama filled issues that involved many of Marvels best known superheroes, and supervillains. Standing their ground at the core of the conflict was Iron Man, and Captain America. The two popular Marvel superheroes found themselves on opposing sides of a newly proposed "Super Hero Registration Act (SHRA)" which was created after a deadly clash that resulted in the loss of many innocent lives. On one hand Iron Man was all for the proposed act, and on the other hand Captain America was very much against it. What spawned from this massive civil unrest was several instances of bloodshed, and the division of the Marvel Universe as we (the readers) had come to realize it.

Mark Millar, one of Marvels finest writers came up with the idea for the "Civil War" story from the events that transpired after the 9/11 attacks. In a way he was trying to mirror the "Patriot Act" without making it so obvious. The "Patriot Act", for those of you who don't know basically swapped freedom for security. Using this as a basis for the "Civil War" series only made it hit home that much more for those of us who are aware of the political goings on of our own government. Even with this serious topic included somewhat in the story Mark Miller knew that the children who read the comic books would only see it as an epic battle, and enjoy it for it's art.

Fastforwarding a bit ... it is now late 2012, and Zen Studios has decided to release to us one of the more serious Marvel Pinball tables. Everything that you see on it from the towering 3D models of Captain America, and Iron Man to the freeze frame cinematic brawls that happen between them shows what the heart of this Marvel event was all about. While Zen Studios did capture the essence of the series with the inclusion of the usual audio dialogue concerning events from the series they did fail to cover it all. Things like Wolverine's fight with Nitro, and Captain America's untimely assassination we're all left out. I may not understand their decision to do this, but what they did offer the gamer was a hardcore experience unlike any that have graced their collection of tables yet.

When you first begin your playthrough of the "Civil War" table you will notice that there's a newsflash going on detailing the tragic events at a Stamford, Connecticut elementary school. If you allow the entire news sequence to finish you will be rewarded with a "Stamford Multi-ball" mission. This optional mission is simply there to give you a jump start on the score, and rescue as many survivors as you can in the process. The game keeps track of your highest score during this mission, so that you can try to beat it later on in following playthroughs. When the optional multi-bal mission is finished, and both balls have exited through the center lane you will have to pick sides. You can go with Iron Man who is pro-registration, or Captain America who is anti-registration.

After picking your hero, and side it is your duty to win over as many allies as possible in order to defeat the opposing faction. To do this you simply flip the ball through the several center oriented ramps that in return trigger various missions. To the left center of the table you'll find a group of three unusual positioned bumpers that also act as scoring, and mission based objectives. While these bumpers are off to the side they will still occasionally cause the pinball to head straight between your two main flippers. I should also mention that portions of the ramp are invisible, and only show up when the pinball is passing through them. All in all accessing the ramps, and triggering missions are quite the difficult task this time around. The location of each scoring object makes this table on of the more difficult ones to score on as a result.

The graphics presented on the Marvel Pinball "Civil War" table were gorgeous as usual. At the front of the table, towards the two main flippers you'll find both Captain America, and Iron Man's image printed front, and center. They are the main focus of this table, and as such they are rightfully placed accordingly. Above each image of the two heroes are a handful of superheroes, and supervillains who were a part of the story arch. I noticed that She-Hulk, Goliath, Mr. Fantastic and a few other well known characters had earned their place amongst the dueling duo as well. The only thing I found wrong with this was that key participants such as Wolverine, and the Punisher were nowhere to be found. With that being said though I can understand that Zen Studios had to make choices concerning who would, and who wouldn't be shown. In the end the greatest part of this table was definitely the 3D models of Captain America, and Iron Man who at times would brawl it out in true cinematic fashion as you triggered certain missions/events on the table. The fact that these heroes would turn to shadows, and freeze as the table turned blood red only made the action all the more serious.

After playing this table for a while I began to realize that scoring was more difficult than it had ever been on any of the previous Pinball FX2 tables. In fact I began to wonder if the physics were flawed since the pinball seemed to have a mind of it's own at times. A friend of mine also contacted me about these concerns after he had purchased, and played the table. I will say that this table is definitely not beginner friendly. You will have to be patient if you hope to gain any respectable highscore at all. I think this is mainly due to the ramps' placement, and the bumpers' location though. I'm not going to say the table is terrible, but a patch probably wouldn't hurt. As far as recommending it in it's current state it's kind of hard for me to do. I like the table, but the difficulty of scoring far surpasses any enjoyment to be had. In the end it's up to you to decide. If you don't mind a challenge, and love the Marvel Pinball tables then I'd say go for it. On the other hand, if you are turned off by the thought of not being able to achieve a highscore due to extreme difficulty then I'd say pass.