Pinball FX3

 Switch
Metascore
82

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. Nintenderos
    Mar 9, 2018
    70
    Pinball FX3 brings to Nintendo Switch the feeling of holding a real table in the player’s hands, each joy-con becoming a flipper button. FX3 is possibly the best virtual pinball game ever created, but truth being told, sometimes, following the ball can be a bit exasperating, due to the high number of elements on the board.
  2. Cubed3
    Dec 18, 2017
    70
    Pinball FX3 leaves some things to be desired on the technical side of things, which can only be hoped to see fixed in the near future through an update since it looks and performs rougher than even its predecessor on the Wii U and, at least in terms of performance in handheld mode, worse than on the 3DS. Nevertheless, Pinball FX3 is an excellent way to experience original virtual pinball tables in this day and age, if not the go-to and indispensable way of doing so. Fans of pinball and/or Zen Studios' previous efforts in that area should then definitely give this new hub game a flip, but bear in mind the current technical limitations that are hard to fathom and which are yet to be resolved.
  3. God is a Geek
    Jan 15, 2018
    65
    I hope they patch these issues out because the game itself with progression, content, and the lovely gameplay is well worth checking out. You can download it for free and check out the basics. Out of the licensed tables, I love the Back to the Future one and have been playing mostly on that one.

Awards & Rankings

29
#29 Best Switch Game of 2017
61
#61 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2017

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 56 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 42 out of 56
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 56
  3. Negative: 7 out of 56
  1. BarcSsarc
    Dec 31, 2017
    4
    I have always loved pinball. I've found it captivating since I was really little. It's how this tiny, metal ball becomes infused with kineticI have always loved pinball. I've found it captivating since I was really little. It's how this tiny, metal ball becomes infused with kinetic energy and rips through its own physics playground packed to the brim with the unexpected. It's the invisible underbelly; how the electronics can tie one plunger into countless flow charts. It's the way a consciousness can inhabit the ball itself just like any other vehicle, giving the player a whole new perspective of the physical world. It's the experience of using that perspective to explore every nook and cranny of a contained ecosystem wrought by unimaginable time and human effort. Pinball, man. Love.

    I've always had a love-hate relationship with digital pinball. Part of me has always been excited at the idea of being able to play pinball any time. And, unless you have considerable money to burn, either to buy a table or play at a bar, digital pinball is really the only way to do that. When I was a pre-teen, I loved Full Tilt! for Windows 3.1. When I was a teenager, I had Pinball Fantasies, Epic Pinball, and Sonic Spinball. These were all great games, and I really enjoyed them. For a time. Eventually, the allure of digital pinball wore off. I got bored of all of them, and newer digital pinball games weren't doing it for me either. Every time I picked up a pinball videogame, I would stop playing within 15 minutes. And, every time that happened, I would remember that I'm just tired of pinball.

    Days or months later, I would find myself putting money into a pinball table at some bar or arcade, and part of me would wake up. Oh yeah, THIS is pinball. I will never be tired of pinball. It's just the videogames. They don't do it. They can't do it right.

    Recently, two different pinball games appeared on the Nintendo Switch as freebies: Pinball FX 3 (PBFX3 Hereafter) and Stern Pinball Arcade (SBA Hereafter). I tried SBA first, because it was the lesser-known, more-generic looking one. Better to just get it out of the way. What I didn't realize before I started playing was that this videogame is a licensed product, specifically designed to reproduce real, physical tables. After navigating a minimal menu system and surprisingly long loading screen to get a game started, I was shocked and amazed at how realistic SBA looks and feels. It is exactly what I had no idea I wanted. It is simply wonderful. I played it for an hour, totally engrossed.

    Then I decided to try PBFX3. By comparison, it has a slick interface. The menus are really responsive. There are online game modes. There's hotseat multiplayer. Bells and whistles. I chose from one of the three available free tables (which I thought was nice, since SBA only has one free table), and started a single player game. Immediately, my heart sank. The game looks really nice, but the table is small and simplistic. The game runs at ~15-25fps. The physics are just okay; everything feels a little mushy. It's ...a videogame. I played each table one time, then I deleted it from my console.

    Tonight, on a whim, I decided to re-install and give it another shot, because I was having so much fun with SBA (I bought extra tables and have put more time into it) that I just wanted a little more variety without paying more. I also don't like to form opinions on one short experience. Again, PBFX3 feels sluggish and overtly digital. Second impression: not good.

    After that experience, I became curious what critics thought of these two titles.
    PBFX3: Critics-87/100, Users-7.1/10. That's enough to put it at #4 overall by Metascore, though its User Score puts it at ~#64.
    SBA: No scores; not enough ratings. There are two Critic ratings: A 60/100 from Nintendo Life, complaining the game is too 'simplistic;' and a 40/100 from Digitall Downloaded, complaining about a lack of features and online play, also saying it can't compete with Pinball FX 3 for these reasons. There's one User review giving it a 9/10, which poetically describes exactly why physical pinball is so superior to digital. It's an inspired review.

    I'm trying to understand how someone can criticize a faithful recreation of an entire physical pinball machine as "simplistic." I'm struggling to empathize with the opinion that the presence of online leaderboards makes [a reasonably compelling pinball game that practically gives the finger to everything physically compelling about pinball] better than [aforementioned faithful recreations of tables that were painstakingly designed and masterfully manufactured]. I'm not a purist about many things, but I cannot disagree more with the critics on this one.

    PBFX3: get it on another console; even if you like the Pinball FX series, it runs terribly on the Switch. Maybe they'll patch it. But hey this one's free so what the hell give it a shot I guess.

    SBA, though, is an amazing piece of software. I offer my strongest recommendation to anyone who loves physical pinball machines.    … Full Review »
  2. kenjab
    Dec 14, 2017
    9
    I'm a long time pinball fan, both traditional and digital, and this game fits the bill nicely. The big feature of this game is variety. ThereI'm a long time pinball fan, both traditional and digital, and this game fits the bill nicely. The big feature of this game is variety. There are numerous playing modes, play options, view angles, and tables (the first of which is free). I like the ability to play in vertical mode to be able to see the whole table, even if it means tapping the screen instead of using joy con buttons to hit the flippers.… Full Review »
  3. LadyKalma
    Jan 14, 2018
    6
    Well, here we are. Pinball FX3 is probably the most widely-regarded pinball game around. There are some with more prestige for licensing andWell, here we are. Pinball FX3 is probably the most widely-regarded pinball game around. There are some with more prestige for licensing and accurately recreating real tables, or for having long legacies, but FX has spent the past decade, across 3 iterations, building itself up to be the de facto pinball game.

    First: The content. It's magnificent. The tables are all original, not based on real tables, and do a wonderful job of covering every niche a player could want. There are some old-fashioned, back to basics tables. There are tables for beginners. There are complex, multi-tiered, evolving tables that go beyond what would be possible for real. There are tables full of flash and effects. It's reasonably priced too, you'll pay an average of maybe £3 per table, less if it's in a large bundle. There's plenty to be had too, with a couple of dozen tables. Not as many as on other platforms, for some reason the Marvel/Disney licensed content seems to be having trouble, but there's still way more than enough choice to be had.

    On top of that, there's various progression systems around the game. While any table can be played in "classic mode," there's also a sort of RPG-lite mechanic where you level up by playing, completing quests, unlocking powers (score multipliers, multiball etc), and generally getting this extra layer added on to every single table individually. Throw in online score challenges and all these other little functions, you get so much more than the simple joy of playing pinball.

    But then we hit the first big downer that professional reviews seem to not mention or care about: On other platforms, you can import your tables from one to another. Bought some Pinball FX2 tables on one system? They're imported to FX3 and then also imported if you get the game on another system. Switch is completely devoid of all that. I own two dozen tables on the PS4 and Steam version of this game but if I want them on Switch I have to rebuy them. This is just awful. I've heard it's Nintendo's doing, not allowing the developers to pull it off, but we're reviewing the game, not the developers here. It really sucks and I resent being asked to rebuy content that is being freely shared amongst all the other platforms because of Nintendo's greed.

    Second: The system. This could easily be THE way to play digital pinball. In handheld/tabletop mode, hit the + button and it switches the view vertically, so you can see the whole table on one screen. Then you can hold the joycons however is comfortable for you and it's magic. It's so exciting and I really want it to be patched in to other Switch pinball games. But then we hit the second big problem pro reviewers ignored.

    There are two big technical knocks on this game. In docked mode, the resolution is only 720p. In handheld mode, the game runs at 30fps and sometimes even dips below that, which feels janky for an attempt to recreate the smooth movement of a steel ball rolling and the precision needed in flipping. It's unacceptable. We've seen what the system can do. The same tables actually look better on the Wii U than they do on a docked Switch. NO GAME SHOULD LOOK BETTER ON A WII U THAN A SWITCH.

    It's important to note that Nintendolife reached out to Zen, who say they're working to patch both these issues, bumping docked mode to 1080p and handheld mode to 60fps, but it's been a month and no signs of it yet. I asked them on twitter a few days ago if the patch is still underway and got stonewalled. I'm reviewing this based on what it is, and will revise if the patch happens, up to you whether you trust them to do it.

    Conclusion? If you like digital pinball, FX3 as a game is the best there is for it. Unfortunately, despite the massive amount of promise, Switch isn't the system to get it on unless those patches happen. If you're already invested in their game and own a bunch of tables, Switch is an expensive place to move your game to. It's sad because it's so close! I'm giving it a 6 because the core game *is* good and vertical mode is perfect. It's just horrible having to play said game at a low FPS while paying twice for the privilege. If you're new to FX3, like pinball, and the patch happens, then it's a no-brainer.

    Hell, it's free to try. There's one table free, and it's not a bad one. See how it fits you, but the combination double-dip and technical issues mean it's not for me, I'll stick with the Steam version wherever possible.

    I also have to mention an elephant in the room. Stern Pinball Arcade. It's released around the same time as FX3, with the same "one table free, rest as DLC" setup, but it's a polar opposite. They license real tables and work to lovingly recreate every little detail of physical pinball without the flash and the levelling up and the bells & whistles of digital pinball. And it runs in 60fps, though without FX3's fantastic vertical mode. If you want something more authentic than FX3, do go take a look at it.    … Full Review »
See all user reviews »