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 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 itselfI 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.… Expand
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