Developer: Zen Studios
Publisher: Zen Studios
Website: http://www.marvelpinball.com/

NA Release: June 28, 2012
EU Release: June 28, 2012

# of Players: 1 - 4 players (sharing one system)
Nintendo eShop price: $7.99 / €7.00
Genre: Arcade, Pinball


Marvel Pinball 3D, what a great game to be reviewing on July 4 that involves American Superheroes. Zen Studios offers 3DS owner a second pack of pinball tables, this time as separate software coated in a more familiarly exciting universe. Iron Man, Captain America, Blade, and the Fantastic Four assemble for your enjoyment in a form of stereoscopic proportions.

GamePlay

Everyone knows about how pinball works so I’ll briefly mention the basics. Your goal is to keep the ball on the playfield as long as possible by controlling the flippers with the L and R shoulder buttons and, as an importantly less continuous method, nudging the table if the ball is heading straight down the abyss with the Slide Pad. When playing pinball on the Nintendo 3DS, press X to find the preferable camera view for all the tables.



To rank up points, use the flippers to guide the ball through ramps, loops, and targets with the help of flashing lights on the artwork display as a direction. Lighting up the side-by-side siblings by individually, when not dealing multiballs, hitting its targets or going through rollover targets will trigger helpful conditions such as multiplying bonus points, production from the edge, and even an extra life (ball).

The digital manual available when highlight the game from the home screen gives all the details of what each table has to offer. Although, the real heart of pinball is to discover all the nook and cranny for yourself, especially when activating a good vs. evil missions.

Presentation

If you start up Marvel Pinball 3D for the first time and you decide to start with Iron Man, your first impressions with the game will probably be disappointment. There is a common glitch when the ball is stuck under the upper-left spinner when going through it a couple of times. It takes awhile for the game to reset, not your score thankfully, removing the glitch ball and automatically launching a new one to the playfield. In Fantastic Four, there’s even a similar glitch including an unfortunate only choice to manually restart your session.



I was about to lose hope, then a marvelous thing happen.

Before writing this review, I upgrade to a 16 GB SD card (previous use a 2 GB that came with the system) for my Nintendo 3DS and the game’s technical presentation improve for which I did not expect. The character models are more in harmony with timely mechanical performance. The activities and missions (with a press of the A button) start up more quickly. The heavy use of special effects such as Iron Man no longer alters the ball physics and hit detection. The glitches from Iron Man and Fantastic Four are still present, fortunately it’s less common. If you want a more manageably polish pinball experience, this is a great time to upgrade to a new SD card.

Now for the already existing delightfulness, the Stereoscopic 3D brings realism to the designs and delivers eye-popping surprises from characters you know and love. The online is competitive especially with friends and trying to outrank them. Unlike Zen Pinball 3D, the physics are realistically scarier now that the ball can jump, hitting the ceiling glass, with the impact by a flipper. Each table captures the serenity of Marvel classics with enthusiastic voice acting and personalized vibrate colors. Even the designs and gaming structure from each table are architecturally different, not just in terms of scale.



Conclusion

Marvel Pinball 3D is no false advertisement. It delivers the craving of Marvel popularity, it delivers pinball action, and it delivers an impressive Stereoscopic 3D. The game will eventually be including upcoming DLC tables such the Spiderman and patches (it had better be) to increase the already satisfying replay value. If you need another confidential reason to own a Nintendo 3DS XL, this is it.

9.5 / 10 eShop points

9- Awesome This game has little in the way of flaws, and is a highly enjoyable experience.