New Street Fighter II Table for Pinball Fx

As much as I had fun playing it, I must admit that the Rocky and Bullwinkle table for Pinball Fx was a bit of a letdown. it just didn’t have quite the same level of addictiveness as the previous two downloadable tables, and as one of my fellow bloggers pointed out, the layout of the table was a clear plagiarism of William’s classic Sorcerer machine. But I’m pleased to say that developer Zen Studios has fully redeemed themselves with this new Street Fighter 2 themed table, which is perhaps their greatest table yet.

Zen really went to town with the SF2 license. The artwork is fairly standard Street Fighter fare, but it’s crisp and attractive. All of the sound effects were taken directly from the game, to great effect, and the music is a nice remixed version of one of the familiar SF tunes. The playfield has toys strewn all over the place, from Blanka and Akuma, to an airplane and boat (from the backgrounds of Guile and Ken’s stages, respectively). Perhaps coolest of all is a car with a series of stationary targets beneath it. As you hit these targets, the car begins to fall apart, an idea borrowed from Gottlieb’s 1993 Street Fighter II table, but executed rather differently here.

One prominent feature is really cool. When certain conditions are met, two targets will rise out of the upper-middle playfield. These can rotate to change the character depicted on the front. One will be an enemy combatant, and the other an innocent bystander. You need to aim carefully to make sure you hit the fighter, and then do a loop around the outer rim of the table to bring up the next combatant. Hitting the bystander will end the mode.

The table is just loaded with surprises that will bring a smile to the face of anyone who was alive during SF2’s heyday. The ruleset seems quite deep compared to it’s brethren, and there are a ton of fun shots to make, some of which are pretty difficult. Games can last for quite a while due to the easy-to-activate ball saver, and when you’re on a roll the game simply feels terrific; the mark of any good pin. This is definitely worth a paltry 200 MS points and then some. If you don’t already have Pinball Fx, this is a good reason to get your act together and download one of the best Live Arcade games around.

~ by Krooze L-Roy on November 12, 2008.