Xbox Live Add-On.
Price: 240MSP.

This title is a add-on for the Xbox Live Arcade game, Pinball FX2.
This title was provided free of charge by the publishers for review.

Ah, Captain America. Over the years you’ve given us many grand adventures, plenty of awesome moments and some great memories. You’ve fought the Red Skull, been frozen in the Arctic, “died” and come back, and now you’re even getting an entire film! But none of this compares to this. None of it matters, because you now face your greatest ever mission; whacking metal balls around a flashing table for my amusement.

Zen Studios have been doing a superlative job of cramming our favorite Marvel characters into Pinball tables. From Wolverine to the Fantastic four, they’ve done a great job of translating the different characters abilities, powers and history into Marvelous (Terrible joke, but it had to be done) tables. But I confess that I was a tad worried about Captain America as the basic table layout is generally the same, so could they keep it feeling fresh? The answer is….yup.

The new table is set during Captain America’s World War II time and is heavily influenced by the 65th Anniversary Special Comic. The setting is that Captain America, Bucky and the Howling Commandos have been dropped behind enemy lines to assault Zemo’s castle and stop him. Along the way they’ll also run into the devious Red Skull.it’s good to see that Zen went with the World War II setting over a more modern version of the Cap. The choice of background story has also been used very well to construct the different missions presented on the table.

Several low-level missions must be completed to reach the final battle on the table. These missions include duking it out with the Red Skull, rescuing Commandos and combating Zemo’s Death Ray and Adhesive X traps which slow the ball to a near halt when passed through. The missions on offer are actually fairly tough, though I don’t mind admitting that I’m not the best Pinball player in the world. Should you need some help it’s possible to get the Cosmic Cube during gameplay which will give you a hand completing a mission. This helpful little thing was nicely balanced; it wasn’t too easy to get, but was always worth the effort to help you get those tricky missions completed and came with a nice points bonus.

It’s also quite the table to look at. The chosen Captain America artwork looks fantastic as it adorns the centre of the table, and the more subdued browns used around the rest of the table make it stand out even further. If you can take your eyes of the ball for a few seconds you’ll also notice some great animation work around the table. Calling out the Red Skull for a fist fight results in him stepping across the table and laying into Cap. Again, like previous tables, it’s surprising how much effort Zen have put into animations that you’ll barely have time to glimpse at.

The layout is pretty standard, but that’s to be expected as the basics behind a pinball table are hard to change without damaging the game. It’s a fairly tight table in terms of play, and I did find it hard to keep a rhythm going during play with plenty of moments where I would have to spend a bit of time getting myself back up to speed, but overall the layout feels smooth, natural and suits the challenges well.

To wrap it all up the table also features solid voice acting and sound effects. Captain America is suitably heroic and sounds very believable (in the context, anyway) and the other characters, such as Bucky and the Commandos, are also commendably voiced

There’s little more I can say about Zen’s latest creation. It’s fun, it looks good and it has Captain America on it. At 240MSP this table is a steal for Pinball fans and should provide plenty of action.

Score: 5/5
Summary: Zen have done it again by crafting a beautiful, fun table based around the iconic Captain America.