Zen Pinball 2 is coming soon to the Wii U. This pinball simulation will debut in December as a downloadable title on Nintendo’s eShop.
So far, users will have a choice of 26 3D tables to choose from. For instance, you can select the Plants vs. Zombies theme for your game (pictured above). Or you can play tables with themes such as Paranormal, Mars, Excalibur, Tesla, El Dorado, Shaman, V12, and Earth Defense. You can also choose from 15 different tables based on Marvel characters, including X-Men, Thor, Blade, Iron Man, Spider-man, and Wolverine.
I played around with it using the Wii U tablet as a controller. It’s pretty easy to control and play, as you make the flippers move with the A button. If you’re into pinball, it could provide you with mindless fun for hours. You can earn all sorts of trophies by getting high scores on the various tables.
The graphics are beautiful, with 3D characters and imagery that stands above the plane of the table where the glass would normally be. And the physics of the rolling ball seem realistic, as if there really was a steel ball rolling around inside your TV. The Plants vs. Zombies has the cute growling sounds of the zombies from the cartoon-like PopCap Games title. At a certain point in the scoring, zombies pop up from the table and start walking toward you. You can take them out by rolling a ball at them, via your flippers.
Each table top is unique. Several of the tables have few bumpers in the middle, so the game is more like a test of how accurate you can shoot the ball into various lanes or holes. One of the games had three flippers, so that you could hit the ball and keep it rolling around the top of the table longer. I was mesmerized during the short time I played it.
The game has a new social sharing feature that allows you to post scores to Facebook. Zen Pinball 2 was previously developed for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. Nintendo hasn’t provided a specific date yet for the game release.