Comparison: Zen Pinball Vs. Marvel Pinball

[eMeL-Music]

hey guys,

just thought i'll open up a new thread where you can post all differences between ZP & MP.

e.g. the ball speed, engine... etc

till then let's rock those machines

[75hDeadMan]

like both, don't have a problem with either. in MP the balls feel "heavier". seem a lot harder to get up some of the tables or ramps. both are fine, i guess i like ZP better since I'm more accustom to it. both very fun games.

[Solitude]

For what it's worth, the physics engine in Marvel Pinball is the same one as in PFX2.

[eMeL-Music]

@ solitude

just wanted to know the differences. i don't have a xbox, so i don't know how Pinball FX2 feels like. i don't want to bash on something or start an evil debate. it's just pure interest in both games.

[Acefondu]

I'm just super happy there's a local scoreboard now and very easy to access. In the old Zen Pinball you pretty much had to be online or finish a table to check your high score (I looked for hours and never found a different way). Though the Mars table gave us local scores you still had to wait until the LED started displaying the scores. Still that was really the only improvement I wanted and it makes me like the Marvel Pinball setup much more. Also the load times are waaaaay better now too =).

[Stephen220378]

The two games feel slightly different to one another, both are still great though even though neither are getting much play time with me at the moment thanks to Gran Turismo 5 (sorry Zen). Marvel feels like out and out video game pinball, while I still like to go back to Zen pinball for the earlier more realistic tables. In fact I'm hoping this will be the direction each game goes, Marvel for OTT features and Zen slips back to a more realistic style away from Mars and Paranormal.

[Mr.T]

I agree, you can definitely feel the difference in Zen vs. MP/FX2. Heavier ball and flipper physics in the later.

[Michelasso]

I don't really see much difference. The balls keep jumping from one flipper to another or into the hole like in ZP!!

[UNIT-TRB]

...

I find the difference come just in terms of actual feel and playability. The Spiderman and Wolverine table have the proper flipper strength and rhythm. They could both easily be real tables. The other two tables while fun seem to be fun but in the case of Iron Man flipper strength is an issue. I imagine that the lower flipper strength is to prevent players from doing infinite loops via the third flipper. The real world table Dr. Who has a loop that can repeated forever, but breaks the rythm by forcing the player to complete to WHO sequence every tenth loop or so to break it up...otherwise its just Million...Million....Million....Million.

All these tables are far to superior to something like Excalibur which had aesthetic issues as well as gameplay issue that prevented me from enjoying the title.


As for the original Zen Pinball, I did not find that Street Fighter 2 or Excalibur were remotely equivalent to real tables in term of how they played. I personally have had enough time in front of a number real tables to gain some basic proficiency. (Having a Bally's Aladdin's Castle as a local arcade during one's youth has advantages)

The table thus far that I would consider good representations are Mars, El Dorado, Spiderman, Earth Defense and Wolverine. Earth Defense just agrivates me with that upper flipper and far too many shots to the upper loops that don't make it around.

[Zuch80]

In my opinion the biggest difference between ZP and MP are the competitive features the second one brings: pinball hero scores, high score lists in the table selection screen, displaying distance to player above you during the game etc. etc.

At the beginning, I was very sad to hear that PS3 will get a new game, instead of another table pack for ZP but now I must say that it was the right decision. For the first time in two years I've found the reason to fill my PSN friends list.

The sad thing about it is that it’s hard to find the reason to get back to ZP now. I hope we will see Pinball FX2 style platform for PS3 soon.

[sui99]

I don't know how big the actual difference is between ZP and MP but MP _feels_ so much better than ZP, words can't describe...

The physics may have changed only slightly but it's the difference between "This game is solid and fun" and "Holy crap! This is soo awesome!!!"

The strong license is only the icing on the cake. Overall the four MP tables are way more fun to play than the original ZP tables (at least in my opinion). There's really nothing to critizice about MP. Well done, ZEN Studios!

I'm so excited about the new engine that I'm wondering if it is possible to convert the old ZP tables into it? I have no clue about programming so I don't know how easy/hard/impossible it is but it would be awesome!

So, any plans on updating the "old tables"? You have already created a huge collection of good tables and it would be a shame to just let them "rot".

(Hopefully this post is readable; my english seems to get worse every year...)


Ps. The weak flippers on Ironman also baffled me. At first I thought it's just my imagination but it really seems like you have to hit those buttons much harder on this table. I don't get what's the purpose behind this mechanic is but it's a bit annoying... The table would be much more enjoyable with "normal" flippers.

[MrWevo]

I like both Zen and Marvel.

I think the menu on Zen is nicer to look at; all the little scratches on the surface evoke pinbally type feelings.

Also it's good to know that with Zen you may get any DLC in the future and not just Marvel themed stuf.

I think the Marvel option to put the dot matrix (score board) on the bottom of the screen is better.

So.....I'd say 57:43 (zen:marvel) ish of course