Wait, what? Didn’t Star Wars Pinball already launch on PSN? YES! And you are telling me it is launching again? YES! Okay, that was probably super confusing, so let me try to explain. Believe me, it’s a good thing. The initial Star Wars Pinball pack was released in February for Zen Pinball 2 on PS3 and PS Vita. That pack included Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and it’s coming back… this time, with even more features. *Cue Star Wars opening crawl text*

From the very beginning of the Star Wars Pinball project, we’ve been working on a special standalone version of the game that would offer some really fun community features and would be fully branded Star Wars. We managed to finish that project, and it’s releasing next week, exclusively on PS3 and PS Vita!

Now you’re probably wondering, “Why did I buy this for Zen Pinball 2 when I could have bought a game with different features?” Don’t worry, young Padawan, we thought about that too. If you’ve already bought the tables in Zen Pinball 2, you are entitled to download Star Wars Pinball at no charge! This means you can unlock the tables in Zen Pinball 2 and in Star Wars Pinball with one purchase – and both games are Cross Buy entitled with Vita, so if you’re huge Star Wars fans like us, you can have the game under four different roofs for the price of one.

Here are some of the cool features (ultimately the reasons we did a standalone game) that we could not include in Zen Pinball 2, but are in Star Wars Pinball:

• You can choose to support the Galactic Empire or the Rebel Alliance! Once you do, your high scores contribute to the side you choose, creating a Star Wars Pinball community fight for the Balance of the Force! The main game user interface will change dynamically, based on how the community chooses to support each side. You can see who is winning the overall battle at www.starwarspinball.com.
• An XP progression system allowing you to move up the ranks based on Galactic Empire or Rebel Alliance support.
• The game looks, sounds, and is authentic Star Wars!

Are you thoroughly confused? If so, I’ll be here all day and beyond to answer your questions. May the Force be with you!

Star Wars Pinball is releasing today as DLC for Zen Pinball 2 on PlayStation Network for PS3 and PS Vita as Cross-Buy entitled content. This first pack of tables will cost $9.99. If you have not yet downloaded Zen Pinball 2, we invite you to do so now – the download is free, and will give you access to the Star Wars tables which you can even demo to make sure you like the game!

The first set of tables includes Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Here is what you can expect from The Clone Wars table, set to release later today on PSN.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars table embraces the striking artistic style and energy of the series and is a perfect fit for a high-energy pinball table. The incredible art, momentous light saber battles, and exhilarating action that makes the series so enjoyable translates naturally into an amazing pinball experience. Check out the trailer above to see the table in action!

Set between the events of the Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the Star Wars: The Clone Wars pinball table features Anakin Skywalker and his apprentice, Ahsoka Tano, both represented as 3D characters, as well as Asajj Ventress, Savage Opress and battle Droids. The table would not be complete without a Republic attack gunship, which is especially spectacular when the table is played in 3D.

To start the main table missions, light the lamps on the center of the playfield that spell out “Council” by shooting the left and right ramps on the table. After spelling the words, the ramp’s right front side will lower, providing a path to the hole to activate the main missions.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts once you have been able to play Star Wars Pinball! Please share your experiences right here on the PlayStation Blog or on the Zen Studios Facebook, Twitter or Forums.
May the Force be with you.

For well over two years now, I’ve had the honor of working with Zen Studios on video pinball tables based on Marvel characters and events. It seems only appropriate that Marvel Pinball: Civil War should release the week of Thanksgiving (as part of PSN’s Zen Pinball 2) – ‘cause I’m plenty thankful for these guys and everything they’ve done with Marvel Pinball so far.

Civil War is one of the biggest events ever told in comics, and as you’d suspect, Zen takes representing it in pinball form very seriously. Here are a just a few reasons why you, the fan, will be thankful that’s the case…

Whose Side Are You On? No, really… When Zen and Marvel decide what tables to do, it’s a truly collaborative process. Sometimes they’re Zen’s idea initially, sometimes they’re ours – it’s Avengers-level teamwork, I tell ya! The idea to do a Civil War table came from us, and with it a mandate: If you choose to do Civil War, you have to let the player decide if he’s with Iron Man and Pro-Registration or with Captain America in opposition to the Superhuman Registration Act. “Whose Side Are You On?” was the slogan for the event, and it’s the event’s central theme – choosing sides simply had to be there. And, after a bit of a prologue involving the Stamford incident, that’s exactly what you’ll do…

Your side determines your experience. Choosing sides doesn’t just reflect your beliefs on who’s right – it also affects gameplay. Most of these are quite subtle (different bonuses and ramps to hit and such), but you’ll also see a story-based link: Go Pro, you’ll get help from the Thunderbolts; side with Cap, Mr. Frank Castle comes along to lend a hand (whether Steve likes it or not).

Your skill recruits undecided heroes to your cause. See those fine folks on the Allies/Enemies board above? They’re all up for grabs to be recruited to your side, and doing so – by nailing ramps and targets, of course – helps to affect the difficulty of the epic one-on-one battles between Iron Man and Cap. According to this particular play-through, Iron Man has recruited Spider-Woman, Tigra and Vision, while Spidey, Human Torch, Ms. Marvel and Luke Cage favor Cap. Sentry? Still deciding. (Oh, I suppose I should also mention that your actions can steal a character’s allegiance…)

You’ll relive huge moments from the story. If you’ve read Civil War (and if you haven’t, do it now!), you’ll remember some huge events, from – SPOILER ALERT – the fall of an Avenger to the wedding of Storm and Black Panther. And the one that made national headlines, of course, as you see (and hear, if you click it) above – which of course only plays if Iron Man recruits him from the Allies board.

You’ll relive not-so-huge moments from the story. We worked with Zen to dig really deep throughout the entire epic Civil War event – not just the core six issues, but the tens of issues spanning other Marvel series as well – to jam in as much authenticity as possible. Above, you can see Iron Man and Cap discussing Tony’s decision to go Pro via Iron Man/Captain America: Casualties of War, and you can hear it come to life as you will in the Civil War table by clicking on the image. Needless to say, this is by no means the only nearly verbatim conversation of this type that you’ll hear play out between the two.

You’ll experience things you’ve probably never seen with any pinball table, real or video. Without fail, Zen continually impresses players with their ability to innovate with each new table. That’s no different with Civil War. In addition everything I’ve mentioned so far, you’ll also get to do things like start the whole thing with a two-ball multiball (representing the cleanup after the Stamford incident), or marvel (heh) as tracks manifest from thin air (above) – the kind of thing only possible in videogame pinball.

It’s made by a bunch of really nice Hungarians. I realize this has absolutely nothing to do with how Civil War plays, but I just have to point out how great the Zen guys are to work with. They’re awesome, and not just because they have names like Viktor with a K and Zsolt with a “rhymes with ‘jolt’ so you know he’s a badass.” They deserve to be thanked in public for doing such a great job, not just on Civil War, but for all their Zen Pinball greatness. So… Thanks guys!

If you’re as big a fan of Zen Studios as I am, go ahead and let ‘em know in the comments below. Ask questions, too! I try to respond to everyone…

Hello PS.Bloggites, today we’re giving you something a little different! We are pleased to welcome ourselves — Jeff Green, Community Manager for PopCap Games and Neil Sorens, Zen Studios’ Creative Director — to the show, as we dynamically tag-team this entry. We wanted to share with you a little bit about how Zen and PopCap worked together to create the Plants vs. Zombies Pinball table, releasing today right alongside Zen Pinball 2 for PlayStation 3 and PS Vita. Enough of us rambling though; take a look at the trailer.

Jeff: The first thing you need to know about this Plants vs. Zombies table is that it is built out of authentic Plants vs. Zombies bits and pieces. We handed Zen Studios original game assets including art, sounds, objects, zombies, flowers, plants, defenses – ok, you get it – in a beautiful package of digital goodness. Zen took these and went to work designing another brilliant pinball table. We asked Crazy Dave for some wisdom to send along to Zen: “MMMMMM PINBALL”.

Neil: When we first received all these assets, our excitement level went through the roof. We were beyond excited! The second thing that went through our mind: wait, Plants vs. Zombies is 2D, are there any 3D assets? Obviously, the answer was no. One of the first things we had to figure out was how to translate a very deliberate, slow-paced 2D game into a fast-paced, frantic pinball game with 3D interactive characters. The team went to work creating a bunch of 3D models for the zombies, plants, Melon Pults, and Crazy Dave’s jalopy. We then had to figure out how to incorporate all of these into the table geometry. Luckily, we received tremendous help from the Plants, and Crazy Dave also turned out to be very supportive.

Jeff: When the Zen Studios team started sending us materials for approval, we were seriously impressed with how they were translating 2D to 3D. It was like Plants vs. Zombies was completely new again, totally remade for a brand new experience. The day playable code showed up, we were all lost in a “wow” moment. We about lost it when the “Going Nuts” mission started and fog came billowing in across the table, while zombies started marching toward the door step. That’s when we knew the true spirit of Plants vs. Zombies had been successfully captured in this pinball creation.

This was the very first time PopCap has ever licensed out any of our game properties or worked with another developer on this level. Zen did a stellar job — the table turned out better than anyone could have expected.

Neil: It’s been quite a good time working on pinball over the past few years. We have had the privilege and honor of working with some of the biggest names in entertainment, and some of the most creative people in the industry. Working with PopCap has certainly been an amazing experience, and it’s really cool that our first project together will release today along with Zen Pinball 2. When I look at the game, I see the work of so many… not just Zen Studios people, but people at Tecmo, Capcom, Marvel, and now PopCap have contributed so much to this game.

We sincerely hope you enjoy the new Zen Pinball 2 platform and Plants vz. Zombies table. Don’t forget, this is a Cross Buy game, so buy it once and get it on both PS3 and PS Vita! If you have any questions about Zen Pinball 2, check out the FAQ we have put together in the Zen Pinball 2 forum. We’ll be here to answer your questions all day long!

Zen Studios has taken a different tack since debuting on PS3 (via PSN) in 2009 – the tables featured in Zen Pinball don’t exist in some decrepit arcade or collector’s garage. These fanciful pinball experiences don’t – and simply couldn’t – exist in real life.

Now Zen is upgrading the “platform” for these tables – meaning the physics engine, visuals, and social media experience – with Zen Pinball 2, coming to both PS3 and PS Vita for free next month. I was lucky enough to be sharing a flight out to Cologne for gamescom with someone from the Zen PR team, who handed me a PS Vita loaded with a nearly complete version of the game.

With The Pinball Arcade fresh in my mind, I slipped back into the Zen state of pinball, which has a decidedly different feel. Zen’s pinballs themselves feel a bit lighter than in The Pinball Arcade, leading to longer games. That makes sense – real world pinball tables are there to keep you pumping quarters into the machine; clearly, that’s not a concern here. Even when playing a table in Zen Pinball 2 for the first time, I felt like I was pretty good at it, though that likely means that true mastery will mean posting ridiculously high scores on the leaderboards.

The tables available on this build are all currently available for PS3 via Zen Pinball, so I’ll focus here on how Zen Pinball 2 fares on PS Vita. The visuals are clear and sharp on the OLED screen; while the tables aren’t real, some of them look like they could be. There are a multitude of playing angles available, and you can turn the PS Vita unit vertical to instantly get a more natural playing view. While The Pinball Arcade offers this feature, I found it difficult to use in practice. However, Zen’s friendlier physics make the touchscreen flipper controls a more viable playing option. As you might expect, Zen Pinball 2 offers touchscreen options for all the menus as well. There’s also a pass-and-play multiplayer mode for up to four people, which operates much like you’d expect to play in the arcade.

Two of the biggest draws for the Zen Pinball universe remain in the sequel: licensed tables and crazy stuff going down on said tables. The Marvel universe is well represented, with 13 tables currently available including several notable comic heroes. The worlds of Street Fighter and Ninja Gaiden are represented, and Zen has promised a mystery Popcap collaboration as well.

What happens on those imaginary pinball tables really sets Zen Pinball 2 apart: Aliens abduct your ball on the Paranormal table. A Blanka figurine crackles with electricity on the Super Street Fighter II table. Zemo and Red Skull battle it out with Captain America along the edge of his table. The Avengers is the most ambitious – you choose a character-specific ball (Iron Man, Black Widow, etc) and carry out missions specific to that hero. Oh, and the entire table is the SHIELD Helicarrier from the movie, slowly gliding over a city.

On PS Vita, I found Zen Pinball 2 to be the Yin to Pinball Arcade’s Yang. What it lacks in realistic feel, it more than makes up for in variety and fantastical sequences across its 26 tables. As us pinball devotees find in-person pinball experiences harder and harder to come by, Zen Pinball 2 is another great, inexpensive way to get that flipper fix. If you own any Zen Pinball or Marvel Pinball tables, getting Zen Pinball 2 is a no-brainer.

The new platform is a free download, and you’ll be able to import previously purchased tables from within the app, where you’ll find new Trophies to earn. Zen Pinball 2 and the new Popcap table will be available to download via PSN on September 4th.

In addition, we have a great surprise for you! Our latest table creation, based on a PopCap Games mega-hit (and I do mean MEGA), will be releasing as new DLC content the same day! What might this table be? All details will be revealed later this month during PAX Prime! If you are at the event, we invite you to stop by PopCap’s booth and get first hands on with the table!

As you all probably know, we take pinball very seriously here at Zen Studios, and we see pinball development in two different parts. On one end you have the actual pinball table, which had better be fun and entertaining. We have worked hard to make sure you have an awesome selection of themes and table designs, the most advanced physics, and stellar-looking tables.

On the other end, you have the game presentation, features that make it competitive among friends (beating your own score over and over is fun, but beating your friends is SO much better), and the overall experience. We have worked really hard to make Zen Pinball 2 the finest pinball platform available!

• Zen Pinball 2 is cross platform entitled. Any content you buy will be playable on both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita at no extra charge!
• Zen Pinball 2 is a free download for everyone, with trials available for each table so you can try each table before you decide to buy.
• For those of you who already own Zen Pinball or Marvel Pinball content, you will be able to import your purchases into Zen Pinball 2 for free, receiving graphics, physics and social system upgrades at no extra cost!
• Zen Pinball 2 will launch with 26 different pinball tables including the mystery PopCap table!
• A beautiful layout and design featuring all Zen pinball tables under one roof.
• New trophies for all tables!
• New social system with in-game score notifications, challenges, Facebook posting, ProScore (personal performance across all tables) and TeamScore (a combined score ranking you and your friends).
• New rule sheets to help you better understand the tables, while still providing opportunity for discovering the secrets of the table on your own.

As you can see, Zen Pinball 2 is set to take pinball games to the next level. Any guesses on what PopCap game is coming to pinball?

Brand new Marvel Pinball tables will be available tomorrow via PSN on PS3! Marvel’s The Avengers, based on Marvel Entertainment’s BILLION dollar movie, World War Hulk, The Infinity Gauntlet, and Fear Itself make up one of our most exciting videogame pinball releases ever. Each table is based on a huge event in the Marvel universe, and I cannot hide the fact that we are very proud of these tables! We have taken major steps forward with our pinball craft and of course, I could go on forever and ever about how great I think the new tables are, but I’ll let them do the talking! Check out the trailer for Fear Itself.

So, what is new and different about this set of Marvel Pinball tables? Previous tables were developed around individual characters, pitting you against their enemies with table elements focused on capturing their personalities. With the Avengers Chronicles tables, we focused more on storytelling, basing each table on an event in the Marvel Universe. In order to accomplish this, we recorded more voiceover than in any previous set of tables, and most of the lines are straight out of the comics. For example, The Infinity Gauntlet table alone has 139 lines pulled directly from the comic series and outlines the events of the story arc. And if you want to know more about Thanos (no spoilers here), may I suggest The Infinity Gauntlet table as a means to learn about the Mad Titan?

Did anyone happen to see a little movie released back in May that has broken box office records? Yes, Marvel’s The Avengers! I don’t want to spoil anything for those of you who have not seen the movie, but the Avengers table is based on events in the smash-hit flick. Back in the glory days of pinball machines, pinball was the center of pop culture, and a table was released for everything big in mass market entertainment. It is pretty cool that we have a table based on a movie that has broken countless records! Our friend Chris Baker from Marvel Entertainment wrote a post here on the blog about Marvel’s The Avengers table a few weeks ago – so if you need more info on that table, it is a great read.

Finally, Hulk is making his Marvel Pinball debut. We have had about ten million requests for Hulk, so we are happy to give him to you in a big way. World War Hulk is an explosive story, and the table reflects that in every way. I am sure you will all enjoy playing in the ruins of Manhattan as you crank up the volume on Hulk’s intense one liners. You’ll also get a cool cameo appearance from the Punisher!

I also wanted to take a moment and update you on Zen Pinball 2. We had planned to release the new Avengers Chronicles pack in line with the release of Zen Pinball 2, however we are experiencing some delays, and unfortunately this will not happen as planned. Technically speaking, Zen Pinball 2 is a very complex game and we have been working very closely with Sony to get it released as soon as possible. The wait will be worthwhile – I am proud to say that Zen Pinball 2 was nominated for Best of Show from IGN, and Best Portable by Destructoid at E3!

As always, I want to say thank you to all of you from all of us at Zen Studios. We truly appreciate your support and look forward to hearing what you think about the new tables.

Zen Studios is fresh off an exciting and successful E3. Although our presence was modest, we still made a big impact. KickBeat for PS Vita won Destructoid’s Best of Rhythm E3 award, and Zen Pinball 2 was nominated for Best of E3 2012 by IGN and Best Portable Game by Destructoid. We are extremely honored to be included alongside the industry’s best!

KickBeat sure received a positive response at E3. We think it’s because there is nothing else like it, and a lot of people caught on to that. There were also some people who simply told us we were crazy when they watched us play, but once they got their hands on the game they had BIG smiles on their faces. We have some new video that was released right before and then during E3, we wanted to make sure you guys got a chance to view as well.

The first video is the intro story chapter to KickBeat, setting up our Kung Fu style cheesy story. All of these story scenes are hand animated, and yes, we hired professional voice actors. As a matter of fact, at least one of the actors we’ve used came by the Sony booth to say “hi,” as they are all from Los Angeles.

The next video is actual gameplay, set to “I Can’t Wait” by Celldweller. The game is being played at a high difficulty, so you can really see how the game looks when played at its fullest potential.

The next few weeks will be very busy for pinball. The new Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles pack will release next week, and we will have some detailed info to share on Monday (along with a NEW trailer). Zen Pinball 2 should be out in mid-late July for PS3 and PS Vita. We also want to give a big thanks to our friends at PlayStation for showcasing Zen Pinball 2 on PS Vita in their E3 booth.

This was our very first time having our own setup at E3, and it was a total blur – in a good way! Nine hours of nonstop meetings everyday with seemingly every member of the gaming press, Five Hour Energies, and zombie hands (thanks to our Concourse Hall neighbors, Telltale Games and the amazing The Walking Dead Game which I hear was #1 in May on PSN. And that’s just a taste of what our week was like!

Speaking of the PlayStation booth, by the end of the show everyone was wearing the first piece of Zen Studios swag – some really comfy slippers. We do not wear shoes in the Zen Studios office. We wear slippers! They are much more comfortable and relaxing, and these are actually the same style worn in the office. It’s pretty funny, but a lot of people have been Tweeting us pictures of their feet, and a lot of our followers have been asking for these so I think we might actually start making them available on our website. Let us know if you want them as well.

Thanks to all of you for your support over the years!

Music games have a long tradition of innovation. From the peripheral-based games like Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution to controller-based ones like Frequency and Patapon, these games allow us to experience music in new and often unexpected ways.

KickBeat follows in the tradition of this type of music game. Although its beat-matching mechanic is not complex and will be familiar to fans of the music game genre, KickBeat does a couple things that make it different from anything else you’ve played…and with publishers afraid to do anything except sequels to dance games, what better time than now to give the genre a kick in the pants?

The first thing about KickBeat that is immediately visible is its fighting theme. If you watch the old Hong Kong kung fu movies, you’ve probably noticed that the fight choreography is heavily rhythmic. We noticed that, too, and figured it would be a good theme for a beat-matching game. Combine the martial arts theme with heavy, aggressive music that goes well with punching and kicking, and you’ve got a game with a little more edge than the ones where you get jiggy to the the latest autotuned pop hit (not that there’s anything wrong with that, especially with friends and/or limited sobriety).

Second, we got rid of the bars, arrows, and button icons that other music games rely on for action cues and replaced them with fully 3D animated characters. Instead of just seeing characters in the background moving to a preset script as eye candy while the actual gameplay takes place in an abstract 2D interface, you actually control and react to those 3D characters. That means you actually get to focus your attention on what those characters are doing! As you play the game, you’re creating your own fight sequence with your button presses (or screen touches). We also even let you get rid of all the other interface parts (such as score) if you like, so that there are no distractions from the action.

As you may have gathered from the trailer, enemies circle around you before attacking from one or more of the four cardinal directions. Their attacks are synched to the song’s beat and to other high-energy moments in the music: guitars, vocals, and so on. To defeat one, you just press the button corresponding to their direction at the correct time (right as they move in to attack you). For example, when an enemy attacks from the right, you press the right direction button or the Circle button to send them sprawling. You can also just use the touch screen – tap the portion of the screen where the enemy is attacking from, and you’ll get the same result. Two or three enemies at once? No problem! Just press all the appropriate buttons/regions at once. You can use both the directional and face buttons simultaneously, an essential skill to learn once you get to the expert difficulty levels and you’re beset by a constant stream of enemies.

Now that you’ve got the basics, let me tell you a little bit more about the game’s history. It’s been around in idea form since 2006, and we started development on it in 2009 – an exciting time for me, as it’s my first original game idea to be put into production. Yep, KickBeat is my baby!

Although the game concept is a very simple one, it turned out that it’s a really, really hard game to make. Because animations take a certain amount of time to play, it’s very difficult to give them the instantaneous response time that you need in a beat-matching game, while still keeping the motion believable. We started out by motion-capturing a martial arts champion, only to realize later that none of it would be usable for the game. Essentially, we had to start over on the animation system – but this time, we knew the problems we’d come across and designed the system to overcome them. As a result, almost 100% of the animations in the game are hand-animated, no small task for a game that needs as many animations as ours. And I think the animators did a fantastic job of creating a martial arts style that is acrobatic, fluid, responsive, and just plain fun to watch.

Selecting the music for KickBeat’s hard-hitting soundtrack was an equally daunting task, but very rewarding when you manage to find that perfect track or hidden gem and get a deal signed. We didn’t get every song we wanted – I really wanted the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” for example, but it didn’t work out. However, those setbacks just made us look harder to find great music in unlikely places. We ended up with 18 tracks across multiple genres (mostly drum & bass, rock, and hip-hop), from big names like Pendulum and Rob Zombie to some stuff you probably haven’t heard before. The most unusual? A track from Shen Yi, a Taiwanese rapper – yes, it’s in Mandarin, and yes, it is awesome.

We also thought it would be fun to be able to put your own music into the game – that was my favorite feature in Audiosurf. We’ve got a feature that will allow you to do just that, with no scripting on your part required – just put in a couple pieces of info, customize a couple settings to your taste, and the game creates a new level for you to play.

One other part of the game I want to mention is the story. Because we’ve put all this effort into making characters a central focus of the game, we needed to give these characters a human touch. Otherwise, they’re just animated props. Our story revolves around a lovestruck and unlikely hero drawn into a battle for control of the world’s music. It’s lighthearted fare, but we’ve done a bunch of hand drawn and fully voiced sequences that really bring the characters to life.

Well, there you have it. KickBeat will release this year, exclusively on PS Vita. It’s a real thrill to finally be able to talk about the game after working on it so long, and I can’t wait to see what you all think of it! We will be showing the game at E3, so there will be more news surfacing soon. You can also catch me on last week’s PlayStation Blogcast talking a little bit about the game.

Thanks for reading!

It’s a truly historic day here at the House of Ideas, as Marvel’s The Avengers is finally making its way to American theaters. I’ve seen it. It’s awesome. I’m pretty sure you’ll agree with me soon. (Maybe you already do.)

As Interactive Manager at Marvel, it’s been my pleasure to work with Zen Studios on the video-pinball adaptation of the film, which, as one of four great tables in Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles, should be headed your way in just a few weeks. It looks a little something like this…

Cool trailer, I know, but you can see it pretty much anywhere. When Sid Shuman and Jeff Rubenstein – who preside over the PlayStation Blog with legendary Thanos-ian tyranny – demanded I present “a li’l somethin’ extra for our minions,” who was I to say no? So, here you have it, my fellow peons – five cool things about “Marvel’s The Avengers” pinball…

5) Zen Pinball 2!
“Marvel’s The Avengers” and the other three tables within the Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles four-pack help to usher in Zen’s new PlayStation pinball platform on the same launch date (best I can give you now: “soon”). You can read all the details here, but the basics you need to know are 1) it houses all past Marvel Pinball and Zen Pinball titles under one virtual roof, 2) it does more stuff than those other two titles, and 3) you can switch between playing on PS3 and Vita at no extra charge. Excelsior, indeed.

4) Real Movie Assets
See that Quinjet? And those 3D character models? Oh, and those S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors with all sorts of high-tech-looking pictures of countries and stuff (you may have gotten a better look at Comic-Con)? They’re all taken directly from digital assets used in the film. So, that is the Quinjet. Those are Iron Man and Hulk. Those are the same S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors with all sorts of high-tech-looking pictures of countries and stuff.

3) You’re Not Just a Ball – You’re a Character…in the Form of a Ball
In terms of sheer gameplay, this is what makes “Marvel’s The Avengers” one of the most unique video pinball tables you’ll ever play. As you may have noticed, none of the screenshots feature a traditional silver ball for this table – that’s because no traditional silver balls exist at any time while you play. Instead, an Avenger of your choosing – represented by the balls you see above – is dropped right into the thick of things, each boasting his or her own unique buffs based on character specialties. (My personal favorite: An exclusive bonus to the skillshot when you’re Hawkeye.) I look forward to watching the Zen Studios forums and seeing how sequence of Avenger selection affects the battle plan for all the hardcore Zen fans out there.

2) Thor vs. Hulk!
‘Nuff said.

1) Movie Guys Helped Make It
This table was a true team effort. In addition to our games group here at Marvel and, most especially, the immense talent at Zen Studios, “Marvel’s The Avengers” features what may very well be a video pinball first – actual filmmaker involvement.

One of the coolest parts of the development experience for me was shooting ideas around with Executive Producer Jeremy Latcham, Creative Manager of R&D Will Corona Pilgrim and few others of Marvel Studios’ finest. They were genuinely enthused about the process, and I credit them fully with coming up with inspiring some of the missions, as well as the idea of having the Helicarrier act as the setting for the board. Once things were in full swing, Will was especially helpful, providing detailed feedback on everything from character animations to the minute details of the table’s script.

All told, the film team provided some invaluable ideas and feedback. You can tell there’s a lot of talent there – the type that’s capable of creating what very well may be the best super hero movie ever, I’d say…