Physical pinball is fun and all, but there are people out there who might not have the means to play it due to a lack of places to play in their area – or, in my case, being too young to head to arcades on my own for a while. Thankfully, I had digital pinball to keep me company, and while it doesn’t replace the real thing, it certainly keeps me occupied when I can’t play physical games and helps me practice techniques I can use on real tables.
There are a lot of great pinball simulations out there. is a particularly great one on PC that is seeing more and more support. It has a ton of great original tables being released on a regular basis, but I tend to prefer supporting the official releases of pinball-related products whenever I can. That’s where comes in, the latest entry in Zen Studios’ pinball simulation series that includes a mix of original tables and quite a few licensed Williams & Bally tables. The game released to early access at the start of 2022 before seeing wide release in 2023.
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I understand a lot of people will be wondering whether Pinball FX is worth it given the lack of backwards compatibility with Pinball FX 3. To tell you the truth, I use the latter for all of the archived tables, but have bought all of the new tables on Pinball FX and don’t regret any of my purchases, especially not the new Williams releases. There are a ton of tables I enjoy in this latest entry, and I hope to discuss exactly why they appeal to me here and hopefully get some new fans on board. And if you’re still on FX 3, I hope to remind you that that game is still well worth checking out and playing!
Goat Simulator
Goat Simulator is one of the more recent Pinball FX originals at the time of publishing and is strongly recommended even if you have no knowledge of the source material! The original game was a physics demo turned into one of the most nonsensical games of its time and while the pinball machine is slightly more comprehensible (only slightly), it still captures the quirky spirit of the original game. It was designed by longtime Zen designer Thomas Crofts, whose tables are some of the most consistent in the series.
This table can best be compared to a mix of Road Showand Monster Bash. Hitting shots across the game adds karma (ie. the miles on Road Show), and collecting 500 karma allows you to start a mission at the goat tower. All six missions can run at the same time provided you have enough karma to start all of them, and a boss fight wizard mode can be started after completing all six. Missions also allow you to customize your goat, making missions either easier to complete or more valuable in the process.
Despite its oddball theme, Goat Simulator does a lot right as a pinball machine. No shot is the “wrong” shot to make, and all will advance you to being able to start modes as long as you can keep the ball alive. The mode scoring itself is well-balanced and conducive to the layout instead of working against it, and I’ll fully admit that the upper playfield basketball hoop shot is addictive as heck – which is saying a lot considering digital pinball tends to lack the kinetic satisfaction of the real thing.
Knight Rider
Knight Rider is a banger of a digital table, one that wears its simplicity on its sleeves despite its unique layout. This was designer Peter “deep” Grafl’s first table after a few years of a hiatus between new designs, and he returned with a vengeance.
Though there are only four main missions, the depth of Knight Rider instead comes from being able to maintain the RPM. Every time the player successfully hits the vari-target on the far right of the playfield, the playfield X increases, with timed 3x scoring when the ball hits the sinkhole behind the target. Using 3x scoring during missions can result in massive scoring for single shots if the player is able to memorize which shots are lit at what times. Also benefiting new players is that missions put their shots on hurry-up timers for the most part, only requiring them to be hit once with remaining shots scoring bonuses.
This table can feel somewhat sluggish at times while waiting for missions to start, though the game will allow you to skip cutscenes/setup by holding both flippers – with a neat VHS effect to boot. Recovery from some shots, especially exiting out of the bumpers or missed shots to the spinner, can be troublesome for newer players as well. However, I feel that the game more than makes up for these issues with its excellent theme integration and layout.
Crypt of the NecroDancer
One area that Pinball FX’s reboot has greatly improved on over that of the original is the number of “unique” tables with mechanics that defy traditional pinball rules. In real life there were machines like Safe Crackerand Kingpinthat opted out of the traditional 3 balls per game and instead went for timed play. Courtesy of newer Zen designer Gergely Vadocz, Crypt of the NecroDancer is still a traditional 3 ball (or heart) affair, but with a unique twist: you only drain if you’re not playing to the beat and can’t recover from your shots.
This machine is based on the video game of the same name, a hybrid of a rhythm game & dungeon-crawler that’s way more fun than it sounds. The gist of the rules involves starting “zones” and shooting the flashing shots, with the unique caveats of having to flip to the beat of background music during certain zones; then each zone has a unique boss fight that also plays around with the music. Flipping to the beat and hitting the lit “C” lanes increases the playfield multiplier up to 2.5x and keeping it above 0.5x allows you to keep playing even if you drain. If you drain below 0.5x though, there goes one heart…
For the record: Crypt of the NecroDancer is not a perfect table, by any means. The combos, during the late game, are some of the most unbalanced since Corvette’s infamous track combos, and the table can feel a bit slow during the periods following boss fight completions (though this can be negated during the initial zones, thankfully). However, the vibes of this table are unmatched! Great playfield art, but the star of this machine is absolutely Danny Baranowsky‘s brilliant soundtrack, with the display providing a heartbeat to help you time your flips and the items around the playfield bouncing around to it. While not nearly as competitively viable, this machine distinctly reminds me of Elton Johnin its approach to atmosphere: just vibe out, rip some shots, and enjoy the music as you play.
The Addams Family
We can’t have a list of recommended Pinball FX tables without diving into some Williams goodness, and what better table to start out with than probably the most famous Williams table of them all? The Addams Family received an excellent recreation on FX when it publicly released at the start of 2023 – all of the shots can be made consistently, and every detail down to the satisfying *clunk!* of sending balls into the vault is emulated.
This table is high on the list of digital pinball tables I’d recommend for anyone new to the hobby thanks to its iconic nature and well-tested design. Though there are Williams tables I prefer to this one, true classics never die and I’m happy that Zen was able to recognize that mindset with this recreation.
Twilight Zone
Also released exclusively to Pinball FX was Pat Lawlor’s follow-up to the previous table in Twilight Zone. This machine is one I actually prefer playing digitally; while I think it’s incredibly fun and offers up a lot of different approaches to playing for high scores, it’s one of the most difficult tables to maintain on location thanks to its many different gimmicks. Being able to play a digital copy without having to worry about maintenance is an enjoyable alternative, though as I’ve brought up before, nothing will ever replace the real thing.
Worth noting on many of these Zen Williams recreations are the optional enhancements that can be toggled on / off. Some tables have better enhancements than others, but Twilight Zone’s in particular are tastefully implemented, with very neat changes to the slingshot art and an animated model of the robot who pops up when you hit the left ramp or lock shots. I also love the custom color pallete on the enhanced flippers!
Star Trek: The Next Generation
And the last Williams table I wanted to recommend was their recreation of Star Trek: The Next Generation. This Steve Ritchie table is slightly divisive as the widebody layout makes it play differently than many other machines designed with his mindset, not to mention the infamous inlane / outlane setup. While that frustration is intact in the recreation, I find it easier to get into the groove of this digital copy than the real table, especially hitting the center mission start shot on a consistent basis.
As the icing on the cake, just like Twilight Zone, the enhancements are very well-implemented. Special mentions go to the ship models above the ramps, and the fully interactive asteroids that detonate across the playfield during the asteroid threat mission, adding a level of immersion to the machine that couldn’t be done on the real thing.
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