When you think of horror, the last thing that would come to mind would be, of all things, Pinball. Zen Studios, the game developer known for their pinball video games based on classic real-world arcade pinball games and digital machines based on popular TV shows and movies, have entered a new realm, Horror! This is Pinball M, a pinball game featuring some of the more grittier titles you would see for a pinball machine.
I got a chance to get my hands on Pinball M and I’ll admit, I’m slightly getting addicted to this game. Pinball has always been a guilty pleasure of mine in arcades because it’s mindless fun, but now you mix in horror elements… now you’re speaking my language! The base game has one table featuring an original story/game called Wrath of the Elder Gods: Director’s Cut, a Lovecraftian pinball experience. The DLC is what will grab your attention with four tables featuring Dead by Daylight, Chucky’s Killer Pinball, Duke Nukem’s Big Shot Pinball, and my favorite table, The Thing!
You’re not seeing things, The Thing in pinball form! What makes these tables awesome is that as you play, you earn points to level up as well as in-game currency to buy cosmetics and effects for the pinball table, and in campaign mode, you can win decorations for your game room, as you can see in the above picture, those are some of the things I was able to unlock but I can go back and improve my scores, I can unlock even more things, for example, if I do better with the MacReady statue objectives, I can unlock him holding a shotgun or flamethrower.
The game is quite addicting, and I’ll admit I’m impressed that Zen Studios has made a mature-rated pinball experience for players. Horror fans and wannabe pinball wizards should check out Pinball M as well as the DLCs and compete for high scores, unlock awesome cosmetics, and just have mindless fun. On a scale of 1-10, I give Pinball M a 9.5/10 as I feel there should be ways for you to customize your game room more and be allowed to select which of the winning items you want to display.
Pinball M is out now on PC, PlayStations 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, and will be coming to Nintendo Switch on December 28th.
