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Star Wars Pinball: Star Wars Rebels

Star Wars Pinball: Star Wars Rebels

Written by Jeremy Duff on 6/16/2015 for PS4  
More On: Star Wars Pinball: Star Wars Rebels

When Zen Studios first announced it was producing tables based on Star Wars, I knew there was a ton of potential. Between the various episodes of the franchise and the multiverse of characters, the options for table themes seemed almost endless. Some of the options were more obvious than others, such as Darth Vader and the original trilogy, and had "Great!" written all over them before they were even revealed. I never expected that my favorite table out of all of them would come from Disney XD—Star Wars: Rebels.

If you aren’t familiar, Rebels is a cartoon that airs on Disney XD. It follows a ragtag group of rebels who are doing whatever they can to fight against the oppressive Galactic Empire while criscrossing the galaxy aboard the starship Ghost. The show is set roughly five years before the events of the original trilogy (Episode IV) and is considered to be actual canon for the film franchise, incorporating established characters from the film and introducing new ones along the way, including the core cast.

Don’t feel put off if you weren't a fan of the show prior to booting up this table. I surely wasn’t. Despite being a big Star Wars fan, I hadn’t felt compelled to check out the show before I played this table; that has since changed. Zen’s tribute table does a fantastic job of introducing players to the world of Rebels and laying the foundation for your understanding of the show and its events. You will get to hear a nice variety of soundclips and a fantastic soundtrack taken directly from the show that show off the characters' personalities and important events from the first season, painting a nice image for you that will bring you up to pace.

In terms of the table design, Rebels has a relatively simple layout. A good portion of the playfield is open, allowing you to aim for the various ramps and traps around the top part of the screen. There are three bumpers, with the third lying at the base of an exit lane on the top-right part of the screen. This area isn’t barren though: It is filled with portraits of all of the members of the Ghost as well as the overlooking glare of the Inquisitor.

In classic Zen Studios fashion, Kanan and Ezra are represented at the top of the table in rendered form, acting out various situations and providing a large variety of the narration for the game. A fully rendered version of the Ghost itself lies up on the top left of the stage. You will see a variety of ships flying across the screen during your game, both dropping off troops to tackle your team and battling it out with laser canons and drones; it gets very busy at times, but never enough that it overwhelms your ability to focus on the action in the lanes. Even with the "cartoony" visual style, this pinball table feels like an authentic Star Wars experience from beginning to end. There is an appreciation and respect for the source material that shines through, which has sort of become Zen’s trademark with the Zen Pinball tables.

Just like the layout, the mission structure of the table is relatively simple, too—and I mean that in a good way. Each mission is based on a member of the Ghost’s crew, and your requirements are relatively easy to figure out. Most involve traditional fare, such as hitting specially lit ramps or chutes, while others tie in directly to the personality of the character being represented. Zeb’s mission, for example, requires you to pummel a Stormtrooper who is blocking your path on a ramp with your ball, which is exactly how he would approach a situation in the show: With blunt force; Sabine on the other hand, known for her graffiti, requires you to load up and deploy a massive paint bomb for a nice scoring bonus.

Between the gorgeous visual presentation, excellent audio experience, and simple yet addictive gameplay, Star Wars: Rebels has easily become not just my favorite table of the Star Wars selection, but one of my favorites overall. It is very easy to get the hang of things, including each of the missions, which should give you a great foundation for your playing experience. Mastering them however, will take just as much work and dedication as the most complicated tables available on the Zen Pinball 2 platform. This is one table all Zen fans will want to pick up, not just the Star Wars faithful.

The Rebels table is easily my favorite Star Wars table from Zen Studios to date. It’s simple design is deceiving, as the mission variety and experiences provide some great challenges and do a great job of introducing the world of Star Wars Rebels.

 

Rating: 9 Excellent

* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company.

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About Author

Guess who's back!!! If you have been here before, you know the basics: lifelong gamer, father, and of course, former certified news monkey. I still consider myself all of those things, just maybe not in the grand scale that I once did. I’ve been blogging on the industry for more than decade now, in some form or another. It wasn't until I landed here at Gaming Nexus that I really dove in head first. Now, writing about games has become what I do for fun (and sometimes work) and something I intend on doing until the day I die (in some form or another).

I'm a huge fan of just about everything you can interact with using a controller, no matter how old or new, good or bad. If you put it in front of me, I will play it (at least once).

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