Pinball FX VR

To gamers of a certain age, there’s something magical about a basement. To me, a kid of the 70s and 80s, a basement says shag rugs, wood panels, maybe one of those big, round, overstuffed footstools with the button in the middle that you and your buddies use as a sofa. Maybe some VHS tapes and cartridges strewn around the floor. The smell of old cigarettes and Dorito dust. And of course, hours and hours spent gaming and watching movies late into the night, drinking sugary sodas without a moment’s thought to the health implications.

With Pinball FX VR, Zen Studios has taken that memory/fantasy and given it a makeover that has to be seen to be believed. The shag rug and footstool are missing, and the overall decor is more “wine cellar” than “suburban split-level”, but the vibe is still right. Maybe it's the fact that your pinball basement is tucked away from the rest of the world, letting you exist in a private vacuum of blinking lights and attract music. Or maybe it's the way Zen Studios has granted you just enough leeway over the look and feel of the place to give you a sense of ownership. Whatever the reason, Pinball FX VR hits like a warm nostalgia bomb wrapped in cutting-edge immersion, and I can’t stop going back for one more round.

Let me get this out of the way upfront: if you’ve played Zen Studios’ pinball games before, you already know that the tables are excellent. The mechanics are tight, the designs are clever, and the production value is absurdly high. I’ve covered my love for Zen’s pinball offerings in detail over the years—from console to Star Wars VR—and I stand by every sore-forearm-induced word of it. But even with all of that cumulative experience, Pinball FX VR still feels like something new. Something personal. Zen Studios has taken the idea of the “pinball basement” that has been present in previous titles and blown it out in every direction. And I gotta say, the first time I loaded it up, I was pretty stunned at how cool the whole thing is. I was expecting more of the old, and I got something sparkling and new. The first impression was a bit of a sugar rush for a longtime Zen Pinball fan like me.

The base game includes Sky Pirates: Treasures of the Clouds, Pinball Noir, and Curse of the Mummy, a fairly strong trio of Zen originals. Though they aren’t my absolute favorite Zen originals, they are still fun, varied, and gorgeously rendered. And of course, Zen took the opportunity to surround each table with cool VR touches. Indiana Jones stands beside his table, judging your performance. The USS Enterprise buzzes around your head. KITT races around a waist-level track that surrounds his table. But the true star here isn’t the tables themselves. It’s the space around them.

The moment you step into your new VR basement, it’s clear that Zen Studios has poured a ton of effort into making this more than just a collection of pinball machines. This is your personal arcade, with an 80’s neon vibe that screams “Miami Vice, but blue instead of pink”. The first time you enter, it’s a hoot just to wander around and explore the space. You’ve got a trophy wall for your conquests, a holographic globe that acts as the campaign hub, a functioning dart board (I can’t do anything with it), a cassette player that lets you swap music tracks, and spaces to proudly display all your cosmetic winnings (mostly statues and posters). It’s wild how quickly I felt like this space was mine, and I immediately wanted to jazz it up with my own personality (which basically means covering everything in Star Trek and Indiana Jones crap).

The way the game integrates unlockables is part of that feeling. As you play through the global campaign — completing challenges that kind of force you to get progressively better at each table — you earn tickets. These tickets can be used to spin a wheel of fortune in your basement, rewarding you with cosmetics like statues, posters, alternative flippers, ball trails, and even new visual styles for the basement itself. Watching your space evolve from a blank canvas into a vibrant museum of pinball accomplishments is deeply satisfying. It hits the same dopamine pathways as rearranging action figures on a shelf.

However, this is where one of my few gripes with the game creeps in. Cosmetic unlocks are gated exclusively behind campaign progress, which feels unnecessarily restrictive. The core pinball gameplay is addictive on its own — I’d love to see rewards extended to general play, especially when trying to master specific tables. I really enjoy the campaign, but sometimes I just want to play pinball and chase a high score - which offers few rewards beyond leaderboard placement. It seems like a missed opportunity to reward all types of players, not just those grinding campaign objectives.

While the basement is cool enough to keep me occupied for weeks, there is another aspect to Pinball FX VR which is just as amazing. Using mixed reality, you can place life-sized pinball tables directly into your real-world environment. I dropped a Star Trek table into my office, and now I sit here at my desk typing and longingly eyeing the spot where the ghost-table resides.

Of course, you are gonna need a big empty room if you want to assemble the full collection somewhere (which I don’t have), but it’s still neat to drop a couple of tables into the dining room and then freak out your family while you stand there in the middle of an empty space, vehemently cursing. Most of these options are activated by a menu that lives in the palm of your hand, which is a quick and easy way to handle things like settings and modes.

Pinball FX VR also marks the first time that some legendary Williams tables are available in VR. There are zero slouches in the mix here; we’re talking about all-time greats like Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure, The Addams Family, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Twilight Zone, and World Cup Soccer. Here’s the interesting part: I’ve really enjoyed playing these tables “flat”, but historically, I can’t do shit with them. Tuned to gobble up quarters in real-world arcades, they have just always felt overly difficult to me. But standing in front of these tables in VR is a whole different ballgame. In this different format, the challenge level feels right to me, and I’ve been so obsessed with them that I’ve had a hard time tearing myself out of the Williams room to spend time with the game’s other offerings.

I’m very jazzed by the idea that more tables might be on the way. The idea that this already expansive basement could get even bigger, with themed rooms to house DLC packs and curated groupings, is tantalizing. The potential for seasonal decor themes, licensed corners, or event-based layouts is enormous, and it speaks to the game’s strength as a living platform rather than a static product. The hoarder in me that causes me to buy every table on the various platforms is already grinding his teeth and demanding more.

Of course, this being VR, I immediately want to play with my friends. I started talking about Pinball FX VR in the Gaming Nexus Slack, and immediately someone was like “I’m coming for your high scores, dude.” This dynamic makes the absence of multiplayer or social features keenly felt. The global leaderboards are great - I took the top spot on the Star Trek table early on and have been obsessed with keeping it (total failure, btw) - but how amazing would it be to invite friends into your arcade, chat in real time, or play side-by-side?

I understand the difficulties involved in bringing this to life - and I don’t want to give all the hard work represented here the short shrift. Network code, character design, chat functions - it’s an overwhelming amount of stuff to figure out, so I can see why it didn’t make the first cut. But dare to dream, y’all. Zen’s previous work shows a willingness to experiment with multiplayer structures, so I can only hope that future updates bring a more connected experience. VR is inherently social (to me at least), and Pinball FX VR is crying out for at least a neutral lobby to share with pinball buddies.

Still, Pinball FX VR is the kind of game that sucks me in and refuses to spit me out. For me, it’s not just about getting high scores or unlocking every cosmetic and trophy. To me, it’s more about just being there in that basement. I used to know a guy that had a real-world warehouse full of pinball machines and arcade cabinets. While I had a vague jealousy over this, I also knew that I would never want to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars curating a collection like his. Well…unexpectedly, here is an option that frankly feels just as good to me. Huzzah!