Guardians of the Galaxy – Pinball FX2 Table Review

One of the biggest films of this summer has wrangled its way onto Pinball FX2 in table form, joining a well populated list of Marvel tables already available. The Guardians of the Galaxy table brings the whole gang and even the evil Ronan the Accuser to pinball for the measly price of £2.39. How does it play though, is it out of this world? Or will it be brought down to Earth from all the success?

Just like this table, I’ll begin with a bit of a negative, the game starts with a sort of warm-up act where you have four balls (which are always saved) and you attempt to escape the Kyln by shooting lanes etc. to defeat prisoners you can’t see for a set amount of time. Whilst it is fun at first, this just delays the arrival of Ronan the Accuser where the action really starts.

Once the Guardian’s nemesis, Ronan, stands watchfully over the table it’s up to you to activate features to attack and damaged him in mini battles. For example if you light up Drax’s name by shooting that specific ramp, a war between Drax the Destroyer and Ronan begins. Sending the ball down certain lanes does damage to the enemy but best be quick because he will retaliate over time.

These aren’t the only type of features though as you can launch a mini game by shooting Gamora’s lane and this takes you to a rather difficult small pinball area. With it being so small, the minute you flip the ball it’s almost immediately back to be hit once again. You won’t last long in here so trying to hit the main targets quickly is the plan.

Fear not that I haven’t mentioned the rest of the group; all the guardians are featured in some way such as Groot whom saves balls from the drain or Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon waiting to take on Ronan at the first chance they get. Visually they look great although it is a bit disappointing not to see a Gamora model, just a flat picture.

I don’t want to point out the obvious but for those who want to know the layout, the standard left and right flippers are present with an additional right-sided one to help navigate the ball towards the trickier parts of the table. The top half of the table consists of multiples ramps, a few lanes and a cluster of mushroom shaped bumpers.

The Guardians of the Galaxy table has its flaws, especially the drawn out frantic opening sequence and the slightly annoying music. High scores aren’t overly difficult to come by and even the average player like me can keep balls in play for quite a while. It looks the part but there are more enjoyable tables out there in the Marvel Pinball collection of tables. It also doesn’t help when high scores disappear off the leaderboards, however that is more likely to do with the current technical problems with Pinball FX2 for Xbox One on the whole.