Pinball FX - Williams Pinball: Twilight Zone Review

Pinball FX - Williams Pinball: Twilight Zone by developer and publisher Zen Studios—SonyPlayStation 5 Review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Pinball FX - Williams Pinball: Twilight Zone is one of the many classic tables that has gotten the digital treatment from Zen Studios, and it’s a great representation of the original.

Having grown up on pinball machines and playing a variety of now-classic tables (typing that makes me feel old) over the years, I haven’t always had the good fortune to have played these in their original form. That being said, I have had the opportunity to play quite a few, including this one.

Twilight Zone was already kind of in my head due to a very recent trip to Disney World with my wife, and multiple rounds of riding The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Completely unrelated to this table but firing it up tickled a part of my brain all the same.

This is a fun table, but like most of the ones based on actual pinball tables from years past, it tends to be more challenging than most of Zen Studios’ strictly digital offerings. These tables were often meant to swallow quarters in rapid fashion, so the first couple of plays were brief for me. However, once I got a feel for the tempo of this very busy table, I was able to get some really solid scores and experience the numerous mechanisms built into it.

There is a sort of chaos to the design, which is fitting for a table themed on Twilight Zone. Ticking clocks,  shlocky sci-fi robots, “magna-flips” and more made this a very zany table with a lot going on. Heck, most pinball tables when you unleash a multi-ball, you get three, maybe four going at once. This table? You get six. I usually lose one or two almost right away – it’s just too much to keep track of, but goodness – you can rack up some huge points if you can keep them in play for a bit.

From a presentation perspective, this has always been a very cool table that translates really well digitally. The sound effects are varied and appropriate, and the visuals are really fantastic. It’s sort of a dark table, both on the walls and the table itself, with soft blooming glows at key locations. Watching the ‘door’ open in the middle of the table is always fun as well.

As a single table, Pinball FX - Williams Pinball: Twilight Zone is a lot of fun, if challenging. There’s a certain nostalgia it tickles with me due to having played the original table once upon a time, and the digital recreation of it is a solid one that makes it worth playing.

Score: 8 / 10