I love the Portal games!  They were some of my favorite titles from the last console generation, and I’ve played through both of them multiple times.  So I was really excited when Zen Studios brought out a Portal Pinball game for their Zen Pinball 2 and Pinball FX2 platforms!  (Reviewed on 360 here)

You can download and play the new Portal table on consoles that support Zen Studios’ pinball platforms.  When you download Pinball FX 2 or Zen Pinball 2 (depending on which game console you own), you’re just downloading the hub.  It’s free, and then you purchase separate tables for play in the game.

The new Portal table is one of my favorites from Zen Studios, not only because it’s based on one of my favorite games, but because the table is so well designed and there is so much attention to detail.  Most of the ramps and targets are clearly visible and it’s easy to understand what to do.  Activating mission ‘test chambers’ is easy, too.  Just hit the elevator target and make the ball go in it!  You can even start the same mission again if you messed up.  Plus it’s a very high scoring table, which is always fun.  Lots of attention to detail that Portal fans will love, like the fact that when you lose your ball, it goes into a flaming incineration hole like when you drop off the Companion Cube and GlaDOS’ cores from the main game!  There is even a hidden Rat Man mini-table!

The complaints I have with this table are few and far between.  Sometimes the lights that tell you which ramps to go up and which targets to hit can be hard to see, but that’s a problem I have with many of Zen Studios’ tables.  And all the quotes in the pinball game are just lifted from the other Portal titles.  It would’ve been nice to hear some new lines from GlaDOS and Wheatley, but I guess that would be hard to do, I suppose.  Plus, some of the multi-ball modes are hard to get.  But that’s really about all I can complain about.  If you enjoy pinball and/or Portal games, you should definitely download this!

Kid Factor:

Zen Studios pinball games are rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Comic Mischief. But hey, it’s pinball. Safe, fairly non-violent, and no reading required. A good choice for a downloadable game.  The humor may be a little dark, but I think every kid should play the regular Portal games, too!

Tags: Game Reviews