It seems to come around faster and faster each year, and so once again it’s May 4th, which of course means Star Wars day. Fans love it and everyone else may loath it but the day is now part of geek culture whatever your stance. And when it comes to immersive Star Wars content there’s plenty to choose from, with deals going on as well as special one-day-only content.
So let’s start with the brand new stuff that’s arrived, and that’s getting fit in Supernatural on Meta Quest. The fitness app is hosting a special promotion with an exclusive Star Wars Day workout. Supernatural’s Coach Doc will take players on a heart-pumping workout featuring some of the franchise’s most famous tracks. These are; Main Title, Imperial Attack; Cantina Band, The Imperial March and The Throne Room & End Title.
Do be aware, however, that Supernatural is not only a subscription-based app ($19/month or $179/annually) but its also region locked to North America. So not all Star Wars fans worldwide can access the content.
If you do own a Meta Quest 1 or 2 then not to worry, there are still plenty of other ways to enjoy Star Wars Day. Until 11:59 pm PT on 5th May (7:59 am BST 6th May) there are a bunch of deals available via the Oculus Store, reducing prices by up to 50%.
Meta Quest will also be at Walt Disney World Resort until 21sy July where guests can preview ILMxLAB’s Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge and get free stuff!
As for the rest, here’s all the home Star Wars VR content gmw3 could find:
Zen Studios’ Star Wars Pinball VR launched last month for multiple virtual reality (VR) headsets, offering sci-fi fans an entirely customisable cave as well as a pinball machine with some awesome tables on it. If those eight tables we’re enough the studio has just released a new one dedicated to the galaxy’s favourite smugglers, Han Solo and Chewbacca.
Coming from Pinball FX3’s – Star Wars Pinball: Heroes Within pack, this free table offers new gameplay opportunities and unlockables for the fan cave. Set during the Classic Trilogy era, the Han Solo table doesn’t feature any lightsabers or magical trickery, just blasters and proper physics.
The iconic Millennium Falcon sits at the top of the table and plays a part in the challenges, tasking you with placing the ball in secret compartments or fixing the hyperdrive. There’s even a chance to destroy the Death Star. Like the other tables there a VR-enhanced mini-games to find, allowing you to pilot the ship through an asteroid belt, avoiding incoming fire from Tie Fighters.
Getting that far means some big scores which in turn allows you to update you cave with lifesize statues of Han and Chewie – who doesn’t want that next to their AT-AT and Jabba the Hut models?
When reviewing the Oculus Quest version, VRFocus said: Star Wars Pinball VR is an excellent addition to the franchise, another superb showcase of pinball in VR. There’s so much content to discover you’ll be playing for hour after hour trying to finesse those shots to unlock new secrets. Sure, it really helps if you’re a Star Wars fan as all the cave customization options will be lost on anyone else.
It’s 4th May so you know what that means, Star Wars day! Not that fans of the sci-fi franchise need a day to celebrate but hey, it gives you all an extra excuse to travel to a galaxy far, far away. And virtual reality (VR) continues to play an ever-growing role with new titles adding to the canon material almost every year it seems. So today, VRFocus is celebrating all things Star Wars VR-related.
This is the deal you’re looking for…
So let’s start with the deals. Like any branded day there are offers to be had and Star Wars in VR is no different, so if you’ve been holding out for a particular title then now might be a good time to pick one up. Here’s what VRFocus has found:
Grab all three episodes at a 50% discount until 12th May 2021.
Star Wars Squadrons
Currently 50% off over on Steam, you can pick up Star Wars Squadrons for a limited time for £17.49, compatible with Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.
Star Wars Squadrons is also on sale via the Epic Games Store with a 40% discount of £20.99.
Now, none of these are VR-compatible videogames but there are over 30 titles with up to 75% off, so in the spirit of Star Wars they’ve been included.
The Star Wars VR games every fan should have
As mentioned, VR fans have an abundance of titles to choose from when its comes to Star Wars. Back when VR was emerging as a consumer technology with the launch of Oculus Rift and HTC Vive there were early experiments like Star Wars: Trials on Tatooineand Star Wars: Droid Repair Bay (both are still free). But the technology and gameplay has certainly moved on.
Previously location-based entertainment (LBE) solutions like Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire would’ve been worth a look but with The VOID now defunct that’s no longer a possibility. So here are VRFocus’ recommendations for enjoying Star Wars in VR at home.
Star Wars Pinball VR – Only just released for most VR headsets last week, Zen Studios’ latest pinball mashup features 8 themed tables, a customisable fan cave, and more unlockables than you could find in the hold of the Millenium Falcon.
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge – The most recent title from ILMxLAB, Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge takes you to the outskirts of the Black Spire Outpost on the planet of Batuu. With the storyline set between Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker you end up in Seezelslak’s Cantina where you listen to his stories and go on missions. Part one is available now with part two due to arrive later this year.
Star Wars Squadrons – An all-action videogame with single-player and multiplayer modes Star Wars Squadrons you take command of both Rebel and Imperial craft, flying X-Wing and Tie Fighters across a range of missions. In multiplayer team-based 5v5 battles take place across gameplay modes including Dogfight and Battle Fleet. If you’ve ever wanted to be in the heart of any Star Wars space battle then now’s your chance.
Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series – For pure cinematics where you actually get to face Vader and use Force powers then give Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series a try. Split across three episodes explore Vader’s base on Mustafar and learn about the history and secrets of the planet, as well as your own. Then head to the Lightsaber Dojo to practice your Force powers and lightsaber skills against waves of enemies.
Zen Studios proved back in 2016 how well arcade classic pinball works in virtual reality (VR) thanks to Pinball FX2 VR, providing addictively simple yet thoroughly engrossing gameplay. Now the studio is back, returning with a bigger, bolder and even more engaging experience than before, just so long as you’re a massive Star Wars fan that is.
Star Wars Pinball VR is the very essence of a love letter to the sci-fi franchise, taking you through several of the films as well as adding its own extras. This isn’t so much a nod to Star Wars, it’s more a massive mosh pit for you to jump around in and customize to your liking – once you’ve put in some serious time at the tables to unlock everything of course.
You’ll find yourself in a fairly barebones Fan Cave, with lots of empty shelving, plinths, and poster frames to be filled. To do so you’re provided with eight tables, each with its own unique design and characters depending on what part of the franchise they’re based on. So you’ve got tables such as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope which come from the original Star Wars Pinball videogame but there are new inclusions like The Mandalorian. Unlike Pinball FX2 VR which had separate tables, in Star Wars Pinball VR all eight are housed in one unit, keeping the cave nice and tidy but also meaning you can quickly and easily switch between the tables.
Which is great once you found a couple of favourites (which you will). They’re all extremely intricate, fascinating to look at, almost overwhelming to begin with. Apart from the main central flippers, all the tables have varying degrees of additional flippers so there’s a sizable learning curve when you start a fresh one. Being pinball, the mechanics are very easy to pick up and play yet don’t let that fool you. The tables are incredibly complex with multiple stages to unlock as well as new animations. Read the table description if you want to see all that they have to offer. And that’s not even counting the VR additions.
Even with the older PC pinball tables, Zen Studios has given them a reworking. So you can view each one from the standard overhead view or actually jump inside for a close-up look. Called ‘Immersion Mode’ it looks great if you want to admire the table but not so much for actually playing it. You’re almost too close to the action making it tricky to track the ball, plus the ball looks really fake like it’s floating around the table. It’s the one feature in Star Wars Pinball VR which ruins the illusion of playing pinball in VR, so stay clear.
However, there are in-table moments that do work very well. There’s a sequence that can be unlocked during The Mandalorian whereby you control Mando for a brief time, blasting the ball away with your wrist-mounted flamethrower. There aren’t too many of these moments but they do add a pleasing side touch to the whole experience.
For the most part, you’re going to be aiming for table high scores as some massive scores are required to unlock some of the rarer unlockables like the Darth Vader statue or Baby Yoda. Thankfully, Star Wars Pinball VR features a couple of different ways you can engage with the tables to keep the gameplay interesting. Classic Mode is exactly as you’d expect, no-frills just you, a couple of buttons to mash, and some expert timing. Dig a little deeper and you also have an Arcade Mode and a Career Mode which are sort of intertwined yet hold the key to the monstrous scores.
Naturally, every Fan Cave has to have a huge TV. This is where you can play through the Career Mode with five chapters split down into ten missions each. They’ll each have their own particular challenges such as hit a particular score within a time limit or last for a set time with only one life. Do so and you’ll be awarded points on Force Powers and Force Talents. Upgrading them will increase their special bonus, nicely upping the ante when playing in Arcade Mode. They don’t alter the pinball mechanics in any way but having those means you can swap the Powers/Talents around and change your strategy if you take those pinball high scores seriously.
Away from the intensity of the tables you can always relax, put some music on the R2-D2 Jukebox, and admire your cave. Star Wars Pinball VR is for the most part a very comfortable experience as you’re at a table watching a ball(s) ping around. Smooth locomotion is the default movement around the cave so if you’re not comfortable with that snap turning and teleportation can be activated, they’re just not easy to find. The options menu is hidden within the TV system so it’s not instantly accessible wherever you are in the room.
Understandable considering Zen Studios is keeping a nice HUD-free environment yet it does make the process a little finicky for those players who do instantly head to the option settings. Another unusual addition is the hands. You’d think that in VR hands aren’t unusual but in the room, they’re completely inanimate, there’s nothing to pick up or physically interact with. They seem to be used more as a way to ground you in the space, automatically locking to the side of the table when playing.
Another minor gripe is the retro screens at the far end of each table, they need to be a bit easier to read. You can get so engrossed watching the ball(s) it’s easy to forget to look at the little yellow and black screen to make certain stage selections.
Even with those grumbles, Star Wars Pinball VR is an excellent addition to the franchise, another superb showcase of pinball in VR. There’s so much content to discover you’ll be playing for hour after hour trying to finesse those shots to unlock new secrets. Sure, it really helps if you’re a Star Wars fan as all the cave customization options will be lost on anyone else. VR headsets already have a decent selection of Star Wars titles with Star Wars Pinball VR being one of the best.
Is this latest addition to the Star Wars VR library worth your time? Find out in our Star Wars Pinball VR review!
Zen Studios designed one of VR’s best pinball games with Star Wars Pinball VR, taking the best of Star Wars and pinball and fusing them together in a surprisingly robust package. There’s a mode to suit all tastes, a detailed collector’s mode where you create your dream fan room, plus some incredible attention to detail in the tables. Best of all, it’s perfect for those with motion sensitivity. Even if you aren’t a Star Wars fan, it’s still worth checking out Star Wars Pinball VR if only for the immersion and heaps of pinball on offer.
Star Wars Pinball VR is divided into three main modes. Arcade is your straight-up classic pinball experience, while Classic mode adds a Star Wars twist with Force Powers and other elements that elevate it from being just a pinball game. Force Powers let you control the table in different ways, triggering multipliers, for example, or slowing time to aim for better shots. Classic mode is where you’ll get to delve into all the cutscenes, minigames, and events Zen Studios loaded each table with.
Then there’s Career mode, which packages together a surprisingly hefty set of missions. These span the game’s eight tables and task you with completing them in a set — usually short — period of time. Most of the early ones revolve around getting a certain high score, and aside from a sense of accomplishment, you’re also rewarded with fragments used to unlock and upgrade Force Power.
Star Wars Pinball VR Review – The Facts
What is it?: Star Wars-themed pinball tables… in VR! Platforms: Quest, PC VR, PSVR Release Date: Out Now Price: $24.99
Career mode is a fantastic inclusion that understands different types of people will be playing and wants to make sure they can still enjoy it. Much as I’d love to spend hours playing VR pinball and seeing every scene on each table, time just doesn’t always permit. Five-minute sessions here and there are just enough to sample a table’s delights without feeling like you’re missing out on too much, and if you have more time to spend, that’s great too. Classic mode awaits.
And there are plenty of delights to sample. Star Wars Pinball VR has a whopping eight tables to play on: three from the original trilogy, a Mandalorian table, Rebels, Masters of the Force, a Classics table, and then a Rogue One table. The prequel trilogy and Disney trilogy are nowhere in sight. Maybe Zen Studios wanted to keep this a fan-focused experience or perhaps they’re planned as DLC, but either way, the variety makes it hard to focus on what’s missing.
Your mileage might vary, but there’s really not a dud table among the bunch. Each sports a unique layout built around several references from the associated Star Wars film or show. The Return of the Jedi table, for example, has Jabba’s palace, the bunkers of Endor, hangers for Rebel and Imperial ships, and that’s just scratching the surface.
You can play each table from a top-down perspective, as if you’re standing at a normal pinball machine, or in immersion mode, which is, frankly, amazing. Immersion mode gives you three angles to view the table, and they’re all positioned behind and slightly above the main flippers. You might miss out on a few visual elements from the models at higher elevations, but immersion mode is the best way to see just how much care and attention Zen Studios lavished on each table.
Admittedly, it’s a bit more difficult than expected to identify which areas relate to what. Some of the lanes aren’t marked clearly, or if they are, the writing is rather small. The board at the table’s far end is supposed to have a grainy retro look. However, that sometimes works against you when you’re straining to make out what the event requirement is while your ball drops down into the Sarlacc Pit in the process.
Another issue is the sound bytes, which wear thin quickly on certain tables. Hearing Han say “jackpot” once is cool. Hearing him say it 35 times in a row when the ball is trapped in a bumper field is decidedly less entertaining.
Still, the extra interactive elements more than make up for slight annoyances. Some events have new figures walk onto the table while scenes unfold or ships fly above the playing field. Others are more involved minigames where you control a character, such as The Mandalorian’s bounty hunter, and the pinball field simultaneously. There’s just a staggering amount to do and see on each table.
The table design makes Star Wars Pinball VR an excellent pinball game. The Fan Cave makes it an excellent Star Wars experience.
Menu hubs in most games are functional, there only to get you where you actually want to go. Not so with the Fan Cave. I often don’t bother with collectibles in games, especially when they exist just to look at in a menu, but the Fan Cave adds some light decorating that makes engaging with your ever-expanding collection worthwhile.
The Cave has several shelves, including a rotating one in the middle of the room, some pedestals for larger figures, and a handful of poster frames. In a very true-to-life twist, there are far more collectibles you’ll obtain than you have room to display.
I may or may not have spent an equal amount of time organizing my collection as I did playing pinball, but that aside, it’s a refreshing break from pinball marathons and a surprisingly rewarding one. Waltzing past a Darth Vader statue to gaze at the AT-ST in the backyard, then sauntering by a collection of Rebel and Stormtrooper helmets to get to the pinball table is much more satisfying than it has any right to be.
Star Wars Pinball VR Review – Comfort
The waltzing and sauntering are just metaphors, though. Star Wars VR has almost no movement, even in immersion mode, and it’s ideal for VR newcomers or those with motion sensitivity. The same applies to immersion mode, which makes the most out of VR’s sense of, well… immersion, without any of the less pleasant side effects. Naturally, that means there aren’t any comfort settings to fiddle with, which is a shame in one respect: menus.
The Force Powers and information menus are essentially ultra-wide, which makes reading the text rather more awkward than expected. It’s most noticeable with the information menus since you need to read them for each table to get a better idea of how they work and what the scenes require.
Star Wars Pinball VR Review: Final Impressions
Star Wars Pinball VR is easily the best VR pinball game around and probably one of the best Star Wars VR games as well. It’s evidently designed with fans in mind, but unless you just can’t stand Star Wars, the pinball itself and the sheer amount of ways to enjoy it makes the game more than worth your while.
For more on how we arrived at this score, read our review guidelines. What did you make of our Star Wars Pinball VR review? Let us know in the comments below!
April will soon be coming to an end and what a month it’s been for virtual reality (VR) content. The Oculus Gaming Showcase had plenty of updates for current titles plus the likes of Maskmakerand Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife have launched. As VRFocus likes to do every Friday, here’s what you’ve got to look forward to in the days ahead.
Imercyve: Living with Intellectual Disability – Valley General
First up how about an educational VR app. Imercyve: Living with Intellectual Disability has been: “Developed in partnership with support services not-for-profit Mercy Connect, this experience explores the efficacy of an immersive approach to strengthening communication and understanding between advocates and people with a disability by simulating a variety of effects that may be familiar to those with diverse and high care needs.”
The big IP for next week, Zen Studios return to VR fusing pinball with the iconic Star Wars franchise. Set within a customisable fan cave where you can unlock statues, posters, music and more by scoring big on the tables, there will be 8 pinball tables to master, each based on the films. There will also be two brand new tables such as The Mandalorian.
Originally a standard PC title created by Bloober Team, developer Incuvo over saw the PC VR port in 2019. Now its PlayStation VR owners turn to step into this house of horrors. You play the role of a Victorian-era painter aiming to finish his Magnum Opus. However, as the dark narrative unfolds your character delves deeper into his own madness, experiencing visions that fill the mansion with macabre artwork as well as changing its layout.
Supported platforms: PlayStation VR
Launch date: 29th April
VR Skater – Deficit Games
An Early Access launch for PC VR headsets, VR Skater is a mix between arcade and simulation gameplay so you can pull a variety of tricks like Flips, Shuvits, Slides, and Grinds across one big map. There are practice and run modes to begin with, with thhe final version set to add a career mode and a least 6 more maps.
Why bother with a small golf ball when you can utilise a frisbee instead! Another Early Access launch, Disc Golf Valley VR provides 14 courses to complete, unlocking new disc’s in Challenge mode as well as three practice modes to test those skills on.
Zen Studios is known as the purveyor of awesome pinball videogames with most dedicated to famous IP’s such as The Walking Dead as well as its own original creations. It was very surprising back in 2016 when the developer launched Pinball FX2 VRshowcasing how well this style of videogame ports into virtual reality (VR). April will see the studio return to VR with one of the biggest franchises around, Star Wars Pinball VR, not only offering a selection of exciting tables to beat but a fully customisable fan cave to geek out in.
For this early hands-on look at Star Wars Pinball VR VRFocus tested the Oculus Quest version with access to two of the eight tables the final release will feature, The Mandalorian and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. As you may already realise the rest are then based on the original trilogy plus a couple of extras. Unlike Pinball FX2 VR which had several tables set out in a very swanky apartment, for Star Wars Pinball VR there’s one solitary table from which you can select all the rest.
Before doing so and diving right in it’s nice to have a wander around this cave of Star Wars wonder, a proper homage that you could very well imagine exists somewhere in the world. However, to begin with, it’s fairly sparse, there are posters on the walls but they’re all the same, you’ve got some bare shelving and a rotating shelve plus some empty plinths on the floor. There are a couple of statues, an AT-AT and Jabba the Hut as well as a kitchen and jukebox to give it that proper den feel. All the blank spaces are there for a reason though, collectables.
Through playing each table you’ll be able to unlock various iconic vehicles like the Tie Fighter or Slave 1, Strom Trooper helmets, new posters, new music and more. All so you can customise your virtual Star Wars space just so.
That means heading to the pinball table to start racking up the points as some of those unlockables cost a billion points! If you’ve played any of Zen Studios’ pinball titles you’ll know each is richly detailed and full of Easter eggs. What makes the experience in VR even better is the ability to peer closer and inspect all the various mechanisms. In Star Wars Pinball VR, you can even play from inside the table, with three positions available (left, central and right). While it can be quite novel playing right behind the central flippers, it didn’t quite gel, the more traditional top-down viewpoint was far better.
Even with just two tables on offer, there’s a massive amount going on although it doesn’t look like it from the first inspection. That’s because each table had story chapters to unlock, hitting particular bumpers or launching a ball up a particular ramp would then unlock the next section, with new objects appearing on the table or even in the environment. A good example of this was on The Mandalorian table. Get the right sequence and you’re suddenly in his shoes, using his wrist-mounted flamethrower to knock the ball around the table until the fuel runs out.
You don’t just have to step right up to the table either, there’s a big flat-screen TV which offers missions. These can range from hitting a certain score to unlocking features like multiball. Completing them earns you tokens which can be spent on activating and upgrading Force Powers and Talents. Tables can be played in Classic Mode or Arcade Mode and it’s the latter where those special abilities can be used to give you a chance of hitting those really impressive combos.
Even from this brief look at Star Wars Pinball VR, it’s easy to tell Zen Studios is packing a great deal of content that’ll give players hours and hours of entertainment. Naturally, Star Wars fans are going to get the most out of this but even those who aren’t particularly fussed with the franchise will find an enjoyable pinball experience. With a month to go until the official release, this is one Spring VR release VRFocus is looking forward to playing at great length.
After spending some time with Star Wars Pinball VR, the best way to describe it as a form of highly-concentrated nostalgia that absolutely works. This is a pinball collection from a galaxy far, far away you won’t want to miss when it releases this April on all major VR platforms.
Star Wars Pinball VR Preview
Zen Studios gave me early access to a Quest build of Star Wars Pinball VR, which I played on a Quest 2, and overall came away impressed and hungry for more. I’d drop quarters into my headset if it’d let me.
For those unaware, Zen has been making pinball video games for years and even brought over Pinball FX2 to VR headsets. Standing over a virtual table while pressing trigger buttons on motion controllers isn’t quite the same thing as actually using a real pinball machine, but it’s a pretty close approximation.
The real value benefit with VR pinball though, in my experience, is all of the other stuff it introduces. Not only are the tables creative and fun, but you’ve got characters flying around above the table and amazing collectables to show off and display in big, nerdy rooms. Star Wars Pinball VR is just teeming with nostalgia.
Star Wars Pinball VR will have eight different tables spanning several iconic entries in the franchise of films and TV shows. This includes two brand-new never-before-released tables: The Mandalorian and Star Wars Classic Collectibles. These new tables will be joined by tables based on each film in the original trilogy of movies, a Rogue One table, Star Wars Rebels table, and Masters of the Force table.
In the footage above I checked out The Mandalorian table and after a few tries was able to do okay, getting over 10,000,000 points on my fourth try. It’s pretty tough, but really fun and well laid out. As with any pinball machine, half the fun is just figuring out what exactly you’re supposed to do to trigger the different events and scenes.
Arguably the best part of the whole package though is the room everything is found in. It’s bit like a Star Wars ‘fan cave’ in a way where you can display all of your unlocked posters, collectible figures, ship models, and so on. There’s even an old timey-style jukebox where you can play various songs you’ve unlocked while playing different tables.
All in all, it seems like a really solid package for Star Wars fans and pinball aficionados alike. There’s plenty of depth to the tables that I tried and there’s a lot to unlock to keep you busy for hours.
Star Wars Pinball VR is coming to the Quest platform, PSVR, and PC VR headsets on Steam this April 29. For more on Star Wars Pinball VR make sure and watch the gameplay embedded above of the new table based on The Mandalorian and check back in April for more coverage.
Zen Studios, one of the most prolific virtual pinball creators, has teamed up with Disney and Lucasfilm Games to release a Star Wars-themed VR game filled to the brim with pinball machines. Much like the studio’s previous VR pinball game, Pinball FX2 VR(2016), Star Wars Pinball VR feels like it’s essentially the closest thing to owning your own fleet of pinball machines, albeit with more bells and whistles that simply can’t exist outside of the digital world.
In modern machines, oftentimes the object of the table isn’t just to launch the ball and hope for the best score; there’s usually a number of objectives along the way that need to be fulfilled in a precise pattern, like spelling out a name for access to some super complex mechanism that gives out massive bonuses. I rarely had enough quarters for that level of mastery though when I started playing pinball as a kid in the ’90s, so all I could hope for was the longest, luckiest run I could afford. Otherwise I’d just watch my mom play, who is a true pinball wizard in my eyes.
For this preview, I was allowed access to two machines—one based on The Mandalorian (2019) TV series and another based on the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016). If those two tables are representative of the quality of the rest of the game, which includes a total of eight at launch, then it’s possible Star Wars Pinball VR will be the best VR pinball game to date.
Physics-based Gameplay, Bells & Whistles Galore
If you’re looking for pure 1:1 pinball gameplay, Star Wars Pinball VR is about 90 percent of what you’d expect from a digital counterpart. Motion controller haptics are nowhere near as good as feeling the real thing, such as the actuation of flippers or the ball smacking against a bumper. The game also ‘helps’ a bit by keeping your ball on the table longer, but more on that below.
What it lacks in that level of physical realism though, it makes up for in the pure fantasy of owning an impossibly complex fleet of really well-crafted pinball machines.
Image courtesy Zen Studios
On the outside, the tables seem fairly normal, however the more you pursue the game’s set of rigid goals, the clearer it becomes that each table actually holds hours of gameplay under the glass—way more than I’d expect from a standard physical machine. The Rogue One table alone offers a 10-chapter mission that each features its own creative mechanism to battle against.
There isn’t a ‘handy’ tutorial telling you what to do either, only the backboard’s delightfully retro orange LED sign giving you brief instructions. One of the most immersive bits is that you start out with ‘normal’ pinball tasks, but then you’re slowly baited along into increasingly fantastical mini-games and mechanisms. You can even shrink down to the size of a pinball to see the action from a different perspective, although that’s really only just for fun.
Image courtesy Zen Studios
Ultimately though, one of the key things that makes or breaks a virtual pinball machine is whether the silver ball actually reacts correctly to flippers, bumpers, plungers—everything on the table that’s supposed to move the ball in one direction or another. Excluding the fact that draining the ball feels a bit more difficult, which helps the player stay on the board longer, physics always felt on point.
You can choose to play each table in either classic mode in arcade mode; arcade mode is vanilla gameplay while classic mode injects fantasy elements into the mix, such as slow-mo ball speed and other equally impossible things to help you reach a higher score. In classic mode you can unloack these talents as you play, usually by fulfilling certain objectives. There are so many objectives here too, which completionist (unlike myself) will have a ball with.
Some of the least exciting parts of the game for me is the achievement-based collection stuff. Every time you reach some goal, some Nerd Crew collectible nonsense is tossed at you to put up in your suburban mancave. Given the infinite expanse of places I’d rather be during a multi-year pandemic, the basement of a house is one of the very last I’d like to be in.
Image courtesy Zen Studios
I also didn’t really care for the pop-up Star Wars dudes, Baby Yoda included, simply because I’m an old, crotchety pinball player who has zero issue with telling a kid to not touch my machine while I’m playing. It certainly adds some panache to the whole thing though, and models seem fairly well made. Voice acting is less convincing, but that’s not any different for many licensed pinball machines.
Star Wars Pinball VR is headed to Oculus Quest, SteamVR headsets and PSVR on April 29th. We’ll be diving in for the whole experience between now and then to give you a closer look at what makes the game tick. It’s safe to say I’m really looking forward to it.
Zen Studios announced Star Wars Pinball VR is making its way to VR headsets for the first-time ever this April 29. Star Wars Pinball VR will hit the Quest platform, PSVR, and all major PC VR headsets via SteamVR.
Star Wars Pinball VR
Star Wars Pinball VR will have eight different tables spanning several iconic entries in the franchise of films and TV shows. This includes two brand-new never-before-released tables: The Mandalorian and Star Wars Classic Collectibles. These new tables will be joined by tables based on each film in the original trilogy of movies, a Rogue One table, Star Wars Rebels table, and Masters of the Force table.
If you’ve played the non-VR version of Star Wars Pinball then you’ll be able to enjoy several new features in the VR version. For example, there’s a new home environment called the Fan Cave with a customizable array of lightsabers, blasters, helmets, and more to tinker with between pinball tables. Action figures become life-sized characters in the room with you and vehicles blow up to realistic size right at your feet. Not to mention the immersive 360-degree mini games that take place, such as the speeder bike chase scene on Endor, shown in the screenshot below.
Star Wars Pinball VR is coming to the Quest platform, PSVR, and PC VR headsets on Steam this April 29. Check out the new screenshots above, as well as the trailer, to get an idea for what you’re in for. Also read our Pinball FX2 on Quest review here. Check out the official website for more details.
Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
