Review: Pinball FX – Williams Pinball Volume 10 (Nintendo Switch)

To make short work of this review, Williams Pinball Volume 10 is one of the better Pinball FX collections available. It includes Comet, Fire!, and Diner, the latter of which was always a favorite of mine. I don’t recall playing the others in physical form, and definitely not digitally; this is the first time they’ve been released in emulation.

Comet (1985) attempts to recreate the experience of an evening at an amusement park (specifically, the defunct Riverview Park in Chicago), and does a pretty good job. The main attraction is the added roller coaster visual effect, with a train that speeds around the playing field like one passing overhead as you walk the midway.

Amusement park mainstays (for the time setting) are featured in the scoring progression. Shooting galleries, rides, a funhouse, skee ball, etc. It also includes a dunk tank which, in this park’s particular case, has an awful back story. The most unique features, however, are the lack of an inlane at the bottom right and inverted in/outlanes at the bottom left. It’s quite unique amongst the other machines in your Pinball FX collection, offering new ways to frustrate you.

Fire! (1987) begins with a mooing cow, so you know from where this one draws its inspiration. Gameplay is centered around extinguishing various fires with your playfield multiplier at risk. When a fire is lit, you have a set amount of time to hit the targets that put it out. Take too long, and your multiplier drops (and an ungrateful victim chastises your sloppy rescue work).

I normally shut off the added video effects Zen attaches to these games, but here, your targets get animated fires that help you find them. I also enjoyed the water effect that arches from the target to the fire.

They work well with the original lighting that’s amongst the best I’ve seen on a Williams table…at least in digital version. The audio, however, is incredibly bombastic. I don’t know how arcade owners were able to withstand this one.

Another unique feature of Fire! is the large, cylindrical fire plug that pops up and down between your flippers. When it’s up, it’s impossible for the ball to center drain (provided your flippers aren’t up, too). Learning to use this to save and catch the ball was quite fun, but the rest of the gameplay does get repetitive. It’s a table good for beginners, but pros may tire of it quickly.

Finally, there’s Diner (1990). This game is centered around serving customers their food, customers who are based largely on political figures from the early ’90s. Without that context, their exaggerated accents mostly come across as stereotyping. No need to be offended, though; if anything, the game just illustrates we’re all united in our desire to get our chili and fries before they get cold.

Of course, you’re given more to do than just hit menu item drop targets. There are words to spell out, balls to lock, coffees to stir…you know the drill. What makes this table better than the others is the balance with the design. Nothing takes over the experience (unlike the audio in Fire!, for example), and the various challenges remain accessible throughout. It may not have the most attractive layout of the bunch, but I do believe it’s the most fun to play for extended sessions.

Beyond the tables, Pinball FX continues to serve up a host of gameplay options to keep you at it. Arcade Mode, Professional Mode, Practice Mode, and more are there for you to improve and prove your skills. There are challenges to complete, gameplay elements to customize, and rewards to obtain and show off in your parlor. You can even adjust how the games are displayed while playing them. Most settings have to be managed before dropping in your quarters, as it were, but you can thankfully toggle the video animations while playing.

There are still two items I’d like to see Zen address, though. First, switching to vertical display when playing in handheld mode is far too awkward to bother with. The screen should just flip automatically when you rotate your Switch. Second, I really want to see a Switch 2 version of the host software. I still don’t feel the engine update from Pinball FX 3 to Pinball FX was an improvement, and I’m hoping a Switch 2-optimized version could help me understand why it was necessary. The tables continue to be darker and blurrier than I’d like (although built-in gamma adjustments can help with the brightness).

In the meantime, if you’re a digital pinball fan looking for some new games to master, Williams Pinball Volume 10 certainly does deliver, especially considering the first-time availability of Comet and Fire! Just remember to turn down the subwoofer before playing them.