14 DAY TRIAL // 
The Guardians of the Galaxy pinball table is connected to both the recently launched movie and the comics on which it is based, and that means the team at Zen Pinball has created a setup that includes appearances from the core team members: Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Groot, and Rocket Raccoon.
Their list of enemies includes Ronan the Accuser, but also Nebula and Yondu and the Ravagers, but most players will initially be more concerned with learning the ins and outs of the new table than about their superpowers and how they can be used for evil.
The team does a good job of taking interesting elements from the comic book and the movie in order to then mix them into the mechanics of the table, while at the same time creating a fluid and easy to read layout that will appeal to those who don’t necessarily have in-depth knowledge about them.
Guardians of the Galaxy does have the best start out of all the tables that Zen Studios has created, and the situations mesh beautifully with the chosen theme as Star-Lord and Rocket Recoon shoot around in order to break out of prison, and the player, rather than launching his own ball, has an opportunity to play with four balls at the same time in order to rack up a lot of points pretty fast.
The bonanza does not last long, and as the entire superhero team is now free, the flippers no longer respond and the multiple balls fall away, allowing the action to start up again with the launch mechanic that once again is different from anything the team has created before.
Ronan the Accuser needs to be shot for a ball to launch properly, and these two early moves set the tone for the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy experience.
The multiball is one of the elements that Zen Studios has emphasized for the table, probably because the team itself features a number of heroes who are equally important for its adventures, and there are plenty of ramps to try and hit, while the number of other targets has gone down.
Each of the superheroes has an activation sequence that will then launch a special ball with their emblem, which in turn can be used to battle their enemies and rack up a lot of points.
Star-Lord versus Ronan was the duel I was mostly able to activate, but I also got Rocket Racoon into the fight a few times and its highly enjoyable to see the characters trade shots across the table as the personalized ball goes around it.
The design of the table means that it is rather easy to hit the lanes that activate the various special events, and I seemed to have more control over the ball than in the previously launched Deadpool content, which resulted in more high scores.
One critique is that the initial multiball sequence can sometimes become a little boring, somewhat counter-intuitively, when a player tries to play the table multiple times in quick succession.
From a graphical standpoint, the Guardians of the Galaxy table is more animated and activity-filled than a lot of other Zen Studios creations, and all the movement can be sometimes a little distracting.
At the same time, the sequences manage to capture some of the characters of the Marvel universe that are portrayed and create a sense of immersion that other stages lacked.
The core elements of the sound design, those associated with actual pinball, are well designed, but the Guardians of the Galaxy release suffers because the voice actors featured in the now launched movie are not included, and their replacements do at times sound a little bit corny.
Guardians of the Galaxy is a great way to explore the comic book universe, which is also coming to the big screen, and the developers at Zen Studios have managed to create an experience that’s fun in the long term and encourages players to constantly look for ways to improve their overall score.
It will be interesting to see how the team continues to expand its line-up in the coming months and whether it will opt to offer more quirky additions that tweak the core mechanics of pinball or whether it will return to more classic concepts.
