14 DAY TRIAL // 
Ant-Man is a new table for the Zen Pinball experience created by Zen Studios, delivered just in time to appeal to both long-term fans of the comic book character with the same name and to those who will become acquainted with it following the release of the major movie starring Paul Rudd.
The company is trying to stay as close to the narrative of the Ant-Man superhero as possible, translating unique elements related to him into gameplay mechanics, while also introducing a few innovations that could simply not be implemented on a real world machine.
The Ant-Man table allows gamers to train Scott Lang, the incarnation of the character that is featured in the movie, and it will feature extensive combat with Yellowjacket, who is another disciple of Hank Pym that wants to turn the shrinking tech into a powerful weapon.
Shrinking will be central to the mechanics and Hope Van Dyne, a character created for the movie, and her father Hank Pym are also making appearances, although the full narrative of the film will not be included.
They have special missions and events for the player to engage with, with Scott Lang constantly delivering quips and encouragements, which become repetitive after a while.
When first playing Ant-Man Pinball, I was a little disoriented, unable to understand exactly how to activate the most interesting events, getting points seemingly at random.
It takes about 40 minutes or maybe one full hour to start to notice the chains that push the table forward and allow gamers to get more events rolling and obtain higher overall scores.
The Cops narrative is probably the easiest to get going, and players will also get some cool results from activating the Lab and by using the ramp that Lang constantly talks about.
Ant-Man can also shrink himself to explore the underworld, although those sequences are a little too brief and frantic for my linking, and he can also hit jackpots, collect ants and use the flippers in an innovative way in the training sequence.
It took me about 3 hours of practice, careful observation, and shot placements training to get to a point where I was able to reliably activate the various bonuses. Not long after that, I managed to get a score of over 90 million, which was about 60 percent the result of planning and the rest a question of luck.
“For me, the most intriguing element of the Ant-Man table is the particle ball, which is hard to activate, especially while also chasing other events, but it also offers what might be the best moments of the entire experience.”
Zen Studios has done a solid job of balancing the table to support both very cautious and very aggressive approaches.
The biggest complaint I have is that both outlanes catch a lot of balls, and only rarely when I activate either the Cassie or the Magna save, the other lane seems to decide to act up and break my progression.
Another criticism that can be leveled at the new table is that it feels a little too complicated initially and gamers have to rely on knowledge linked to previous Zen Pinball content deliveries to undercover some of the mechanics.
I almost wished that the development team would introduce two levels for every new DLC, offering a Basic version to give players a look at the characters and the major elements and a Complete one that includes all their ideas and innovations.
But both issues are minor given the adrenaline rush that Ant-Man Pinball can deliver during those cool moments when more than one ball and at least some of the combos are in play.
The development team at Zen Studios is not delivering any outright improvements for the graphics engine that powers the title, but the company has managed to once again nail the visual style of the Marvel comic books.
The characters look good when the camera zooms in on them and the core elements of the table are well laid out, although during the multiball sequence, especially when the new particle ball is also present, it's very easy to lose track of the action because so much is taking place at once.
The sound design of the Ant-Man content is also solid and the main theme will remain stuck in gamers' heads for hours after they quit the game.
The Good
- Ant-Man theme
- Particle ball mechanics
The Bad
- Outer lanes are very greedy
- Limited quality for the voice work
Conclusion
The developers have managed to integrate story elements that will certainly get gamers interested in the coming movie and the comic book universe associated with them.
At the same time, they are making sure that Ant-Man Pinball rewards careful observation and planning, but unleashes spectacular moments even for those who are only looking for a few minutes of fun.
Ant-Man might not be one of the main Marvel superheroes, but if his current incarnation becomes a success, at least some of merit will belong to Zen Studios and its most recent pinball release.
