Pinball M published and developed by Zen Studios on 11/30/2023 on Steam is a collection of tables developed by Zen Studios that are more mature than the content normally added into the Pinball FX franchise. Pinball M at the time of the writing of this review (7/19/2024) consists of 7 tables, including Wrath of the Elder Gods: Directors Cut (Unlimited access for everyone), Texas Chainsaw Massacre Pinball (my personal favorite so far), System Shock Pinball, Chucky's Killer Pinball, Duke Nukem's Big Shot Pinball, The Thing Pinball (the voice acting on this machine is awesome), and lastly Dead by Daylight Pinball. Each Machine offers very unique game play and various bells and whistles that make each machine a fun play through over and over again.

Each table offers several different game modes including Classic (Single Player game play without using powers (more on Powers later in my review), Arcade (Single Players game using powers with one active and two passive), Hotseat (allows up to 4 players to compete without using power ups), Practice (allows 1 hour of game play to practice the tables), as wells as Classic Challenges (has 4 different classic challenges including Flip challenge, distance challenge, ball challenge, and time challenge), and Pinball M Challenges (Dread challenge, Rescue challenge, Survival challenge, Madness challenge, Shiver challenge). Each game mode offers a leaderboard for each section.

Each table also offers sections including Campaign(s) (each table offers 7 different campaigns that are unique to each table, consisting of 3 milestones per campaign that help the player build out a portion of the next item up for discussion, Play Corner Settings. It is also worth noting that the player can configure the powers/powerups to help in the campaigns as well.

Play Corner Settings offers the player a customization for your tables corner, dress you corner up with items unlocked through game play both single player, campaign, and Tournaments (more to come on this as well) and the use of Pinball M tokens via the Vault (again more to come on this later). Play Corner settings includes 5 different sections including Entry Sound (allows you to customize you entry sound), Start Sound (allows you to customize the pinball start up sound kind of like a real machine configuration), Lights (offers a different colored view of the play corner), Visuals (allows the user to add steam or burning items to the air effects of the play corner), and Cabinet (allows the user to change the look of the pinball machine in the play corner). Each sections allow of you to make each corner more dressed up as you go along in the same (at the time of this writing I am at level 115 and I think I have unlocked all the purchasable vault items).

Along with Play Corner Settings we have another section for tables called Table Settings. Table Settings off 3 sections that allows the use further customize the look of the table with a different ball, ball trail, and flippers. Each little bit makes the tables look more spooky, which is a plus in my opinion.

Also, we have another sections called Table Guide which is really helpful if you are having any trouble figuring out what you need to do with a table. Each sections in the Table Guide offers the player a video and a brief text description of the video, which really can help sometimes!

Lastly the we have Table Masteries, here you will find approximately 5 different masteries per table with 5 different levels built for each mastery which are color coded Grey (easiest) Green (level 2), Blue (level 3), Purple (level 4), and lastly Brown (level 5). Each mastery you unlock can later be added the players gaame profile (up to 3 can be displayed, but more to come on this section later). It is a good thing to visit here once in a while to see what goals you need to achieve for each table if you are an achievement hunter. Each table the masteries are unique to each table.

Aside from the various table options the program has several different menu features for the player to navigate through and use, such as Home (which as the Community feed telling you of you and your friends accomplishments, and news feed that will provide news items from Zen Studio), Tables (which I pretty much elaborated on already), Daliy Challenges (Has three subsections Current Challenges, Previous Challenges, and Daily Challenge Masteries). Current Challenges offers the player 3 different tables and various challenges already described earlier in this review and the various count of attempts of each challenge and you daily results/leaderboard. Previous Challenges more less just shows the previous days challenges, attempts and previous days results/leaderboard. Daily Challenge Masteries (table Table Masteries) shows your progression through 5 different masteries for the daily challenges. Same color coding is also present on this as well, nice standardizing.

One of the bigger sections I believe most who will play this game will find amusing is Tournaments. Tournaments offers the player a List of Tournaments (Tournament List) and like the Tables and Daily Challenges, Tournament Masteries). Tournament list shows ever ongoing Tournament as well a unique way to slice and dice the view of said tournaments as well as Tournament creation and various configurations fo the player for set for the said Tournaments. It is worth noting that as you play through various Tournaments you also gain experience which will help the player unlock more Pinball M Tokens, which by in by will allow the player to purchase items in the Vault to customer the Play corner and table(s). IMO, this is the best way to unlock the items on your table, highly recommend it.

Finally we have one last section for the menu, and that is the Vault where there is a 8 unique sections for each table and the overall program (Pinball M, Wrath of the Elder Gods: Directors Cut (Unlimited access for everyone), Texas Chainsaw Massacre Pinball, System Shock Pinball, Chucky's Killer Pinball, Duke Nukem's Big Shot Pinball, The Thing Pinball, and lastly Dead by Daylight Pinball). Each section also contains 10 subsections (Banner Backgrounds, Banner Foregrounds, Banner Titles, Play Corner Sounds, Cabinet Skins, Play Corner Lights, Play Corner Effects, Ball Skins, Ball Trails, and Flippers. which contains a list of items the player can purchase to either help the user configure the play corner, or add a unique view to the players profile.

Please also note that if you press the I (View Info) button through out the various views you will have an opportunity to unlock an achievement, so it is advised that you do so as you acquaint yourself along the way!

A couple of more items I feel need to be mentions is the Profile Section (Mouse over the top right hand box to access it). In the Profile Section the player can perform the customization of said profile, the players general Stats, Players Progression through each of the tables and subsequent daily challenges and tournaments, and Player Achievements for each of the tables as well.

As you can tell you have quite a bit of a game here and lots and lots of replayability. I have no choice but to recommend this game of any of the pinball fans out there, and quite honestly, I think this would be a nice pick up for just about anyone (of a mature age anyways). Cheers and great gaming all.