Anyone who knows me will be aware of my love of pinball; thanks to coming of age during what was arguably the golden age for pinball design and technology (the early 90s), when arcades themselves were thriving, I regularly played and enjoyed countless fantastic pinball machines.

These days, it’s become harder to find classic tables, and time has not been kind to them; nor do arcade operators, for the most part, seem to know how to care for them. It’s a common experience to excitingly discover a row of pinball machines tucked away in a corner of a beachside arcade, only to find that they’re barely functioning, or broken in ways that render them pretty much unplayable.

Of course, there’s no such issues when it comes to digital pinball, and Zen Studios have proven themselves to be absolute masters of both creating new pinball experiences which truly take advantage of being created digitally, as well as bringing real world classics into the digital realm.

Pinball FX VR does both of those things; not only does it do both of those things very well indeed, but it does a lot more to help the experience feel as immersive as possible, and the next best thing to actually playing real tables for yourself. In fact, given how well implemented the pinball action is, and the fact that the tables are, of course, always in pristine condition in digital form, it’s arguably a better experience than you can have with the real thing in some cases.

Even better is the fact that you have an arcade to roam around in Pinball FX VR; it’s hugely atmospheric, beautifully lit and with a lovely retro ambience that extends to the music that’s playing as you wander around between games.

There’s plenty of collectibles to get your hands on, such as tapes for the arcade’s charmingly retro stereo system; these can be earned from progressing in the various pinball games, or from spending tickets on the prize wheel. Other games, such as darts, can be played in the arcade too; though basic, they add to the feeling of the arcade being a functional environment, and they’re fun little diversions in their own right. There’s a mixed reality mode too, but to get the most out of it, you need a lot of space, and it doesn’t feel as smooth or even immersive to play outside of the dedicated in-game environment.

The base game of Pinball FX VR features three Zen tables; though prior versions of Zen’s games were loaded with VR versions of tables that had been around for years before being adapted for VR, the three included here are newer: Pinball Noir, Curse of the Mummy and Sky Pirates: Treasure of the Clouds.

All of them feel fantastic to play in VR, with a great assortment of effects and even a figure, thematically appropriate to the game (such as a threatening Mummy) who’ll stand beside the table and react as you play and, inevitably, lose. The feel of actually playing on a real table is genuinely impressive. Though that’s something Zen accomplished even with their first forays into VR, with the earlier Pinball FX 2 (obviously not a sequel to this numberless entry; it was an adaptation of the standard console version of Pinball FX 2) and Star Wars Pinball, the immersion is dialled up to eleven in Pinball FX VR.

It’s worth noting that the base game is very reasonably priced; for three well designed, original tables and the arcade itself, the price is just $10. It’s well worth that cost if you’re a pinball fan, but there’s a few things to be aware of.

Firstly, there are also licensed tables which can be purchased, and each of them, whether you own them or not, will appear in your arcade.

It almost feels as if a carrot is being tantalisingly dangled in front of your face when you wander around and see stone cold, iconic and beloved classics such as The Twilight Zone, Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Addams Family (regarded by many as the best pinball machine of all time), among others, just sitting there, waiting to be played. Original Zen tables based on licensed properties such as Battlestar Galactica, Xena and even Knight Rider are also present.

However, though you can try a demo of each of these tables, buying and downloading them comes at a surprisingly high price, especially given the reasonable cost of the base game. Each of these recreations of real tables costs at least $10, with the price of Indiana Jones (a machine I don’t much care for, in honesty) is an eye-watering $15. The Universal TV tables, by comparison, are bundled together for $10.

I’m torn with this; on the one hand, it’s absolutely fantastic to have access to the classics from what truly feels like my era of pinball. The Twilight Zone is up there as one of my absolute favourite machines of all time, and to have immediate access to it in VR is like a dream come true; as with the other tables, it’s so close to playing the real thing that it actually makes me feel pretty emotional to experience it.

Yet there’s no denying that the cost of building them in VR, along with what must be extremely high licensing costs, has resulted in a product that feels prohibitively priced in many ways. If you’re happy with the base game and one or two extra tables, it’s not so bad, but if you’re a completist the cost will really add up, and of course this is just the initial offering.

Ultimately, it is a good thing to have access to these classics, and I’ve spent countless coins on playing The Twilight Zone alone whenever I’ve encountered it in the last 30 years, so really, the cost of having it available for unlimited play in this format isn’t so bad for me, really.

Overall, despite my misgivings about Pinball FX VR’s pricing model, it’s hard to complain about any other aspect of it. It’s a brilliantly produced game by the masters at Zen Studios, and there’s an obvious passion for the pinball medium running through every facet of it.

Even starting a game requires you to grab a coin and insert it into the machine’s slot; it really does recreate the real world experience of playing pinball down to the tiniest detail, while enhancing the actual games themselves with clever digital showmanship.

Though of course I’d much prefer its licensed tables to be more affordable, there’s no denying that having the option to play them is better than them disappearing again, as was the case for many years before they were digitally recreated in games such as Pinball Arcade and the previous Zen FX titles.

Many thanks to Zen Studios for providing me with the base game of Pinball FX VR for review purposes. I played Pinball FX VR on the Meta Quest 3; it’s also compatible with other Quest devices.

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