When I saw Pinball FX was coming out for Xbox Live Arcade I was pretty excited because both my wife and I are big fans of pinball. After playing Pinball FX for a while I’m a little disappointed. The game itself plays great. It responds really well to the controls and the physics of the ball seem very accurate. However, there are only three machines and they all have similar layouts. The bumpers and ramps are different but all three of them have the extra flipper on the left side. For $10, 800 points, I’d like to see 5 or 6 different machines at least. With only three machines I think they should only have charged $5, 400 points, for Pinball FX.

Ignoring the lack of levels for this price tag the game is actually quite fun. In addition to the normal single player you’d expect you can also play against up to three other players of Xbox Live. The multiplayer is actually a little better than playing against your friends in real life. Instead of waiting for your turn, all of the players in the game play at the same time, racing to get to a certain high score. The high score is set by whoever sets up the game. This adds a nice twist to the usual pinball gameplay because it is not a matter of simply keeping the ball in play as long as possible, but also getting the ball to areas that will give you more points.

The controls are simple enough. Use the left and right trigger to control the flippers. The A button shoots the ball, and the X button changes the camera angle. Also, the left thumb stick is used to bump the table, but use this sparingly because it is really sensitive. If you don’t feel like playing with a controller you can also use hand gestures with the Vision Camerato control the game. Sure, you’re probably only going to try this once or twice, but it is nice to see developers integrating the Vision Camera into games. The camera also supports live chatting in the game which also a nice addition for this game.

Overall, I’m torn because the game plays well and there are a lot of cool little additions that make Pinball FX fun. On the other hand will I really play it long enough to be worth $10? I guess time will tell. Right now I’m enjoying Pinball FX, but if I play it for only a couple more hours and then get tired of it I’m going to be annoyed with the price.