Zen Pinball Party

★★★★★ New Version has fixed graphics on M1 Mac!!!

Looks like this version has fixed graphics on built in displays... awesome! Unfortunately, I still get the same garbage on external displays on my M1 Macbook Pro. The game looks as if the gamma has been cranked way high and textured look like they are from 1996. Please continue to work on this. I really appreciate how much has been done so far! Features in the future that would be nice to have: -Lower latency controller input on AppleTV -Automatic Landscape mode (or any landscape mode) on iPad Pro Thanks again! Update: So Close! Current version is so close to perfection. Now, I can run in windowed mode on an external display and have good graphics and performance. Just a bit more optimization for full screen play is needed. Thanks for CONTINUING to work on this! Update: Just revised review to 5 stars! Latest update is fully optimized on M1, even with a 4k external display. Thanks for staying on top of this and continuing to make the game awesome!

★★★★★ Looks, runs, and plays terribly on M1 Imac

I'm running this game on an M1 Imac with an 8 core processor and 16 gigs of ram with the Monterey OS. Yet, the visuals appear to be lower than 720p resolution with a very pixelated appearance. Some of the small text bubbles are impossible to read due to the low resolution. The Snoopy, Garfield, and Trolls tables run very choppy to the point of being unplayable. The ball also frequently moves unusually fast for no reason and it frequently skips in these tables as well. The other tables have similarly-low choppy framerates that are consistantly in the teens. There aren't even any video or gameplay settings either. So, I'm not even able to adjust the performance settings manually. Instead, I'm stuck with the awful unplayable default performance settings. How could you people make an Apple Arcade-exclusive game, but not be able to get it to run properly at all on the most powerful current Apple platform? This game runs like I might as well be playing it on my old 2006 Intel Imac. This is really pathetic. This app was the only reason I purchased an Apple Arcade subsription. I'm cancelling it now. Judging by previous negative reviews, I have no faith that you people will address these issues.

★★★★★ Good Selection of Tables

I prefer to play the classic Williams, Bally / Midway Pinball tables on Zen Pinball over any of the others. Attack from Mars is my favorite table in this collection. I wish that I could skip thru the end of ball status screens faster than the game will allow me to now. When I drain a ball, just let me skip from one status screen to the next each time I hit enter. When you play the game a lot you just want to get back into playing your next ball. I like that Zen has added new tables along the way and I hope they keep doing that. The addition of new tablers keeps the game fresh. Some of the orginal tables created for the game offer playfields and features that would be impossible with a real pinball. I don't mind this but I find some of these tables to be too busy. There are too many elements on the screen and everything gets a bit cluttered. Adding some more classic pinball tables would be great. I know Addams Family is a difficult one to license but it is one of the all time best pinball tables. Twilight Zone would also be great. What about some older pre-DMD games like Earthshaker, Diner, Fiunhouse, or High Speed.

★★★★★ Great game - just needs Mac adjustments

This plays pretty good, although I do feel a little bit of latency and slowdown. ((M1 iMac)) (Some boards seem to play slower at times for some reason) The table selection is very interesting, although diverse which is awesome. My only big gripe is the UI feeling very touch based, I just wished it had a more desktop type. Otherwise, its very enjoyable.

★★★★★ has a lot to offer, but could be so much more

This game has some great pinball tables, including classic 90s Williams tables, as well as some made by the developer for various IPs and its own. It pales, however, in comparison to Pinball FX as well as the older FX3 on other platforms(FX3 was never released for mac). Even Zen Pinball 2, a game that is well over a decade old, plays better. The physics on many of the tables are slow and floaty and honestly it just doesnt play as quickly or as smooth as other offerings from Zen. Bringing in faster tournament style physics and some of the newer zen originals that exist on the current Pinball FX would go a long way.

★★★★★ Any new tables coming??

I really enjoy playing the current set of tables but why not add all the tables that were available for purchase with the intel version of this game. I purchased a great majority of those games when I had my intel mac but they dont work well with apple silicon chips and the latest update for this game has been a couple years now. C'mon guys really?

★★★★★ Macbook graphics are absolutely horrible

This game looks fine on iPad and iPhone but playing on a Macbook Pro looks extremely terrible. The resolution isn't that much higher than a 12.9'' iPad Pro so I have no idea what it looks so bad. On top of this the lag input for pressing the flippers makes it impossible to play. I'm dissapointed this was allowed to be released in this state to where it is actually better to use a less powerful device to get better performance. On iPad using an xbox one controller also causes the game to crash regularly ruining your flow and score, especially messing you up if you're playing a tournament. If these issues could be fixed this would be another great entry to the Zen Pinball series, which I have purchased multiple times. Get it together, Zen.

★★★★★ Pinball

I love pinball; weirdly this plays better on my phone than it does on my mac with a controller. I think it's the lag other reviewers are talking about. I'd rather play with a controller though. I'll try with my ipad and a controller and see how that does. update: got a new mac studio and playing with a controller is great! my xbox controller even has haptic feedback. one of my favorite games!

★★★★★ More classic Williams tables!

Great execution and I'm a huge fan on Mac & iPad. I just really wish there were more choices for the old classic Williams tables vs. the custom ones. There's something about recreations of physical tables that makes pinball that much more fun, because pinball itself is such a physical game and the limitations inherent in the real tables makes the game itself feel much more authentic and fun.

★★★★★ Feels like Real Pinball

I'm actually surprised at how much I play this game. It has a lot of great tables and although the physics of the machines might now be real to life it actually feels real. I can also say that my skills at real pinball machines has gone of dramatically after practicing here in this game. I only wish they released more tables faster.

You have a brand new pinball game to play now that Zen Pinball Party is available for download from the App Store via Apple Arcade.

iMore Sat Oct 02 2021

Zen Studios revealed two new pinball tables that have been added to Zen Pinball Party on Apple Arcade, as you got new Star Wars options.

Bleeding Cool News Wed Nov 02 2022

Apple Arcade recently surpassed over 200 games available on the subscription-based gaming service, and Apple today previewed two additional...

MacRumors Thu Sep 02 2021

Zen Pinball Party, a popular iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV game that allows people to play digital versions of their favorite pinball...

iMore Sat Jul 02 2022