The Android and iOS versions of the game are much cheaper - free and $0.99 respectively, and come with one free table. We also have it on good authority that the cross-buy extends to Playstation 4! Additional tables are available in table packs, each of which costs $4.99 and contains two new tables for the game. Pinball Arcade is also a cross-buy title, so getting in for Vita will also net you a Playstation 3 copy of the game, and vice versa. Playstation Vita buyers get four free tables with their $9.99 purchase, and if you’re reading this in June 2013, chances are that it’s still being offered for free to PS Plus subscribers. Let’s get into the specifics for the portables. There’s a great pinball game available for you regardless of your platform of choice. You can also get it for the PS3, Xbox 360, Mac, and soon for the Wii U. Pinball Arcade is available on Android, iOS, and the Playstation Vita. Pinball is a great game made even greater by the ability to pause it and slip it into your pocket anytime. There are currently more than 40 tables to purchase and download for the title, including really intriguing ones like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Twilight Zone, and new tables are continually being released by developer FarSight Studios regularly. This means no crazy videogamey fakery (although Zen Pinball and Pinball FX also exist for those who prefer a little more physical impossibility in their pinball) and absolutely faithful recreations of the best table designs that pinball ever had to offer. Pinball Arcade features real-life table designs ranging from the 70s to today from four major pinball table manufacturers. Pinball Arcade is unique in that beyond being a game, it's also a preservation project of sorts. Pinball machines are kind of rare nowadays - even more so outside the States. What's the point of playing a video game recreation of pinball at all? If the real table designs are so clever and engaging and awe-inspiring, what can a 3D-rendered physics-engine powered counterpart do to top them? Here lies the oddity of this recommendation. We’ve seen guns that shrink bad guys and cars that sprout legs, but actually seeing and controlling a game that exists in the same physical space that we do is certainly a special kind of wonder indeed. The most amazing thing about pinball is of course the fact that it’s a physical construct. There’s even a pinball table that hides another table beneath its regular playing surface - and you play that table upside-down with the flippers on top! Just think about that. Mirrors obfuscate, making the field seem bigger than it actually is. Trapdoors can open to swallow your ball, sending it to dimensions unknown - which in this case would be the other side of the table. Designers have come up with all sorts of incredible mechanisms to make pinball more than just a game of keep-away. A pinball table is a loud and garish collection of lights, sound effects, ramps, beautiful brightly-colored artwork, and strange gimmicky assemblies, all designed to catch the eye and lure the passer-by into giving up some change for a minute (or ten) of non-stop madcap pulse-pounding excitement. The game of pinball is as American as cheeseburgers. I’m here to tell you all about the wonder that is pinball, and the modern, portable wonder that is Pinball Arcade. Adventure! Excitement! Drama! Horror! Boomerangs! The post title gives it away, but just think about all the possibilities that have sprung out of a sloped table, a pair of rubber-wrapped flippers, and a little silver ball. This week on Portable Perks, we’re going to talk about something mystifying and magical - a symbol of a bygone era and an astonishing product of clever engineering.
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