We must admit, we’d tuned out of the Pinball FX news cycle a teensy bit following the game’s free-to-play launch earlier in the year. But Hungarian developer Zen Studios is an industrious outfit, and so we’re not surprised to see it has a ton of content in the pipeline before Christmas. And it all starts this week, on PS5 and PS4, with the release of an entire new platform: Pinball M.

While the separate client may understandably annoy some fans who appreciate a compact collection, we assume this app exists due to age rating reasons. Presumably, it wants to keep Pinball FX’s rating down, but Pinball M will allow it to stretch its creative muscles with some more mature-themed tables. It’s due out on 30th November.

The initial batch of tables will include:

  • Chucky’s Killer Pinball
  • Dead by Daylight Pinball
  • Duke Nukem’s Big Shot Pinball
  • The Thing
  • Wrath of the Elder Gods: Director’s Cut

That’s right, the seminal 1982 John Carpenter movie The Thing is getting a fully licensed table in Pinball M at launch, and it looks absolutely fantastic, with tons of iconic scenes recreated from the film. Like other recent pinball releases from Zen Studios, the core game and Wrath of the Elder Gods: Director’s Cut will be free to download, while the other tables will be sold separately.

Which brings us to the latest batch of content for Pinball FX. Due out on 7th December, alongside a major update for the game (more on that later), Game Night Pinball Volume 1 will include three fresh tables inspired by a trio of popular Asmodee tabletop games: Terraforming Mars Pinball, Gloomhaven Pinball, and Exploding Kittens: A Pinball Cat-astrophe.

And that’s not all: 7th December will also plot the release of A Charlie Brown Christmas Pinball, two more remastered tables from the Zen Studios archives, and a trio of all-new Star Trek tables. So, in total, across Pinball FX and Pinball M, we’re talking a whopping 14 tables – an incredible 12 of which will be brand new. That’s a lot of pinball!

And as we alluded to earlier, a major new update for the game will add in more Trophies to unlock in Pinball FX, as the base release was pretty disappointing with its minimalistic list – especially when past entries have had loads of gongs to grab. You’ll also be able to completely remap the controls, and the UI has been given some tweaks to improve its usability.

[source youtube.com]