Star Wars Pinball

Star Wars Pinball is a video game from Zen Studios and LucasArts. The game was originally released in February 2013. On some platforms, the game was standalone, but for others, the Star Wars content was integrated into other Zen Studios games, such as Zen Pinball 2 and Pinball FX. On September 19, 2019, a standalone Star Wars Pinball game was released on Nintendo Switch with all 19 released pinball tables, new features, and game modes.
==Development==
===Initial release===
As a standalone title, Star Wars Pinball was initially available on iOS via the Apple App Store and on Android via the Google Play Store. The content of the game was simultaneously released as add-on tables in Pinball FX2 on Xbox LIVE Arcade and Windows 8, in Zen Pinball 2 on PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita and on the Mac App Store, and in the Zen Pinball app in the Apple App Store and Google Play.
That April, Zen launched the game as a standalone app for Kindle Fire HD. In May of that year, the Star Wars content became available on Steam when Pinball FX2 released on the digital marketplace. On July 11, 2013, Star Wars Pinball was released on Wii U, and it was released for Nintendo 3DS on September 19 of that year. 
The game debuted with three tables. These included the tables "Episode V The Empire Strikes Back," "The Clone Wars" (based on the television series), and "Boba Fett" (featuring the bounty hunter tracking down bounties and encountering the sarlacc).
===First expansions===
In Fall 2013, an expansion called Balance of the Force was released, which came with three new tables. These tables included "Episode VI Return of the Jedi," "Starfighter Assault," and "Darth Vader." On April 30, 2014 the expansion Heroes Within came out with four additional tables. These tables included "Episode IV A New Hope," "Droids" (featuring R2-D2 and C-3PO), "Han Solo," and "Masters of the Force."
===Upgrade to next-generation consoles===
As Zen kept up with changes in gaming hardware, they released Star Wars Pinball for a new generation of consoles as downloadable content. Zen Pinball 2 came to the new generation first, making its way to the PlayStation 4 on December 17, 2013. It was not until August 2014 that Pinball FX2 released on Xbox One. 
===New tables===
In April, 2015, the table "Star Wars Rebels" released, based on the animated television show of the same name. On January 12, 2016, a new set of two tables debuted focused on Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens. The tables from the film included a general "Episode VII The Force Awakens" table and a table entitled "The Might of the First Order."
About one year later, in January 2017, the table "Rogue One" released. It focused on the eponymous film. Although the Rebels and Rogue One tables were released as individual tables, they were later grouped together in the Unsung Heroes pack.
With the release of Pinball FX3 in September 2017, the Star Wars tables were available again as DLC.
Following the release of Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, on April 17, 2018, a pack of two DLC tables focusing on the film were released in Pinball FX3 and the standalone apps. The two tables were a general "Episode VIII The Last Jedi" table, and the table "Ahch-To Island." Later that year, on September 12, 2018, a pack of three tables inspired by Solo: A Star Wars Story were released in Pinball FX3. These tables included the "Solo: A Star Wars Story" table, the "Calrissian Chronicles" table, and the "Battle of Mimban" table.
===Refresh on Switch===
At Star Wars Celebration Chicago in 2019, it was announced that Star Wars Pinball would be releasing as a standalone video game on Nintendo Switch. It would be available on the Nintendo eShop, for digital download, and as a physical release, and marked the first Star Wars title to release on the Switch. This new version of the game eventually released on September 19, 2019. It included all 19 previously released tables. 
The Nintendo Switch game introduced several new game modes, including the community-based mode, Galactic Struggle. Other new modes included a single-player Career Mode, which allowed players to choose to play on the side of the Jedi or the Sith, and the Force Training mode. A more subtle addition was the the Cantina Jukebox menu, which let players select different Star wars music to play within game menus.Star Wars Pinball
The Switch release also took advantage of the console's ability to be handheld, allowing players to turn their screen vertically for another mode of gameplay.
===Upgrade to the new Pinball FX===
Apart from the standalone Nintendo Switch release, Zen continued to have Star Wars Pinball table packs as DLC for their other platforms, as well as maintaining the mobile applications in which tables were available as in-app purchases. Zen also developed the spin-off game Star Wars Pinball VR, which released April 29, 2021. In August 2022, Zen introduced the tables "Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back" and "The Clone Wars" to the Zen Pinball Party game on Apple Arcade Apple's gaming subscription service. That October, two more tables from Star Wars Pinball were added: "Boba Fett" and "The Force Awakens."
With the release of Pinball FX in February 2023, the Star Wars tables became available to players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The tables were consolidated into two main packs: "Star Wars Pinball Collection 1" and "Star Wars Pinball Collection 2." A third pack, entitled "Thrill of the Hunt," was simultaneously released. This pack introduced two tables from Star Wars Pinball VR, "The Mandalorian" (based on the television show) and "Classic Collectibles" (based on Star Wars action figures) to other platforms.
Although the tables of "Thrill of the Hunt" are not part of the Nintendo Switch standalone game, they could be accessed on Switch as DLC for Pinball FX.
==Gameplay==
===Tables===
====Initial release====
=====Episode V The Empire Strikes Back=====
This table, designed by Peter "Deep" Grafl, This is a post from Akos 'McLovin' Gyorkei, Community Manager at Zen Studios focuses on the eponymous film, with a main objective of playing through six scenes from the classic film, each broken up into smaller segments. Scene one features Luke Skywalker investigating the crash site of a Viper probe droid on Hoth before getting captured by a wampa. After escaping the wampa, the player must search for Luke as Han Solo before fighting off the probe droid. Scene two depicts the Battle of Hoth, completed by battling stormtroopers and then tripping AT-ATs. The third scene involves navigating the Millennium Falcon through an asteroid field while evading TIE fighters, Luke stacking stones with the Force on Dagobah, and fighting off mynocks. Scene four features the arrival to Cloud City, asking for landing permissions, and fighting off Darth Vader in the Rinetta dining room. In scene five, players help Chewbacca, Leia Organa, and Lando Calrissian escape Cloud City and help Luke defeat stormtroopers upon his arrival. The climactic Duel on Cloud City serves as scene six. The first portion is a first-person mini-game in which the player must block Vader's lightsaber strikes. The rest of the scene involves evading objects thrown by Vader and the ending of the battle. The table's grand finale is a multiball mode augmented by a series of bonuses from hitting Yoda's hut.
Other modes in the table include a first-person lightsaber training minigame against a training remote, an AT-AT hunt, a battle against Darth Vader in which players needed to launch the ball up a ramp towards the Sith, Jedi and Sith multiballs, a Hyperspace multiball, an Imperial multiball, and a Cloud City multiball.
The kickback on the table is a magnetic shield earned by lighting the letters LANDO. There are bonuses for hitting rollover lanes to spell SKY, WAL, and KER, spelling C-3PO, spelling EMPIRE, and spelling R2-D2 before hitting the astromech bumpers.
=====Boba Fett=====
The Boba Fett table was designed by Zoltán Vári, celebrating the enigmatic bounty hunter's exploits, with a main objective of completing bounties for the Empire or for Jabba. These missions introduce animations featuring Darth Vader, stormtroopers, and Jabba.
The bounties for the Empire included unmasking a Rebel spy, using flamethrowers to sabotage a Rebel facility, and retrieving an ancient Sith artifact for Darth Vader. The latter mission subsequently triggers a battle between Vader and Fett in which the player must get the ball into the table's sarlacc pit multiple times until Vader Force chokes Fett.
Missions for Jabba include stealing Imperial data, retaking seized goods from an Imperial fleet, and acting as a bodyguard. The data-stealing mission involves a video mode in which the player must shoot a tranquilizer dart at a stormtrooper guard. In the seized goods mission, the player must steer Slave I and fire at TIE fighters. As personal bodyguard to Jabba, the player must guard Jabba from assassins by using a rocket launcher to redirect the ball.
The table also features a three-part wizard mode surrounding the hunt for Han Solo. The player must first pursue the Millennium Falcon, then escape the sarlacc pit by striking the sarlacc's tentacles with the ball and subsequently sinking balls into the pit. Defeating the sarlacc leads to a 5-ball victory multiball with increased jackpots.
There is also a side mode involving wild space and the Kamino uprising from the Star Wars Legends game Star Wars: Battlefront II. The Kamino uprising sequence is a minute-long 4-ball multiball in which the player has to defeat ten anti-troopers.
Other features of the table involve a Mandalorian multiball from locking balls in Slave I, a sharpshooter minigame, a Whipcord launcher ball save, and a rivals hurry-up mode in which the player battles other bounty hunters.
*The Clone Wars 
====Balance of the Force====
*Episode VI Return of the Jedi 
*Starfighter Assault 
*Darth Vader 
====Heroes Within====
*Episode IV A New Hope 
*Masters of the Force 
*Droids 
*Han Solo 
====The Force Awakens====
* Might of the First Order 
*The Force Awakens Table 
====Unsung Heroes====
*Star Wars Rebels 
*Rogue One 
====The Last Jedi====
*Ahch-To Island [
* The Last Jedi 
====Solo: A Star Wars Story====
*Battle of Mimban 
*Calrissian Chronicles 
*Solo 
====Thrill of the Hunt====
*The Mandalorian 
*Classic Collectibles 
==Continuity==
*The Imperial troops at the Battle of Hoth are stormtroopers instead of snowtroopers.
*The Star Destroyer following the Tantive IV is an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer instead of an Imperial I-class Star Destroyer as in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
==Media==
===Cover gallery===
==Credits==
==Appearances==
==Sources==
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
==Notes and references==
==External links==
*Official website 
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Category:2013 releases
Category:2019 releases
Category:Non-canon media