Bring a pinball machine into your home with the latest release from Zen Studios.

Known for their realistic and themed pinball games, developer Zen Studios has been around since 2003.

With dozens of games launched across mobile, handheld, and console platforms, the leap to virtual reality (VR) was made back in 2016 on the Oculus Rift. Of course, this would not be the only game to launch in VR, with the studio even releasing a Star Wars specific pinball game for VR.

With each new entry improving upon the last, Pinball FX VR brings all the physics-based pinball and high score chasing you could want, now with mixed reality (MR) capabilities. This means you can wander around the VR space and play about a dozen tables or bring them into your home and play like you own them.

The game – costing $13.99 on the Quest store – comes with three base tables featuring themes such as Pirates, Mummies, and Noir mystery. If these aren’t enough to give you that pinball fix, there are additional tables which can be found under the themes Williams Pinball and Universal Studios.

Additional tables are available for purchase through the in-game store and cost $13.99 for each Williams Pinball machine, or $19.99 for all three Universal Pinball machines.

The game is fairly straightforward, you’re playing pinball. And this is real pinball, not those trying to be innovative – but failing spectacularly – pinball variants like Bounce Arcade. It’s just you and a machine filled with a lot of bells and flippers.

Because of what it is, there’s not much to getting into the game. Upon starting you’re given a brief set of tutorial instructions on how things run including how to move around, using the palm menu, and how to jump into a game.

Just so you know, you can start a game of pinball by “grabbing a coin” from your pocket and dropping it into the machine.

If you choose to play in MR mode, you can pull up a list of tables on your palm menu or via the “storage room door” which is really just the came picking up a door in your space and making it your designated place to grab tables. Whether using the palm menu or the storage door – which by the way opens up and looks like it’s actually part of the game in your space – you can pick from the menu which table you want. You can then use the controller thumbsticks to rotate and place the table where you want.

Oh and before playing, you can choose to change the look of the ball, the ball trail, and even flippers.

From here it’s pretty self-explanatory, your hands can grab onto the ball launcher – you either pull on standard tables or use the trigger on certain tables – and start the game. When things are in play, you use the triggers on each controller for the flippers. If you so choose, you can also use one of your hands and swing it towards the table to shake the table.

With pinball being their thing, Zen Studios made a game that really is so simple, look good whether you’re playing in VR or MR.

In VR it’s not just the tables that are present, but the characters that come alive when you play; not to mention the pinball arcade around you. It all looks great and playing on the Quest 3 really takes advantage of the headset’s hardware.

In MR the tables almost look better. Once you choose where in your space they’re going to go, the table looks almost real against the backdrop of your home. If you’ve ever wanted a table but never had the chance, this is probably as close to that experience as you can get – the only thing you’re missing is the ability to physically touch and lean on the pinball machine.

Since we mentioned the characters which come alive, let’s briefly discuss what that means.

Whether you’re playing the Indiana Jones table, Star Trek table, or the Addams Family table, the pinball machine is not the only thing which will come into your space – or join you in the VR arcade. This means different things depending on the game, with a space battle between two ships occurring on the Star Trek while a Mummy may stand eerily close to you on a corresponding table.

It’s an interesting addition that does give you something you can’t really get when playing pinball in real life, but it’s not as if you’re going to notice this is missing when you see you’re number one on the world leaderboard.

Overall, Pinball FX VR is as close to a realistic pinball experience as you can get while not actually playing on one. The game looks great and everything plays as it should, no bugs or issues.

This is a real treat if in MR, as the game blends so well you’ll feel as if the tables you have placed are really there. The only thing holding this game back from being truly immersive is the lack of real flippers, launcher and a table you can actually feel.

Yes, it’s played through a headset and the Quest touch controllers do a good job of emulating the game as it would be played. But, imagine if you could use your hands and had a device that acted in the way of the missing physical components. The game would be even better, right?

If you enjoy the game of pinball, then this is a must have for those with a Quest headset.

Pinball FX VR was reviewed on the Quest 3 after receiving pre-release access.