Star Trek: Kelvin Timeline Pinball

The new Zen designers continue to impress me!

I found Grimm Tales, while slightly glitchy and with some flawed scoring, to be a great start for Zoltan Pataki as a designer. Over a year later, we got two new tables courtesy of him – the first based on the JJ Abrams Star Trek films. I’ll fully admit, for about an hour or so, I didn’t know what I was doing on this table, chalking it up to being too complex for my own good. Then I read the rules, played it a bit more, and suddenly, everything clicked – I found myself playing this table more than any other from the Star Trek pack. This table gets another 4/5 from me – it’s just as good as Deep Space Nine but for very different reasons.

Pros:

- This table is all about stacking, and the rules are brilliantly designed. There are five modes from the three different films, and many of them (excluding video modes and ones that require the Kirk figure to move) can be played at the same time as each other. The manic nature of these stacked modes is only emphasized further by being brought into multiball, alongside the “add-a-ball” mechanic that allows all modes to be turned into a multiball. Then you bring in ion storm at the disc for 3x scoring and you have an insanely satisfying table where scores add up fast.
- I really like how as you complete modes, more and more people join the Enterprise and thus, more awards become available from mystery. You start out with only small points available, but the award pool increases to include oddities like maintaining shields, increasing the warp factor, and the elusive “collect bonus”. Great way to incentivize playing out and completing modes.
- The idea behind the super jackpot during regular multiball, score a 2x jackpot and then hold the flippers for 10 seconds to score it, was confusing until I realized what I was supposed to be doing and I now absolutely love the idea. It requires serious multitasking skills to be able to hold both flippers while being sure you can keep the multiball alive, and the sound while you’re doing so is incredible as well.

Cons:

- Not the biggest fan of how the warp saucers are positioned – you need a very precise shot from either upper flipper or a lucky bounce, and they’re required to score 2x jackpots and start rebuilding the Enterprise during the wizard mode. I’ve yet to find a reliable way to shoot for either, after nearly a week.
- Some of the modes could’ve had their scoring tuned a little better – “Fly” is 10 dangerous target shots for miniscule points, while, say, “Evacuation” is way more points for slightly less effort.

One of the best Zen tables of 2023 and living proof that just because a table might be weird or different from what you were expecting, doesn’t mean you should write it off. Read up on the rules and give it a chance!

Table qui sort de l'ordinaire, notamment du pack où çà me donne l'impression d'un flipper "cartoon". J'apprécie moyennement son architecture mais çà sort du lot comme dit auparavant. On marque des points sans difficulté. On shoot n'importe où et çà score. Cela peut être plaisant pour certains joueurs et pour d'autres non. Vive le vert donc ! Je n'ai pas tout compris mais sans lire le règlement on y arrive. Le multiball est très gratifiant (enfin comme la plupart des multi-billes en réalité). Elle n'est pas trop dure (quoique en "hard" faut être concentré !). Au final c'est une bonne table.
3.5/5

Je crois que je ne vais pas trop forcer sur celle-là. Fatigué