By Todd Russell
No show again today. I’ve literally spent the night in the ER with a sick family member. Running on empty as I type this but wanted to finish this so it was ready to roll out at 5am
This past Friday I finally got a chance to play the new virtual pinball DLC from Zen for Tomb Raider:
I streamed the experience and for those that missed that 5+ hours stream, I’ll summarize here my thoughts on the two tables.
TL;DR version is in the headline.
Unfortunately, neither game does anything special. The whole effort comes off as lazy to me. Like Zen is just going through the motions. A bummer considering Lara Croft and Tomb Raider provide plenty of opportunities for exciting virtual pinball. Alas, we’re not getting that here. There is literally nothing in either of these two tables that does anything different, new or all that interesting.
Worth the $10? No, wait for a sale. Most of my vpin-loving friends have already bought this DLC to complete their collection. For those small few that haven’t, save your money and wait for a sale on this one. Am sure these and more will be discounted in the Steam summer sale or the winter sale later this year.
Here are my review grades on both of these games:
This is a teaser of the format I’ve been working on for all of the Pinball FX and Pinball M. I’m a little over halfway through reviewing the 130+ tables and the goal is to share them all in a post here at the end of 2025. I’m also using a modified version of this for all the SPIKE 2 Stern Pinball games, giving more substance and detail to how I’m ranking each game versus what was done the past two years (mainly just ranking on fun factor).
PGM Tournament Game: Tomb Raider: Adventures of Lara Croft – Pinball FX
SEARCH ID# Q6w92irg38
Skullbox Zaccaria Pinball Score Chasing: Locomotion SS
What’s Happening in Your last week of Pinball?
Your turn. What have you been up to the last week with pinball — real, virtual, whatever pinball you’re playing? Move your games around? Turned on the AC? It’s getting hotter with summer upon us. What games are you currently playing the most? What do you want to play that feel you’ve neglected, if anything? What pinnews has happened that turned you on … or off? The comments await on anything pinball-related mentioned here or not.
My virtual pinball is actually getting neglected the past few weeks. Been trying to get better at golden tee and with the nicer weather, been outside more.
Hope for a speedy recovery for your family member.
Thank you