Infected Mushroom Pinball

[h1]Experienced on the Meta Quest 3[/h1] You can view my VR gameplay & early impressions here: https://youtu.be/slo3Ii15Egs I do recommend buying this game on sale (currently 40% off during steam winter sale 2025). At that price, I think there is value here given the music & visuals. However, the game is still in Early Access and the normal price does seem a bit steep given what's there. The full VR experience has you in a cyberpunk laundromat where you can play the Pinball machine. There's an alternate mode where you're just playing in an empty environment (recommended if you encounter optimization issues on the full VR experience). On my RTX 5090 though, I wasn't experiencing any performance issues. There's just one table though. The music is great. There's several trippy effects, along with unlocking some special modes. There just needs to be more at this price. More depth to the table or just more tables. Game is running on the Unreal Engine 5. You do have full locomotion and smooth or snap turning. You can play comfortably seated, although I was too high off the ground. I think game needs a button crouch. Probably replace right stick click with this instead of the current toggle smooth / snap turn and just put that option in the settings. [b]Rate 6.5/10. Great production values. Core pinball experience needs more to it though.[/b] [quote]I bought this game! If you enjoyed my review, please consider joining my Steam Curator group [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Oculus_WMR]Oculus Rift Reviews.[/url][/quote]

I got this mainly as a fan of IM. Initial release of early access definitely felt like early access. The menus were buggy, didn't save my graphics setup, and the pinball physics felt off. HOWEVER, I am pleased with the ongoing development of the game, and it is much improved now. Menu navigation and graphic settings seem fine now, and the pinball physics feel better. I like the latest 'light weight' game mode added. If you're thinking of buying this game but are put off by early reviews, just know the game was definitely a lot rougher at initial release. Developer, if you're reading this, keep up the good work. I will say that physics still seem a bit janky at times, but I didn't know there were different physics options, so I'll have to try that. It may be my lack of skill, but this board seems fairly difficult, even on the easiest settings. I think the only game mode I've managed to beat was the 'hit all targets', or whatever one eventually puts you in the weird tunnel. Speaking of, the tunnel is very tricky to understand from a players perspective. It is very hard to see where the pinball is in relation to all the upcoming rings you have to hit, depth wise. The first time through I didn't hit any rings just because I couldn't understand where they were in relation to the pinball, so some minor graphics might help there. Maybe some sort of translucent plane where the pinball rotates, and some sort of ripple or other indication as the rings pass through the plane. Subsequent times were a bit better once I had a better understanding of them, but still hard to determine. Also, I dont know what other game modes there are besides 'hit targets', 'frog machine' and 'lightweight'. I rarely get far enough in the game to make it past any one of those games, so not sure if more unlocks after that. It would be nice to have more options initially than just those 3 so I dont feel locked behind those specific games. Also also, one time the moving 'trick shot' rails shot me directly into the mid gutter as it passed over the middle. Kinda funny one time, but that would definitely piss me off if I was much farther into a run. If this possibility is not intended, maybe add a ball save mechanic in that specific scenario, or prevent the ball from being ejected when the rail is directly over a gutter/middle. Looking forward to future updates

I wanted to believe... I truly wanted to love this game as I'm a fan of IM and loved working with pinball machines with my uncle. I was literally the target audience for this title. And I'm so disappointed that clunky loads, awkward UI that isn't optimized for Steam Link, and the lack of any support. I simply cannot get the game to load in VR, which was my ideal mode of play. The log-in screen seems to be the issue. And while you don't need to log-in now (lovely move, dev team), the fact that the screen is there seems to be causing issues with Steam Link and making it impossible to load on Quest 3. I can only get it to load on Desktop and I didn't make the purchase for that. I'd waited a good week before making this review, trying everything to work around things, waiting on the discussion board, the usual thing for EA games. But It's still just not optimized well. If you are interested, hold off until the game is complete so you know what you are dealing with. I still have hope that this could be something grand. Eventually.

Its just not very fun. I got to be honest. Visually its pretty neat. Feel kind of like a retro table... It doesnt feel very fun to play. There isnt really and fun shots to hit. Ball kind of feels slow. Music is really intense for not a whole lot happening. Tried it in desktop and in VR. VR needs a simple Seated play option. The table looks nice. The idea of having a hub world seems cool. Apparently this is a like music artists kind of like project i think? So if you like into his/their music im sure it has more value. But I dunno. This is like a 5 dollar game IMO as is right now.

The ball physics are all over the place. Ball teleports at light speed or it's really slow. Ball glitches through flippers and side walls. The table just breaks and the ball has to reset when it gets stuck. Music and graphics are fine I guess 3/10 VPX can be a bit of a pain to figure out but the experience is vastly superior.

Another "poor VR performance" review from me. VR mode is the sole reason I purchased this game, and I could never get it to run acceptably. With a Quest 2 hard-wired to my system, it runs below 60fps no matter the graphics settings I use in-game, and nothing changes when lowering the VR headset's resolution/framerate limits either. Another reviewer mentioned that you can't disable resolution scaling at all, and I have this same complaint.. Because even if it ran okay, the entirety of what I see is like looking through a glass pane smeared with petroleum jelly. I have an RX 7800 XT, Core Ultra 7 265k, 64GB RAM, and all SSD storage.. This same machine & VR setup plows through Half Life Alyx like it's nothing, with no graphical weirdness. So it's pretty clear this is not my system's fault here either, and there's zero reason for optimization to be this poor.

At it's current price point and the state of the game, I cannot reccomend it. I play in cabinet mode at my desk with a two monitor setup, and while getting my Pinone mini to work with it was straight forward, trying to get the game to display properly is not. I had to navigate through menus to adjust the camera which is fine, if it would not simply reset it and other controller settings if I hit the B button during gameplay, also setting up a backglass and DMD to one monitor is a nightmare and impossible if you want the DMD above the backglass so I can't even see my game status. There has to be a better way you can get that to function PLEASE. Overall I found the physics to be inconsistent. I've had the teleporting ball some other reviews are mentioning as well. I want to like this, it looks sick as hell and hopefully the dev can iron these things out so it's worthy of being included in my popper setup because yes, the table looks beautiful and sick as hell, but that means nothing if I can't enjoy playing it.

Absolutely great game, super developer (fixes everything ASAP), and amazing music (Infected Mushroom). Brings me back to playing Metroid Prime Pinball. Awesome secrets and modes that keep the gameplay interesting. The farther you get, the more in-depth it becomes. Once you get to a certain place, you're chasing that more and more. I've never really played pinball much, but if I were to play any kind of pinball, it would be from this developer (especially if they have music like this). If you get in the top 10 high scores for the month, you're able to get free tickets to Infected Mushroom also (let me tell you, absolutely 100% worth it). The game play takes a bit of practice, especially with the tilting, but once you get past that, you're clear. Actually takes some skill and control of the ball. Love it.