Infected Mushroom Pinball

Super lightweight review - I liked it so far, i haven't tried VR or cabinet setups yet. After reading some of the negative reviews, I waited for a sale. Absolutely worth a look - especially compared to the many cut and paste feeling pinball games out there. This one is at least both enjoyable and unique.

First of all. I love Infected Mushroom. I'm... ok... with pinball. I bought the game for the IM and hoped they'd do some neat stuff. The location is interesting, the pinball is... ok... i guess. But the game just feels weird. The ball doesn't bounce correctly, and I've played much better pinball machines IRL. I'd expect with digital they'd have more going on than just that the rails can move around in a way they don't IRL. Overall... game kinda ...sucks. And I hate saying that, as when i found out about this, i was super excited. Overall, game is a disappointment. I kinda expected it wouldn't be great, seeing as how its a no name developer on a music artist most people haven't heard of, but this isn't going to make people flock to either the artist or the developer and makes both of them look worse/more amateur. Love infected musroom? Game might be for you, but only if you either really like or really hate pinball. Even the old windows 3d pinball was better than this. For one, there should be more than just a single table...

[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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Ich bin schon seit 20 Jahren Fan von Infected Mushroom und hab die Band mit ihrem Album "Converting Vegetarians" kennen und lieben gelernt. Und Pinball hab ich schon als Kind geliebt. Eine geniale Kombination. Grafisch macht der Tisch schon was her. Die Umgebung, in der er steht, ist voller kleiner Details. Ein normaler Bildschirm wird der optischen Qualität des Spiels nicht gerecht. Ein VR Headset würde ich persönlich empfehlen. Allerdings würde ich das bei jedem Spiel, dass vernünftige Kompatibilität anbietet. Also das Drumunddran ist echt super. Die Musik? Muss man nicht weiter erwähnen, oder? Ich denke, wenn du wegen I.M. hier bist, kannst du nichts falsch machen. Oder? Naja. Die paar Titel, die man dann alle recht schnell einmal gehört hat, gehören schon zum feinsten, was I.M. zu bieten hat, dennoch besteht die Gefahr, dass man sich gerade den Titel Frog Machine recht schnell überhört hat. Der Tisch. Er ist nicht schlecht. Aber als alter Veteran, der von Pinball Dreams für den Amiga, über Epic Pinball auf MS DOS, die grandiose Pro Pinball-Reihe oder im Bereich der echten Tische unter anderem den legendären Terminator Judgment Day Tisch gespielt und geliebt hat, muss ich sagen, ist der I.M. Tisch an sich eher im Mittelfeld. Es gibt schlechtere Tische aber eben auch wesentlich bessere. Wenn es um Pinballtypische Features geht, ist es eher ein einfacher Tisch. Wenn es um die Spielspass geht, muss ich sagen, reizt mich ein Demontilt doch wesentlich mehr. Und da der I.M. Tisch ja die Realität und die Gesetze der Physik ohnehin nicht so ganz ernst nimmt, hätte man da auch ruhig ein wenig mehr auf die Kacke hauen können. Die Ausflüge mit den Minigames in andere Welten gehen in die richtige Richtung aber sind zu selten und werden auch schnell alt. Das Spiel bekommt von mir wohlwollend 7 von 10 overall 8.5 von 10 Grafik 10 von 10 Musik 6.5 von 10 Gameplay Ich würde es schon grossartig finden, wenn hier im Rahmen des Early Accesses auch noch am Tisch gefeilt wird und er evtl. noch um Features und Content erweitert wird. Empfehlen würde ich es halt Fans des Genres. Wer dann auch noch auf die Mukker der beiden steht, der bekommt nice was auf die Ohren. Flasch machen kann man damit nichts. Der Preis ist grad noch so okay.