The Empire Strikes Back in Zen pinball debut

Yes, Star Wars pinball is just as awesome as you imagined it would be.

Join Luke Skywalker as he embraces the power of the Force and leads the charge to repel the advances of Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire. The experience would not be complete without a host of fully functional 3D objects including an AT-AT walker (with circling Snow Speeder!), a Tie Fighter, Ion Cannon and of course the emblematic lightsabers of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.

Activating missions on the Star Wars Episode V :The Empire Strikes Back table can be done by hitting the center bank and collecting the letters to spell out STAR WARS. You can then choose which scene to start, causing the Executor to jump to hyperspace and fly to the affected planet of the chosen scene. There are a total of five missions to complete before activating Wizard mode, which places you directly in an epic battle between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader!

One new note on missions too- there are checkpoints now. Zen has announced that the has addin checkpoints to all table missions which basically means that you won’t lose your place (too much anyway) if you run out of time or have a “ball drain” in the middle of something.

Now that’s almost worth the price of admission right there- of course it looks like pretty much everything else is going to be worth that price as well since… well, did you watch the trailer?

Stay tuned bounty hunter fans- the Boba Fett table is up next for the full on video treatment.