Zen Studios hasn't always followed the seemingly unwritten rule of "if it's in the movies, adapt it as soon as possible." Sure, they do so more often than not, but they haven't been afraid to flex their creative muscles and go after each franchise's less common stories. For example, remember the Moon Knight table? Or the Blade one? How can anyone forget the table based on World War Hulk?

All that being said, Marvel Pinball: Avengers: Age of Ultron plays it as close to the chest as is humanly possible. It takes the huge cast of characters starring in the recently-released Joss Whedon sequel, condenses the story into bite-sized snippets, and smashes it all together to make a pinball table. The results are about what you'd expect.

If you've seen Avengers: Age of Ultron, you know the story. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner collaborate on the construction of a global defense program designed expressly to help the world attain and keep peace. Unfortunately, the program becomes sentient, and its logic brings it to the conclusion that in order to achieve true peace, it must drive mankind to extinction. And so it's up to Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow to bring an end to that plan.

This table was clearly designed by people who have not only seen the movie, but studied it extensively. Background art of the doomed Eastern European city of Sokovia (and its vibranium-rich underground) provides the only viable border for all the action that happens on the table. So much, in fact, that one of the movie's biggest visual surprises is spoiled outright. Not a bad thing, just something you should be aware of if you haven't seen the film yet.

Marvel Pinball: Avengers: Age of Ultron is a rich table that's loaded with special activities and goals to complete, and just about all of them are inspired by the movie's most memorable sequences. From the creation of Ultron to Hulk's hallucination-driven rampage to JARVIS's personal struggles to the exciting chase sequence near the end (you know, the one with the motorcycle and the big rig), it's good stuff.

Apart from the movie-based material, the bases are thoroughly rounded when it comes to pinball mechanics. Kickbacks, bumpers, ball saves, ball locks, multiballs, multipliers. It's all here, but with an Avengers theme to it.

If you've played any of Zen Studios' pinball tables, you know what you're getting each time you buy one. It's always a well-themed table set at a reasonable cost. It rarely carries the same price tag as a full-fledged expansion, and if it ever does, there are always multiple tables involved. The pricing model here is without fault, and everyone else needs to take notice. This is how you support a core release.