The Hero of Zen: the Nudge Pass

I know this has been posted before, but it really deserves its own topic as it has become an integral part of my strategy for pretty much every table.

Basically... nudge passes are ridiculously easy to do in Zen Pinball.


Pretty much every nudge gives you a warning on Zen, but warnings reset really quickly, so you can make good use of it. And it's REALLY good for stalling the ball from a fast inlane return, particularly if you want a shot from the other flipper.

I use this pretty much as a basic skill in Zen, and it makes a lot of things a lot easier. It's also really satisfying to pull off, and looks really cool. A good way to show off if you have spectators.

Just don't get your wires crossed and try it in TPA - it doesn't work at all! I once accidentally did this at our games night at work, another TPA player turned to me and said "What the **** were you trying to do there?!"

Thats something I should train my self to get use to. I never really bothered with nudging until recently, and its still not second nature to me by any stretch. In TPA I changed the settings to shake my android for nudging and that helps, but I need to improve my reaction time. I wish I could change that setting in Zen. I'll start practising with this technique.

While TPA has a lot of its own flaws, this is just ridiculous. This is not pinball. That whole ZEN thing is just a huge DMD, nothing more. My first and only attempt on ZEN was Spiderman and after some ~45 min, still on the FIRST ball on my very FIRST game I just gave up on that video game.

kinggo said:

While TPA has a lot of its own flaws, this is just ridiculous. This is not pinball. That whole ZEN thing is just a huge DMD, nothing more. My first and only attempt on ZEN was Spiderman and after some ~45 min, still on the FIRST ball on my very FIRST game I just gave up on that video game.

Click to expand...

Meh. If it ain't pinball, oh well... I'm still gonna raise my scores.

kinggo said:

While TPA has a lot of its own flaws, this is just ridiculous. This is not pinball. That whole ZEN thing is just a huge DMD, nothing more. My first and only attempt on ZEN was Spiderman and after some ~45 min, still on the FIRST ball on my very FIRST game I just gave up on that video game.

Click to expand...

That's pretty harsh. Sure, this one maneuver is easier to do than in real life (it is a valid maneuver, just softer on the wrists in the game). You happened to pick one of the easiest games in the collection and judged the whole game on that. If you want to see difficult Zen, play Deadpool - it's their most brutal table in a long time. I somehow managed an hour game on it last night and that was the #2 score worldwide. Not a marathon table in the slightest.

well, I picked one. It was my first ZEN experience. And I like spiderman. But after that, I'm not coming back to that game. Pinball should be a challenge to keep a ball alive and playing ZEN was quite opposite. Plus, I don't like ball trails, flying whatevers and the table itself is shallow. WORMS pinball is still far better digital only pinball. ZEN just isn't for me. And my opinion on TPA for PC isn't much better, but mobile is another story.

kinggo said:

well, I picked one. It was my first ZEN experience. And I like spiderman. But after that, I'm not coming back to that game. Pinball should be a challenge to keep a ball alive and playing ZEN was quite opposite. Plus, I don't like ball trails, flying whatevers and the table itself is shallow. WORMS pinball is still far better digital only pinball. ZEN just isn't for me. And my opinion on TPA for PC isn't much better, but mobile is another story.

Click to expand...

It's fine if you prefer realism. This is the TPA forum after all. I just wanted to point out that your "Zen is too easy" opinion comes from playing a single table, which happens to be one of the easiest.

I think it's a shame that so many people have shrugged it off purely because of the visual effects, though as these days Zen make really complex games with challenging, stackable rulesets that are a blast to play. They also innovate a lot - lots of their table designs have features that have never been done before (and that WOULD be possible on a real table). And their QA is a lot better than TPA.

the ball trains and effects can be turned off, as I recall.

Zaphod77 said:

the ball trains and effects can be turned off, as I recall.

Click to expand...

Yup, that's how i play.I prefer TPA but Zen is also cool imo.As said before i think Zens main flaw is the scoring inbalance of many tables.Zen just doesn't seem to get it.

The Night Flier said:

Yup, that's how i play.I prefer TPA but Zen is also cool imo.As said before i think Zens main flaw is the scoring inbalance of many tables.Zen just doesn't seem to get it.

Click to expand...

I don't care too much about the scoring imbalance, I generally just try to reach the wizard mode. It was a huge battle on A New Hope and Deadpool, but I got there eventually.

Funnily enough, it's so much easier to reach it after the first time. Because you've done it before you have nothing to prove, so your chances of choking are much smaller.

Espy said:

I don't care too much about the scoring imbalance, I generally just try to reach the wizard mode. It was a huge battle on A New Hope and Deadpool, but I got there eventually.

Click to expand...

Sure if you want to focus on reaching wizard mode/beating missions or just play around the scoring doesn't matter.But the "high score" is an integral element of pinball and what a lot of players ultimately shoot for.The basic principle should be that the harder the challenge the higher the reward.With Zen it is sometimes the opposite.Their scoring seems arbitary, they just don't seem to care about scoring.It tarnishes their tables a little imo but if you put Zen into the perspective of fantasy pinball it works out alright.

The Night Flier said:

Sure if you want to focus on reaching wizard mode/beating missions or just play around the scoring doesn't matter.But the "high score" is an integral element of pinball and what a lot of players ultimately shoot for.The basic principle should be that the harder the challenge the higher the reward.With Zen it is sometimes the opposite.Their scoring seems arbitary, they just don't seem to care about scoring.It tarnishes their tables a little imo but if you put Zen into the perspective of fantasy pinball it works out alright.

Click to expand...

Oh, I care about the score alright! I'm #2 on Deadpool right now

Espy said:

Oh, I care about the score alright! I'm #2 on Deadpool right now

Click to expand...

Nice!All the more important that the scoring should be properly balanced for the score to mean something.Tough challenges should be rewarded and big point spamming opportunities of easy targets need to be avoided.As said, sadly i think Zen just doesn't care about scoring.

The Night Flier said:

Nice!All the more important that the scoring should be properly balanced for the score to mean something.Tough challenges should be rewarded and big point spamming opportunities of easy targets need to be avoided.As said, sadly i think Zen just doesn't care about scoring.

Click to expand...

To be fair, Deadpool is relatively balanced. You make the most points out of Katana multiball, but you can increase the jackpots from that mode by doing the main missions. I suppose it's all about judging when to cash in for Katana Multiball.

Haha, this is great. Tried it and it worked instantly (I still got a tilt later on, but no risk, no fun!). This will be very helpful - I love little exploits like these!

kinggo said:

While TPA has a lot of its own flaws, this is just ridiculous. This is not pinball. That whole ZEN thing is just a huge DMD, nothing more. My first and only attempt on ZEN was Spiderman and after some ~45 min, still on the FIRST ball on my very FIRST game I just gave up on that video game.

Click to expand...

You´re right, this isn´t pinball. It´s a videogame, and one that isn´t exactly known for its stunning amount of realism.

Really, the best way to have fun with Zen pinball is to not take it too seriously. It used to really rub me the wrong way with all the videogamey elements, but I recently really started to enjoy it and even like the score popups and the little effects here and there. I used to kinda hate it, but I´ve ended up buying almost every single table available on the Vita in the past few weeks.

And really, I don´t care about how unbalanced the tables are either. I´m still crappy enough at pinball to not really have it affect me, and I also don´t really read any of the guides, so figuring out the tables by themselves and trying to beat my own pathetic scores it more than enough fun for my money There´s also simply SO MANY of them that I wouldn´t dedicate 30 hours on a single table anyways. It´s usually just "hop in, play a credit or two, on to the next one" for me.

I mean, I understand where you´re coming from, and I´m definitely not telling you that you should try it again, but Zen pinball isn´t a simulator and it doesn´t try to be, so the "this isn´t pinball" angle is a bit misplaced.

And unlike TPA, there are no real tables to compare it against. Different physics can completely change how the virtual version plays from the way the creators intended, but on Zen pinball, these tables are specifically designed with the physics in mind.

mmmagnetic said:

And unlike TPA, there are no real tables to compare it against. Different physics can completely change how the virtual version plays from the way the creators intended, but on Zen pinball, these tables are specifically designed with the physics in mind.

Click to expand...

Precisely. The physics in Zen are not as realistic in TPA, but they are reliable and learnable within the game. They are not bad physics, just not as realistic as TPA. But within the confines of the game, they work. If you want only realism this won't convince you, but it is a very fun and well-designed game.

And I'll say it again - the nudge pass is a real table skill, not really an exploit. It's just a lot easier to do in Zen than in real life.

Espy said:

Precisely. The physics in Zen are not as realistic in TPA, but they are reliable and learnable within the game. They are not bad physics, just not as realistic as TPA. But within the confines of the game, they work. If you want only realism this won't convince you, but it is a very fun and well-designed game.

And I'll say it again - the nudge pass is a real table skill, not really an exploit. It's just a lot easier to do in Zen than in real life.

Click to expand...

The bolded part is a big reason why I started to enjoy Zen Pinball so much - the physics are very predictable and are always the same (or at least they are from what I can tell) between all the tables. On TPA I often have to massively readjust to each tables physics - for instance, I LOVE playing Attack From Mars on Android, but ToM or Cirqus Voltaire or even Medieval Madness feel very different and, honestly, quite a lot worse (probably because they still have the older physics).

Of course, designs like Firepower, Flight2K or even Whirlwind would be completely boring in Zen, since they are so easy to control. In short, I learned that I prefer more realistic and thus less predictable physics on simpler tables (of which Zen really doesn´t have any), but on designs as complex (and some might say overly complicated) as the newer Zen ones I prefer to not lose the ball to some unlucky STDM drain or overly hungry outlane.

It´s the question of "where does the fun come from"? Sometimes I want a ton of modes and just a massive amount of STUFF in a pinball, sometimes I want the raw, primal feeling of just trying to keep the ball in play, struggling with tricky playfield layouts, and games that can end after just a few minutes - which TPA offers quite a lot of.

Zen is like pinball fast food.Can be great fun but just a bit slight.Overall TPA provides a richer experience for me.But as said, i dig them both.

I didn't know you could even nudge on Zen tables. Is there an option screen similar to The Pinball Arcade to set it up for iOS devices? I usually set it for the touch screen option for nudging in The Pinball Arcade. I find the swipe or shake nudging options too difficult to control on an iPad.

Eaton Beaver said:

I didn't know you could even nudge on Zen tables. Is there an option screen similar to The Pinball Arcade to set it up for iOS devices?

Click to expand...

Nope! Just swipe and shake for mobile devices. The video posted on the main post is coming from the PS3 version of the original Zen Pinball (ZP1).