While I’ve always been a fan of digital pinball conversions from even their early days when they were more of an underground thing using PinMAME and some other emulators, my interests have always trended far more towards simulations of real tables rather than new creations. That said, in the past generation as Zen Studios have gotten more experience under their belts making a variety of original tables that have been both traditional and quite experimental, wholly new pinballs have managed to catch my eye.

In particular the release of Pinball M has really been exciting, as tackling classic horror franchises seems to have unlocked something new and special. Knowing that not only wouldn’t anyone likely make a physical table with a more hard-core horror theme, but that there are visual opportunities that simply wouldn’t be possible outside of the digital world, it feels like they may be onto something here. I think that’s underscored pretty nicely with this latest DLC table from them based on Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

From the opening introduction using the same sort of documentary style to recount the grisly details from the movie the tone is properly set, and pretty much everything from that point works for me. Having Leatherface standing off to the side, waiting for your game to be over so he can do a celebratory dance with his trademark chainsaw in the middle of the table, could have been almost enough to make things fun, but the table has much more to offer. From a dangling severed head, to a giant chainsaw that can be activated to spew blood pretty well everywhere, this is a table that not only celebrates the franchise, but also seems to revel in its spirit of excess as well.

I will say that a few times when the action would crank up I was disappointed to run into a performance hiccup, but otherwise I’m actually impressed at how well the Switch version has managed to hold up. In particular, the tendency to have blood flying around quite a lot I’d been concerned would risk overwhelming the hardware, but it appears the folks at Zen have done a great job tuning their engine since the release of Pinball FX to maximize its visual quality while minimizing its challenges. Overall, I’d still recommend playing it on more powerful hardware if that’s an option to you, but even if the Switch is your only choice this is a great budget-friendly table that delivers a bloody good time.