Look, I'm telling you. There's something moving on this table and it ain't us!
Aliens Pinball is a virtual Pinball Spin-Off and adaptation of the film of the same name, developed and published by Zen Studios. This pinball table is one of the three tables in the Aliens vs. Pinball collection, a premium add-on for Zen Studios' ''Zen Pinball 2'', ''Pinball FX 2'' and ''Pinball FX 3'', and is also playable on the Aliens vs. Pinball mobile app.Aliens Pinball provides examples of the following tropes:
- Anti-Frustration Feature:
- Kickbacks are easy to activate - just light all four rollovers and spell NEWT. (Just be aware that you'll lose them if you drain the ball.)
- The Wizard Mode is unlocked after you attempt all story missions. The key word here is "attempt" - meaning that if you fail a mission, you can move on to the next one, provided that you hit the mission start target 3 times.note
- You are always given a 30-second ball saver at the start of each ball (like all Zen pinball tables) - and you can turn it on again every time you spell BISHOP with the target posts.
- Bloodless Carnage / Bowdlerize: The Aliens film is rife with blood, gore and profanity, earning it an R rating, yet none of that carries over to the pinball version due to Zen's censorship and family friendly policies, allowing it to get an Everyone 10+ Rating.
- Fade to White: Beating the Wizard Mode eventually leads to this, which happens at the conclusion of a one-minute victory multiball.
- The Horde / Zerg Rush: Some of the main missions involve fighting off a huge swarm of aliens, represented as drop targets that move towards the flippers...just like how the proximity sensor tracks Aliens converging onto a single point in the film.
- Minigame: There's one where you drive the APC down a three-lane road. It's a mandatory interlude (and finale) during the first mission, and you can also activate and play an endless version if you hit the bumpers enough times and then lock the ball into a nearby sinkhole.
- Mythology Gag: During a Xenomorph attack, the scoring display will actually show the display readout of the UA 571-C Sentry Gun, including the ammo count, time remaining until all ammunition is spent, firing speed and temperature meter - just one detail that shows how faithful the table is to the movie.
- Press X to Not Die: The fourth mission "UD‐4L Cheyenne" gives you just 20 seconds to shoot the correct lane to help Bishop pilot the namesake spacecraft. Run out of time, and the mission fails.
- Sentry Gun: Like in the film, there's one at your service to help you deal with onslaughts of Aliens when they arrive en masse.
- Skill Shot: You need to shoot the ball with just enough strength that it drops into the right inlane to run a bypass into Hadley's Hope. If you shoot it too weak, it will fall into the right outlane, but bounce back into play for fairness' sake. If you shoot it too strong, it will fall into a hole or bounce off the top of the right rebound.
- Spelling Bonus: This table has a field day with this trope. Spell the names of major characters to achieve different effects (spelling VASQUEZ makes the sentry gun reload faster and spelling HICKS increases squad health, for example).
Private Hudson: That's it man, game over man, it's game over!
