Demon’s Tilt deservedly received praise for its occult-themed gameplay, with many deeming it a worthy spiritual successor to Devil’s Crush. Now, sole developer WIZNWAR is back with Xenotilt: Hostile Pinball Action, a cyberpunk-inspired twist that improves upon its predecessor in almost every conceivable way. Simply put, this is one of the greatest pinball games ever made.

If Balatro managed to pull in players who have never even entertained the idea of playing poker, then Xenotilt has the power to do the same for pinball – it’s remarkably approachable while being incredibly difficult to put down once it's got a hold of you. In combining straightforward mechanics with a near-constant stream of points topping up your high score, you’ll find the desire to have “just one more go” almost impossible to ignore.

Set on a single ‘table’ (which is themed to look like a spaceship of sorts), the aim is simple: score as many points as you can with your three allocated balls. Split between three distinct tiers, the table houses a selection of boss characters that you’ll need to vanquish to gain huge chunks of points.

You achieve this by battering them with your ball via carefully aimed shots from the flippers, or by firing from auto-turrets. You activate these (providing you have ammo) by ‘cradling’ the ball on one of the flippers and pressing ‘down’. The turrets immediately lock onto enemies both big and small, and it’s a great way to clear the field and give yourself some more room.

Like other pinball games, you can also nudge the table to coax the ball into moving in specific directions, either to hit an enemy, grab a jackpot, or prevent yourself from falling into oblivion. Nudging too often within a short period of time can lead to a game over, so use this sparingly!

There's endless opportunities to ramp up your score, and if you’re able to maintain your combo multiplier, you’ll soon find that you’re able to break through the million-point barrier, perhaps even the billion. This is perfectly doable on ‘Normal Mode’, but if you opt for ‘EX Mode’, you can occasionally enter bonus areas completely separate from the main table. These offer up massive rewards, and one is even a quaint little spin on the game of snooker – it’s great fun.

It also looks the part too, with pixel art sprites, neon colours, and gloriously outrageous effects combining to create a stunning symphony of light and sound. It can sometimes be difficult to keep track of things in the default view, but Xenotilt also supports TATE mode, which looks awesome whether you’re playing on the OLED Model or the Switch 2. Similarly, the music is inspired, and I guarantee that at least one of the tracks will get stuck in your head long after you step away from the table.

If you’ve never played a pinball game before, then Xenotilt might well be the only one you’ll ever need. Heck, even if you don't like pinball, I suspect playing this might very well change your mind – it's mercilessly addictive from the get-go. Give it a shot and you’ll soon succumb to its will.

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