Zen Studios and Marvel are bringing the popular Civil War story from the Avengers universe to Marvel Pinball, in which players must now choose to support either Iron Man or Captain America and support or go against the Superhuman Registration Act respectively.

The add on also features characters like Thunderbolts, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel, Punisher and more, and you must gain the allegiance of different characters for your cause.

New battle animations have also been added to this… pinball game.

Civil War is one of the many new Marvel themed pinball tables and releases on the followed platforms:

• Pinball FX2 on Xbox Live  Arcade and Windows 8
• Zen Pinball 2 as Cross Buy entitled content for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita
• Marvel Pinball for PlayStation 3
• Zen Pinball 2 on the Mac App Store
• Zen Pinball on the iTunes App Store
• Zen Pinball THD on Google Play

Which is kind of a shame, because some pinball games go above and beyond the call to provide the player with a high class, well polished, top notch pinball experience, with some great production values to round the experience. Take the recent batch of pinball games that Zen Studios has created for instance. Offering some great themed courses, a solid pinball experience, some great graphics and nice sound effects, and some great value, all at a very nice price, these pinball games are usually recommended to anyone without any hesitation.

Such is the case with their latest romp, Marvel Pinball: Vengeance and Virtue. Offering four Marvel themed tables  for $10 on PSN or 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live, the price might be a bit too much to swallow, especially if you already have any of the previous Zen Pinball outings, for what essentially amounts to a map pack. However, the new tables are uniformly excellent and well made, and if you are a pinball fan, this is wholeheartedly recommended.

So, what are the tables that are on offer? There’s an X-Men themed one, a Thor one, a Ghost Rider one, and a Moon Knight one. So the full spectrum of the Marvel Universe is covered, from their most popular characters, to some obscure ones that the casual fan probably hasn’t heard of.

Marvel Pinball appeals to two denominations at once: pinball fans, who will probably want the new tables, mostly because they are so well designed, and because they somehow manage to add a new spin to a formula as well established and cemented as pinball for crying out loud. And to Marvel fans as well, because each of the four tables on offer is like a love letter to the Marvel universe that it is based on.

Each table features prominent characters from the property that it is based on, and it attempts to recreate some of the locales, events, battles, and key story arcs all in pinball form. The X-Men table, for instance, has all the old suspects, and it manages to divert you into several missions and side quests too, before you face off against Magneto for the final boss battle. Yes, all of this in pinball form.

There are three other tables, and all of them are as good as the X-Men one. The Thor table takes you to Asgard, and has you face off against some of his all time favorite foes, such as Loki and Ymir; the Ghost Rider table highlights Johnny Blaze’s stuntman abilities; and the Moon Knight table will probably serve as a great introduction to the character, taking you straight to his traditional setting of New York, and squaring you off against some of his best foes.

Really, there isn’t much else to be said about Vengeance and Virtue. It’s a pinball game. You either like it, or you don’t. You’re either gonna get it, or you won’t. The pinball mechanics here remain as good as they were before, and players of the old Zen Pinball games know what I’m talking about.

If you’re a fan of pinball, I recommend that you get it. If you are a fan of any of the previous Zen Pinball games, I recommend you get it. If you are a Marvel fan, I recommend you get it. At $10, it’s not going to set you back by much, and you’re probably going to enjoy it quite a bit.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Check out this new gameplay trailer from Marvel Pinball showing Moon Knight in action.

Hidden by the shadows of night, Moon Knight searches for thugs on the streets of New York, bringing vengeance to those who feast on the weak. Set in the beauty of a pending lunar eclipse, Moon Knight has his hands full as he faces off against his greatest enemies, such as Bushman, Midnight, Morpheus and the Black Spectre. Moon Knight draws power and strength from the moon god Khonshu, who constantly prods and antagonizes the hero, and he comes equipped with the Mooncopter and a Moon Crossbow, which was developed specifically for this table.

Zen Studios have announced that their latest pinball table based on Twisted Pixels’ hit, Ms. Splosion Man, will splode to Xbox Live on August 31, 2011. The Ms. Splosion Man table will release as part of the Pinball FX2 library for 240 Microsoft Points.

Set in the crazy labs of Big Science, the latest tests in experimental science have gone all wrong, and Ms. Splosion Man must splode her way through obstacles utilizing the latest in tech gadget innovation in her quest to free Splosion Man from the grips of evil scientists. Featuring plenty of interactive 3D characters and objects pulled directly from the Ms. Splosion Man game, players will complete sets of sploding missions and combos, culminating in a final battle with Mighty Eternal.

Ms. Splosion Man will seamlessly integrate into the Pinball FX2 platform on Xbox LIVE® Arcade, with full social feature support. Ms. Splosion Man will also feature new Achievements, operators menu and rule sheet.

Ms. Splosion Man & Pinball FX2 are both published by Microsoft Studios, exclusively for XBLA.

A recent Comic-Con announcement alerts us to the fact that Marvel Pinball will be making its way to a variety of new platforms and distribution services by the end of next year.

According to the press release “by the end of 2012 you will be able to download and play your favorite pinball game on iOS and Android devices, PlayStation®Vita, Nintendo3DS, WiiU and PC!”

No word on additional pricing yet, but we’ll be sure to let you know when it comes to light.

Those who like Pinball and good bargains may want to take note.

From June 21 – 28, 2011 PSN users in North America who by Marvel Pinball will get ZEN Pinball for free. If you want those eight tasty tables for the meagre price of $9.99 you may want to act now.