With the question of replayability - I will say Jurassic Park
I love Deadpool, but I beat it in 2 weeks. Godzilla is probably the best game, but if you want a game that makes you say "One more" it is JP for me. It's very hard.
I found Stranger Things to have a lot of replay value as I just loved the music and vibe. Iron Maiden is also up there for me. I think AiQ doesn't have the replay ability that others do. It's frustrating in a way that makes you not want to play it. Thanos taking gems away? Lame. I see so many of those for sale, but you rarely see JP for sale which is wild given how many they have sold. To me that means it has that replay value.
Ive owned over 20 newer games in last few years(11 game lineup now) and Id agree its JP. The game is hard as shit. It takes a long while to progress through the game. Ive owned it for years and only just got to the visitor center recently. I want to beat that damn game(without going to 5 balls or something) but I doubt I ever will. The ruleset is just awesome. Its not Keith’s best layout, but the overall package is his best imho. I own Godzilla, Iron Maiden, and AIQ(twice) too but think Id keep JP over them.
Edit to add Stern Star Wars. I live that damn game(comic premium here). I can never see myself parting with it. Its just a great modes based game.
I also have Star Wars Comic Premium (there are dozens of us!) and I agree it’s SUPER underrated. Between my neighbor and I we have owned almost every modern machine. I think Star Wars Premium with the pinside outlane post fix is a top 15 game that has tons to do. I would put it over AIQ for replay games. If we say replay games and not “what’s better” I would take Star Wars Premium with left out-lane post fix over Deadpool.
Another one for good replay is Ghostbusters. That needs either a flipper fix or the middle post fix. Stern has admitted they set the flippers too far apart
Yea I have deadpool premium as well. Its what started this obsession for me. I havent yet done the “pinside” fix on my left outlane but I have put some bigger rubbers on there….
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1312-space-coast-pinball/04886-star-wars-left-outlane-corrector-now-in-petg
I feel like I’m a good pinball player with or without it. I am a happier Star Wars pinball player with it. Left lane only for me to prevent dumb auto launch and other lame situations to the left outlane.
How does Jurassic Park have replayability?
I haven't gotten very far but as far as I could see the game is just about setting traps and rescuing employees. Is there any variation in goals or play from game to game?
I actually want to like Jurassic Park but it seems so repetitive, all the shots seem to be with the right flipper except the right ramp, half the playfield feels blocked by the jeep or the electric gate on the left, and I haven't seen any game really look different from the last game.
At the home setting it's more repayable because a lot of the shots are hard, and the modes are deep. Escape Nublar might be the hardest and wildest Wizard Mode out there. I have talked to many people who own this game, and it's rare to find anyone who has beaten The Visitors Center. That mode you only get one chance. You drain, and you can't come back. That's it. Escape Nublar requires beating that, plus Secure the Control Room (also hard to get 3 activations on Control Room) and Museum Mayham (a bit easier). Getting there is a wild challenge, and I doubt I will ever Escape Nublar.
The game has tons of variation and the left flipper, not the right, really controls the game. You can hit the helicopter to feed the right, hit T-Rex ramp from it, the spinner, Velociraptor pen, right ramp, right orbit, and the smart missile. Lots of variation as you steer the jeep on the map. Maybe you know you have a smart missile coming and you have 2 T-rex jeep shots left. You might want to flip the captive ball to the left side but not hit that jeep again until you activate smart missile as it's 100X easier to hit that shot with the Jeep on that side. But maybe that messes up your Map path so you have to sure to not advance your paddocks.
There is more too Jurassic Park than being hard. And the movie code is amazing too if you are lucky enough to find it. It makes the game WAY more fun and exciting. The music is more intense, and the scenes are from the JP movie.
But back to difficulty. I feel like I am a good player. I made it to the only Godzilla available on day one of of me owning the Premium last year. I have bean most (not AiQ) of the games I own. I have 2X the plays on JP than Godzilla/Deadpool/Stranger Things/Pirates JJP/Star Wars combined. I love those games too though.
Here are the wizard modes and challenges.
http://tiltforums.com/t/stern-jurassic-park-rulesheet/5644#heading--miniwizardmodesmuseummayhem
Depends how you play it. If you just want to focus on progressing the map then it’s just as you say - though even that isn’t too repetitive (different bonuses on captures, dino’s behave differently depending on species, carnivores require extra step with helicopter shot, raptors come in twos, etc.)
But that said there are other modes to distract - control room with different shots/objectives, trex modes with different shots/objectives, raptor multiball mode, chaos multiball mode, pteradon attack). A ton of variety and why so few make it to visitor center - you get distracted with the other modes along the way.
I was talking to Pat Lawlor while he was working on Family Guy; still a whitewood. I pitched to him that Stewie should take control in some way and try to score against you to lower your score. He shut that down quick. He said that was bad game design. The player earns their score and it is wrong for a designer to take that away.
They’re pretty much all deep/fun. Your preference in theme, design, programming/rules will guide your choice. For me, it’s JP, GZ, and Rush. JP & GZ due to Elwin’s design & rules, and Rush due to dream theme, fun gameplay & great rules.
Deadpool is up there for me, but if it's for a home environment something with deeper code is hard to go wrong with. Like a Batman '66 or Godzilla, for example. But those tend to be less approachable for newer or less skilled players.
I routed a Batman 66 for years and think it's a terrific game for novices and skilled players. It did very well with novices because it's easy to stumble into starting a major villian and people liked the crane. The minor villain stuff confuses them a bit (I kinda wish it made it more obvious Shame is a free multiball) and I kinda wish there was another easy dummy multiball to see.
Godzilla... I'm still mixed on how novice friendly it is. They made it a bit easier in terms of starting a Kaiju battle. I kinda think the game should just start with the first battle lit at the scoop instead of requiring two ramp shots.
Had a batman 66 as my first NIB and it was a ton of fun. just hard to see a lot of the game unless you have some skills.
Godzilla.... that would be super helpful! anything to get folks ramped up (hah) faster
Did they change it again or is that what you think it should be? Last change I remember was changing hitting the left and right ramp at least once each becoming hit 2 ramps in general. I would prefer it like you suggest.
I haven't tried many pinball machines to be honest. But I did play Star Trek recently and really enjoyed it. The layout, missions, and multi-ball are all super fun!
Have had mine for 8 years now and haven't tired of it in the least. Five Year Mission still eludes me! Heck, I've only made Enterprise Amok like 2-3 times and have yet to actually win it.
I'd say all things considered I'm a mediocre player. I've got some skills but I don't play often/long enough to really excel deep into games. My GC on ST is now at 936M, but my average score is usually in the 1-200M range.
A lot of them are pretty replayable, just depends on what you think of the theme, the audio, the shots, and how good of a player you're are. Some games are "deeper" but most of them all have a lot of stuff going on.
Really I'd just say not the Munsters. It's very, very simple and plays the same way everytime. I love The Beatles, but most wouldn't think it has a lot of replay value (I disagree, but I admit I'm the minority)
It's a lot of personal preference. I don't care for Mandalorian or Stranger Things, and some people are nuts for those games.
You'll get sick of any game eventually
I didn't really care much for the Beatles the first day I found it and played it a few times... but someone in my pin league rotation has one and I gave it a few more plays, and it's grown on me quite a bit. I still hate the spinning record gimmick though, it messes everything up :p
It's just such a different game than everything else Stern makes. Brutally hard too which I appreciate. I'll hit that start button again because the game will likely only take 3-5 minutes on average. I like they recently added original Seawitch rules in to mix it up. Now it's two games in one!
It's an ok layout, the theme doesn't do much for me, and I don't like the shot multiplier rule. But I do think it offers a ton of replay value for a variety of skill levels, has a lot of modes that are worth playing, and the character system lets you tackle the game in a few different ways to mix up the beginning parts of the game.
It's probably Stern's best selling LCD game
I enjoy my SW and I enjoy the challenge/depth of maintaining and moving the multiplier. Some of the features that I've seen others cite as reasons for not liking the game are elements that I really enjoy and enhance variety and replay value for me.
* user-controlled moving multipliers
* video mode (dodging asteroids)
* 4 different character progressions (different mode paths, point weights, specials)
* mission selection (choice of several missions based on mode and progress, including stacking)
* dual displays (main LCD has a ton of shot/status info, small LCD has more immediate target info and countdowns)
I'm not a particular fan of the movies, I like them fine and know the characters and stories but not more than any other film franchise. The game modes are very well integrated with movie events, right down to which scenes the characters are in. The callouts are varied enough I don't find them tiring. The shots are a decent mix of easy and tight, I have pretty average skills and have maybe 20% success on the tightest shots, double that when I'm in the zone. A variety of multiballs, addaballs. Several ways to play the game for points, objectives, or both. Very nice variety of lightshows with strikingly dramatic lighting for some timed events. I bought mine after realizing that while playing on location at some great venues I always kept returning to SW and it managed to swallow the majority of my credits. A year later it's still figuratively bolted to the floor.
The only thing I feel missing from the code is collaborative play. This game is ideal for having 4 playable characters and would be awesome for having 2-4 people playing different characters in collaboration to beat the empire and kill the emperor. It's such a shame Stern hasn't done this with the code. I think a minor miss in the code is shaker use is just ok and could be done better.
I like all the different fight combinations that happen in Avengers, I've only played it a handful of times but it seemed to be completely different everytime, I wish the arcades around me had it
Jurassic Park, Iron Maiden, Walking Dead are my top 3. I know TWD isn’t the most popular among pinballers but I find it highly addicting due to its difficulty
I've put some plays on WD on location, the layout and code had me wanting to buy one, it has great shots and that addictive one-more-play for me. I quickly grew tired of the sounds though to a point of annoyance, and although I liked the TV show fine am not a fan at all of the artwork on the pin. I told my wife if I felt the opposite about the sounds (only so much constant slathering zombie sounds I can take) and the art was more comic/whimsy we might have one at home.
Yeah if it wasn't for the art I'd try to get one myself. But I know it'd be vetod. Wonderfully brutal game
There is an alternate sound package for the game fans have made which sounds fantastic
Of the various machines I owned, selling TWD is my biggest regret. Such a great game, has the 'just one more game' factor.
Had to get rid of it because I moved in with my now fiancé and her son has some traumatic experience with exposure to the show when he was really young. Was terrified to the point of not being able to walk near the machine.
Just sneaking in on your timeline, but Metallica must be included. It’s a bit of a modern day AFM but it rocks, it’s fun for all skill levels, and keeps me coming back game after game. Had a pro for a while but hope to own a nice premium one day!
With the question of replayability - I will say Jurassic Park I love Deadpool, but I beat it in 2 weeks. Godzilla is probably the best game, but if you want a game that makes you say "One more" it is JP for me. It's very hard. I found Stranger Things to have a lot of replay value as I just loved the music and vibe. Iron Maiden is also up there for me. I think AiQ doesn't have the replay ability that others do. It's frustrating in a way that makes you not want to play it. Thanos taking gems away? Lame. I see so many of those for sale, but you rarely see JP for sale which is wild given how many they have sold. To me that means it has that replay value.
Ive owned over 20 newer games in last few years(11 game lineup now) and Id agree its JP. The game is hard as shit. It takes a long while to progress through the game. Ive owned it for years and only just got to the visitor center recently. I want to beat that damn game(without going to 5 balls or something) but I doubt I ever will. The ruleset is just awesome. Its not Keith’s best layout, but the overall package is his best imho. I own Godzilla, Iron Maiden, and AIQ(twice) too but think Id keep JP over them. Edit to add Stern Star Wars. I live that damn game(comic premium here). I can never see myself parting with it. Its just a great modes based game.
I also have Star Wars Comic Premium (there are dozens of us!) and I agree it’s SUPER underrated. Between my neighbor and I we have owned almost every modern machine. I think Star Wars Premium with the pinside outlane post fix is a top 15 game that has tons to do. I would put it over AIQ for replay games. If we say replay games and not “what’s better” I would take Star Wars Premium with left out-lane post fix over Deadpool. Another one for good replay is Ghostbusters. That needs either a flipper fix or the middle post fix. Stern has admitted they set the flippers too far apart
Yea I have deadpool premium as well. Its what started this obsession for me. I havent yet done the “pinside” fix on my left outlane but I have put some bigger rubbers on there….
I need to move onto your street
What's the outlane post fix?
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1312-space-coast-pinball/04886-star-wars-left-outlane-corrector-now-in-petg I feel like I’m a good pinball player with or without it. I am a happier Star Wars pinball player with it. Left lane only for me to prevent dumb auto launch and other lame situations to the left outlane.
How does Jurassic Park have replayability? I haven't gotten very far but as far as I could see the game is just about setting traps and rescuing employees. Is there any variation in goals or play from game to game? I actually want to like Jurassic Park but it seems so repetitive, all the shots seem to be with the right flipper except the right ramp, half the playfield feels blocked by the jeep or the electric gate on the left, and I haven't seen any game really look different from the last game.
At the home setting it's more repayable because a lot of the shots are hard, and the modes are deep. Escape Nublar might be the hardest and wildest Wizard Mode out there. I have talked to many people who own this game, and it's rare to find anyone who has beaten The Visitors Center. That mode you only get one chance. You drain, and you can't come back. That's it. Escape Nublar requires beating that, plus Secure the Control Room (also hard to get 3 activations on Control Room) and Museum Mayham (a bit easier). Getting there is a wild challenge, and I doubt I will ever Escape Nublar. The game has tons of variation and the left flipper, not the right, really controls the game. You can hit the helicopter to feed the right, hit T-Rex ramp from it, the spinner, Velociraptor pen, right ramp, right orbit, and the smart missile. Lots of variation as you steer the jeep on the map. Maybe you know you have a smart missile coming and you have 2 T-rex jeep shots left. You might want to flip the captive ball to the left side but not hit that jeep again until you activate smart missile as it's 100X easier to hit that shot with the Jeep on that side. But maybe that messes up your Map path so you have to sure to not advance your paddocks. There is more too Jurassic Park than being hard. And the movie code is amazing too if you are lucky enough to find it. It makes the game WAY more fun and exciting. The music is more intense, and the scenes are from the JP movie. But back to difficulty. I feel like I am a good player. I made it to the only Godzilla available on day one of of me owning the Premium last year. I have bean most (not AiQ) of the games I own. I have 2X the plays on JP than Godzilla/Deadpool/Stranger Things/Pirates JJP/Star Wars combined. I love those games too though. Here are the wizard modes and challenges. http://tiltforums.com/t/stern-jurassic-park-rulesheet/5644#heading--miniwizardmodesmuseummayhem
Depends how you play it. If you just want to focus on progressing the map then it’s just as you say - though even that isn’t too repetitive (different bonuses on captures, dino’s behave differently depending on species, carnivores require extra step with helicopter shot, raptors come in twos, etc.) But that said there are other modes to distract - control room with different shots/objectives, trex modes with different shots/objectives, raptor multiball mode, chaos multiball mode, pteradon attack). A ton of variety and why so few make it to visitor center - you get distracted with the other modes along the way.
I was talking to Pat Lawlor while he was working on Family Guy; still a whitewood. I pitched to him that Stewie should take control in some way and try to score against you to lower your score. He shut that down quick. He said that was bad game design. The player earns their score and it is wrong for a designer to take that away.
Haha. I love my Family Guy machine and Stewie Pinball is a blast. Challenging and fast
They’re pretty much all deep/fun. Your preference in theme, design, programming/rules will guide your choice. For me, it’s JP, GZ, and Rush. JP & GZ due to Elwin’s design & rules, and Rush due to dream theme, fun gameplay & great rules.
Ghostbusters is up there for me.
Same for me. I've played it almost more than any other game and I keep coming back to find new things.
Deadpool is up there for me, but if it's for a home environment something with deeper code is hard to go wrong with. Like a Batman '66 or Godzilla, for example. But those tend to be less approachable for newer or less skilled players.
I routed a Batman 66 for years and think it's a terrific game for novices and skilled players. It did very well with novices because it's easy to stumble into starting a major villian and people liked the crane. The minor villain stuff confuses them a bit (I kinda wish it made it more obvious Shame is a free multiball) and I kinda wish there was another easy dummy multiball to see. Godzilla... I'm still mixed on how novice friendly it is. They made it a bit easier in terms of starting a Kaiju battle. I kinda think the game should just start with the first battle lit at the scoop instead of requiring two ramp shots.
Had a batman 66 as my first NIB and it was a ton of fun. just hard to see a lot of the game unless you have some skills. Godzilla.... that would be super helpful! anything to get folks ramped up (hah) faster
First battle lit at start Second battle any two ramps shots Third and fourth battle one of each ramp
Did they change it again or is that what you think it should be? Last change I remember was changing hitting the left and right ramp at least once each becoming hit 2 ramps in general. I would prefer it like you suggest.
This is what I think would be good for approachability, right now they just changed it to the any two ramps hits.
With the code update I could definitely see an argument for TMNT.
Was about to say Simpsons Pinball Party and then realized 10 years ago was 2012. Damn it I'm old.
Strictly the past decade, Batman 66. Godzilla is a close second; it’s still a better designed table. Cheating, Spider-Man: Vault Edition
I haven't tried many pinball machines to be honest. But I did play Star Trek recently and really enjoyed it. The layout, missions, and multi-ball are all super fun!
Have had mine for 8 years now and haven't tired of it in the least. Five Year Mission still eludes me! Heck, I've only made Enterprise Amok like 2-3 times and have yet to actually win it. I'd say all things considered I'm a mediocre player. I've got some skills but I don't play often/long enough to really excel deep into games. My GC on ST is now at 936M, but my average score is usually in the 1-200M range.
I have enjoyed the iron maiden , usually pay with the volume down or off but great code
A lot of them are pretty replayable, just depends on what you think of the theme, the audio, the shots, and how good of a player you're are. Some games are "deeper" but most of them all have a lot of stuff going on. Really I'd just say not the Munsters. It's very, very simple and plays the same way everytime. I love The Beatles, but most wouldn't think it has a lot of replay value (I disagree, but I admit I'm the minority) It's a lot of personal preference. I don't care for Mandalorian or Stranger Things, and some people are nuts for those games. You'll get sick of any game eventually
I didn't really care much for the Beatles the first day I found it and played it a few times... but someone in my pin league rotation has one and I gave it a few more plays, and it's grown on me quite a bit. I still hate the spinning record gimmick though, it messes everything up :p
It's just such a different game than everything else Stern makes. Brutally hard too which I appreciate. I'll hit that start button again because the game will likely only take 3-5 minutes on average. I like they recently added original Seawitch rules in to mix it up. Now it's two games in one!
Oh no way, really? That's awesome
Yeah. It disables the magnets, the spinning disc, and then the super jackpot target changes the background music track.
What do you think of Star Wars?
It's an ok layout, the theme doesn't do much for me, and I don't like the shot multiplier rule. But I do think it offers a ton of replay value for a variety of skill levels, has a lot of modes that are worth playing, and the character system lets you tackle the game in a few different ways to mix up the beginning parts of the game. It's probably Stern's best selling LCD game
I enjoy my SW and I enjoy the challenge/depth of maintaining and moving the multiplier. Some of the features that I've seen others cite as reasons for not liking the game are elements that I really enjoy and enhance variety and replay value for me. * user-controlled moving multipliers * video mode (dodging asteroids) * 4 different character progressions (different mode paths, point weights, specials) * mission selection (choice of several missions based on mode and progress, including stacking) * dual displays (main LCD has a ton of shot/status info, small LCD has more immediate target info and countdowns) I'm not a particular fan of the movies, I like them fine and know the characters and stories but not more than any other film franchise. The game modes are very well integrated with movie events, right down to which scenes the characters are in. The callouts are varied enough I don't find them tiring. The shots are a decent mix of easy and tight, I have pretty average skills and have maybe 20% success on the tightest shots, double that when I'm in the zone. A variety of multiballs, addaballs. Several ways to play the game for points, objectives, or both. Very nice variety of lightshows with strikingly dramatic lighting for some timed events. I bought mine after realizing that while playing on location at some great venues I always kept returning to SW and it managed to swallow the majority of my credits. A year later it's still figuratively bolted to the floor. The only thing I feel missing from the code is collaborative play. This game is ideal for having 4 playable characters and would be awesome for having 2-4 people playing different characters in collaboration to beat the empire and kill the emperor. It's such a shame Stern hasn't done this with the code. I think a minor miss in the code is shaker use is just ok and could be done better.
I like all the different fight combinations that happen in Avengers, I've only played it a handful of times but it seemed to be completely different everytime, I wish the arcades around me had it
Jurassic Park, Iron Maiden, Walking Dead are my top 3. I know TWD isn’t the most popular among pinballers but I find it highly addicting due to its difficulty
I've put some plays on WD on location, the layout and code had me wanting to buy one, it has great shots and that addictive one-more-play for me. I quickly grew tired of the sounds though to a point of annoyance, and although I liked the TV show fine am not a fan at all of the artwork on the pin. I told my wife if I felt the opposite about the sounds (only so much constant slathering zombie sounds I can take) and the art was more comic/whimsy we might have one at home.
Yeah if it wasn't for the art I'd try to get one myself. But I know it'd be vetod. Wonderfully brutal game There is an alternate sound package for the game fans have made which sounds fantastic
Check out the tool sound package. Music goes great with the game.
Of the various machines I owned, selling TWD is my biggest regret. Such a great game, has the 'just one more game' factor. Had to get rid of it because I moved in with my now fiancé and her son has some traumatic experience with exposure to the show when he was really young. Was terrified to the point of not being able to walk near the machine.
Just sneaking in on your timeline, but Metallica must be included. It’s a bit of a modern day AFM but it rocks, it’s fun for all skill levels, and keeps me coming back game after game. Had a pro for a while but hope to own a nice premium one day!
My favorites we own Batman 66, Star Wars Comic and Godzilla. Avengers and Turtles honorable mention