I went to a pinball show where a WCS94 was for sale and on freeplay. I wasn't really expecting to enjoy it at all, but I ended up loving it, and I bought it. The only thing that bummed me out was getting it home and trying to buy new ramps for it (as the ones it had were cracked), man were those just about impossible to find. So beware on cracked ramps. Someday Pinball Inc. says they'll make a set, but when, I don't know. There's no hurry on them. Also look out for excessive saucer wear. There are 3 saucers and they see a lot of use. You can patch those up and drop in Cliffy and Mantis saucer protectors.

WCS94 has great flowing ramps, a cool toy in the goalie, and a couple of magnets including one you can activate to try to save a center drain. The rules are straightforward and fun. The goal is to get to the World Cup final and beat Germany. The cool thing is you can do this 2 ways, by getting tickets and traveling to each city until you reach the finals, or by getting multiball and beating each team standing in your way until you reach Germany (and what a fun multiball WCS94 has, one of my favorites). The saucer in front of the goal is cool in that you can shoot the ball into the goal from there with a flipper button. The playfield is also laid out really well, and you get some cool ricochet action which can make for some cool goals.

I played RBION a few times and it didn't instantly hook me like WCS94 did. However, it seems really mysterious in both ruleset and theme, and it has me wanting to play it more to explore it, kind of like TZ. In fact, since Lawlor designed it, I wonder if he was trying to give Stern their own TZ type game with RBION. I'd like to have it in my collection someday to explore it more.

You probably can't go wrong with either, but WCS94 offers straightforward easily accessible fun (visitors love it), while RBION seems to offer more of a technical challenge, at least to me anyway. As such, RBION may find longer life in a collection by offering a greater and longer lasting challenge.

On WCS94 there are those 2 ways to beat Germany, but neither seem that hard to do. If you have modest skills you can rip thru all the cities pretty easily, and if you have a good multiball or 2, you can get to Germany in a not all too difficult manner. However - keep in mind that going thru the cities gets you the real "wizard" mode, where you square off in a game against Germany, and the soccer ball reverses and spins towards the center drain to make things more difficult for you. You do not get this wizard mode by beating Germany in the regular multiballs, but you get lots of points and it is a cool objective to shoot for.

There are only 4 modes available at the TV scoop, and they are rather simple and process in the same order every time.

As far as those goalie modes, there is a penalty kick mode that comes up with a Stryker award where you have limited time to shoot the ball past the goalie positioned at the side of the net, then one of the TV rounds gives you points for hitting the goalie.

I love my WCS94, but it is really not deep. It's fun for me though. I 've played NGG and I think it's deeper and has more to offer than WCS94, which I think is evidenced in it's higher price. If you want a deep ruleset I think RBION would be the choice for you. For some people deep does not equate to fun, and there are some pins out there with simpler rulesets that simply rock IMO.

Keep this in mind, although I love my WCS94, I would not want it for my only pin, or in a collection smaller than 5 pins, as I think I'd eventually get bored with it. If you do not have a big collection, or are looking for a first pin, I think RBION would offer more replay value for longer than WCS94 or NGG.

All that's IMO of course, your mileage may vary.

Yeah.. Nascar... I played it and didn't like it too much. I noticed the loss of playfield area taken up by the track that runs around the playfield. In addition to that I didn't find it too much fun.

Personally I'd take a chance with the Ripley's for a solo pin in that price range. I scored a non working TZ for my first pin for $1,500 bucks (it was actually a fuse - believe it or not - hey a Ripley's pun), so there are some odd ball deals out there that would trump the RBION, but they're not likely to fall in your lap like that TZ did for me. I was happy with that TZ for a whole year before I got the jonesing for more pins. I think RBION may hold you over longer than a pin with a shallower ruleset like that TZ held me over. I guess that's my opinion.

The rest of the pins I can think of in that price range will have shallower rulesets, unless you can find something like The Shadow. They're supposed to sell in that range, but everytime I have the money, I can't find one.

I should also mention that I really like Judge Dredd in that price range. It's a widebody Superpin, with tons of shots, multiple flippers, a deep ruleset, and the Dead World planet mod is cool.

It flows kind of "differently" than other pins I've played, and I haven't played it enough to really dial in the shots. I think the different flow would make for good variety in my collection, and I'd love to add one soon.

So you may want to add JD to your list, I think it would make a good first pin and would be interested in hearing what others thought.