Stern

Batman (The Dark Knight)

Pinside Rating

This game received 345 approved Pinsider ratings and currently rates 7.740 _/10

7.74

Top 100 ranking

This game ranks #136 in the Pinside Pinball Top 100.

Score breakdown

Score breakdown in the 4 main categories:

Game Design: 7.842

Artwork: 7.632

Sounds/Music: 7.191

Other Aspects: 7.846

Pinside staff rating

This is how we, the very knowledgeable (wink wink) Pinside.com staff & moderators rate this game. 8 of us have rated this game.

8.052

Your Rating?

You need to be logged in before you can rate pinball machines. No account yet? Registering only takes a sec!

Found 193 ratings (with comment) on this game

There are 193 ratings (that include a comment) on this game.
Currently showing results page 8 of 8.

List options

Ratings sort order

Type of ratings to show in list

Owner status of review

Exclude flagged ratings

Keyword or username search

8.995/10

13 years ago

JMG

drbond

Inactive member

14y 62,400 1,473 7 85

After some hiccups with early software revisions, the newly updated BDK (ver 2.94) can now be inducted into the elite league of Stern greats (LOTR, TSPP, FG, SM). Another of Gomez's best designs, this machine fires on all cylinders. Great soundtrack & sfx. Illustrated translite is incredible and is up there with Stern's LOTR. Some well done voice samples by the actors and most voice-alikes (Lucius Fox sounds terrible). Lots of very long shots that travel the playfield and multiple skill shots (3+1 hidden), make this one cool to watch as a spectator. An overall fun playing machine for novices & new code makes this game very deep for pros. "Where does he get those wonderful toys?" Scarecrow crane, batmobile teeter-totter, & Joker reveal mechanism (similar to Gomez's Playboy) are all very cool. The crane is the standout feature here, as it makes pre-designated stops requiring sniper precision with the flipper bat (unlike the randomly moving crane in Junkyard). The new code add tons of great custom dot matrix animation (to offset the sometimes blurry digitized videos from the Dark Knight movie) as well as shaker support. The updated code has also vastly changed the way to play BDK. Players can build up incredible jackpot pools via multipliers, but can easily lose them if not cashed in by making certain timed shots (amplifying the use of time extensions via difficult Alfred target, who also serves as add-a-ball). In addition to this, modes can be heavily stacked, making for lots of strategy (similar to SM or BSD). As for modes, Batman must hit certain targets to do various things like collecting parts for his costume (ala Path of the Dead soul collecting in LOTR) or searching for the Joker around the playfield (ala finding the Creature during multiball in CFTBL). Completing them all advances to the Bat Signal mini-wizard mode, where only the bright white flashers light the game (strobe on hit). Mind-blowing stuff! This all leads up to Gotham City wizard mode, which will really test advanced players. Batman has a solid track record in video games, but is often overlooked in pinball (DE Batman & Sega Batman Forever). DO NOT overlook the Stern pinball game, especially with the new software. It is a must own for fans of the Dark Knight, or just fans of the silver ball! "Why...so...serious?"

drbond edited previous rating on March 14, 2021.
drbond currently owns this game.

2 Pinsiders starred this!

10.000/10

13 years ago

???

necroscope

Inactive member

Romsey

14y 7,400 4 2 10

One of the best.

necroscope edited previous rating on April 24, 2012.
necroscope currently owns this game.

9.160/10

14 years ago

RSG

tatman9999

Pinside+ Frequent

Lisle, IL

14y 113K 4,655 48 31

very fun game love the crane.will be better when new code is released
Update add a shaker,very nice,the more i play it the more i like it.I really like the joker muiltiball
Update after code update 2.9 then 2.94 this game rocks.

tatman9999 edited previous rating on May 20, 2012.
tatman9999 has owned this game in the past.

9.747/10

14 years ago

???

fl061280

Inactive member

Corpus Christi, TX

14y 17,500 1 7

I may sound a little biased, but I am a big Batman fan. When I saw the game at a local Tilt, I had to play it. I was not disappointed at all. Stern definitely made a good game.

10.000/10

14 years ago

MUN

bmunn1

Pinside+ Frequent

Detroit, MI

16y 61,650 288 13 34

The more I play this game the more I love it. Very Fun! If they finish the code on this game, this game will be the talk of 2010. Update: 2.9 released and now this game is my favorite alltime game! Get them while you can this game will supplant or be considered equal to MM.

bmunn1 edited previous rating on May 07, 2010.
bmunn1 currently owns this game.

7.796/10

14 years ago

RVM

robin

Pinside founder

Alkmaar

21y 192K 7,921 94

My first impressions are pretty good, a very nice flow and generally just a lot of fun to play. Clearly the coolest feature must be the crane. It's a big assembly with a ball hanging down from a spring-like mechanism. The whole crane moves left and right. Shooting at a moving target is really a lot of fun and real challenging in later stages of the game where the target just keeps moving frantically. All the shot are all well laid out and pretty varied.

The artwork for the game is top notch, in the same league as Spider-Man. I absolute love the cabinet artwork - very well done.

The sound bytes are pretty cool as well, especially the voice of the Scarecrow. But also the various taunts by the Joker are ripped from the movie very nicely! I enjoyed the music altough it seemed a but repetitive to me. But then again, I haven't played long enough to know for sure.

All in all, my first impression is very good.

Downsides? Well the most obvious one I can think of is the giant assembly where the Joker doll lives in. In my opinion, this is a big waste of resources (budget money) and playfield space and does next to nothing. I would rather have seen some cool mechanism that the ball interacts with. Like Frankenstein in Monster Bash or something of that sorts.

8.292/10

14 years ago

TDA

The_Dude_Abides

Pinside Moderator

Northern California, CA

14y 137K 9,468 151

It is a fun pin to play with an interesting layout good call outs. Looks cool has some fun toys and yes ball times do last long but that is not always a bad thing. I is a fun well themed pin.

The_Dude_Abides edited previous rating on April 19, 2015.

8.877/10

14 years ago

???

shoarmaman

Inactive member

Unknown

14y 2,500 12

Very good pin! I really like shooting the crane!

7.388/10

14 years ago

JAR

jar155

Pinside member

North Salt Lake, UT

14y 114K 6,220 9 141

This was a fun game, but make sure you're wearing comfy shoes because ball times are very, very, long. I liked the toys on the machine and some of the way things move is impressive.

7.730/10

14 years ago

???

Batfellow

Inactive member

Rockwall, TX

14y 8,500 2 6

A little too gimicky for me. I was really expecting something great, but was somewhat dissappointed. It could have been better.

Batfellow has this game on the wishlist.

6.484/10

14 years ago

???

Fredaboy1

Inactive member

Boise, ID

15y 23,000 9 1 51

My brother played this one so I might have a different opinion than him.

Fredaboy1 edited previous rating on May 22, 2009.

8.600/10

15 years ago

???

Dikkie_4_You

Pinside member

Schelle

15y 32,250 6 6

One of the best pinball machine i ever played on!

3.878/10

15 years ago

???

ribbo835

Pinside member

Adelaide

15y 32,150 6 2 7

What a piece of crap. I love TDK movie but this machine is a total waste of time. Stern you could have at least used the real actors voices in the game.... You buy the license for the game and you come out with this.....

5 Pinsiders flagged this.

7.606/10

15 years ago

???

chip27

Pinside member

Guildford

15y 16,250 1 6

I played this a few times thinking it would get better but I'm afraid it's not. The table is just not fast enough for what I like, yes it looks nice and yes the table has lots of gimmicks but at the end of the day it just seemed to slow. Multiball is ok but nothing exciting but the table it self looks nice and fresh and goes well with the theme of the dark knight.

8.092/10

15 years ago

DL

cabrioletsch

Pinside member

Berkel En Rodenrijs

15y 44,050 45 4 38

not a bally/williams but good fun

cabrioletsch edited previous rating on March 23, 2021.

7.796/10

15 years ago

SAM

dangermouse007

Inactive member

Auckland

15y 47,900 483 3 58

Wow really cant think of another game where im SOOOOOOO put off with a single toy or so called feature,that Joker cylinder is UGGGLYYYYYYY,and whats worse is it takes up so much real estate on the playfield.

Yeah the crane is neat but cant get by on that alone and just hasn't got the 'pulse' that SM or LOTR has.

dangermouse007 edited previous rating on April 23, 2012.

10.000/10

15 years ago

???

taxfighter

Inactive member

Berg

15y 9,500 7 38

such a great great game! the code 2.94 is really well done. FUN FUN FUN

taxfighter edited previous rating on May 07, 2010.

8.947/10

15 years ago

???

LOTTABALLS

Inactive member

Unknown

19y 21,250 8 36

Also played this all weekend at a tournament and it's not bad. I can see why people are complaining about the software with these newer Stern games but aside from that, game looks killer and theres lots of fun ways to get points. I think once a few more software revisions come up, people are going to start liking this thing a whole lot more. And if they dont...then I can get one cheaper!

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

There are 193 ratings (that include a comment) on this game. Currently showing results page 8 of 8.

You too can add your own comment by rating this game! Click here to rate this game!

Over the years

Visualizing this game's rating and rank over the years

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!