Gottlieb
Big Hurt Pinside Rating
This game received 61 approved Pinsider ratings and currently rates 7.165 /10
Big Hurt
Score breakdown
Score breakdown in the 4 main categories:
Game Design: 7.458
Artwork: 6.664
Sounds/Music: 6.304
Other Aspects: 7.577
Pinside staff rating
This is how we, the very knowledgeable (wink wink) Pinside.com staff & moderators rate this game. 2 of us have rated this game.
Found 28 ratings (with comment) on this game
There are 28 ratings (that include a comment) on this game.
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9.040/10
1 year ago
Granger, IN
Great Pin for the sports fans Man Cave! As a Whitesox fan, this game was a dream purchase of mine and I was fortunate to find one within 6 hours that I could drive to pick up. Not over complicated like some pins but has enty of different modes to keep you engaged.
7.574/10
2 years ago
My biggest gripe about this game is the code. Its just not good. There is just too much. The cards, the score, grandslam.... All the stuff you can do is just too much. It also makes head to head a little bit of a dice roll and not skill based, depending on what random rewards the players get.
With that being said, I really enjoy playing this game. I think its fun to shoot, and I think it's probably one of my favorite 90s Gottliebs I"ve played. I think it has good animations that lend to its theme and add energy to it. The callouts are great and not only add to the theme of watching a baseball game, but really do amp you up when playing.
Also, I feel like Gottliebs don't have a lot of cool mechs, but this game has a really nice one. The glove!!! Does it have it's problems yes, but its still super cool. I like the ramp and I like the glove. Hitting a homerun or grandslam is great, but even when you make a great catch.
Some people say the glove results in a lot of sdtm drains. Sure... But, so does the force field in AFM. Its part of pinball.
While I'm not a huge sports guy, and I rather have women or babes theme pinball, this is a looker. Nice side art, nice playfield and very nice backglass. It's also one of the rare gottliebs that the theme is spot on, you really don't get a better theme integration in pinball.
This is a flawed game, but a really fun game to shoot. I think in a small collection it wouldn't age well. But, with a bigger collection this should be a winner for people. Yes, the code stinks. But, its fun to shoot.
With that being said, I really enjoy playing this game. I think its fun to shoot, and I think it's probably one of my favorite 90s Gottliebs I"ve played. I think it has good animations that lend to its theme and add energy to it. The callouts are great and not only add to the theme of watching a baseball game, but really do amp you up when playing.
Also, I feel like Gottliebs don't have a lot of cool mechs, but this game has a really nice one. The glove!!! Does it have it's problems yes, but its still super cool. I like the ramp and I like the glove. Hitting a homerun or grandslam is great, but even when you make a great catch.
Some people say the glove results in a lot of sdtm drains. Sure... But, so does the force field in AFM. Its part of pinball.
While I'm not a huge sports guy, and I rather have women or babes theme pinball, this is a looker. Nice side art, nice playfield and very nice backglass. It's also one of the rare gottliebs that the theme is spot on, you really don't get a better theme integration in pinball.
This is a flawed game, but a really fun game to shoot. I think in a small collection it wouldn't age well. But, with a bigger collection this should be a winner for people. Yes, the code stinks. But, its fun to shoot.
5.058/10
5 years ago
Sydney
Bought this relatively cheaply so thought Id give it s go even though I'm not at all into baseball.
Build quality and serviceability is great on the whole but all System 3 Gottlieb's seem to get playfield wear down near the flippers where the mylar ends. My particular machine needed a bunch of small fixes that actually added up to a lot of work. I completely LED it, new rubbers, and a bunch of other parts. Had to basically disassemble the upper playful ramp/stadium assembly as the optos under it for the orbit were out. These are impossible to get to without this disassembly and its a big job so best to check this. The game would benefit greatly from a complete code rewrite as the rules and scorings are silly. Would have loved to have been able to turn off the cheesy 80s background music which gets old really fast but you can't. Kids seem to love the machine, especially the glove. I could see it making money on location but unless you have a particular interest its not really on par with the good machines. All the fixes made it play much better but nothing could fix the poor programming and confusing gameplay.
Build quality and serviceability is great on the whole but all System 3 Gottlieb's seem to get playfield wear down near the flippers where the mylar ends. My particular machine needed a bunch of small fixes that actually added up to a lot of work. I completely LED it, new rubbers, and a bunch of other parts. Had to basically disassemble the upper playful ramp/stadium assembly as the optos under it for the orbit were out. These are impossible to get to without this disassembly and its a big job so best to check this. The game would benefit greatly from a complete code rewrite as the rules and scorings are silly. Would have loved to have been able to turn off the cheesy 80s background music which gets old really fast but you can't. Kids seem to love the machine, especially the glove. I could see it making money on location but unless you have a particular interest its not really on par with the good machines. All the fixes made it play much better but nothing could fix the poor programming and confusing gameplay.
Sainte-thérèse, QC
8.162/10
6 years ago
Frank Thomas Big Hurt pinball is easily the best baseball themed pinball. The modes are fantastic and encompass almost every aspect of the game. Gottlieb themed this after one of baseball's biggest stars of the 90's, neck and neck with Ken Griffey Jr. at the time. The home run/grand slam shot is one of the best in pinball and the glove is one of the most satisfying "stuffs" in all of pinball. The 7th inning stretch is a blast and what the music/sounds lack overall, it's made up for it in this mode. The announcer is fantastic and will take you right back to the mid 90's; it reminds me a lot of NBA Jam. If you get a chance to play this game, don't pass it up, and if you can find one to buy and have an affinity for 90's sports, it's a must own.
7.194/10
7 years ago
Very fun pin with some bad art. The glove is a fantastic toy, it will STUFF you hard on your attempts at hitting balls out of the park. I Love the pop up ramp, and the rules aren't bad. lot's of ways to score points on this one. This is like a world cup soccer, but much better.
6.424/10
9 years ago
My father has owned this game for over a year now and I have probably close to 100 plays on it. If they game is playing really good, has a good incline and the flippers are nice and strong this game is a lot of fun. The main gripes I have with it are the horrid Sys 3 sound quality and the multiball centric modes. They are nearly the same mode structure as Stargate (another game my father owns) but they seem a bit more repetitive in Big Hurt. I would assume this is due to the playfield layout. It is always fun to play for runs or home runs instead of score so there is some variety there. There are two bad things about the rules though. 1.) The left orbit, while a tough shot to repeat, can be hit consecutively for billions of points. Now, in over a year of playing the game I have only done this once, but it resulted in me getting over 4 billion points in a matter of seconds. My previous high score to date was 1.7 billion. Like I said, this can be an extremely hard shot to replicate and it is a dangerous shot because the standups on each side of the orbit entrance can throw the ball back down the outlanes. I honestly try to go for that shot all of the time as it sucks the fun out of the rest of the game which is pretty dang fun. 2.) Being able to trade in your "cards" you have collected to double your score. I have never done this because you have to have an exact amount. The rule is there though and I don't like it.
All of this said, it isn't a great tournament game, but a lot of fun in a home environment. I think a lot of people would enjoy it if they just got a chance to play it. It actually is a pretty game if it is cleaned up. My fathers is a very nice example with a clear coated playfield.
All of this said, it isn't a great tournament game, but a lot of fun in a home environment. I think a lot of people would enjoy it if they just got a chance to play it. It actually is a pretty game if it is cleaned up. My fathers is a very nice example with a clear coated playfield.
6.191/10
9 years ago
Always see people hating on this so I gave it a spin. The callouts get old fast, but gameplay is well done. Several modes, run scoring, moving target....a lot to do. Suffers from what I think all system 3s suffer from, and that is the crazy valued shot. Sf2, freddy, this...they all have a crazy valued jackpot or bonus that gives you way to many points and offers some unbalanced scoring
If you're a baseball fan you'll like it, if not you probably won't. Not lit very well either.
If you're a baseball fan you'll like it, if not you probably won't. Not lit very well either.
7.603/10
10 years ago
I see a common theme in these Pinside reviews “this game is underratedâ€. I totally agree but I'll be a little more specific about why.
Multi-ball is too easy. Every game, regardless how poorly you're doing is rewarded with several multi-ball sessions. When it's so easy, it loses the thrill. You're supposed to feel that “WAHOO - I DID IT†when you finally make that last locking shot and know you've arrived at one of the pinnacles of the game in play. In this game it's just another round of too many balls on the field. Which is the second issue - there's really nothing all that special you're supposed to be doing while in multi-ball. Sure, the home run now shows “Jackpot†on the score board if you happen to look at it. But there are no significant differences in the sound. WCS would be going nuts with fireworks, announcer screaming exciting plays and lights flashing on the ramps to advance to the next team. BH - nothing.
Oh, this just kills me, quick ball drain, announcer says “same player shoots againâ€. Really? OK, I'm not a big baseball fan but I've watched a few games and I've never heard an announcer say anything like that. Why couldn't he call “foul ballâ€? DUH!!! WCS calls “Out of Boundsâ€. Way better.
I have to wonder how the designer never saw a link between baseball (you swing a bat to hit a ball) to pinball (you swing a flipper to hit a ball). What the hell were they thinking with a base hit being obtained by knocking down drop targets whereas the great orbit shot doing nothing to advance the runners. Really? It's so dang obvious a line drive around the orbit should move a player to the next base and how rewarding would that feel?
So, sounds like I've bashed the hell out of this game, how could I possibly think it's underrated? Easy. When you play it, don't think about it as a baseball game. As a generic pinball game it's quite amazing really. Three gap shots, two ramps down either side of the game. Different VUKs let the ball enter from different places (even TZ only has one under playfield entry point). Knock downs, glove, reversing ramp, captive ball, very high fidelity on the audio sampling. It's got all the technical bells and whistles. And build quality - I have a lot of Williams / Bally games and compared to them, this thing is built like a brick shit house. Wire gauge on the ramps must be larger as these are really solid. The playfield is also up higher - the whole cabinet is taller. You feel like you went from the kids arcade to the adult game room when you step up to this thing. And the play? It's a blast - really, it just doesn't seem to give you the rewarding feeling for the great shots. You just have to create your own joy of completing the shot you were striving for.
Bottom line, the layout and play of this game is fine. All that would have been needed to put this somewhere in the middle of the top 100 like WCS (a very similar game on many levels) would have been to have one of the Bally software artists to make a few changes to the play and audio as described above. What a pity.
Multi-ball is too easy. Every game, regardless how poorly you're doing is rewarded with several multi-ball sessions. When it's so easy, it loses the thrill. You're supposed to feel that “WAHOO - I DID IT†when you finally make that last locking shot and know you've arrived at one of the pinnacles of the game in play. In this game it's just another round of too many balls on the field. Which is the second issue - there's really nothing all that special you're supposed to be doing while in multi-ball. Sure, the home run now shows “Jackpot†on the score board if you happen to look at it. But there are no significant differences in the sound. WCS would be going nuts with fireworks, announcer screaming exciting plays and lights flashing on the ramps to advance to the next team. BH - nothing.
Oh, this just kills me, quick ball drain, announcer says “same player shoots againâ€. Really? OK, I'm not a big baseball fan but I've watched a few games and I've never heard an announcer say anything like that. Why couldn't he call “foul ballâ€? DUH!!! WCS calls “Out of Boundsâ€. Way better.
I have to wonder how the designer never saw a link between baseball (you swing a bat to hit a ball) to pinball (you swing a flipper to hit a ball). What the hell were they thinking with a base hit being obtained by knocking down drop targets whereas the great orbit shot doing nothing to advance the runners. Really? It's so dang obvious a line drive around the orbit should move a player to the next base and how rewarding would that feel?
So, sounds like I've bashed the hell out of this game, how could I possibly think it's underrated? Easy. When you play it, don't think about it as a baseball game. As a generic pinball game it's quite amazing really. Three gap shots, two ramps down either side of the game. Different VUKs let the ball enter from different places (even TZ only has one under playfield entry point). Knock downs, glove, reversing ramp, captive ball, very high fidelity on the audio sampling. It's got all the technical bells and whistles. And build quality - I have a lot of Williams / Bally games and compared to them, this thing is built like a brick shit house. Wire gauge on the ramps must be larger as these are really solid. The playfield is also up higher - the whole cabinet is taller. You feel like you went from the kids arcade to the adult game room when you step up to this thing. And the play? It's a blast - really, it just doesn't seem to give you the rewarding feeling for the great shots. You just have to create your own joy of completing the shot you were striving for.
Bottom line, the layout and play of this game is fine. All that would have been needed to put this somewhere in the middle of the top 100 like WCS (a very similar game on many levels) would have been to have one of the Bally software artists to make a few changes to the play and audio as described above. What a pity.
7.775/10
11 years ago
Frank Thomas was my favorite baseball player growing up and I had no idea he had a pinball machine until a couple of months ago. I tracked one down and if you like baseball, you will really enjoy this game. Great layout with the moving baseball glove (similiar to the goalie in WCS94), most of the modes are multiball. I'm not a gottlieb hater, and think this is another good machine (i.e. stargate and freddy). The worst things about the game are the scoring is unbalanced (if you master the loop shot you can get ridiculous amounts of points) and the world series wizard mode is a little confusing. All in all, Big Hurt is a steal at its price and to me outperforms a lot of the newer sterns.
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