First, the negatives. This is one of the worst multi player games in existence. Ball times can be a bit long (although everything is adjustable) and switching players breaks up the epic journey feeling of the pin. Also, the playfield artwork is a little muddy and some of the sound clips seem to be sampled at a lower quality rate.

The positives? Everything else. This game is immersive in so many ways. It's an epic journey and the "on a quest" feeling that the game gives you is unrivaled. The music enhances the theme and it fits the action perfectly. This game also has great voice work and some of the best custom call outs in pinball. The code is deep, the modes offer plenty of variety, and playing thru the movie themed multi-ball modes is the perfect balance of challenging and fun. The game is also loaded with great shots and nailing the center ring shot never gets old. Great custom dot animations round out the package and make a ColorDMD a must have on this title. Overall, this is a top tier pinball machine that arguably offers the best immersive experience in pinball.

After years of ignoring this game (I’m not familiar with the movies, but I love the 1977 animated Hobbit), I decided to read up on this game and started to play it in local bars. I was immediately struck by how inspired it feels. The ramps are unique. The playfield is complicated but tasteful. Artwork, music and callouts are very good. The code is excellent and deep. Plenty to do. You don’t have to be a fan of the movies. This game stands on its own. Maybe the best long-ball adventure game I’ve played. I soon wanted to own one. Now I see why this game is so highly regarded. It’s not really that hard, but it depends a lot on your settings. Just a really unique game designed and built by a lot of talented people. Probably Stern’s crown jewel.

*UPDATE - I traded my first LOTR and missed it too much. So I found an even nicer one and bought it again. Beautiful, balanced adventure game with fantastic sound and perfect rules. Great shot variety. This one is staying.

This machine is an epic and immersive adventure with fantastic themed rules and modes coupled with a number of excellent and challenging shots and some very good speed and flow. The multiballs on this game are fantastic and although the main three cannot be stacked, you can combine Gollum Multiball and the active modes with them. Destroy the Ring is fantastic.
Probably not the best for Multiplayer because the game is just so immersive and there can be longer ball times (but there can also be very short games too). One of the best machines for home use enjoyment.

Lotr is an incredibly immersive pinball machine and its theme is incredibly well integrated. The rule set is fantastic in that it’s easy to understand yet hard to master.

Have owned this for several years and will never part ways! As everyone familiar with the rule set, it is as deep as it gets! Fun for the novice player and the ultimate challenge for everyone else! Love this game!

One of the best pins ever made. First game I ever played I made it to Destroy the Ring and I was hooked since then. Fan layout but some good variations of shots and toys. This was during the period of Stern producing long playing games with deep rules like Spider-Man, POTC, etc which is still the golden era of Stern for me. Definite a top 5 game.

I bought my LOTR in 2006 (it was built at the end of 2005, 2nd series?). It is still my favourite game beside Centaur 1 ;-). It is definately one of the stars of all the Stern machines. The only thing to complain about is the real poor sound quality. This gets lukily a bit better with a sound hardware upgrade. Some other technical problems (e.g. ring magnet) are of minor matter when the machine is exclusively home-used.

The transformation of the Tolkien theme is really, really well done. There are loads of things to do and to achieve and the game has unique toys and gimmicks. The immersion is really extraordinary even though the sound quality is "White-Star-like". Callouts are well placed, e.g. "Jackpot Fiiiiiive" and often give you the last bit of the thrill.

Last to say: The LOTR is a fancy pinball machine!

I've been playing this game for about 10 years at a local arcade that usually keeps it in wonderful shape. I've probably put hours upon hours and hundreds of games into it, and I can safely say, this is my most favorite pinball machine I've ever played.

The playfield design is fantastic. For the most part it's a fan layout, but every shot is unique in some way, and every single one is satisfying to hit. The ramps are specially satisfying. The wireform ramp on the left is blazing fast, whipping the ball around 180 degrees and bringing it safely back to the flipper. The sword ramp sends the ball into a spot target before it goes flying back down to the right flipper, somehow maintaining all the speed it was shot with. The ring ramp is the most satisfying, being challenging to hit right so it goes through the ring, and when you do get it right you get to see the game's coolest toy in action as it holds the ball with a magnet, which then either lets it back down or throws it through the back panel into a wireform for a safe return. Another plus with this shot is that, despite being straight up the center of the playfield, most failed shots don't go STDM and can usually be recovered. In fact, that's kind of true of every shot. There's a reason this game is known for its long ball times; missing a shot usually doesn't punish you too bad, and if you are a good player you can easily recover most of the time.

The rules are also fantastic, and integrated with the movies perfectly. One multiball for each of the three films, each of which is challenging to start (Especially on harder settings which I highly recommend), a blast to play, and an even greater challenge to beat (Each multiball is like a super hard mode that can be completed). Playing all three mutliballs lights the Destroy the Ring Wizard mode, which will get your heart pounding! Collecting rings of Men, Elves, and Dwarves is another excellent aspect of the rules. There are many shots that can be lit to collect a type of ring, and these shots shuffle throughout the game making it necessary to shoot a large variety of shots. The type of ring you'll probably focus on the most is Elf rings, as collecting three lights the ring for one of the game's six modes. All of these modes are engaging, challenging, and best of all a great way to score big points. Playing all six modes allows the player to play the There and Back Again wizard mode, which I'll admit I still haven't reached... It's not easy! Then there's Valinor... A wizard mode I can't even imagine reaching, but that won't stop me from trying!

Then there's presentation. Once again, it's fantastic! I knocked a single point for the playfield art as I think it could have been better and less photoshoppy, but that doesn't mean it's not great. It's all designed around the playfield layout well and represents the films really well. The translite and cabinets are also great and I don't have any complaints about those. The DMD animations are great, recreating events from the movie in custom made animations that look as good as you can get on such limited technology (And personally, I love the look of good DMD animations!). The light shows are beautiful and exciting, especially with some nice bright LEDs (Withe and LED controller board of course) installed. The audio is incredible, as should be expected from composer Chris Granner. The sound design is great, fitting the theme well while also generating the excitement that any good pinball game should. The music is also excellent, as it uses melodies from the films but, just like the sound design, is composed in such a way as to fit the excitement of a pinball game (I would never want the tracks taken straight out of the movie and used in this game. The movie soundtrack is legendary, yes, but each track is filled with moments that just wouldn't make sense to listen to while playing pinball). Then there's the callouts. Elijah Wood (Frodo) and John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) both recorded custom callouts for the game, and they did an amazing job. Add onto that a ton of quotes taken straight from the films and you have one of the best sets of callouts in a pinball game.

All in all I really cannot find much, if any fault in this game. If I had to find something to complain about, it would be I think the playfield art could be a tad better (as previously mentioned), the cave shot to the bumpers can be annoying to shoot sometimes (This shot allows the ball to pass through it into the bumpers, so sometimes the ball will pass through, bounce around a bit, and then exit the bumpers another way, and you don't get credit for the shot. Can be infuriating if extra ball is lit!), and the game's super long play times *could* be tiring in a home environment. Emphasis on the "could." As my only experience with this game is in arcades I see this game as a challenge to make the most of my fifty cents and I am always up for a thirty minute game. I can't say for sure how I would feel about this in a home environment, but I do worry it could get old after tons and tons of free games. That said, if I ever get the opportunity to buy one I won't hesitate to get it!

Summary: Everything about this game is near perfect. Learn the rules, find one, and play it!

Super fun, nice layout, one of my faves!

Lord of the Rings has some, if not THE best theme integration of any machine. The crazy deep ruleset and large number of shots really suit the goliath films. Music is good, lots of callouts from a variety of characters too. Sound quality isn't as great as subsequent releases but not a deal breaker. Machine looks great, and the layout is good. One of Gomez's last brilliant layouts (sorry, still bitter about the hideous Avengers game). I wouldn't want to own it, I think the ball times would be just a little too long, but I really enjoy playing it on location, at shows, and in tournaments.

I love this game so much. The shots and flow of this game are incredible.
This game deserves a proper VE with improved art and higher quality printing for the toys, playfield and plastics.
The gameplay and theme are just about perfect.

I have owned this game for several month. I currently have ten machines. Half of them being 80/90s Bally/Williams and the other half modern sterns. Sometimes I enjoy a brutal game that has simple rules, flow, and satisfying shots. Other times I enjoy playing a game that takes a little bit more time to understand and has more depth. This game is of the second variety. At first I didn't really gravitate towards the game because I didn't quite understand the rules, but after spending some time figuring out the rules I realized how great this game is. I think it's ridiculous and uninformed when someone creates a review after playing any pin for '30' minutes at a local bar. In my opinion these reviews should be instantly disqualified, because no one can understand the rules of a pin after 30 minutes of play. I have almost half of the top ten pins and IMO this game is definitely a top 10 pin.

I grew up with this game. I purchased it from my father recently. I have probably played this pin over the decades more than any other.

Look I love this game. But even I can admit that is largely due to my love of the LOTR. As a pinball game, this machine is very good, maybe even great. But a top 10 pin this is not.

Look the music, artwork, callouts, sounds and overall theme are really second to none. Many of the callouts are not only custom, but are from the actual movie actors! I have yet to see a game do better with licensing other than maybe the hobbit. The animations are only rivaled by the new lcd screen games. The modes are different, challenging and fun. But the design of the playfield is lacking.

First, the magnetic ring rarely works right even in the best of machines. A shot up the middle is supposed to start modes, but it really is a design flaw where even on the best of machines, a perfect shot up the middle does not always work. Also the right ramp is a bit of a joke. It is not at a correct angle for the flippers to reliably target. Even for great players, the bad layout of the right sword ramp is more of a luck shot.

The toys affixed to the playfield also are pretty cheap. They are quite literally the same boxed action figure toys that were sold at Toys R Us back when the movies were hot. How do I know this? Because I owned a lot of the same toys. Even the main Balrog toy is nothing more than a mass produced action figure.

The tower up kicks are cool, but the path of the dead upper playfield is pointless, luck driven, non-interactive garbage that severely hinders the flow of the game.

Reading this, you would think that I don’t love the game, but the truth is I do. I love it for the depth of the rules and the modes. I love it for the callouts, the music and the theme, which it probably got better than arguably any other game out there. But, the playfield layout and the toys leave much to be desired — so much so my kids prefer Star Wars Episode I over this pin.

A top 100 pin this is, a top 10 pin this is not.

Great game!

One of the best Stern games. Love this game. Has great flow. Deeper set of rules. You can achieve your multiballs kinda easy, but they are great! Love the animations, the music and the theme. This is a keeper!

What is there to say? Great game.

As a pinball fan but not a big LOTR fan, I really enjoy this table. The theme doesn't do anything for me personally however it is integrated in the table extremely well. The real draw to this table for me are the rules. There are 3 main multiball modes and several gameplay modes to be played. There is so much to do on this table, including one of the most difficult to reach wizard modes in all of pinball. Decent shots and an interesting layout. Not the best art, but it could be worse. Overall an great pinball experience.

Lord of the rings is a cool game it has great sounds and callouts it also has cool toys. The one thing I don't like is the game takes too long even after taking rubbers off I still have one hour long games.

One of the best of Sterns all time pinball machines!

Still no where close to beating it...

Perfectly integrated theme with a deep set of rules. Favorite pin to go back to again and again!

I used to not appreciate this game at all! Every location game was always in poor condition and was in disrepair. Then I played one in good condition with someone who gave me a good strategy to play! It completely opened my eyes to how great this machine is!! Such great, deep rules!! I ended up buying it! It's a great machine in the home environment with the deep rule set!

What a cool pin. Lost in the gameplay, sounds and slowly getting into the world of this perfect machine, suddenly the Ballrog lights up, growls to you and the machine shakes. The balls are coming down as a Ballrog attack and are screaming to be punched back as fast as possible to hit and the Ballrog over and over. YES, this is pinball at his best.

This game is soooo much fun the music the gameplay is all awsome to play fun for hours

This is our favorite pin. Deep rules, great connection to the movies. I recognize our love of the movies may have biased us on this one, but who cares. Love the voices from the movie and some that are for the game only. The various video modes are numerous and good and the various multi-balls really get your pulse moving. This one is a permanent in our game room.