Bankshot's ratings

What a great game! To have a pinball that works so well head to head and an EM to boot. The animated back glass is tops and the game rules work so well. Plenty of snap with the five pop bumbers and the slings can kick it up to the pops quite easily.
There is some interesting strategy as far as scoring goals and points. It is quite difficult to score a lot of goals AND score a lot of points. After you score a goal the middle bumper and the side bumps jump to 1000 points until you reset the goal to center ice by going through either side lane or back through the gate into the shooter lane. Really awesome and unique game play.
Buzzer going off after scoring a goal is very satisfying. Might have to add a light for the topper.

This game has sime pretty unique features for it's time and they are integrated well. Actually flows quite well once you get in the zone. The toilet bowl shot and crane are pretty cool shots. Getting Junk Champion and seeing your initials on the dog collar is pretty clever. Probably considered deep for its time.
I probably would not own this one unless i had a bigger collection as I find it a bit easy.
Kids seem to be really drawn to this title.
Pretty solid table overall and great effirt by Williams.

Quite a looker for it's time. Great theme for a lake home or marina. One of these games that you can really rack up some games on if you can manage to get a full rack of balls in the backglass and light special. Love these reverse wedgeheads and this one especially.

Great game. Probably a top 10 EM for me and I am a bigger fan of Williams reverse wedge heads but this is just plain fun. Cool theme, animated BG and great variation of shots. A real winner.

Love the theme and the 3D backglass is killer. Some cool shots for sure and decent movie integration. I love the movie but just kind of liked this machine. I think they could have done a little better. Fun to play on route but not enough to own one.

Solid game for newbies but I had little trouble dominating this game from the start. Lots of cool gimmicks and call outs but after I racked up some games I moved on. Great theme, but just not my cup of tea.

Just another Bingo machine but the cabinet art is exceptional. I would rate the backglass art and playfield above average for Bingos. The hold feature combined with the spot feature keeps you coming back for more. Built like a tank I hope these things are around for generations to come. Fairly complex to keep running but there is help out there and the Bingo side of pinball is not dead.

Fun to play for awhile, but wouldn't want to bring her home. This is a winner at location or in a big collection. Awesome little story and gimmick. Gameplay is great until you master the left ramp shot, then it gets a little too easy.

Solid effort for an add a ball and quite rare. Slings and pops only one point unless you hit the top rollovers then they go to 10. Slings at an odd angle give inconsistent bouncing around which makes it a little more interesting. This machine has an excellent backglass and very attractive playfield. Only one chime and bell so sound is ok but not great. Gameplay is solid but not amazing. A keeper for a lake home or resort for sure. Love the look of a reverse wedge head with the animated backglass.

This one really surprised me. I was drawn in by the backglass animation and the cool look of the reverse wedge head. Properly tuned, the ball really flies on the lower playfield. Pretty difficult skill shot to hit all the rollovers up top followed by five pop bumpers that change value as the thermometer climbs. Raising the thermometer gets harder the better you do as rollover lights go out and no longer raise the temp. I have a lot of games under my belt and getting the thermometer to “blow your top” is very hard, let alone getting the center target special. This really has that “one more game” appeal.

After fully restoring this I am revising my rating up a bit. To score well you really have to nudge this thing. Nice cab, chimes and love the waterskiing theme. Very interesting bonus carry over feature even into next game and can get really big. Handsome pin overall and challenging enough to offer some long term playability.

Wish I had the money to buy this pin. A blast to play and barely scratched the surface of the rule set. Some challenging shots got a bit easier after several games but by no means easy. Love the call outs and video scenes. This was on location at Tilt pinball bar in Minneapolis so was seeing lots of play time. Fllippers acted a bit funky at times and a slingshot was acting up so durability may be a problem.

This game has such a deep rule set it just doesn’t get old to me. As many has stated before, this machine made me a better player. American Pinball did a lot of research into the theme and it is evident in every aspect of the game. Did you know Houdini made 5 silent movies? Well they are all featured in the film mode as are 10 of his best magic tricks. The 5 secret missions modes are very challenging not to mention the 5 timed jail escapes (Houdini’s rise to fame was largely credited from actually escaping well known big city jails).
The music fits the theme as do all the toys the incredible light shows (man from beyond film mode is awesome). Another cool thing about this game is that it is actually fun to watch someone else play, the animations that go with all the modes are so cool and integrate with the modes very well.
Although some shots are tight, they are numerous and very satisfying. For example, if the flipper power is actually set correctly, the stage is pretty easy to hit, but if you want 2x stage scoring coupled with 2-4x entire playfield scoring, add a couple of milkman shots with ramp shots (difficult but not impossible) and then hit stage alley for a cool twisting shot through the pop bumpers.
There is also a mode with reversed or reversed/inverted flippers that is a real challenge and is a riot to watch a newbie try out.
Hopefully you can play one of these with the latest code that is actually dialed in and really give this the time it deserves.
Great game American Pinball!

First of all the EM top 100 is separate from all SS games and the two should not be compared so I am going to leave out any reference to the SS Joker Poker.
I really love this game, the layout and rules are awesome. It is a very challenging game that frustrates you but brings you back for more. The double bonus is quite hard to get and I have yet to master getting A,B and C.
Pros
- the layout kicks ass and love the hippy backglass. I am a huge drop target guy and they seem built very well.
- I love the little flipper, comes in handy and you need to be ready with it when that pop bumper starts flinging the ball around right in front of it.
- location of extra ball and special
- each flipper has plenty to shoot at.
- A/B/C up top is a genuine skill shot, not really easy to hit.

Cons
- although quite challenging to do, once you have all the drop targets and A/B/C done there is not much to shoot for except the 1K pop bumpers. Then again, it is awesome just getting there.
- a spinner would have been nice worked in there on the left as well giving the right side a slingshot.

Overall this game is a winner if you are an EM guy/gal.
Get one if you can.

I didn’t care for the game until I put it on 5 ball. Actually pretty fun game. I am partial to drop targets which are absent and the lack of bonus sucks. I love the big gong when you hit the golden arrow. Unique rule set makes this one a keeper if you have a large collection.

Unique layout draws you in and takes some getting used too. The captured ball skill shots are key to scoring big. For the newest generation of pinball players the actors are pretty hard to figure out but some of the key ones are of coarse Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, WC Fields, Mae West, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, James Cagney, Bela Lagossi, Lon Chaney, Errol Flynn, Edward G.
Robinson and many more.
Pros: theme with lots of silver screen actors/actresses that are slowly being forgotten, unique layout, easy to learn, a few challenging shots. Cons: bonus maxes out too fast, saucer up top is a bit pointless (be a good spot for an extra ball), no drop targets. Must have for an old movie buff.

For an EM the ball can really fly at times. Pretty cool rule set with the bonus collect saucer centered in the horseshoe which can rob you of double bonus points! Double spinner on said horseshoe is really cool. Once you spell Mars Trek the points rack up fairly fast but really not much to shoot for with bonus double lit and bonus maxed. Fortunately that is not real easy to do. Backglass is pretty cool and DURABLE but could have used more lights. Easy to work on (my first EM and the learning curve was not too steep). This is one I like to set up pretty steep for an EM. Solid game.

What a classic! I love the call outs and it is still a challenge to really beat this machine. The limited edition has it’s own appeal and it has really grown on me.
Pros: almost every one that comes over gravitates to this machine. The eight ball shot and the bank shot (at least 4 and 5x shots) are pretty challenging and far from automatic. Great speech for its day.
Overall a nice open shooter with nice play field art.
Cons: Limited edition backglass too small. Fluorescent light behind backglass is a bit lame but I understand an LED rope light can dress it up some. Sometimes the drop targets won’t drop when hit hard (perhaps weak springs on mine). Limited edition a bit harder to work on.