Crater's ratings

So I played this game at the first location I could find it in town. I was so amazed by it that I almost immediately called a distributor to purchase it, and the game was in my house 10 days later.

That being said, there is something about the flow of this game that just mesmerizes me. The two elevator shots are extremely satisfying to hit. There is an easy ramp and a tough ramp. The spinner shot is spot on, and feeds great into either the pops or the upper right flipper. The crazy part for me was how they managed to fit all of these interesting shots into the game without making the playfield seem crowded.

The rules are at an early stage, but even so they are unique, fun, and incredibly interesting. When I saw the picture of the truck newton-ball toy in the previews, I thought it looked lame. Now it's one of my favorite pinball toys out there. The reason for that is how they've implemented this seemingly boring pinball staple into the ruleset. For those of you who may not be familiar with this toy, it's a newton ball that instead of just running a connecting ball up to a standup target, it swivels the connecting ball from one side or the other of the newton ball. The subtlety of it is that there are some key shots that could lie behind the swiveled ball and you may need to knock it back to the other side to make things easier. It's really a genius take on the idea of the newton ball. Moreover, the direction of the swiveled ball decides the direction you take on the map while progressing through the game. I can't rave about it enough.

Even though they didn't get any movie clips and very few actual sound effects (just Wayne Knight callouts), it's clear that the animators spent an insane amount of time recreating certain scenes of the movie. Some of them come out meh, but others are AMAZING. I won't give it away, but the extra ball animation is probably my favorite and well worth it. The voice actors that they did get are comically bad, but they say things that do actually take you back to the movie and it makes sense for the game. They vary it enough, and don't overuse them.

What makes me most excited about this game is that there are still a lot of game rule mechanics that are yet to be implemented and I'm just enjoying the heck out of this machine as-is. One of the T-REX modes has you being chased in the Jeep like in the movie. You have to hit a shot on the playfield and then shift gears by hitting the newton ball. It's probably one of my favorite modes. My point in illustrating that mode is that I have seen a lot of Stern games come out half-done over the past few years (deadpool, gotg, munsters, etc...). This game, while not being done, is waaaaaaaaaay more playable than any of the others to come out in a long time.

I've always been a big fan of this machine. I used to play it all the time. Hearing the first upgrade on the BoP just never gets old...
BoP: "I can speak"
Pinbot: "Oh no"
I laugh every time.

The gameplay on this machine is great! It's one of those "live by the sword, die by the sword" setups with really ruthless outlanes (which I always like). I ALWAYS play it whenever I see it. I'm sure if it ever came up for sale at a reasonable price I'd pick it up, but I think Dutch pinball pushed it out of my price range.

The one thing I will say about this game is that the Billionaire club breaks this game completely. I wish it didn't exist, because it sort of makes you just go for that in competitive play which is super lame. To be honest I didn't know it even existed until I was playing at a local tournament and Kevin Birrell just blew it up. Well I guess all my heartbeat ramps were for naught cause 1,029,000,000 beats 44,000,000 every time.

I've played this game a lot. I don't think it's a terrible machine. I mean I grew up with an EM, and I like playing them. There just isn't a lot to it for a machine in this era. I get that they wanted to make an old-school EM-like solid state machine, but at $6k there just isn't anything special about this machine at all. If you want this type of feel in a pinball machine, then just go find a classic EM and pay a tenth of the price for it. You will be happier in the long run... That being said, if you're out at the barcade and you only have one quarter left and they have this machine on 25 cent play then by all means give it a whirl. There's just nothing to wow you here.

This machine is just one of the greats in my opinion. The flow of the game is amazing, and I personally just love the sound effects and music. It's like an 80's video game in its music, and it just never gets old to me. I like how ruthless the outlanes can be because it really makes it one of those "live by the sword, die by the sword" games to play. You could outscore the best of them if the other player just gets unlucky sometimes.
I marked it down in "game rules" because if you do eventually get deep into the game, you start to run out of multiballs and you also just don't have much to work towards anymore. The skyway tolls are "free" after 99 of them, so it's just a flat 200k points.
I also find that there needs to be some more lighting in the playfield, so I've added a few lamps to mine.
Overall, this will always be one of my favorites. I will NEVER part with this machine.

This was the first pinball machine I ever owned. I don't think anyone will ever forget the first time they hit that 13-ball multiball. I liked having it in my collection just to see people's faces the first time they got it. It's absolute chaos! The problem is the ruleset is not that deep, and the two actual objectives (modes and orbits) just aren't worth it point-wise compared to just going for multiball over and over again.
Also, there is a back ramp that gets raised and lowered if you are in a certain mode and it sends the ball over to the left flipper. I don't think this ramp is utilized nearly enough.
The machine can be extremely challenging because of how tight the shots are. I also don't like how the 13-ball multiball status rolls from player to player and game to game, so it becomes a bit uneven in competitive play. I think there were a lot of misses on this machine, and it really could have been much better. It's not the worst, but it certainly isn't the best. I'd probably play it once or twice on location if I saw it, but I don't think I'd be an owner again if I ever decide to part with it.

This game has such a deep ruleset. It just never seems to get old to me. There are a variety of shots, modes, multiballs, etc... I find myself going different paths every time I play (Scratchy's Revenge, Secret Stash, Alien Invasion, Mystery Spot, etc...).
The only places I marked it down were in the backglass and the cabinet art. The cabinet art is actually pretty cool, but the quality of the decals at the time were not that great (dotted low res art). The backglass also just doesn't do it for me.
Amazing game, and one I'll keep in my collection for the foreseeable future.

I always come back to this machine. The rule set is perfect for the time. Easy to learn, and tough to master. I love the lights and countdown for getting multiball, and the voice is the greatest. I love hearing that last ball drain and then "Firepower defeated.........YOU!". I am so glad I managed to find this machine. Definitely a keeper.