Draegermeister's ratings

An overlooked title. I think this is one of the best theme integrations, because the scoring is in line with basketball. The number of selectable teams offers more variety than any my thing else.

Fastbreak

This is a great game. The Katana is a great ball lock. The Colossus shot is tough, as well as getting playfield multipliers. This is a great game for a novice, as well as a deep-rule loving expert. There's a lot of red on the art. There's so much that I am not sure where to look, but then you get a smart alek call out that makes you laugh. It's a hell of a fun game. It has innovative shots that aren't esoteric. It has depth, but is accessible.


My knock is that Stern is married to this 2 flipper and an action button thing (except for IM, which was not designed in the Stern shop.)

Great game. I love seeing the extra flippers back on some Stern games. I am glad this game doesn't have an action button.

Only gripe is that the ball times can get long.

It's a lot of fun to get some cool combos. The shots are manageable. The Theme is great. I like some of the Ball Saved animations, which are great choices. The side art is awesome, especially the X-Wing side. Pretty clear which shots to get. The scoring seems way too complicated to bother with. I only have about 10 games on this, so it's an early review. It's pretty fun.

For the negative. Some code and lighting is awful. Right when you are in a combo, and when the ball is screaming towards the flippers, they turn off the damn lights. In a low lit route, that's just mean. I get that this is a fast flow machine, but hell, is it too much to ask to let us see the damn ball when we need to react at our fastest. The death star sort of just hangs there. I do love when the green LEDs flashed. That was cool.

I love the ramps and the inner loop. That is a lot of fun.

I am biased. I have been hauling this around since I bought it in 1998. I played a prototype at Gala North in Carol Stream, IL back in the day. It had the 9MM gun handle and a more realistic snake.

On rating this, you have to rate it for 1994, not for today. Mine sits next to a Metallica, and the 23 years show off some evolution. For 1994, this had peak animations, layout, art, and the Rose plunger. The G and R ramps are cool.

This game is pretty simple, but doesn't get old. The sound is great. It stands the test of time. I've had some board issues, but some excellent local techs have been great. Most of all, I met some super cool people who know the ins and outs. I met Rick, Tom, Phil and Rich through this machine. That's what it's about.

I love this machine. It doesn't get old, despite not being terribly complex for new players. It has a lot of great shots, callouts, and animations. The Sparky toy and the graves are awesome. The Snake is cool, but sort of weird.

For criticisms. Why the hell does the right ramp have an "M" etched in it. It should have the stylized "A", because Metallica is spelled with the cool M and A. Strange, because it saved no money. WTF with the hammer. It has cool art, and a really obvious screw in the front. That screw could have been anywhere else, why pop it there.

The art is awesome. The music is great. The game plays quickly. There is plenty of light. I love it. I sort of don't get the snake as a green snake.

Essential mods are: Snake sticker and extended snake plastic. Cliffy for the Mystery hole. Britemods buttons on it for sure.

I popped black chrome car wrap vinyl instead of Mirror blades, and it looks pretty cool.

I have this one, so I play it a lot. It's a tough game, with a lot of tight shots. Maybe one too many, with Gomez having to get all of the Avengers on the game. The only thing I really don't like is the art. It's sort of the bottom of the "photoshop phase" that is finally going out of style.

It takes some work to collect and complete the avengers. The Iron Man always gives me trouble, but that's my problem.

It needed some help, so I upgraded the factory Tesseract. That was junk. All Avengers machines that I've seen in the wild have a busted Tesseract. I popped in the lighted Tesseract, and it helps. I also popped on the Cointaker LED interactive backglass, which was probably too much light. But, the boring flourescent lights are an abomination in the industry. I am glad that era is coming to an end.

I didn't like this game at first. Looking at it, the bottom looks bare. That's until those extra kickers star messing with you. There's plenty of speed. The music, sound and video modes are cool. The upper playfield is interesting, because it's wonderfully unpredictable.

This was a pay to play machine at Chicago Street Pinball (Joliet Illinois), and I played once or twice the first time. Last time, I sunk in 10 bucks. The "yeah yeah yeah" sound effect cracks me up. I also love the "low score of the day" initials.

This is a great game, surely a top 10. I think it gets too many ratings, and that puts it higher than it needs to be. It's about the same as CFTBL for me in terms of being lastable and fun, despite simplicity.

I am a huge fan. I don't really like the Wizard of Oz movie that much, but when the lights go all rainbow, that gets the heart racing. It has some older playfield design elements, but it is fun. The art is well done. It's probably the most tasteful treatment of a theme in decades. I think this is a top 10. If not, it's a machine that changed expectations. Stern upped their display game after this. The industry is on notice.