Mr_SoFlow's ratings

Best pin of all time for me. Considering I’ve played well over 500 different pins since 1980, that may put my ‘best’ vote into context.

Code 1.10 put it way over the top. Check out the YouTube video of the CEO (Barry) giving you thoroughly guided tour of the entire Dutch Pinball factory, all dedicated to TBL. It’s a family run biz and all people associated with it just ooze joy, skill and fun.

All the top reviewers held back calling TBL one of the best ever because of the code. That’s code is now fixed. Watch the new reviews after 1.10 code is played. Superb.

The game is a blast. B/Williams build with Buttery flow. Can be clunky with post bashes, air balls and failed ramp shots but that’s manageable. Just dial in your flipper work, the leveling of the game and coil strengths and you are good to go.

This game can be very challenging as far as completing all 6 modes to get to The Dude Abides Wizard mode but it’s a ton of fun trying. I have yet to do it. No center post, so watch the Donny loop because it can be a SDTM drain. Gotta quick flip it into the left Mark It Zero Saucer. Too sweet!!! Bury that baby nine times into the saucer and extra ball trap door lights. Nihilist mode is hilarious. The red light show and videos made my wife pee herself. So damn funny. Rug modes are varied and bring lots of good challenge. Love pounding the rug roll back until the big tunnel opens and poof…your in! Gotta have the machine dialed in or the rug hits won’t register and SDTM is possible.

The Walter ramp to the upper playfield feels so good when you fling it from the left flipper. Then it’s multiple times around the upper playfield loop and you get Let’s Go Bowling…one of the best features of any pin. Then the ball enters The lower playfield - AN ACTUAL 10 pin BOWLING ALLY! C’mon!! Again, not simple to complete the frame well, but with 3 options for the frame challenge (spare/strike, complete the split or hit the roaming pin) NEVER GETS BORING. Good luck on hitting the 7-10 split. The roaming pin is hilarious and tough. Completing a spare is very satisfying. Completing the frame successfully gives you one of the character balls. That’s part of the main and ultimate wizard mode of the game. You can also collect balls when you hit the mysteries shots… Levels one through three. Mystery is a shot into the trap door and is leveled up through the spinner up to Maude.

The Big Lebowski theme is a 1000/10. My favorite movie of all time. The cult following gets bigger each year for good reason. The R rated callouts and 200 movie clips are the greatest. Just watch kids and sensitive folks. Some of them are really dirty but you can turn family mode on to knock the dirtiness down to PG.

The overall scoring is simple to get. Character multiballs simply require shots up their loops/ramps for Jackpots and super jackpot is actually one of the six main goals/modes to complete. There is an option to opt out of a single character multiball or anytime you don’t want to do that multiball. That’s cool. Strategic.

The in-play guidance is terrific. A voice actor takes the place of Sam Elliott’s voice, but he does a great job, and he tells you exactly what to do and leads you through each mode well. The music is great and the sound quality is excellent.

The way you get immersed in this gem of a game immediately hooks you and you want to light all characters before going into multi ball. After that occurs, all hell breaks loose and you feel like you are in the middle of a pinball tornado of lights, sounds, speed, scoring and saves. It’s ridiculous.

The build quality is unsurpassed. It weighs a ton but plays like sweet melting chocolate. Watch the bumpers. They will f*Ck you in the *ss on any day of the week baby! Liam and Jesus make sure of that.

Too much else to write. I’ll add and edit another time.

To put this into perspective, my wife is addicted to it and we sold Godzilla to get to TBL.

BEST EVER.

Stern has a certain feel to it vs. JJP, BallyWilliams, Daya East, etc. This is Stern’s best so far. The art is insane. The theme is tops. The humour/callouts keep me coming back. The shots (Snickt!!!, Katana!!!) are legend. The flow is wonderful, aside from a few tight ones. The modes are a heck of a lot of fun. The animations are terrific as are the toys. The battles are just awesome.

The whole package is there. From game one on day one that this got delivered home, I’ve been hooked. It’s where beauty, art (ZOMBI FREAKIN’ YETI!!!), flow, speed, humor and smiles meet and have a big and loud orgy.

Boom button makes it too dark. Fix that. A shaker and invisiglass are musts. So is a topper. Make sure the side art can be viewed in the Premium. That megalodon is gorgeous and that side art scene makes me laugh all the time.

Set the machine to easy settings. Have fun. Get mech suit multi balls. You will experience true pin bliss. Same with Ninja multi ball.

Enjoy!

I’ve been playing pinball since 1977. Evel Knievel was the first pin I experienced. Its now May 2022 and I must have clocked well over 30,000 start button presses across hundreds of pins.

After searching for 4 months in 2021, I finally found a Godzilla Premium I could purchase. It’s the first machine that I’ve ever purchased without playing first. I had only watched teaser vids and livestream gameplay. I had to own this game. It’s also the most money I’ve spent on any game in my life.

GZ PREMIUM arrived just before the New Year. It was stunning. The artwork is just jaw dropping. I’ve never been a fan of GZ, but this thing was super attractive. The playfield was way better in person. That’s saying a lot since the trailers blew many of us away. The building, MechaGZ, those crossing ramps, the low popper, etc.

I had the stern SHAKER MOTOR installed. That’s a no brainer for a game like this. Think JP minus the pounding footsteps? Not a chance! Magic glass installation would have delayed the shipment a month so I said no to that. I could get that much later if need be.

It came with .85 code. Definitely more was needed but man, was it fun. Super hard at first until I had the flippers and settings dialed in. Those ramps were viscous, often leading to center or left outlane drains. Very infuriating! But soon, I had it dialed in ok and the game took on a whole new level of fun, craziness and a decent FLOW.

Keith clearly is a king. The depth of his understanding of what gameplay, challenge and fun really matters most is off the charts. He added his wicked pinball wizard skills to his former pin project experience and absolutely smashed the mold with GZPr.

The Kaijus (monster battles) are very challenging at first because you must have your shots ready to be executed. There are many death shots in this game so it takes some time to figure out what definitely not to repeat. A weak shot up to the right orbit often results in a hard and unforgiving and solid (no bounce) left orbit drain that just hurts. You must shake hard to get a redirect bounce back to the slings. At least you’ll survive a few more bounces at least!

A weak left ramp shot is most common. 180 degrees is tough. It takes a dialed in flipper plus a near perfect flip to nail it. It’s definitely doable and learnable. It feels amazing when done. It’s also CRUCIAL to being at all successful with Gigan, Rampage, and a few other modes.

The intro and synchronized lightshow to the tank battle is amazing. The mode is super fun. Saucer attack and extra balls for it is wicked. That low popper is ridiculously fun and provides limitless possibilities during gameplay.

The scoop shot takes a bit to master. Again, it’s crucial to starting Kaijus, tank battles, etc. It’s just either a super late left flip or a timed and jostled sling shot. You can even send it 4 o’clock from the upper left flipper. That’s phuckin’ cool when it is executed.

Forget the SDTM triple at the start of GZ multi ball. Strategically, the auto ball saver gives you a few moments for clean shots. Or, just hold both flippers as they come down and watch the magic bounces keep all three in play. Again, genius. I’m smh watching people make or buy mods to add to the roof ball drop. Why? Just do either two aforementioned plays. But I’m more OG than not. I like to keep things like that stock and not phuck with the Keith’s formula.

Tail whips, new GZ power ups and A/B reward options in the newest code is just wonderful. Adding 10 secs as a reward to kaijus is sweet. Very handy. Adding time to a potential 50 mill Destruction jackpot is too cool.

Magna grab variety is off the chain. A true innovation.

The callouts…omg. I’m always smiling / laughing during play and Nothing is ever annoying. Put in Japanese mode for less callouts if need be.

Maaaaaaaaathraaaaaaa choir is one of the best callouts ever. I become 8 years old again when that left outlane drain hits and maaaaaathraaaa sounds and the ball is returned once. Brilliant!!!!!

Double battles….hard to achieve but keeps me coming back. Working on this…

Too many other features and tricks to mention here. That’s for another day / story publishing.

I’ll end with this: GZPr is a fun pin BUT VERY DIFFICULT! My days get better because it’s here. Play it. Spend a few bucks on it.

That is all. Haha haha haha ha

Rich

The first game to actually knock me to the floor when I realized the theme and what her deal was. The fact that she is the ‘bride’ of pinbot…and the mission is to make her come alive is too good. The 2.0 upgrade is awesome. Brilliantly done. I love that the rules has to be literally discovered.
I will always have this gem in my collection.

Insanely fun. The theme is a winner. The loops are great. Jackpots are so satisfying - you have to score a goal like soccer. Brilliant. The manual magnetic ball saver is brilliant. First I’ve ever seen that. I want this game!!!

So unique. It’s a blast to play. Getting heckled while you play is a lot of fun. Makes me want to bash his jaw with a few pinballs!
The logic works well and the shots are challenging and fun. Great for a pre-dmd game.

Love this game!!!! The lock is a terrifically elegant shot. Perfect sneak behind the targets elicits one of the best callouts I’ve ever heard.
Machine plays like a dream and multi balls are off the hook. Sounds and visuals are amazing.

This was my dream pin when I was in college. I was the first want to play it when it was rolled in to the arcade at the student union at UMass. Routinely had a high score. Decades later, this was my first home pin. Problem was that there were many mechanical failures on this that required a technician. The overall scoring and code is so so now that I have played a lot of other pinball machines. The theme is fantastic but the shots are kind of boring with lots of bricks. The animations are cool and the toys are fun. Getting a super jackpot is very satisfying but then you basically start again so it’s not very deep. Good pin, but not something that I wanted to have long-term because of the maintenance and breakdown. At the time, it was state of the art, but now it’s more of a boat anchor when things go wrong with it.

The game that taught me how to play! The side flipper timing takes a lifetime to master. Just love the theme. I love this game like my own child!!!!