PhantomO's ratings

Lighting is so over the top, it distracts from game play. Music is great. Shots are fun but not that novel.

Visually striking game, but rules and instructions in the game are hard to follow and slow things way down. Shots are all fun, however.

Loaded with interesting shots, with four flippers and two locks, captive ball and scoops and under-flipper shots that activate featura. The item choice and activation adds another fun touch. Colors and graphics are outstanding, especially cabinet and powder-coated everything. Upper ramps are tough to hit consistently, and there are a lot of hits to the posts that flank the ramp entrances. Also a lot of upper ramp roll backs.The rear lock is tough to hit.

Enjoyable game with great video integration. The upper playfield doesn't give you much to do. It has another fishing reel spinner, which is already present on the playfield. Bashing the shark is fun and a major improvement over the pro version
I think this game may get repetitive in a home environment. There just aren't that many shots and only so much video.

The videos were well integrated and had enough variety to not get repetitive. Night hunt was the best mode, and the moving fin shot is fun. The fishing reel spinner is not very interesting.

I have owned a JP pro for 5 months, with upgraded sound, shaker, and pinstadium lighting. I have owned five other machines.
This is the most complex and frustrating of them. Playing actually makes me angry much of the time. If the first ball is not good, your chances of having a deep game in terms of mode advancement are nil. The shots from the upper flipper are completely blind.
You can't see them from a stool or when standing. The ball falls off the tower ramp more often than it makes it. That is a flawed design in my opinion, and it hurts the game. So does the placement of the left and right ramps. I hit their posts more often than any other game I've owned. The Control Room modes are not interesting or fun. The paddock modes are engaging and appropriately tough, as are the mutliballs. The missle shot is a great idea, but needlessly difficult, like threading a needle. The rules in general are overly complex, so much so that I am not even bothering to learn all. DNA collected? How did I do that? No idea. Don't care. I like the videos, callouts, and storyline. The storyline and the navigable "game board" were why I bought this. But given the dislikes I have, I can't see keeping this one for very long.

Felt similar to a lot of Sterns of the past 5 years. Not differentiated enough. But had fun shots and clips from the show. The missions seem like they would generate a good progression and story for the game. Art was fine, not over the top like Godzilla.

This reminded me of Iron Maiden because of the center long shot. The themeing didn't standout or feel unique. The clock drum is a nice toy.

This is the first JJP machine I can play longer than 3 minutes. AT pintastic, I got my name on the scores 5 times on 3 different machines. I didnt grasp the rules, I just made the shots. The metallic playfield shines like surgical instruments. I didn't like the F-bombs from the band and thr narrators, but I'm sure that is a setting that can be turned off.

This is a fun game overall. I would take it home land not get bored with it. Not sure the theme works with people today. The Old West is not a thing anymore. But for me.it beats another rock band theme or Marvel superhero theme.

This has great sounds and video. The art is busy and Godzilla is supposed to be gray, not green. The body texture makes him look like a cactus. The working tower and bridge are nice gadgets, but after you see them work a few times, they get less intriguing. The criss-cross shots are fun, and the elaborate wireform is cool. But the story is repetitive, battle monsters and collect power ups. Over and over. The power ups are harder to collect than the tower multiball/building collapse. I thought about buying a premium, but I think it would get too repetitive.

Sounds are annoying. Top layout too cluttered and not elegant. But has a lot of elements that make it fun and keep you coming back.

Beautiful effects and illumination of the haunted house Shots are fun. The back glass art is not as cool as Scared Stiff. Elivira looks cartoony and too exaggerated.

Not a game I enjoy. Shots are not that fun, and it punishes average players.

Unusual layout and cool inset 3D artwork in playfield. But shots get repetitive quickly.

Interesting playfield.

I enjoy playing this game because all of the shots are fun to make, and I am a wire ramp fan. Two were for sale at Pintastic show this year for $3500. Id be tempted if I had room. Yes, the troll figure is lame.

Played a pre-production LE at Pintastic. I like the theme, and the music is still in my head. I didn't get much play time, but the shots didn't feel good, and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to shoot at with the upper flippers. The art package also seems underwhelming, given the wall-to-wall immersive art we saw with WOZ, POTC and Stern's B66 editions -- a show with a pop-art style similar to the Wonka film. The pro edition only has the title of the movie for cabinet art. Maybe not showing the actors keeps the price low, but come on...

I played the premium at Pintastic and was hooked. The game is very fast and flowy, and the fan layout is traditional but fun to aim at and shoot. The upper playfield was challenging, especially the 3-ball lock shot. The mode monsters range from Dungeons & Dragons to Dune to Ray Harryhausen movies. The animations are stupendous, in the tradition of Iron Maiden, but with more variety. The theme is adversarial, fighting opponents, and the game makes you feel that you are battling these guys -- lots of rage and danger and a dash of humor, with fantastic light shows. There is also a cool retro moment that takes you back to the original Black Knight (art and callouts). The rotating flail shot provides a lot of variety, since it spins both directions under its won power and at different speeds. It takes the ACDC bell shot to an all new level. Magna ball save on the right outlane is a nice feature, if I could only remember to use it. The game provides some mercy ball saves, but it is not a drain monster by any means. Color coding for the mode shots helps a lot with completing modes. Today I was lucky enough to play a game with King Steve Ritchie. Our best balls were both #3, but his was 100 million better than mine!

The art package is so visually engrossing and details that it is like walking into the POTC ride at a Disney park - everything you see is part of the show. The flickering lanterns on the upper playfield are a case in point. No real need for them to be there, but you notice them and it adds to an immersive theme experience. This is a high-end, premium machine that you can get for the price of a decent used car. But if I could afford it and only had room for one machine, this would probably be it.

I played many games at TPF. The theme is very broad and deep. It's like a massive country fair, with all kinds of rides and exhibit tents and midway games to visit and play. You can collect unique rubber ducks and earn beer steins, which award special powers. The three-ball lock roller coaster is fun to build up to and launch. The wireforms are outrageous, maybe more than any other game I've seen (only saw one ball fall off). The skill shots are varied and interesting. There is a lot of info conveyed on the video screen as to what to do, and lot of choices, including which mode tents to visit, and which stein to add to your collection and power-ups. But you can just follow the RGB colored lighting as a guide for what to shoot next. The rules are as deep or deeper than Houdini. There is a lot of strategy for maximizing points, stealing your competitor's locked balls, grabbing shots with a player-controlled magnet, etc. Unique modes include binge eating, which can negatively impact your play if you go into a game-induced food coma (you have to earn your way out of the coma with certain shots). There is a one-handed mode, which freaked us out because we thought the left flipper had died. You are supposed to use your right hand to flip two buttons on that side to control the flippers. This is a fun and unusually themed machine with colors that are bright and cherry, not dark and moody like Houdini.

Update: The animations have been improved - played at Pintastic in late June 2019.

I played several games on the Premium Munsters at TPF 2019. Every one of them was a fun time. The under-playfield was challenging to complete, the Herman multiball and hurry-ups were easy and fun. It was tough to get the stairway to open and reveal Spot, but I did nail him in the nose once. I couldn't hear the music on the machines because of settings, which I missed because I love the Munsters theme. Chris Franchi's art is terrific, and the black and white of the Premium looks bold and vibrant, and is accented with plenty of color. I and other people don't much like the backglass of this version, however. For me, Lilly looks too demented and ugly. I'd swap in a translite from the colored editions if I owned this. According to John Borg, there are close to 300 video clips in this, many seen rarely in the game. The end-of-ball animation of the cars in the drive-in is repetitive and should be rotating with others.

I played three games, poorly, at TPF 2019, and observed several great games. There were long lines for the three machines at the event, and many tournament level players were lining up to play. I love the theme and the comic-book style animations that take you on a journey through multiple castle rooms to slay 10 monsters. The castle sculptures are interesting, though not particularly integrated into the modes, expect for the Frankenstein-type monster who hides behind a castle wall. Also one of the ball locks visibly holds the ball in a castle "window" which is cool. There are opportunities to vastly inflate point values, such as finishing modes and using the bonus time wisely. There are some modes in which you need to avoid certain shots (colored red) to escape penalties. I found this game to be a 9 on the difficulty scale because all of the ramp, loop and lock entrances are about 2/3rds of the way up the playfield, so lining up and aiming a successful shot is not easy for the casual player (Bowen Kerins rarely missed in his tutorial, but did miss a few times). Although I have figured out and do well with the hard shots on Houdini, and on BSD, I really struggled with this, as did other non-tourney players I watched. But would I like to own it? Yes! Retail seems to be about the mid-$6000s for the base version, so it ain't cheap. Note for non-AC fans -- there is spooky instrumental music playing most of the time. The Alice songs only seem to play during monster-battle modes. Also, the call-outs from Alice are fairly weak in terms of vocal tone (he has a smooth, mellow talking voice). Nothing like the wicked voice of doom calls of Iron Maiden, which I love.

Played this at Modern Pinball in Manhattan. Am a beatles fan, so enjoyed the music. The retro playfield was bright and colorful, but didn't have enough shots and variety to interest me beyond a few games. Song choice is limited -- surprised to see Taxman on there. I understand the choice to do a Beatlemania-themed machine, but I would have preferred '67-'70s Beatles theming or a Yellow Submarine film-themed machine. It's a collector's item, but not a deep playable machine.

I really enjoy this game, and have no familiarity with the band. The animations and voices are the best I've seen on any modern-era pin. It plays like a battle. The through-the-bumpers shot is very hard, but thrilling to make. There are hidden little loops and crannies that seem somewhat awkwardly placed, but are intriguing and challenging. I appreciate the avoidance of the standard fan layout. I think I would play the heck out of this if it was in my house. Prefer it to AC/DC, Deadpool, Guardians, Ghostbusters, Batman 66, Star Trek, Aerosmith and Metallica, all of which I have played a lot.

Novel rules, innovations such as opposite flipper control and second chances on drained balls. Deep exploration of Houdini theme. Not as hard as it seems at first. However, the right ramp is poorly placed and cannot be made consistently, which detracts from the fun and playability.

I don't understand the backglass cannon at all. Some shots are repetitive. The ringmaster toy is fun. The dots are beautiful with a color DMD. A lot of shots are co contracted on the left side of the machine and are tough to make. The sideshow and lock shots in particular are tough and/or awkward.