somenerd's ratings

Pinsider somenerd has rated 6 machines.

This page shows all all these ratings, and forms somenerd's personal top 6.


Rating comments

somenerd has written 6 rating comments:


8.792/10
12 months ago
Purposefully waited several months after delivery to let my initial excitement of ownership "settle" a bit and deliver a more objective review.
5 months in, and I still love the game. It's not everybody's cup of tea, and I respect that- it's difficult, the rules are a bit simple, and all in all it's a throwback to the Bally classics of the late 70s to mid-80s. The game is possibly the purest example of "easy to learn, tough to master."
The light show is lovely, the music slaps, and when you get into a "zone" and get those 4x jackpots flowing, it's such a rush. Still have yet to blow up reactor #5, but I'll get there and beyond... someday.
7.498/10
1 year ago
A pure "get the highest score possible, then try to get an even higher score next game" type of game. Targets are fun to shoot (but be careful about how you hit that center drop target!), the "airlock" and center post make this a more forgiving game than others of the era, and multiballs are fast and frequent- if you can get a good rhythm going for the center ramp, you can really pile on the jackpots and watch your score "blast off" (sorry, couldn't resist).
As for sounds... My only real complaint is the ambient noise- it's also on par with other Williams games in the early/mid-80's like Firepower and Sorcerer, meaning it can be fairly grating. Sound effects are fine, they fit the theme and generally aren't too bad. The voice clips have a definite "mid-80s speech synthesis" charm to them, and that "AAAAAAHHHH!" when you drain with a lit extra ball/special always lets me know when I've made a grave error.
I can never just play once, either- every game leaves me with a feeling of "you could do better... give it another try!" So, I do. The missus enjoys playing too, so getting her with a 2-player game is fun too (even if she steals my locked balls for her own multiball).
I imagine this will probably stay in my collection for a long time, but no complaints about that!
8.856/10
2 years ago
Grew up playing this pin in the arcade every chance I could, and now almost 30 years later, I finally have this game in my home lineup! Now that I've had it in-home for a couple months, how has my opinion of the game held up?
JP (the film) is probably one of my top 3 movies of all time, and thankfully this pin does the theme justice. A lot of iconic voice clips ("Aah-aah-aaaah, you didn't say the magic word!" "IAN, FREEZE!", etc etc) pepper up the gameplay. The modes (while maybe not super plentiful compared to some others of the era) are fun and frantic. The Raptor pit BLASTING your ball back at you is always good for a surprise jolt. The T-Rex eating the ball paired with the "OH NO NO AAAH GAAAAHHHH!!" and poor little Timmy's face as he's getting zapped by the electric fence gives me a bit of a chuckle (I'm terrible, I know). CHAOS Multiball lives up to its name, with all six balls flying around at once.
Now, the dings- scoring (at least in the romset v.3.0 I've got) is pretty uneven, and skews *heavily* towards completing CHAOS mode and feeding the T-Rex for the super jackpot. End-of-ball bonus maxes out at a paltry 2 million without any multipliers. Successfully completing most modes will net between 15-30 million, but hitting the super jackpot rewards 150-200 million. If you want to make the top six, scoring this is absolutely required. Additionally, the modes *always* start with STAMPEDE, which is getting a little annoying. I know later romsets will remedy these though- perhaps I'll end up upgrading before too much longer.
Overall though, my love for this game hasn't faltered in the last couple months and I've got zero buyer's remorse. Looking forward to enjoying this game in my lineup (along with my Paragon) for a long time to come.
6.473/10
2 years ago
I bought this as part of a pair; my first-ever home pinball machine purchase. I love the chimes- far and away more pleasant than the "cash register dings" found in a lot of other EMs. Gameplay is basic, and not super-difficult or complex. It was great to get my young kid into pinball without having her feel overwhelmed. The loop along the top is pretty satisfying to hit. Also worth noting, in the ~18 months I've owned it, I've had literally zero things go wrong with it. The machine is built solid as a freakin' tank and has been as reliable as a Nokia 3200.
The artwork and color scheme couldn't get any more 1974 if it tried. Yellow, orange and green all over the place. Not very pleasant to look at these days but is a product of its era for sure.
8.748/10
2 years ago
Love this machine! It's artwork is super badass, there's loads of shots to make (hello, sequential drops) and features on the playfield (THE BEAST'S LAIR), and it's got the challenge/reward factor that makes me keep going for "just one more game..." in an attempt to get that elusive 5x Super Bonus tally. It's one of the first widebody tables made, and they made excellent use of the extra space by throwing everything and the kitchen sink (that was available to Bally at the time) into it. It'd take one hell of an offer (or heaven forbid, personal financial crisis) to get me to part with this beast. :)
7.394/10
4 years ago
Chose to buy this (as one of two "starter" machines) based largely on its quirky and fairly unique playfield design. It's super challenging- games are quick and usually pretty low-scoring, but it's got some fun features to keep it interesting: the "stop" and "go" rollovers and targets toggle different sets of targets as lit, and the centerlane kick-out to the moving center target provides a bit of a wildcard in terms of both scoring and ball action.

Theme and artwork are both sort of "eeeh..." to me, but the gameplay ties into it well enough and it's pretty enjoyable to play. Overall, happy I got this. It's probably going to see a lot of playtime from me.

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