The game is loaded with quotes and scenes from the movie, every single mode and gameplay feature directly references the films. No one will play this game and be confused what the source material is. It's Alien and Aliens through and through.

You don't have to like how we did it, but to call it generic Space Monster is silly, and simply untrue.

Imagine the Hobbit, but just with Smaug, and trolls, and orcs and direwolves on the playfield, and the big high def LCD screen plays clips of the dwarves battling everyone and exploring Middle Earth.

I modified Star Trek Premium to remove all actors from the game's art. And I thought it was better for it. The game references the film in so many ways without needing headshots.

Look at the toys:There's a giant xenomorph toy at the top of the playfield, that eats the ball. The airlock is drawn to be modeled directly after the one from the film, and rotates around to reveal the Queen. The pop bumpers are light up eggs from the film. The slingshots feature moving facehuggers, fully sculpted and painted.

The actors are in this game, it's absolutely loaded with callouts from the movies, as arranged and planned by David Thiel. His sound code is so nuanced and well thought out. Lots of events feature multiple callouts, and he also directed the voice of Mother, who handles all the non-movie callouts.

But they aren't in the art, and they won't feature too heavily on the LCDs. You're playing a game, not watching the movie, and definitely not watching talking heads. You're supposed to be in the world, and experiencing it. The animations are heavily built from movie clips, but you're never going to sit there and just watch the film play. Kelly chopped and edited and remixed things. And the purpose is to really immerse you in the environment.

There will never be any question you're playing Alien(s) while you're playing this pin. I guarantee that.

Yup. This is the kind of thing we couldn't confirm before license approval, but it's safe to say now.

I believe it's currently the tilt callout, but I think it may go into the rotation for end of game sounds too/instead. Not sure, but it's in the game for sure.

There's an entire mode practically built around Paxton. When you play Combat Drop you can build up points by making shots that piece together his monologue from the drop.

Doing hand drawn art wasn't an option, for the record. The assets I had to work with were the assets I had to work with. So it goes. I think that people will be happy with the package when they get to play it, I know I'm looking forward to trying the game myself.

I take no offense if you don't like it, it's been a challenging project, and everyone has their own tastes, but once you experience the game I think all this talk of "it doesn't feel like the theme" will vanish.

It's all good guys, no need to get snippy with each other. I take nothing personally, and I'll answer what questions I can. If I didn't think this could be a great game I wouldn't say so, but I've seen the work everyone has put in, and that's what gives me confidence.

Dave Sanders isn't a household name, not yet at least, but he knows his geometry. Full Throttle has some great shots. This is a game with 4 flippers, and they all have dedicated shots that make sense. He says he's loving how it shoots, and for me that'e enough to feel excited about flipping it. That's what really counts right? Flipping the game needs to be fun.

Kelly has done a great job with the animations, the film is represented really well, but you're never sitting there watching movie clips just play out. The game is for playing, watch the Blu Ray if you want to see the film. It's not Stern's Indiana Jones, if that comparison means anything to you. You're being immersed in the world, our rule of thumb has been that the player is Ripley, and you're experiencing everything that happens around you.

Joe and Brian are super thoughtful programmers, they really think everything through, and they're really trying to keep things accessible to all players, while also providing deeper scoring opportunities for more serious players. This is a mode based game where you're going to want to finish modes.

David Thiel is a master at what he does, the game is chock full of both his original work and tons of audio taken from the film. I mentioned that he also directed the voice of mother. The original actress unfortunately passed away, but if you own a certain Stern pin that David did the sound for you've already heard the woman who filled in. Leave that one as a hint.

I've been proud to work with this team, and I honestly consider my contributions to the art the least of what will make this game. I'm not being modest here, I really think you need to look beyond anything I did to judge this pin. We've done our best to really bring the theme to life, and when you're playing it you're going to see that, I can say that with confidence even without flipping it myself yet.

You have seen how it easy it is, right? I have no idea if it will take off, but it's obviously not hard to do. (Edit lol too slow)

It will make more sense when you see it actually running the game's dashboard I think. (Edit, too slow on this one too, not exactly like Nemo but yes, a bit like that.)

I've already explained things we're doing with the LCD screen that would be difficult with a DMD that directly affect the rules. JJP's already doing it, Hobbit wouldn't work with a DMD either. More companies will discover uses for the screens to innovate the rules. Presenting information to the player in real time without having to trap up changes things. I doubt we've really scratched the surface of what some clever thinking and programming can produce.

That's ignoring how terribly Alien would have translated to dots. Without a high rez screen we'd have made a totally different experience.

Why buy new games if they're not innovating and changing? We already have great old games. We don't need a new Stern Stars, we have that already, we need games like Alien, and The Hobbit and whatever madness Lawlor is cooking up. Especially at these prices. We haven't seen what Stern will do with the LCD yet. Maybe nothing exciting, but who knows. It will take time and experimenting, the early DMD games weren't all that exciting to look at either.

Criticism and speculation is the lifeblood of this forum. But you're going to be able to play the game in a couple days, and that will erase the need for much of the guessing. And if people like Levi don't like it they can not buy it.