Allow me to provide a few counterpoints. First, The Beatles influenced an entire generation in terms of pop culture, music and fashion. Their musical legacy has influenced many bands today. The Beatles are certainly the most influential and important popular music band ever. Most music critics uniformly agree with that proposition.

The art package and video (which is Stern's best integration) are based on the band's 1964 British Invasion of America.
The playfield is an improved reprise of a classic eighties Stern (Seawitch), with one of the manufacturer's historically most successful designs. The Beatles game is tremendous fun.

Oktoberfest, the "awesome event" to which you refer, has zero significance to me. It's little more than a very big annual party, Germany's version of Philadelphia's Mummers parade, extending over a period of several days. If the Oktoberfest event were to disappear tomorrow, the world wouldn't change one iota. In contrast, if the Beatles never existed, there would be a massive void, at the end of that long and winding road. Having recently viewed the film, Yesterday, on Netflix, in which The Beatles have been "forgotten" by all but a couple of people, I am reminded of the band's enduring influence.

Oktoberfest is a good effort by American Pinball. As an EM enthusiast, I prefer games with more straightforward rules and short ball times, like The Beatles. The opto spinners on The Beatles are a blast. The Beatles features 7 skill shots. The game is even coded with Christmas messages which surprise players during the holiday week. I suspect that 5 years from now, one of these games will be sought after and the other will be forgotten. The former game will involve a significant contribution to pop culture. The latter game will have something to do with a folk festival dedicated to beer.

Oktoberfest's history isn't free of controversy. Nazis co-opted the festival as propaganda in 1933. Since its inception, there have been 24 years in which the event was not celebrated. The world somehow survived each of those years. The patrons got drunk in public elsewhere those years, without the benefit of buxom bar maidens, I suppose.

The festival is not important to the human condition and it's even less important to the zeitgeist of pinball as a hobby.

In my opinion, the festival is not particularly culturally significant. Is it entertaining? Yes. Is it well-attended? You bet. Australian cricket also features massive attendance and entertains large crowds; but, I suspect that cricket and pinball won't intersect soon.

As a pinball theme, Oktoberfest is fun and the game shoots well. American Pinball deserves credit for designing a good quality game. I simply think that the Beatles, both as a theme and as a pinball machine, will enjoy greater longevity.

The Beatles Gold is a very good value. The build of materials on the game is grossly undervalued. The multiple drop target banks, for example, are far more costly than the bash-toy and ramp features of most new releases.

Stern's miscalculation was releasing the platinum and diamond versions. Stern did so in the wake of its Supreme pinball selling for $50K, in a failed attempt to replicate that odd collector-crazy phenomenon.

Based on the poll here, the Oktoberfest fans well outnumber the Beatles fans. Downvote me if you must or just prove me wrong in 5 years when we re-examine the market and discover the pricing status of each good title. I hope that both hold their value. But, after 35 years in the hobby, my experience compels me to conclude that The Beatles Gold will fare better.

First, the gold edition of The Beatles is the good value version precisely because the platinum and diamond versions are saddled with an artificial price inflation. Specifically, all 3 versions are exactly the same game. The only differences are cosmetic in nature and those variations are minor, coupled with lower production numbers. Thus, there's nothing "funny" about that conclusion, unless you equate value with comedy.

As for the historical reference to a 24 year lapse in the festival, that lapse was not consecutive. Therefore, your argument about reinstating the festival is factually unsound.

In regard to the festival's use by Hitler, that history is fact. Your belief that a recitation of that history is "low" seems a reflexive reaction and not contemplative of its context. This thread is about comparing 2 games and one theme happens to have an ignoble history.

Last, festivals can be significant to cultures, dating back to Sumerian society. I just don't imagine that Oktoberfest will generate anything beyond a footnote to future generations. In contrast, cheeseburgers are culturally significant, especially in the western hemisphere. Everybody knows that. Oktoberfest ain't no cheeseburger.

I have played both Octoberfest and The Beatles extensively. I like both games. My conclusion that The Beatles will fare better over time is based in part upon each game's design as well as each game's theme. These concepts are not mutually exclusive.

It's challenging to offer a minority opinion on these Title A versus Title B threads. The majority predictably tries to dispossess the holder of his/her opinion, often by creating a strawman to easily knock down. I never claimed that my opinion was based on the band alone, to the exclusion of the merchandise.

Glad to hear that you regularly attend Oktoberfest. I suspect that your affection for the event means that you're fond of the machine. I have no desire to attend the festival; but, I do like the game.

Yet, somehow you managed to cobble together a string of several sentences in response. Good for you!

At the risk of creating a snarky dialogue, I didn't see the anti-literacy test when I joined Pinside. . .sorry for that oversight.