I like both machines quite a bit. Bride is one of the best looking machines around. I love the sounds and light show. However, I thought the billion point shot threw it off a little. Earth shaker is much better in my opinion. The theme integration with the shaker is perfect. The music is addictive. Classic lawlor design. I’ve owned it twice and it is high on the must own again list for me.

I owned bop for awhile and thought it was cool. Great music and sounds as well. I felt the pf was limited in that the shots are so short and obviously right flipper dominant. The billion point shot is neat.

ES I’ve played a bunch and can’t seem to enjoy it all that much. I’ve tried. I’m not a lawlor fan at all. I hate his multiple inlanes and upper flipper shots. (See fh and ww).

I think there are better games out there.

I rather not have either game Earthsaker Is shoot center ramp over and over. BOP is either left ramp over and over or center ramp over and over.

Both are fun... I’m gonna say Earthshaker because it’s a little more challenging but BOP is always a fun flip.

I own an ES and have played BOP on location near me multiple times. For me BOP is a better looking machine but the game play is basically shoot left ramp and don’t try the center ramp or you drain 90% of the time. Multiball is challenging so I do like that about it. If BOP was a $2.5k machine I would probably own one to go with my Pinbot but at $3-3.5k there are other titles I’d rather own.

As for ES, I bought it recently to go with my Whirlwind. The backglass is fantastic, love the art. The gameplay can be a mixed bag depending on how you choose to play. The center ramp is an easy shot and is loopable for quite a while. If you are just looking to score points then I can see how this would become repetitive and boring. If you play with all the shots and go for lit targets and try to start multiball it’s a much more enjoyable pin. I wish someone would come up with a tweak to the code so that the ramp values don’t escalate which would dissuade people from just shooting the center ramp.

Overall for me ES is a better bang for the buck but YMMV.

From a layout perspective...

The layout on BoP is very controversial in my book.
I consider it the actual prototype of "low-ceiling (cramped), fan layout, of posts... with not much happening if you miss a shot." It's a really poor layout design that will influence future games (unfortunately).

ES on the other hand is almost as good as WW, and has a lot to do... It's not in my collection since subjectively, I don't like the music... but the layout is very good.

No competition for me.

ES by a mile.

I also don't like stop n go and wasted space, and I think BoP are kings of both...

-mof

Pretty even if you ask me, but I'm going to go with Bop, sounds, art, rotating head, just like it better

I don’t like to vote when i own one (ES) and only have limited plays on the other (BOP) so i didn’t. I get the arguments about one shot games - and really both of these can be. But i don’t play every game likes its a tournament and exploit the scoring. I absolutely love the moment in BOP when you lock the last ball and you bring her to life. Don’t mind the stop n go moment here. The whole cutting out of lights and the heartbeat animation is some cool shit! Hence this has stayed on my wish list

I have very fond memories of earthshaker in a bowling alley in the states so I'm seriously biased towards it. But generally just love the theme and the music, the weird little sounds it makes wjen you hit targets and it spits the ball out the habitrail just everything about it.