Star Wars game-play, for me at least, is awesome. My first 50 or so games on location were about starting and completing modes, trying to start lightsaber duel and the video mode, etc... etc... But as I grew accustomed to those objectives, I became more comfortable with including the multiplier with my game play choices. There’s this wow moment when it all clicked together, that only heightened that feeling of “just one more game” for me.

It isn’t just “Cool I started the Asteroid Field!” or “Yes I escaped from Boba Fett!”. Now it’s “Dammit, I could’ve scored my points if I had my multiplier doubled before starting the Asteroid Field or escaping from Boba Fett. I gotta do it again.”

That’s when I buckled, and purchased one for myself.

Personally, I think they nailed it with the theme integration. Not every pin has to be crammed with a million things on it to capture the essence of the source material. My nephew commented that he felt like he was in the movies, and that it all “felt real” while playing on it for half an hour non-stop. He’s 11 years old, and normally when he’s in my game room, he doesn’t give a rats-ass about any of my pinball machines, he’s strictly on the arcade games.

My one suggestion to Stern is to truly utilize the LCD screen to include a tutorial for players. Teach them what to do, and what to look out for with this game. The complexity of this game is genius, but most casual players will give up before they get to that moment when it all clicks for them.

Looking forward to GOTG too. Will definitely be dropping some coin once it’s on location here locally.