Reading all these posts is really quite disappointing and sad.

You posted this like a question where you are going to have other pinball enthusiasts help you to decide what your final game to complete your magic plan of “five games” that you will love and cherish forever?

Well, you will never be satisfied with 5 specific games, just like everyone else here. There will always be new games to play that you’ve never played and new modes and challenges to complete that you’ve never seen.

You mentioned things like “I don’t want a horror themed game” and “theme is important”. The real game you are looking to buy is the one where you can stand the theme, has the most replay value, and you won’t get bored quickly.

Well, sorry to say that no one HERE can help decide that for you. For every person that hates GB, another person will swear it’s the greatest. And on and on and on, the big pinball opinion wheel churns.

Are you trusting random pinball strangers to tell you their opinions of the titles you played on location and have them help convince you what to spend 9K on? Would you ask this question on an internet forum full of strangers for ANYTHING OTHER ADVICE in your life? Anything? Well, I for one would not.

All the games you mentioned have some good and some bad. Some annoying things and some great things. Don’t limit yourself so much. Who cares if you own two games by the same designer? That could be a good thing if it helps you decide. Modern games have huge teams of designers that help make or break titles. If you like a layout and like how the shots feel, it doesn’t matter if it’s the same designer.

There is so much more to the complete pinball game these days. We are not buying 1960’s EMs for 9 grand and there is a reason. You can see everything that an EM game does in one or two balls instead of one or two years.