I've just been introduced to pinball via a friend and I'm hooked.

As such I'm looking into getting my first machine and have decided to get a new machine to avoid possible technical hangups. Likely a Stern.

The thing is, I'm pretty terrible at pinball. Love it, but terrible. And as such, when I read reviews/experiences of the machine, I find a lot of the focus isn't relevant to where my skills currently are. ie - I get excited when I activate a mission or multi ball and my goal is to complete it, let alone a second. So when people talk about machines getting stale from the mission structure or point maximisation, I find that I'm not there yet and it really doesn't matter to me.

So I've realised that my two main purchase points are Theme & Difficulty.

But I'm finding it hard to find information on how forgiving / unforgiving a machine is for a newer player like me.

Would you folks mind letting me know how you'd rate them from a difficulty standpoint? Not so much for completing missions or hitting Wizard mode, but more if its easy to drain, shots down the middle that feel punishing, that kind of thing.

The Sterns that I can get in Australia are: Deadpool, Iron Maiden, AC/DC Vault, Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars, Batman 66, Ghostbusters & Metallica.

I don't mind the idea of some shots being hard to time correctly, but I think I'd prefer one that is a bit more forgiving to learn the ropes on.

Thanks!

A really good point that I didn't think of. Thanks for that.

And yes, I was impressed with AMD when I called them yesterday. So I'm glad we have a distributor who seems proper trustworthy and customer-focussed. It reassures a lot of concerns when laying down so much money.

As for earlier comments. Thanks for the quick, and thorough, thoughts guys. I didn't realise you could adjust some of the game rules to help out or make things harder in the future. Really helpful to know too.

Thanks everyone for your comprehensive thoughts.

It has been very helpful. I have the suspicion Metallica may be where I end up as I am a fan of the band. I'm glad it seems like the kind of game that can grow with me as I move from terrible to just bad

Thanks again.

Thanks for the suggestions of Star Trek.

Unfortunately I didn't have it on my list as it isn't available from my local distributor. However, I definitely know I have another machine to try and find in public to play!