Quoted from BeeGeeMtl:I'm about to purchase a NIB pinball for my "quarantine time" and wondered if anyone here had played STRANGER THINGS (premium) and ELVIRA (premium) and what pros/cons they would identify to each game? I'm leaning toward ELVIRA even though it's gonna cost me and arm/leg considering I live in Canada and our dollar has dripped dramatically compared to the US dollar.
I'm not a specific fan of either theme (I like them both but not in "love" or anything) but wanted a "fan layout" pin for my collection and the "projection shit" on ST doesn't do much for me. Anyway, our local showroom may not have a premium ELVIRA to "play" so I'm looking for outside opinions (and watching a lot of streams, of course) before my purchase. Thanks in advance.
Probably not going to be what you want to hear, but you need to play them both and decide for yourself, especially if neither theme excites you.
I have played both, though have not seen the UV light kit on STH. I was not impressed with gameplay (if you want AFM, buy AFM!) and while the projection is a cool feature it seemed gimmicky. I don’t know the show so the theme doesn’t do much for me. With that caveat, I don’t think the game will age well and I’ll be surprised if the code ever becomes as deep as Elvira already is.
Elvira is the third in the line of pinball classics and it’s already clear the game will another Lyman masterpiece. It stands well on its own even if you don’t know EATPM or SS but complements them well. It’s “gimmick” is that it is the first game to mix theme assets with custom filmed video and speech. It’s likely that in ten years few may know of the Elvira theme (but even fewer will remember Stranger Things). Fortunately the game stands on its own - it really doesn’t matter if you know much about Elvira to enjoy the game. Just think of it as a haunted house game.
Shots are generally easier on Elvira but don’t feel as repetitive as they are because the modes and goals are varied and very well done. Both games seem to have some common minor mechanical issues but the Demogorgon shot on STH seems to be very problematic and (as of a couple months ago) is an very dominant shot in the game.
If I were asked to recommend newer Stern games where knowledge of theme isn’t important, I would recommend JP2 and Elvira. (I dislike the JP theme but really enjoy the game).