I am curious as well. None to play near me. Feedback from unbiased non-owners would be extra helpful.

The 1.01 code is more like 0.60 code because it seems very unfinished and WAS really buggy on Karl's stream when he did the temp tests a few weeks ago. Crashed once and rebooted and also became unplayable at the end because the upper flipper was disabled in a mode you needed the flipper to finish. Supposedly Ultraman is even less far along, but I don't have a stream to post for that one. Here's the hour and a half Halloween Stream.

Both games were at MGC and seemed to hold up through the show. I played Halloween a couple times. I really like the call outs on it. It seemed a bit easy, but it may have been set that way on purpose. I'd like to put more time on it though. I had no idea what was going on with Ultraman as I'm not familiar with the theme.

There are very few out in the wild, so any non-owner feedback will be limited.

You can check the owner’s club for honest feedback unless you’re convinced we’re blowing each other over the game. If you believe you won’t get a genuine review from an actual owner, then I encourage you to find a location and decide for yourself.

Fun great looking game for when you want to play something unique and different. Faster than I thought it would be. I enjoy the upper playfields but wish the left side had more variety. looking forward to seeing it progress. Helps if you’re a big fan of the film.

I went to Ayce Gogi in Los Angeles to play some new stuff including Halloween and Ultraman. Well here goes, I didnt care for either Halloween or Ultraman. Both are simply..........not fun. A third of the playfield is the upper levels which honestly do not offer any exciting shots and just seemed confusing as what to do once you got up there. The rest of the playfield didnt offer much more. There are drop targets that are more irritating than fun to shoot that only clear the path to a few mediocre shots. No pops and the ball disappeared often and reappeared under the outlane plastics. I don't know, just didnt see the big deal in that and it doesn't add anything to the much needed excitement/fun. No call outs or animation worthy of a mention as it all seemed very amateur and repetitive(More Halloween than Ultraman with this). It was so repetitive at times I tried harder to hit the shots to make some video sequences stop. The sound and music wasn't much better and I couldn't imagine putting a high powered speaker set up in either game as there was no desire to hear any of it louder or with more bass.

I won't bother with the cab and artwork as everyone already knows those are both extremely pleasing to the eyes and well executed, but the game play itself was just flat out boring. I have a Godzilla Prem and considered getting Ultraman to go next to it, but after playing it I'll pass. Halloween was even more disappointing. We are building a "scary" themed part of our second game room and this game "should" fit in perfectly, but I definitely won't use up a space or cash on this game with any level of coding. I can see maybe at a much lower price point for anyone considering either of these two games but at their current price tag my personal opinion is to skip them altogether and get something better.

Still cheering Spooky on but these two are definitely a swing and a miss IMO. I'm sure others might find them entertaining and we all have certain aspects of a pin that we enjoy and find challenging but unfortunately I didnt find anything on either title worth the price of admission. My two cents deposited

There is no amount of programming that will fix the terrible layout and gameplay of these 2 pins.

never been a fan of spooky games at all, but felt they had made some progress with alice cooper. Rob zombie and Americas most haunted were both horrible games........ then Halloween comes out and once again they lost any hope i had.

Honestly, I don't know if they have the luxury to do it, but Spooky should stop, collaborate (with other designers) and listen. They haven't made that many pins of these two themes yet, so a pause and redesign to remove that useless stack on the right and make better use of the playfield over there can fix the design issues that will never be helped with software. Pause, fix the baked-in design problems, use that revised design for all pins going forward and make kits for the few ones already in the field. They're going to have happier owners in the long term.

The one caveat to this is that Lyman managed to take a game that was a disaster - Walking Dead - and turned it into a masterpiece with software alone and a near-complete rethink of the game. But Spooky doesn't have a Lyman, and I don't think even he can beat that stack and some of the weird geometry in Spooky's duo.

As a huge Ultraman fan, I hope they do pause and fix the playfield problems. I'd really like to own it, but there's no chance of that right now. Keep their line busy with a basic Rick and Morty Contrition Edition while they fix Halloween and Ultraman.

1.04 code is going live today, hope you guys enjoy!

Played both at a couple of locations…didnt think the game was fun. Had several times where the ball just dropped to the right flipper and drained before i even saw it. No code can fix that because the drop is right above the flipper so unless you are actually looking when the ball drops, it will drain every time!

Useless stack? Are you talking about the upper playfields? I am not following. You think the shots are weird on both games? Have you been able to play it yet? I played UM at two shows and it shot really well. I didn't think there were any weird angles. I guess I can understand if you are not a fan of upper playfields. There is a lot to shoot for despite them.

Code is still early. I can understand people reacting negatively to that as it's a bit of a mess in it's current state. Next update is today so we'll see if they can move forward with additional content, squash bugs and not create more of them. My only concern is it gets the ACNC treatment where code updates take too long and they don't address all the problems/bugs. But the layout...I think it is different and fun. The lifters need to eventually have staged balls though as the time is a bit on the long side when the ball has to travel from the upper playfield drain. The coolness of Rick and Morty's portal shot is it disappears and immediately reappears. I agree with the above poster that, although cool, the lifters really don't add any excitement or purpose to the games in their current state.

If anything I think Spooky really needs to take a look at their release process and maybe announce a game when the code is more mature. Because I don't think they can afford to ship games when code is half-baked. It's pretty obvious when you see the amount of people selling deposits. Granted a large portion of those people are scumbag flippers who bought multiple spots and just wanted to offset the cost of new games by monetizing their hobby. But that is a discussion that has been played out many times across many threads here.

Sigh. Once you play a few times you understand that your ball is going back to the inlanes (like a ramp return) whenever it goes into a hole on the playfield. If you were watching, you will notice a set of lights that flashes and a sound cue. The first couple of plays it catches you off guard but once you understand, it really isn't hard.

If anyone coming through Gainesville, FL would like to experience these games in a proper environment, let me know

Both aging well in my opinion. Polarizing for sure, but a large percent of owners have these "bolted to the floor" for a reason.

As long as its got a butter cab Im in, dont care how many playfield levels it got nor not. That unboxing experience itself is worth the 9k

I played a dozen games on Halloween and thought it shot well. The flippers felt good and the shots were smooth and unique. I loved the atmosphere and I think Spooky nailed the approach to this theme. I'm a horror movie fan, so the theme appeals to me more than most, but I am not the type to sugar coat. The code seemed more like placeholder filler than the foundation of a brilliant game design. (Will it get there? I don't know... I can't exactly say I feel confident about it.) The drop targets were finicky and felt like an afterthought to limit access to the upper playfield. The return from the lifters was ok, with the exception of when the ball is returning from the upper playfield. I could see that wait becoming a chore over time. I did think the surprise element worked well with the theme of being stalked by a killer, though. I have had some people who's opinions I value already declare the game a dumpster fire, so that's a little concerning. I have stopped telling people that I have a pre-order in. That's not exactly the experience you hope for with a $9k purchase.

As for AMH and RZ. I didn't like RZ, but AMH is great. If nothing else, the code in AMH is really, really good and it has some unique mechs that haven't appeared in any other pin. I wish people would stop lumping these 2 games together. They have completely different design teams, layouts and rulesets. The only thing they have in common is they run on similar systems.

This is a truth many don’t want to face

Or maybe some people base their opinions off of real-life experiences? Perhaps play the game a couple dozen of times before judging. I know it is a crazy idea.

I figured it out on like the second ball, the game cues you whats coming if you are paying attention.

The ball pops out so silently its almost a feature in itself, like Micheal sneaking up on you.

I played it for hours, still didnt like it, I that’s a crazy idea

I played it for hours along with Ultraman and THEN gave my review, maybe read all of the posts leading up to that comment, what a crazy idea

Or maybe read where I said I did play it along with Ultraman for hours before giving my review, what a crazy idea

Let mine go after a month of owning. Beautiful machine, Love the theme, but the gameplay got old quickly for me. Putting the money towards RUSH.

This seems to be the running theme so far. I've noticed that many of the early reviewers that gave the game a 9+ "bolted to the floor" rating sold their spot/game a few weeks later. I keep thinking about selling my spot, and I still might, but I figure that things can't get *too* much worse than they already are. I might as well wait and see. At least I can't lose more than my deposit amount, right?

I think it’s worth it to spooky to invest much more than they had planned into making both these games fantastic from a code perspective. They are really at a crossroads here, if they only marginally improve code they will loose a lot of customer confidence for their next titles, with more competition and a likely softer pinball market. If they go above and beyond to transform these games into code masterpieces they are guaranteed to sell out their next game.

Not going to disclose what I sold it for, but Let’s just say the guy I sold it to got an outstanding deal on a barely played new game and I learned a needed valuable lesson. Just wanted it gone asap to have funds readily available towards RUSH. For me, no amount of coding could save this game as the gameplay just got stale quickly and I hated the entire left side of the playfield from the get go. If I had unlimited funds and a huge collection of pins I would have kept it as a collectors item only as it is a beautiful looking machine. Will root for Spooky on the their next project as they are a great small business. Just my honest opinion.

I can see the upper playfields and slow ball returns to flippers as turning people off but what about the left side of the playfield did you hate?

Same 3 shots with no variety that all go to subways - felt redundant and boring. Just wasn’t the gameplay for me.

And please don’t let my views sway you - it’s just one guys’ opinion and we all have different tastes. Wish I did love it. The team at Spooky is great and they stand behind the product so that goes a long way with me. I’ve just realized I’m a Rock pin guy as they never seem to get old to me. Hope you get a chance to play it soon.

Sounds to me like you're rushing to the next FOMO purchase. Maybe that's the lesson you should learn?

I was kinda curious what lesson he learned too.

I think the left side sling shot should be adjusted to reflect the angle of the upper ramps to gain performance gains from 5-10% of the promised projected speed of the ball.

I did predict HWN wouldn't stay long in most collections. It's a low budget movie with very little meat on the bone.....a masterpiece for sure, but a poor theme for a pinball game. I designed my own Halloween pinball game many years back, but I had unlimited access to all the movies, all the cast, all the soundtracks...and I still couldn't make a deep and engaging pinball experience.

I was ejected from the HWN thread for my prediction, which said: you'll absolutely love this game....for 3 weeks. In 6 weeks it will start to gather dust, and in 2 months it's gone.

Watch the market place for some HWN bargains...these games will trade multiple times.

Doesn't matter to Spooky of course, they've made a fortune.

Been playing lots of UM. Really love it. Love the upper playfields. It's a WEIRD game, but that's its charm for me. I've always hated pop bumpers because of the chaos, so the UM/HWN pf is basically a dream come true.

oh, and no magnets on the pf! The other bane of a clean shot.

People giving their spots away for 25%-50% on the dollar does not gel with all the positive owner reviews. I smell bullshit reviews.

People giving away their spots who haven't received, or probably even played, the game yet.

Here's a link to George's stream of Ultraman from last week. Should give a better idea of where things are at right now.

Perhaps, but those prices are driven by low demand, not by the sellers.

Still waiting/hoping to play this in person before I decide whether to keep my spot, but there are none anywhere near me that I know of and I won't be supporting any "show me your papers" pinball shows.

It’s a fun game for a bigger collection.

It really needs code development to make it stick longer term though.

Has the potential to be really good if they will continue to improve it. Not sure what is planned to finish it off?

Gulp.

Every new title receives some bullshit reviews.

The negative ones made in response to a new game's initial reviews being "too good" are just as bad if not worse.

These ratings are a game about a game! They "extra" don't matter! Well, they shouldn't, anyway.

I have 11 games set up currently and most of the titles are horror based, so my review is perhaps a bit biased.

Halloween is an absolutely beautiful machine a new clever layout that is like none of my other games. Code is still early but still fun and very playable. Sound and light show are on point and in my opinion blow stern out of the water. How this game flushes out long term is really reliant on what happens with the code.

There are things about Halloween that I feel are lacking, mainly I’m a little disappointed with the construction of the cabinet, it has a bit more flex in it than I would like and I think the corners need to be mitered differently to add more strength. This game is fickle and dialing it in has been a lot of work. Upon receiving my game I’ve had to adjust the upper playfield the guide on the left orbit and a couple of switches. The adjustment that has given me the hardest time is the scoop, for such a necessary shot it’s very hard to make and the deflector really needs to be set perfectly or it’s a brick fest.

All of that said Luke and everyone at spooky has been very helpful and have offered to replace parts even when I didn’t ask. When I got the game I broke the link for the topper (totally my fault) and spooky sent me a new one free of charge.

This game fits my collection perfectly and I love it.

I've played both of these machines several times and think the design is way cool and not boring at all. Just different and unique, which I like.
Code needs to be better though, c'mon Spooky, do your magic.....