The Stern examples given are some of the best rated pins ever, so hard to argue that American Pinball doesn’t have plenty of work to do to really compete with the 800 pound gorilla, but that doesn’t mean that HW isn’t an excellent game and value in its own right. And from what I’ve seen the code is outstanding; again, not all time great but equal or better than plenty of top Sterns. Personally, I don’t put much weight on a static dinosaur, bobble head, spinning pizza or umpteenth bash toy, and would much rather have great geometry, code and personality. Not to mention great cabinet & playfield build.

Agree the stick car is the weakest part of the package. If they had a car on some type of loop doing basically the same thing it may have tempered “what no loop, I’m out.” At least with current code it doesn’t constantly spin and interacts with game play in a meaningful, fun way. And the ModCouple tire stack mod makes it look pretty good.