I'm sorry but for me I'll play GB's for 45 min and want to keep playing because its kicking my ass, 10 min and I was bored playing TH, these 2 games should be in a VS match, IM, ST or GOT are good for GB's, some pinsiders really like the gameplay on TH but even in these videos guys are posting to show the apparent speed thats capable with in house set up I get bored watching it, I hope someone I know gets a Hobbit and I get some real time on it with a nice steep set up, maybe it will click, for now its not at all. I'm not against an adventure type game either and really love LOTR's so its something else, layout? Theme? maybe, I want to like it.

My Hobbit LE was delivered today and I just got it setup. Just wow. This game is incredible, loaded, beautiful, full of tech and the build quality is top notch. Very impressed overall. I'm glad I made the choice to buy the game. Ghostbusters looks awesome as well but I just prefer games like The Hobbit with epic quest based code and feature / tech overload more.

Mikey says, "Try it, you'll like it."

The beauty of EMs

NOOOOOO....wait Panzerfreak likes the Hobbit....GET OUT!!!!

Just kidding man enjoy the shit out of it...*cough* you coming down with a cold for work tomorrow?

Haha. I wish! The game is a lot of fun. We are all very fortunate to live in a time where there are so many fun games being made that we can bicker over which one we prefer lol. Heck I may want to get a Ghostbusters down the road.

One thing about the Hobbit though is it's weight. Just damn, it's a beast. I had a buddy help me move down into my basement, we've moved a lot of games over the years and he said The Hobbit was by far the heaviest game he has ever moved. We moved an XMEN LE this past Saturday and I swear the Escalera we use to move games sounded like it was having a more difficult time moving The Hobbit, haha.

But does it have more toys?

I would say yes. Smaug is very cool, extremely detailed, and has a wide range of movement and lighting effects. Does Smaug interact directly with the ball? No. However, I much rather have the Smaug toy as is today then just be a stationary dragon that you would shoot balls into it's mouth and it would spit them out. JJP created a very cool toy with Smaug.

The 4 pop ups are very slick as well and are not your typical pop ups as they seem to have the ability to move differently at times, have flahsers built in and can be hit from the rear for "back stab shots". The games 11 drop targets are also used in many unique ways. I've never had this much fun hitting drops before and that is due to them being integrated so well with the games modes. The ring button is very useful and it isn't your typical lockdown bar button that just serves one purpose. The ring button interacts with modes, the kickback, can delay locks and start modes, is used for a mini outlane game and more.

Overall I think The Hobbit is a very well designed game. I certainly do not understand the few complaints about the game have a sparse playfield. One minute the middle of the playfield seems open and the next it's jam packed as the pop ups are activated. The game is loaded and we have still yet to really see the games subway (between both VUK's and Smaug), orbit magnets, and middle ramp integrated into modes.

I don't think we've seen anything yet in terms of just how much fun The Hobbit will become once the code is complete. So far The Hobbit is one of the most impressive and fun pinballs machine I've ever played.

A few weeks ago you didn't like the game much. One code update made that big a difference? Some might say such an extreme shift of opinion in such a short period of time is a tad Kanedian...ish.

I wrote a review on here over a month ago and liked it a lot. Then I got caught up in the GB hype (could have been before I gave TH another shot) and thought I wanted that game. After the GB hype wore off for me and I played TH a lot more I knew it was the game I wanted to get.

Thanks for being rude and disrespectful. What, can't stand it that people are saying good things about the game?

Sure he does left and then right aswell. sorry couldn't help myself.

Hey thats two more directions then Sterns interactive Gene Simmons Kiss head! Mouth on Smaug moves as well, eyes light up, etc.

I hope by the time my Hobbit ships the factory would have fixed the Smaug issues and make it more like Gene. The more SDTM that you can do nothing about, the better. Brutal pins, yeaaaaahhhhh!!!

Whoa. That was not at all my intention. I don't read every post on this site, so if I missed something I apologize. I vaguely remembered you being down on TH and wondered why the extreme change of opinion. I infused a little humor in my post that I did not think would be taken so seriously. My review of Hobbit in another thread was largely positive. I thought it had potential before the last code update.

Dude.. Smaug is awesome on the machine. I love the sound of the voice when he talks during each lock. Just gives a great vibe about the machine.

I also like the fact the ball is held by a magnet by him, then drops off into the gold coins- it's actually just like the scene that is being depicted on the LCD where that Hobbit looking guy slides into the gold coins. Pretty cool.

Panzer, dude, chill out. You're more defensive than a mama bear. Posting a spec sheet one more time isn't going to sway opinion, and that's ok! It's so irritating that you smother out every critical comment with loads of premanufactured responses that we've all read a thousand times.

If you are going to accuse people of being rude, take a look at your own behavior first.

You got Panzer and KPG...DO NOT mention Ghostbusters 2 PLEASE!!

If you say GB2 three times, Beetlekirk appears and raises up the shield.

I like GB2 though...

I read that and laughed it's a decent joke....

....But then I started wondering if that shit was really true...and I don't know it may be You're not a demon are you?

No...no!

If you are going to post one negative / rude comment after another about the game then I have every right as well to say why I disagree, especially in a thread that is comparing two games or another where it was designed for people just to bash it. Example, you say over and over again that the game lacks shots, has nothing in it, etc and I defend it and list the shots and features. That is me being rude? No, sounds like once again you are trying to spin this as you have with a bunch of other posts.

Seems like you just can't stand to read anything positive about the game and then have to jump down people's throats to say why they are wrong.

No worries, it's cool, I couldn't tell with the Kaneda comment, lol. I apologize for over reacting, it didn't help that at the time I'm reading the same old harassing comments from the anti JJP squad. I'm just going to put them on ignore, there is no sense debating with them.

games that kick your ass tend to be more fun, because you want to play another right away. Thinking more on the lines, like, i'm going to show this game what's up.

Indy 500 does that to me. I want to play 1 game and it turns into 10 because it kicks my ass so bad and i'm right on the edge of actually making something happen.

That's why ass kicking games get played over and over again. My LOTR on the other hand. Might kick my ass once in awhile, but most of the time I have a fairly long game on it. So i'm done. I had my fill. Then I change over to something that kicks me in the nuts, and end up playing more games, but end up playing it over a longer period of time, because it's more intense.

I agree with this. And something else a lot of pinsiders forget to realize is that Keith's rules/code is not meant so that the player sees every aspect of every mode, multiball, show, etc... Every game. His rules are designed so that each and every game is different from the next. We've seen this with lotr, woz, tspp, and now hobbit. Of course there will be that one magical game where you see 90% or more of the game, but if you set the game up easy for 45 minute games then yea, you'll have yourself a long ball Time game that may get repetitive and old after a period.

Stern games on the other hand are designed so that you play all the modes 2 or 3 times in just one game. Lyman's code however, if you notice, avoids this aspect for the most part though; coincidence? I think not. Two best programmers in the biz understand the importance of avoiding mode redundancy.

That said, it's a good thing Dwight came on board for stern to help non Lyman coded games. While GOT seems like a mode based game on the surface that may have the player playing the same modes each game; to me, the way he did the rules is not for it to be a mode based game but rather a multiball mode based game where each time you play a multiball will be different from the next one next time you hit start. Not to mention the house modes have very diversified scoring strategies that aren't seen in many other sterns except maybe Twd.

So with all that said, it'll be interesting how GB ends up fitting into the mix of its modes with Dwight behind the control board. Seems great so far.

I had one ball get stuck during one of my first games since I got my LE setup and then never again now a few dozen games later. The time it did happen the ball eventually popped itself out. Game has been rock solid and is a blast to play.

Happens once in a while but the balls have all popped out with the search...

Had the game for almost two weeks, 135+ games, balls have gotten stuck maybe 2-3 times.. But ball search easily cleared it quickly and it's a non issue. No need to ask JJP for some kind of fix, it works perfect and the game is great.

If the ball keeps getting stuck there and you have to wait for a ball search, then I wouldn't say its a non issue and works perfectly.
It sounds like others aren't as lucky as you. At least the ball search kicks it out now. But I would call that a bandaid not a fix. If I just paid 9K I'd be calling JJP..

Honestly the issue is so blown out of proportion on pinside its crazy.. Its no big deal

It's not...I've had a ball stuck ~four times in a pop up since I got the machine. Funny enough, I've got it to happen in each "beast". It usually happens during beast multiball, but they pop back up and out within seconds. If that isn't enough for you, JJP has some plastic guards that prevent it from happening ever. But it's no big deal either way.

Jjp saw it as a problem and has a solution.
Great customer service. They make hi tech State of the art pinball machines.
I love my woz!

As long as this isn't as bad as the Hulk trapping the ball on Avengers I'd be okay with it. But that dang Hulk arm drove me NUTS!!!

Thanks for posting that link!

I hope they can get those proton beams to work. And at a reasonable price.

gee me too!

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I helped fix The Hobbit a couple of times this weekend. That thing is like a tank. It definitely had weightier feel all around than any version of Ghostbusters.

Played TH, GB Pro and the LE as many times as I could during the Denver show this weekend. Was there all 3 days and paid the extra to be able to get in before and play later than the general admission fee. I was a bit cautious as it seems like on Pinside there's a ton of hype before and afer each Stern release which does create excitement but also sometimes a lot of passion which can't always be sustained. I much say I was very impressed with the GB LE gameplay, playfield and the overall package. I found the Pro fun and perhaps to have more flow. But also to be missing several gameplay items I'd miss if I bought the Pro version. However $2K more at the show for the LE versus the PRO, I'd could see the cheaper version being a very choice also.

I own a WOZ and had played TH some on earlier codes before this weekend for 2-3 dozen games. Did find it much more fun and enjoyable with the most recent code and played it every chance I could. It's a gorgeous game and seems very well solid overall. Although I'm aware of some issues with the popups and it seems like the issues are much more minor than the board and other issues with the early production WOZs. I believe they've learned a ton in creating game 2.

My wife and I talked a lot about which one we like better TH or GB LE. Basically the games are so different in their style of play we are having a hard time deciding. MY wife seems to like TH just a tad over GB because of theme and game play suits her interest more. I'm about even, but perhaps ever so slightly prefer GB because of flow and speed. But honestly believe I'd be glad to own either. Because I have a friend who graciously offered to sell me his preorder TH at what he paid, I see TH in the house someday not too long for now. He's considering going with GB LE instead.

I thought "built like a tank" implied it didn't break down. I guess it just means it's heavy.

Thank goodness it was you that gave him the opening to describe all the problems. He wouldn't have responded if it had been me.

It means both, but it certainly doesn't mean it doesn't break down ever. It means that it was built with quality components. By the way tanks do break down from time to time, and we certainly get your point.

If Stern is already charging $500 for a light bar topper that doesn't have rotating becon lights I'll bet that the proton beams will be $400- $500. Stern is going to try and milk every cent out of this title. $50 for a plastic shooter knob with a gel sticker on it? lol

Thanks for the reviews, both great looking game, I've yet to play GB and only played TH a few times on early code. I can't decide a bit so I'm probably going to wait and see how things pan out after the code is mostly complete on both..

I just hope its something crazy cool like Bag End with a motorized door that opens revealing an LCD behind it that can show all kinds of stuff. Now I'll pay $500 for that, lol.