God bless you guys who can still get excited about a NIB Stern. Unless they do a 180, there isn't any way I'm buying a new Stern pin. And this is coming from a guy that grew up collecting comics, has owned IM, SM, Avengers, and Wolverine pinballs, and has a theater room filled with Marvel stuff. They had 2 amazing themes in Avengers and Star Wars and crapped the bed with both. So my confidence in them doing right with GOTC isn't very high. I hope I'm wrong and its a killer game.

I guess I'm in the minority, but I find Star Wars to be super fun to play and my Pro has had zero issues, it may be lacking in "toys" but it makes up for it with fun and adrenaline. My TWD, GOTLE, GB Pro, IMVE, LOTR, TSPP, and TFLE all have been fantastic without quality issues as well. STERN had and will continue to have some issues with QC, however they've remedied those afflicted (at least every friend of mine that has had an issue has been made right) and I don't think it's at the grand scale everyone on pinside makes it out to be. Back on topic, I see no reason not to get excited for a potential title like this.

* My wishlist would be for Stern to go with non-photorealistic artwork. See below.
* Original voice, especially Bradley Cooper as Rocket and John C. Reilly as Corpsman Dey
* Someone already mentioned it, but a mode where you're collecting random parts for Rocket.
* My preference would be to have the game based in the Guardian universe, but to not mirror the movie.

images (resized).jpg

Wish there was an option for:

"If it's good quality and done right and has semi-completed code, I will buy one later, but probably still not NIB."

the advantage of being pessimistic is to be pleasantly surprised at the end

Think Stern need to listen to this tune first before their next pin release, i can't afford the new POTC pin but damn it's tasty and if Jersey keep that standard up, well...... P.S Guardians would be a great theme, don't get me wrong

Agree!

There’s just no way to know what it will be like until it’s released.

What I would like?
A Stern Pro with..
Music from GOTG 1
Lots of funny movie quotes
Bradley Cooper/Rocket as the narrator.
Two ramps
Spinner
Good bash toy
Wire form habit trails
Wide shots (read as NOT LIKE NARROW GB that I can’t play well).

GOTG is easily my favorite of all the Marvel movies, slightly edging out Iron Man.

It's one of the few films of the past few years that I can watch over and over and over again.

If this is indeed Borg's next pin, in all likelihood this will be my first Premium!

Why would you post something like that? Because yes, that's how you get people in trouble. Things told to you in confidence at shows aren't meant to be blasted onto the internet where Stern reads them.

How about make another 5 flipper game that's loaded like tspp? I must be smoking to think I'll see a game like that again

I see your point but if it is so confidential why not just dodge his question?

Really hoping for licenced 70's rock. The music in these movies is absolutely perfect and it is needed to do justice to the theme. With the high price of these new games it's time to expect more and return to multiple actors doing custom speech. (STTNG)

Was not in confidence, was in a public signing. I have deleted the original post. One aside, though, I am still waiting for you to post something positive on these forums as your posts are usually contrarian and depressed. Just an observation so relax. BTW you should delete your post as well.

Because people make mistakes, especially after some beers.

It's generally considered good etiquette to keep stuff like that to yourself and not post it on a public forum.

Iron Maiden by all accounts

No worries!.....unless he told you to keep it under your hat...

...and it won't matter in 3 weeks anyway.

Up the Irons!!! Please let this be the case... I would shell out coin so fast for this!!!

I feel real confident the next stern whatever is will be really done well . They are feeling the heat from everywhere right now. If it guardians is on. It should be awesome probably with the best toys seen in a long time for a stern. I will not be buying new unless code is complete. I burned and learned ! No way stern !

I don't think Stern learns. Honestly. I expect more of the same for whatever the next game is, and as long as people keep buying it'll always be more of the same. Stern has no reason to change.

Pretty sure we've seen it with the last three or so titles at least.

The script goes like this - Pinside, a Stern thread interior, a gloomy atmosphere hangs over the thread.
Person A: "I'm never buying another Stern!"
Person B: "Me neither! Quality is down and they treat us poorly!"
Thread B: "New Stern Announced"
Person A & B In Unison: "Take my money!"

Even your post reads as on the fence. You say you won't buy new, but you're excited about the toys and it reads like you're considering buying.

I feel the same way. Their last few games seem very uninspired and hastily put together. I don't see any signs that their next game will be any different. Hope I'm wrong as well.

I want groot and Rocket to do all the callouts. Except Drax can be all the jackpot callouts. And of course classic rock tunes and funk throughout. I get licensing is an issue here, but maybe do what TBL did with the music in that game.

If the art is hand drawn, I'm really hoping it pushes the right buttons for me.

Looking for more comics than disney XD.

about "who will be on it", as said already, STERN has (3) now 2 designers & 3 leads coders...

if simply thinking logically, the next STERN should have been a Trudeau one, with Lyman on code

as the time table is as it :

GB : Trudeau/Dwight
BM66 : Gomez (just tweaking) /Lyman
AS : Borg/Lonnie
SW : Ritchie/Dwight
...

now, with the Trudeau case !?
surelly his works on next title was more than advanced, as they always have (almost) 1 game in "advance"

Everyone should keep their boners in their pants and wait to see what Stern will do.

Please don;t bring Apple into this; It takes away form the point this is a Pinside problem.
Once again, dream journals are out and the scribbling is going down.
Dear DJ,
I've heard recycling layouts is upsetting people now, but I can;t wait for the new Borg game to come out.

So how long does it take to design and make a pinball machine? Because Stern has been "feeling the heat" since Expo which was last week. Unless you mean Star Wars heat which they probably didn;t feel at all.

I bet it was the 1 inch man.

There's so many cool things Stern can do with this license. If it's borg, im sure he'll do his part to implement a lot of that cool stuff. But since its stern, im sure they'll do their part to take away all that cool stuff.

And People who think they're going to change their ways with code are delusional. Im not their target audience as im not an operator; and since Gary confirmed their target is operators and location play, i dont see their code getting any more attention than it has in the past. It's not their business model. All in all, who cares about GOTG; Borg will nail it, but his employer will F it up for fans and collectors as that is not their target audience.

Can't agree there.

You dont think Borg is good with his theme integrations??

Every call out will be “I am Groot”

People are forgetting about the one genuinely exciting thing Stern has to offer for the future (in my mind) and that's the unveiling of Keith Elwin's first game. More than just Borg and Ritchie even with JT out.

JJP POTC has hand drawn art, but it's very "on film", and I'd be shocked if GOTG is allowed to stray from the movie looks. Especially as almost no one actually knows the comics, the movie look is going to be the draw. I could be wrong! But I doubt it.

I guess the only real question is will there be figurines of all the Guardians bouncing like bobbleheads on springs?

I don't think because it's Borg it means it's a good machine or he'll "nail" it.
I don't think he nailed AS, basically a retheme of Kiss which I didn't think was that great to begin with. And I like the star child area more than AS.
TWD & MET are great, but that was a hot minute ago.

The best part of the "integration" for me was the art, which he didn't do.

If not I'm sure Toys R Us or Walmart sells them and Lowe's probably has springs you can glue onto the bottom.

I'm totally cool with a hand drawn copy of the movie portrayal of Rocket. That was pretty good.

I'm just not a fan of the animation style on the disney Rocket & Groot. Rocket looks like the cat from the old Paula Abdul video.

I'm very interested in this title... probably the key thing for me would be getting about 6 to 8 songs from the 2 soundtracks. That's a critical element of the theme for me. GOTG is probably the best of the most recent franchises of this decade.

According to you, when do you think the next Stern game would be announced?

A thought on voice call-outs;

I'd love to see custom speech by one of the actors, but I think odds are slim on getting one of the bigger names (too much $$$).

Chris Pratt / StarLord - too big
Bradley Cooper/ Rocket - too big
Zoe Saldana / Gamora - too big
Vin Diesel / Groot - too big (but you should be able to get at least one or two official "I Am Groot" clips)

To me that leaves only one choice for a major character that wouldn't be too expensive.....Dave Bautista / Drax. I would totally love Drax giving the player a hard time during a game.

Other side characters who I would also be cool with are Michael Rooker / Yondu, or even Sean Gunn / Kraglin.

Later,
EV

they can recycle the star wars videomode: avoid the astroids...

Would be great for Drax to randomly say something like "You are so stupid!"

Yea, borgs not an artist, he’s just the designer. Which means he probably is involved with the insert matrix, construct of rules + code, works with the artist, fleshes out the implantation of the design from display and call outs to overall integration. Or do you think he just copy+paste KISS and said ok, you guys do the rest?

Why do you think SR always has the crap art packages? Can’t be coincidence. I’m betting He probably focuses more on gameplay and rules and just pawns artistic needs on others who seemingly scrap something together.

Bottom line though; and it’s fine if you disagree. But I think Borg is one of sterns best in overall theme integration and it shows in most his games.

BBH: nailed theme with buck, elk, bird, ram
IM: hit it out of the park with Monger, IM ramps, WM, WL, drone targets. Great theme integration.
TRON: could have been better but the disc + lighted ramps = Awesome
XMEN: overall package is great, Not the best, but magneto magnets and other aspects definitely show he brought XMEN to life.
TWD: besides redneck dude, nailed the theme.
MET: everything about that game and design screams Metallica
AS: not as stellar as some others but TIA, love in elevator...it’s obvious he designs games with theme as the foremost intent.

So given Borgs track record; yea, I think it’s safe to say he’s going to bail guardians if that’s his game. But like I said earlier, his employer will find a way to screw it up; whether it’s with code development, QA, or just out right stripping it for profits, it’s sure to happen granted their recent track record.