If this is the standard, then the lack of assets in JJPOTC should be mentioned. But both are great, even without. Now JP has assets and new buyers are lining up, because it is pinball greatness. I’m seeing that potential here in GnR as well. Some games with assets deserve to be ranked higher as well, such as Lebowski and Alien.

Second that... I was a detractor when I first saw it, (to be fair it was the Pro version) and didn't think it was unique in any way, till I played the Premium at a friend's house, it was hooked up to an amp and I was blown away when the T-rex modes came on...it was a freaking experience. Also the graphics were light years ahead of Deadpool (which ripped off the virtual pinball version of Deadpool) and Munsters, Batman etc. I immediately started looking to buy one. The last time I had that sense of urgency was with MET and before that Tron and we know how those games turned out.

Yeah, that one is sleeper hit, it has a lot of cool elements in that game. However, it's just a bit on the easy side to be a GOAT contender.

Yeah, I was kind of thinking he found a location with GnR in it down that way.

We'll see how this pans out in about a year. I think you're going to see a lot of GnR's on the second hand market when the "experience" gets old. I could be wrong, but I just can't see it.

Will a sound bar topper be an available option to purchase in the near future for us SE and LE owners?

Nope, they did not change the settings, and feets were at the normal level, so there is space to increasing the pace !
Happy to ear that their joy is translatable for non-french speaking people ^^

Ice we agree on jp2 but how that boring and outdated elvira is even in the top 10 is beyond me. I think it just proves the significant amount of folks here that are 50 and older. Game is a sleeper.

Well can't agree on them all! Haha

And for that matter, alien is critically underrated. I know we agree on that!

It's available right now. Buy a 3.5m splitter and hook up practically any sound bar speaker

I don't think its a case its underrated I mean how many r out there? How many people have even played 1? not too mention the company folded like a cheap suit and many got screwed. It hurts me that it failed cause for me its by far the best theme yet for a pinball machine and it looks amazing. Damn it

WTF?

Keith is jacked up and Eric played the trumpet in band just saying.

Not to completely take this thread off the rails but last time I played that game I just walked away mid game. Been there done that layout and a theme with old clips of movies along with a tired act I’ve seen already - yes, snooze fest city for me.

I’m almost about to order SE but wanted to see it in action. I’m sorry JJP didn’t release any game footage, I’m sure it’s way better for them to sell the LEs.

Arent they doing some virtual event today or something? Maybe we will actually see some today.

Maybe they don’t want people to jump to the SE when they see the better flow? I did find it interesting that the STDM boys mentioned that the SE was getting a lot of play time at the JJP factory...

I’m more into ramps and flow than upper PF. I know everyone loves different things.

It’s not all about money but I don’t mind saving $2800. I sold my Tron at $7600 the SE would come in at $300 more.

If it turns out that I miss the LE gameplay likely will be available down the road see a lot of folks swap out one version for another at a later date.

My biggest issue is still the lengthy MB seen the French gameplay he was playing the song at least the first 90 seconds was ball save time. He was playing half attention half dancing because there was nothing to risk. The game doesn’t seem drain monster like some people are saying it seems quite safe like SM. I’ll set my game with less generous ball save time.

After reading some posts suggesting that it doesn't have much flow and was a bit clunky , I was getting worried .
After watching the French guys stream it , I'm not worried at all .
With the ramps , the inner orbit and the outer orbits ( I love outer orbits ) , the way the drumstick ramp can go to either the top or lower right flipper , it has more than enough potential flow for me .
People have said it's too multiball heavy , from what I have seen , I don't think so but then again I'm used to playing The Hobbit .
The game looks amazing .
Speaking of The Hobbit mine could be going on an adventure without me .

Honestly, Phil, I don’t think you should buy it. Play it first... you’re having a lot of concerns about quite a few of the game’s core elements.

There’s zero rush. You have plenty of time to get your hands on one and play it before you drop $7 - $10k

I think your spot on and I said the same a few days ago, will be interesting see how quick we start seeing them on second hand market. Fact is for most people 10k+ is a bunch of cash to have tied up and most people get antsy over time and have to have the next best hot item.

With JJP planning to make them for quite a while there could be some good deals on the horizon. Setting up to be the exact opposite of the POTC situation.

I love how it gives you one minute to choose the song you want , just enough time to run to the fridge and grab a beer

I like this^^^^^^^

This is what pinball is all about..

It's the little things that count

Pinball 101. You need long breaks in gameplay to enjoy your adult beverage. Just make sure you can cancel out with both flippers.

Needs to be adjustable in code.

"PISS & BEER TIMER"

In all seriousness , that's a great idea , either turn off the timer or be able to extend it .
One of the great things about Fish Tales is when you lock a ball you have all the time in the world to do whatever you need to .

That's what I loved about Metallica with Sparky Multiball; just enough time to do the same. Since I sold it to get GNR, glad that GNR has the same feature!

Just trying to get an idea of when I might get my GNR LE. For those that ordered direct from JJP and received the pin. How long after they took the 1K deposit did your game ship?

I played an LE for about 2 hours the other night, I want to preface with I am a longtime GNR fan with a pre order in that I intend to convert into an order for an LE.

Like any pinball machine, there are good things and bad things, mostly depending on your preference.

I liked the lights, I didn't love them. There were one or two instances where the light show was AWESOME, and generally the lightshow was good, but it could be better. I hope they keep working on this. I loved the mechanical spot lights, that was fun.

The game played well. It's not Elwin good, but it's good. Speed wise and layout wise, it's a lot more TZ than SM. Some people will like that and some won't. I don't love the mini, I think there is much better use for that space, but I did like the ramps and there is a shot through the pops which I personally enjoy. It had a couple really hard shots, like the left loop, I like that as well.

The rules are what you would expect. Elwin can take a complicated rule set and make it feel like progress on his games, he sets the standard in my opinion. Compared to Elwin's games, GNR has a lot to do, but it feels more like chopping wood than a journey. However, it's about the funnest wood you will ever chop. Obviously the game needs and has a lot to do, and it is fun, but sometimes goals feel arbitrary. However, risk vs reward is my favorite when it comes to rules, and risk vs rewards is very alive in this game and deserves a mention as a huge plus.

The audio is a bit of a let down in my opinion. Lots of songs, 21 I think? But, the same number of songs from Chineese Democracy as Use Your Illusion 2? That's not right, this game should have all (or at least 10) songs from each from the Illusions (I believe it already has 10+ from Appetite). Also, the call outs are bland and oddly lethargic. However, it still has 21 more GNR songs than any other pinball besides the first GNR. For the content that is there, I enjoyed it immensely. I love that Coma and Estranged are there, I love that Double Talkin Jive is there. When you start a song, it feels great. The audio quality is great, starting a song is something too look forward to, even if I wish there were more songs.

Most people will like this game, some people will hate it and some will love it.

I heard on another thread that JJP has over 2500 games to build so it might be a while.....I don't think anyone knows who gets what and when?

We setup a new LE last night... some thoughts...

We had some out of box issues, but nothing major. Nut floating around we couldn’t id... record spinner dropped after about 10min of play... guitar locks didn’t all register at first. The monkeys worked through those and we hammered on it for 6hrs. Game shipped with 1.01. Upgrade to 1.05 was only 90megs and completed in just minutes. The reboot sequence was a little disconcerning... just wait it out.

We played for a bit on factory setting. Interesting that switching to adult mode required the game rebooting (loading diff media set I guess...). After playing a while we upped the lower flippers two stops and upper one. This made the ramps more reliable... but did make the game harder in other areas I think. Scoop and upper flipper to left our lane drains.

Cabinet thoughts... the le cabinet is perfect. The LE backglass... I wish was better but none of the glass seem great. The cartoon skeleton glass doesn’t hold up to the rest of the art IMO. Not bad, but the weakest part of the cab.

The audio is this pin is unlike you have experienced in any other pin. Not pinsound, not external speakers, not custom loads... the physical audio setup and source format combine to a sound that just effortlessly fills a room. This game will draw any crowd to it. Alas a lot of the sound effects finds feel like guitar hero fails... and no there isn’t a ton of audio call outs everywhere... but the call outs topic doesn’t really standout on day 1 at least. I’m sure they wanted the songs to be front and center... and there are very limited interruptions of that. (Extraball being a most prominent interupt)

The audio taunts we heard were GREAT... but not very high frequency. Might need to see if there are some settings to boost that

Video looks great. No... looks incredible. Not sure if the animations are from the tour or made for the game but there is some really great stuff in there. Some are just like the visualizers of old... some really creative. Think the step up hobbit was... then make that jump again.

The screen even feels bigger than previous games based on the layout of the assets. The small screen even looks sharper than wonka.

People talk about the lightning etc... but I think the standout is the art direction, choreography and use of the different assets in the different songs. This isn’t one song is blue while another is red... there is huge thought into the effects. Star effects during November rain... etc. the synchro lights also move very differently in different songs.. stage light too etc. the attention to detail here will be explored and uncovered for a long time.

Go be Continued....

Continuing...

The game play is more interesting so far than I originally considered. While there isn’t huge diversity in geometry per say... they do a good job of keeping you moving around the different shots and keeping you from doing the same thing over and over. Now later... scoring strategies may change that... but day 1 following the game guidance you are kept engaged and diverse... not just focused on two shots while if the rest etc.

I think the song rules where you are trying to maintain your meter with one set of objectives while concurrently trying to advance the song/node shots is a good feature that keeps things challenging and interesting.

No the multi ball all day didn’t standout as an issue because I think the game balances that with objectives. For street play I think this is a positive too. Who knows in competitive play... we spent our time discovering... and less on payoffs.

The upper PF shots are satisfying and fun to try to manage during multi ball. Feels great when a ramp shot goes right to the lock!

The left ramp is interesting because it is so clear... and with the stuff under it... it actually becomes hard for you to pick out in your peripheral vision! It almost disappears! The different ramp returns are neat and allow the bass habit trails to stand out on their own.

Pro tip... backhand from left flipper trap is where it’s at for left flipper and locks. Cross PF could be risky.

None of the shots were naughty or necessarily rejecting. There were no cheap drain feeds. The game pace moved very well even for having multiple PF.

I think the rules are going to drive the PF interest on this one... much like batman66.

To be Continued...

LOL, yeah i'm def in the 50 and over camp. Maybe that's why i love it!

But it's FUN and like Kvan said it's "easy" which is kind of nice to have a game like that in the lineup! You know you can walk up and at times actually get through most of the game or like with other Lyman games you can play it differently each time.

It's Fun and funny!

Btw, put some Pinwoofer kits with the Amps in both JP and EHOH and it's a HUGE difference. One of the best mods out there. Just ordered two more for AIQ and my old AS.

That's the only negative for me too. The "mini" pf use but hey, Simpson's is good and Whitewater is great, the rest of the these mini PF's need to just go by the wayside and be a thing of the past.

As promised:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/diy-concert-light-topper#post-5912224

Continuing...

The Chinese democracy songs are god awful..., but the album mode for it is amazing!!! You must seek that out. Don’t spoil it for people!

Slash solo is a pretty grating audio experience...

Some game play observations...

1 - learn the instrument locations. The game doesn’t give you a ton of audio cues (there are some...) on the instrument shots you need. We struggled with that feedback initially... and then learned to decode the instrument lights in the center of the PF. As the player it’s very difficult to look up and find that detail on the big monitor during play.

2 - During songs... learn to look at the SMALL monitor, not the large to track objectives for the mode. The first few games you won’t even look back there. Train yourself to seek it out.

3 - much like potc- there is a lot of messaging conveyed through the light colors and patterns used for the objective inserts

4 - we did like the gameplay more with the flippers bumped up slightly.

Conclusions....

GNR is going to be a milestone game for sure. If nothing else for presentation, experience, audio quality, and lighting choreography.

It is going to be hard for JJP to match what they have done here in other titles. All the talk about “unprecedented access” etc really shows in the product. knockerlover said it best in a casual comment ... “This is what wonka should have been”. I think people will hold this edge against future titles. It will be like STTNG vs stern ST integration comparisons but times 10. It’s a HUGE jump forward... can it be duplicated? I don’t know what they did manpower investment wise on this title verse others... but it paid!!

The PF geometry may not be mind blowing... but it looks like at least for non competitive play there will be enough diversity to keep the game fun and the hunt to do things. Competitive wise I just don’t have enough entropy yet to draw a conclusion.

It’s a shame this game is 9500... because I think this game would attract people of all types in street play. Unless there is some huge breakout we don’t know about yet... I can’t let any home user buy a SE without a stern talking to.

There is all kinds of small innovations in this game that are not immediately obvious. From where lighting is hidden, to the switch design, to metalwork etc. the game really does standout as “done differently”. Time will have to tell on reliability etc... but kudos to jjp engineering!

I wasn’t in the Market for a game... but man I’m thinking about what to sell now....

Thanks for all the info provided. I’m playing tonight for the first time so I will give my honest review Saturday.

It’s certainly in a league of its own. Hopefully you get to play it at a private place where you get to hear the game on its own.

The way the game changes after the first time you start a song... you won’t forget

Thanks yet you downvoted his feedback.... lol my guess is a slip up.

What a great review, thank you for sharing your perspective. Well said.

Flynn thanks for the detailed assessment

Helps me decide, it sounds (reading between the lines) this pin is as much about the spectacle as the gameplay. I mean Tron without lighted ramps for example isn’t quite the same as one with.

I suspect this pin will stand out in a lineup for the sound and visuals more than anything about the gameplay.

Give me the stern talking to regarding SE version.

1) I’m not a fan of upper PF games any game with a choice I’ll take the one without. ACDC premium is the one exception but that’s a lower PF doesn’t count. However as much as I love the lower PF in ACDC end of the day it really wasn’t that great for points or strategy. I love the lower PF on ACDC anyway but the GnR upper PF (to my eyes) I can take it or leave it.

I’m betting that most of your arguments for the LE are for the art, lights, presentation and not for gameplay.

.

They will have to. IMO.
Also, I believe they are up to thier own challenge. I'd love to see a rush from j j p.

Sounds to me like its both (spectacle and game play). I'm not sure how u separate the two since their directly related to each other.

The PinWoofer product is awesome. I installed those in my IJ along with a PinSound board and it was incredible

Anyone have insight on current wait time for an LE with any of your distributors? Are we talking weeks? months? 2021?

Wtf check latest code and overthink your statement. Lyman did an incredible job.

I’ve talked to 6 different distros since yesterday. All claiming they have no idea but are more than willing to take our cash.