I agree the game itself is a winner but the LE art package was not all that iceman. I'm still on the fence.

I have Aerosmith pro and think it is great.... but with the amount of money flowing around the hobby right now, and the speed in which the hobby is growing; I see no reason why heighway, JJP, and spooky can't make it as well.... if anything I could see a price battle and prices come down a bit... I feel it is all good for the hobby.... PINBALL RULES!

Aren't there already like 4 other Star Wars pinball games out there that nobody gives two Wookie sh!ts about? What's so special about this one?

Lol. He/she said Wookie sh!ts.

Alien is mine. ....

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With SW release I bet the price of these will be going up...

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I own Aerosmith LE. This thing is lightning fast. Currently running code 1.03. I was going to purchase a Hobbit Smaug....but changed my mind at the last second. I NEVER played The Hobbit, but think Aerosmith is a bit more my speed.

The more I play Aerosmith pro, the more I like it. The more I play BM66, the less I like it. Hope to get a chance to play ASLE at some point.

Agree 100% Stern's entry into the LCD era plus there improvements in art/light/sounds over the last couple of years, puts them in an amazing position.
If they can clean house with a few of the quality issues, they will just keeping powering forward. Even the code is not as big a deal as some make out. Really the code is what keeps games like Metallica on the production line for 3 years plus. But it is the themes and total presentation that sells the games at launch. Stern has to look at Metallicas popularity and the dollars it has generated based purely on the code. They will be investing more money in this area, however it may take a little longer to find and grow the talent pool to where every game ends up with Lyman quality coding.

It's been covered before but when companies such as Highway and Dutch first announced there entry into pinball Sterns products as far as theme and art package where much weaker. Alien would of stolen market share if it had come out in 2014-2015 now Stern will have at least 1 AAA title in Starwars and possibly another for expo by the time Alien starts really ramping production.

At value for dollars nothing is coming close to a Stern pro. This is great for the hobby as it provides a somewhat affordable option for operators and an high quality entry level for new collectors.

If Aerosmith had been a more universally appealing theme, there would be nothing else anyone would be talking about. This game (pro) at a solid $1000 - $1500 less then anything else on the market, blows away the competition.

So true about the Pro. I find it rare that a Pro will ever match or exceed its corresponding LE. I never played the Pro version, but the YouTube videos give credence to all the hype. I get the sinking feeling that collectors (years down the road) will be looking for Aerosmith Pro. What an amazing price point for such an incredible pin!! THIS entry level pin is what gets people hooked on pinball. Limited funds with a budding interest in pinball. What do they get? HOOKED !!

You are 100% right, Stern is making the best games in pinball history right now and they just crushed it with Aerosmith! Anybody who isn't giving Aerosmith a chance is really missing out on a amazing game. Look at the great titles that you can buy "Right now" from Stern. You can buy Aerosmith, TWD, GOT, MET, GB, SMVE, and BM66. That is 7 kick ass games that you can go out and buy tomorrow. How in the hell is anyone supposed to compete with that kind of greatness for real?

They are great games but can't ignore lousy QC as of late.

Not going to argue about it but all I can say is that my games have zero issues and I play the hell out of them. I have two friends no lie that go over 400 pounds and they have played my machines a lot also and they haven't smashed or split my cabinets yet. That's two big boys putting a lot of stress no doubt on my machines. They are not built as solid as older games I can't deny that at all, but they are holding up well.

It's pretty easy to pump hardware when you have a customer base that blindly accepts knowing software may never be complete. You guys dig your own problems.

Sorry hit the wrong button.

Stern happens to hit the feelings right with their license picks. It is the emotional response to the theme that generates the sales, software be damned. I sincerely don't get why folks don't sit back and wait for Stern to COMPLETE a game, software included, before purchasing. It's like buying a new video game system (hardware) and a game (software), and only 40% of the software is finished. The rest may or may never come out. Why would you do that to yourself? The Stern customer base perpetuates their own damn problem.

Wow, now there's a trolling title for a thread if I've ever read one.

Iceman, you are supposed to mix the Kool Aid with water and stir, don't snort it directly out of the package. Glad you like the game.

Didn't Kenada start this exact same thread when KISS came out....

To tie in with the "theme matters" thread... Out of all those games, only Metallica really appeals to me making Alien my choice if adding another machine right now.

Aerosmith looks like a good game, but I know I don't want to look at it every day. Using a similar comical character with the exact same voice as Sparky was kind of a tactical error for me. I only have room for a few games and wouldn't want it next to Metallica in a lineup even if I liked Aerosmith.

Stern Pinball: Making increasingly lower quality copies of the same game over and over again since 2014.

L O L @ price drop

I know I'm probably in the minority (and one of the younger people here), but I wouldn't buy hardly any of what Stern is pumping out.

Aerosmith? When is the last time they were relevant? Armageddon (1998), and for a love ballad played on soft rock stations in doctors offices?

Batman 66? Yeah, umm no. The only thing I know Adam West from is Family Guy. Batman 66 theme is a joke tosuck up money from the nursing home crowd.

Ghostbuster is more of the same, old stuff that isn't overly funny to the newer generation anyway. My family and friends thought the new all girls GB was far funnier than the original.

Kiss? Aren't they dead yet?

GoT is fun, but butchered what could have been a great theme.

Not nearly every game they produce is "kickass"... I'll continue to enjoy RZ and keep my money in my pocket until I see a few more things come down the pipe and hope they aren't from movies or bands where half the cast is dead or geriatric...

Damn whippersnapper, I'll clobber you with my rotary phone!

My AS is significantly better quality than my KISS. Maybe they've turned a corner?

Stern wants to sell more pins and the people with disposable income to buy those machines are in their 50's and 60's. The younger crowd will get their chance but not while they're young.

I feel like Andrew felt his LE art announcement was mic drop worthy. But was it really? Maybe in 2015.

New Ghostbusters funnier than original? Not sure what's going on in Texas but I was out after reading that comment. Wow.

I am also a young person I am 14 and I love kiss, Aerosmith, Ghostbusters, and Batman 66 themes. I also hope they make a jaws and iron maiden theme pinball because they are awesome.

Ha! But the stern pins you so dislike are on your pinside wishlist!

Complaining about the somewhat dated themes is beating a dead horse they have to sell games to a home market with the $$ to spend and right now that demographic is much more likely to buy games with themes that are nostalgic to their youth.

Phantom of the Opera?

But seriously, what about TWD, Spiderman, (possibly) Metallica and Star Trek? May or may not be your personal taste, but they're generally relevant to your age group.

That's great to hear. The Aerosmith pro I saw on location last week looked very nice. Assuming Stern resolves their recent cabinet issues I can see buying an AS or SW pro.

I'm also comparatively young in the hobby - I turned 30 last year but have been collecting since 18. Agree to an extent re Aerosmith and Kiss, but strongly disagree re Ghostbusters and to a lesser extent Batman 66.

I grew up with Ghostbusters, as did all my friends. Watching the movies and the cartoons, playing with the toys, wearing the clothes - it's one of my all time favourite themes. My friends, all of whom are in their late 20s or early 30s, were very excited when I got GB Premium for the theme alone. Not sure where to start with someone who thinks the recent movie was funnier than the original though.

I'm not so attached to the Batman 66 theme, and don't see myself getting one mainly due to the layout, but again I grew up watching the 60s show on TV and I loved the movie as a kid. Shark repellent batspray should be able to trancend generations.

Then again your collection lists Phantom of the Opera, which for me is up there with the worst pinball themes of all time, so I guess we just have somewhat different tastes. Fail to see how that is any more relevant than the Stern themes you've mentioned though.

Edit: Rob Zombie is 52 and has been active since 1985. Isn't that approaching your definition of 'geriatric'?

Please explain to me - in dollars and cents - what relevance "relevance" has to Stern pinball.

Can you convert "relevance" into profits? Is "relevance" relevant at all in the pinball market, where "irrelevant" themes sell plenty and make Stern money?

Is pinball's customer base "relevant" in any way, or are the vast majority in fact wizened wage slaves with families who are decades past putting their cultural stamp on society?

I anxiously await your explanation.

It would have been with better timing and some nice background PR to get everyone talking.

The timing was too late in the day and to really have been able to drop the mic a fully maned production line needed to be on show in the background walking past 3 people with screwdrivers at this stage in the game (LEs have been delayed but surely SE production should be ramped up?) just didn't cut it.

Hopefully we see Alien production ramped up asap, no denying when it comes to getting games made and out the door Stern make it look easy but certainly with mixed results.

stern is on a roll!! yeah they are kicking ass! but where is the code stern, where is the code!!??

Sterns biggest problem has always been code, not theme selection. Always will be. How many games have failed because of bad code? Too little to late, everyone has moved on to the next title. Stern leaves a lot of money on the table.

A white straight jacket and metal bowl with tin foil as a hat would be a good start

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Code on Aerosmith is solid bro

Huh?

Stern's problems history, going back through the DE days.

No top talent for design
Lower quality mechanics
Cabinet paint that flaked off
Low quality art
Spinners that don't spin
Terrible sound

This gradually started to get better with the release of Monopoly. "Code" has NEVER been one of their problems, and still isn't. Your average Stern game today launches with code that surpasses the complete release code of many 90s bally/williams classics. People still don't know what they are complaining about when it comes to Stern code. And they never will.

POTC machines were shipped without skill shot code, just to start. No need to mention X-Men. But why go on, your right, unfinished code has never ever been a problem at all with Stern.

Haha ok, I now know exactly where to start!

I don't think they have to compete, the tide raises all boats. Stern's success is a good thing for pinball, and if helps the pinball market overall, that will be good for JJP, Heighway, and others.

I have yet to play AS, but honestly after what Heighway and in particular JJP have done, the Stern LCD looks like a modest revision over DMD. Hopefully, they've had some impact on Stern, and fortunately it's the gameplay that really matters.

Tell me you don't think of the AS animations when you see this commercial:

That argument doesn't have any weight behind it, we are far more technologically advanced now than we where 20-30 years ago, things should naturally be more advanced and intricate it's the way all technology moves forward, that's includes pinball machines and pinball code, if phones, computer games, OS systems can all become modem intuitive and deeper then it's only natural pinball code should advance in depth.

Just because you haven't evolved Levi doesn't mean pinball code and technology pkus the rest of the world shouldn't be expected to naturally progress

Ok that's kind of funny. Give that guy some scarves.

I place AS in the same league as WOZ for me personally, I don't care if they tickle my nuts while playing, they will never end up in my game room due to theme. I would like to see Stern do SW some justice finally, such a great theme is deserving of a great game. Let not just punt on the theme this time please.