I have alot of people coming through my place weekly and when there are kids, they always gravitate to towards Creature and Jaws. Creature as they want to see him in the window and Jaws I think for the music and the fun basic fish tales game play. Adults go straight to Mad Max. Pinsound orchestration makes a huge difference.
I was contemplating a pf window with Bruce appearing behind the Orca in my retheme but it never eventuated.
I'm really happy how it turned out and being a home retheme was able to use alot of the original movie stuff in my game, I love it including the pippet callouts and goal. I think catering for kids and pinball evolution will be a hard slog with all of the electronica and www. My 16yo son would agree....
I think a movie or band based pin has to have all the elements, actors and assets. Alien I love but the absence of Ripley is sad. A Jaws pin imo needs the three main actors heavily in the game or it will be empty regardless of toys, and of course the full musical score.
Same for Mad Max. Otherwise it may as well be sharknado!
I am biased always for the original movies only as not often the sequels work for me anyway...with some great exceptions like Indiana Jones and John Wick.
The other aspect for pinball dying for me is the whole process we are in and the delays and costs.
I'd be in on a fully asseted John Wick or Predator pin in a heartbeat. But the time from speculation, to releases, to making it to Australia, to actually getting one available, to affording the new pricing levels and then waiting for full code and actually getting it delivered is imo realistically far too long. Kids are impatient and so am I. I'd want a machine in my home 3 months max from when it was announced. My other personal opinion is not one nib game I can think of doesn't need blinging or add ons or fixing...personal taste I know but I want it to tick every box if I own it, art, music, hardware.
I'm personally just sticking with my custom games and doing whatever and whenever I want with any dream theme. Couple more in progress now and have helped people do the same if they wanted to. There are so many titles I'd love to explore. Predator, Astroboy, Running on Empty, 80s alternative new wave bands, Space 1999, The Goodies......
I guess we need more manufacturers but also a growing demographic....bit of a catch 22 I guess.
Throw into the mix the fomos and flippers I think it skews the nib market in many ways.
I remember when I had Iron Man and Spiderman in the shed as well. Kids would have maybe one game then straight to Creech to find that monster! I think there is something intriguing to kids to have a physical goal that is tactile and not on a screen. Maybe a Bally Pinball Circus style game is something they would love.
received_564789922109399 (resized).jpeg