Quoted from ThatOneDude:To me, the problem is that themes aren't coupled with the game mechanics. A crap theme might not attract me much, but a favorite theme slapped on a generic playfield won't hold my attention for long either. If it's a nostalgic theme, great. If it's new, great. If it plays like crap, neither matters. If it's a generic playfield that plays good but doesn't bring anything new, it will not age well.
In my mind, the things that make a game great are
a) things that add chaos in a meaningful way(strategic magnets, bumpers, etc)
b) things that play with the ball in some way evocative of the theme(Thing from TAF, the Crate from SS, Sparky from Metallica, etc)
That's why I dig the custom games. Do something interesting and new(or just a twist on something classic), then I'm dropping quarters, unless the theme is so shite that I can't get over it.
I'm pretty much the same way.
Pinball is so rare in the wild that I'm probably not going to pass up giving one a try if I find it out there, because the theme is lame. It could be Barney the dinosaur on the translite and I'll probably give it a go. (I just hope the sound is off or the volume is really, really low)
One thing that helps a themed game work is the designer(s) buy into the theme. If they do, the higher the chance that players will. Star Trek: The Next Generation is a perfect example of a theme that could have been poorly executed in a pinball. Steve Ritchie and team, virtually all ST fans, had to sell the game to Paramount to get the license, because Paramount did not want "violence." But they acquired it, and did possibly a better job of integrating a theme into a pinball game than any other - while also making a game non-ST fans could enjoy.
Chicago, IL
