You are overreacting to the overreaction.

Anybody who has sold a lot of pinball machines knows the cruel truth: Art matters when families are buying pinball machines. A bloody corpse on the side of the game - regardless of gender - is going to turn a lot of people off. If it were my company, and my $$$/livelyhood was on the line, I certainly would have omitted that particular image. Just doesn't make sense from a sales, marketing standpoint. We've already seen people posting that they have little kids and that cabinet is a no go in their game room.

So you are about to produce and market a pinball machine. As yourself,

1. Will a bloody corpse on the side of a pinball machine help you sell additional units?

2. Will it cost you sales?

Those are really the only relevant questions and I think we know the answers. THey are:

1. zero
2. Probably.

Not good business.

One of my buddies dad used to be a photographer, and one of his photos is in the Led Zeppelin 3 album. He's an interesting cat with a cool house full of all sorts of random junk that's neat to look at.

Hey maybe you should have kept reading to the part that said I wasn't offended by it.

I don't want a Walking Dead cause it's ugly as sin and Halloween looks very mediocre from what I've seen so far. I also enjoy watching Squid Game. Violence doesn't bother me when it's a well executed vision.

Are we cancelling “Wild West” now? I’m pretty sure Jim West only shot the bad guys.

Or some of us are actually excited that a viking themed pin is violent, because vikings were...violent!

That's fine. Enjoy your pinball machine

Well now, that’s just hurtful. I love my Walking Dead, even the well walker with the combover.

True dat, mofo! And the conversation should start and end with people knowing that it's Robert Plant's kids on the cover, and if it was okay with him, it should be okay with everybody else. Come to think of it, I wonder if they'll sue their own father on child porn charges like that Nirvana Nevermind nitwit.

When there are so many to choose from, it's easy to cross some off the list. Wish there was on on location nearby though, because it is a fun game.

Again, I'm not outraged by the art, but it definitely turns more people off than on. And I don't see why anyone would argue that point? If someone wanted a violent Vikings pin, they would have bought it regardless of that corpse being there because this is the only Viking game that will be built this side of the millennium.

Not to get too far off-topic…it’s not his kids, but the whole backstory is pretty cool:

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/houses_of_the_holy_the_backstory_to_the_famous_led_zeppelin_album_cover

Lol,

Didn’t AP take heat over the release of Hot Wheels. Too “Juvenile “, too “orange”. Real family oriented pin. People were angry at that also.
I passed on HW because of the theme/ art. Turns out I played it at Allentown and it’s a really cool game.

AP releases a Viking pin. Ok it is R rated in this day and age on the side art. People have the right to buy or not buy. If a pin is not Family oriented and that is a concern than pass on that one. No way any pin is going to come out that hits 100 percent appeal on this forum or anywhere. If they truly sell out 500 LE’s with a base plan of 300, by definition they made a good business decision on the entire package. I hope they do.

You could make the decision a T Rex eating a goat is not family friendly. The art looks photo shopped and would pass on JP2 which is also a pretty cool pin.

Plenty of family friendly pins have come out recently Willie Wonka for one. No way I would buy Willie due to the theme. I pass and move on. It’s all good .

And thank god there is still room for creatives and expression in the industry... or we'd have Gary designed pinball forever.

Me, who doesn't buy LEs but enjoys seeing "pinball investors" get their panties in a bunch when the initially stated number of special games gets increased:

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Pre-ordered

So how many LOVs are you buying for your route?

And since the "Gary designed" games are a scourge, have you stopped buying them for your route?

Luckily Stern keeps Gary away from the engineering and creative these days.

We'll check out the game at expo.

Gary invented the solid state flipper!! Show some respect!

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Pinside: where opinions are not tolerated. This place is an absolute joke sometimes.

This was a great title for American, they got family friendly titles with, Houdini and Hot Wheels.
Now they have a more serious title.
Bravo.
My friends and I are all in the 45-55 age range, none of us are looking for family pins.

We are looking for Science fiction, Heavy Metal, Horror, Fantasy and cool Cult Film licences.
Not kiddie pablum.

Bring on Animal House, Van Halen and Judas Priest.

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I don't think it matters for 300 or 500 whatever units they are trying to sell. Now if this was the "classic" unlimited units, or a Stern Pro, yes I would agree. However, you have a bit more flexibility with art on the LE's of anything as you are literally only looking for 500 people who are "OK" with it.

Let's just be honest what LOV is for American. It's a fun game in which they didn't need to invest all their eggs in. It's simply a game that they can get their line staff back up and running so they can practice building games so that when they are ready to release the titles from Nordman and others they will have some kinks worked out on the line. This is a perfect title for American for they didn't have to invest a ton of money building a game from the ground up and they can work out what they need to on the line. I doubt they are building a ton of Hot Wheels and their other titles at the moment so this is a perfect way to get 500 games built so they can internally go over the issues on the line when they are ready to release their unannounced titles. I am all for it and look forward to playing a LOV.

Really looking forward to what Nordman has in store with his next game.
He has a unique eye for design, it's great he's back full time in Pinball.

Americans future looks bright indeed.

Absolutely! Looking forward to their future. Seems they have a good team over there now. Let them build these LOVs so the new team over there can practice getting a low run game off the factory floor. I believe this was a smart decision that they made over there. If you know you can easily sell 500 units of a game that you didn't really have to R&D on and your Staff gets some good practice in, its a good thing all around.

Exactly. .... it's the TNA , Alice Cooper move that worked like gangbusters for Spooky.

Asking as I really don’t know. Is this actually an API game or simply a contract commission build for Riot? Looks great either way was just curious if anyone knew if they purchased the assets and game from Riot or simply provided the manufacturing and support element.

Very good question.
Hope the riot guys are now working for American, and are going to design for them going forward.

It's hard to tell because per the PR

>American Pinball Inc. (API) adds their fourth game, Legends of Valhalla to their growing lineup of pinball machines for arcades, homes, and collectors. American Pinball, Inc., makers of collector-quality pinball machines for the arcade and home markets including Houdini – Master of Mystery, Oktoberfest – Pinball on Tap, and Hot Wheels, is proud to manufacture Legends of Valhalla designed by Riot Pinball, LLC.

They always credit Riot Pinball as the designer, but they also say it's their fourth game. I take it as Riot retains design credit (ie royalties) and AP is the exclusive manufacturer now and forever.

love the theme and waiting to see the pricing on the classic

Artwork looks fine but i do think the sides would be just fine without the blood splatters on the sword and helmet and the dead women, does not add much and probably a turn off for some. if you need a dead body on the side at least make it some ugly fierce looking dude that was killed after a tough battle because the victor is bad ass rather than a babe that he offed due to viking psycho tendencies .

Besides everyone knows per viking handbook section 4: village pillage - kill the men , take the women. ugly ones as slaves , hot ones as wives

That seems like the case.

I know some people don't like the art but who cares right now. Why invest more money in it when this is just a way to get a line going and get your Staff up to speed. I don't think this was ever a pin that American was wanting to sell a slew of. My guess is they went in and said as long as we sell 500 units it will be worth it. Why change things and spend money when you can hit your minimum mark and move on.

I put on a couple games at Tilt in Minneapolis - I have no idea what the rules are and couldn't hear the music and callouts, but it's a fun shooter.

well reading the posts of the family value driven buyers ... guessing no Mount Olympus will never be built, that game has boobs on the playfield!

Not sure where to put this since there are multiple threads going, but AP's statement:

Thank you to our customers for your overwhelming support of Legends of Valhalla and bringing Scott and Frank of Riot Pinball's dream come true by bringing their game to the masses. We are honored to have our games proudly showcased in your arcades, pinball collections, and game rooms around the globe. We are proud and humbled to announce that due to strong demand and orders from our distribution network, we have decided to build 500 total Legends of Valhalla Deluxe Editions.

Our intent was never to limit the number of games. We underestimated the demand for an unlicensed title from a new game designer, and we especially underestimated the support from our international markets. While we still have demand for beyond 500 units of the Deluxe Model, we are capping the production at 500 total Deluxe Edition units.

We had ordered parts for 300 Deluxe Editions. At 300 units, we were sold out before half the world even knew about the release, and that was not our intent. We received orders for 500 units in 24 hours. At 500 units, anyone who had placed a confirmed order with a distributor we believe will be accommodated. It is possible that some dealers may still have games available. You can find a dealer here: https://www.american-pinball.com/distributors/
Classic models will ship after Deluxe Editions ship. Pricing, details and availability to follow soon.

Sincerely,
American Pinball

Good on them for addressing it.

Straight forward response that makes sense. Well done.

Played it today. Well built but code seems early. I did not see very much movement on the LCD screen at all. Hopefully they plan on incorporating much more animation than what is on it currently.

I am not interested in one after playing it but I’m glad to see that they are moving units. Not really loaded at all from the toy department (similar to hot wheels) but much more expensive than Hot Wheels.

Does anyone know how many games AP can put out a week?

How’s this for a topper?

https://www.playmobil.us/viking-ship/9891.html

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It should have been a “Big Red” like topper…

I watched an older video on YouTube from the Legends of Valhalla from Riot Pinball. The animations are there. The shots are there. Can’t wait to play it. The build will come from AP…and code will mature through AP and Riot. This one was a no brainer for AP. Love original themes.

Well they are still building all three of their previous games so I don't know how much this was to get the line "back up and running". It may indeed have been a faster path to getting a fourth game released as maybe the new guys didn't like the direction or at least the progress on what was to be game four when they took over, that seems like the more likely scenario.

can’t believe all the comments about a small part of some side art on the cab. How many people have their games so far apart that they actually see the full cab art on their pins?! I can hardly see any of mine. Especially when playing.. I could care less. Really seems blown out of proportion to me. If it bothers you sandwich it between 2 other pins? But maybe I’m in the minority and most collectors perfer sitting at their home bar quietly sipping whiskey and eyeballing their cab art instead of playing. I dunno .

I’m just upset there is only one dead woman on the side. I mean come on! This is a Vikings game! There should be at least 5 or 6 dead people on the side. You could have probably fit 12 or so. Such a waste.

If they make 250 more limited editions I’ll consider buying. 500 just seems a bit weak. As far as art goes, please someone Save the children.

Haha now you’re talking!

Hold up! Is pinball teaching us accurate history of the world, or transforming us into a fantasy world? I've never seen a pin that is teaching real world history. You are so right, this pin sucks, as it is not historically accurate. Very good insight. You are a legend in your own mind. Have you seen Vikings or the Thor movies. Those must suck also. Get a grip dude.

Here is what happens when you cross family friendly with Medievil time period barbaric culture known for plundering and feuding. Saturday Morning Cartoons!

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At the end of the day, do you think Kman is right and this machine will be all over the place being dumped for $6400 or less a year from now? He said he played it yesterday and there is nothing of interest in it like Houdini or Octoberfest, it is mostly empty. How do others feel that have played it? Is there much to it?

i stopped reading after that part.

play the game, make up your own mind. don't listen to someone who pumps everything that comes out only to shit on it when the manufacturer doesn't listen to him.

Huh? They're saying it was never their intent to limit the number of games...

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is your collection of games based on the decisions of "Kman"? He has had a couple of things correct but even a clock is right twice a day!