I think RGB lighting is a good thing for pinball, but my opinion is that there’s a lot of room for its implementation to be improved, both aesthetically and functionally.

GI-wise, my opinion is that most modern games just end up looking dim because of the use of multi-color LEDs, since they’re lacking the brightness of all white bulbs. Also, the art on the plastics is usually not well coordinated with the shifting light colors. I’ve seen a couple recent games try shifting the GI all to one color to give a different "mood" to each mode (Cactus Canyon, Ultraman...), and I think this is moving in the right direction. But I think that at the moment, I’m not convinced that multicolor GI is an improvement (except maybe when used for “special effects” like jackpots).

For inserts, I appreciate the specificity the RGB LEDs can give (i.e. “shoot green arrows for jackpot, red arrows for super jackpot”), but more often than not, things look too chaotic to me. Both in that there are so many things lit in so many different colors, but also that those colors often feel random and not artistically cohesive. Overall, I feel like I’m observing a lot of “rainbow confetti” on the playfield inserts, and it’s not artistically satisfying or intuitive gameplay-wise.

So I would love to see the various manufacturers grow in making more artistic use of their multi-color lighting functionality. This is relatively new technology, and I’m sure designers are still learning how to utilize it well. Similar to switching from DMD to LCD, it was a huge leap to do all the large scale, hi-res, full color video work. And I imagine going from single color lighting to multicolor is a big step for programming, design, and “choreography”.

If anyone thinks that there are recent games that have great, artistic lighting, let me know. Nothing stands out to me, but I may easily have forgotten something. (I know GNR has some very cool lighting in the sense of it being a crazy concert experience, but I still think it’s not as cohesive or artistic as game lighting could be).