BSD is a great game but not too approachable for kids, I’d go FT personally

Of that list, for kids too, Fish Tales.

How about No Good Gophers though?

WH20

Shadow is the best game you listed and casuals love playing mine but it's much harder for kids than the MM you already own.

Your requirements are kind of opposed as Shadow and BSD are hard and TOM and FT are shallow and fun for kids/casuals.

I would go fish tales. GoldenEye is bad. Avoid. Fish has great flow, fun game. I wish they would remake it.

I'd pick Fish Tales also. I always have fun playing it.

My 5 year old loves our Shadow. It’s fairly easy to get multiball and she loves the ramps and lock. The mini playfield is a big hit as well

Here in the states, you could get both FT and BSD for the cost of TOM

Yes, but nowhere near as cool as BSDs

Fishtales is a great game but very difficult and short ball times.the theme is kid friendly the play is not.i play about 100 tournaments a year so I have some decent skills and fish tales is the hardest most frustrating pin in my collection and will be up for sale soon.

It all really depends on where you put your "values" at the most.

The Shadow is the best of that group (and also the deepest) and Goldeneye is easily the worst. Pins in a home environment usually do better long term when they are deeper.

ToM and fish tales are the most kid friendly, but they also present the least challenge. As a father of 3, I can tell you that you should NEVER buy a pin just for your kids. They wont play it as much, and regardless of how much they like it, they usually don't care in a month (or less). BSD is nice, but not kid friendly...and I really think it doesnt hold up well long term.

With your current collection, I think that The Shadow will also give you the best variance. Variety is the spice of life, and i wholly believe that is very true with home pinball collections.

P.S. Why isn't LOTR a consideration? It is a great game, on your wishlist, kid friendly, and it works extremely well in a home collection. I think it meets all your criteria.

Do you have a Nintendo Switch? If you download Zen Pinball FX3, Fish Tales comes with it for free. It might be like that on other consoles/PC, too. That way you could try it virtually at least!

Fish Tales is kind of like BSD in that it’s a bit simple to figure out, but the flow/logic/rules/bonuses/jackpots are all extremely satisfying to play & accomplish....but the theme is prob more friendly for kids.

I would go with shadow or tom given them choices but lotr is a great suggestion also afm and rfm are very kid friendly

I had FT for years and loved it. Simple rules but challenging enough to last and make it fun

yep and both smoke TOM

ToM is a beautiful game with lots of toys that is kid friendly. It is also very repetitive, not deep, and the most expensive game on your list. Heck...you could get a fish tales AND a bram stokers dracula for that price.

None of the others can match that

And if kids are a concern, I would buy a Pinsound board. I realize this is a lot of work, but you could replace all the sounds in the game with your kids voices. So if your kids are yelling "30 Milllllliiiiioooooooonnnnnnn" from a pinball machine, well jeepers, how much more approachable do you need it to be? Record them, put them in the right directory, and poof, you are rocking the best game in the bunch.

Everyone buys, plays, and enjoys pins for different reasons. When asking others opinions, you are bound to see their own ideas that reflect those reasons. Longevity (deep rules and enjoyment), price, and variety within ones collection are my values.

Playing a game enough times to really see what you like is important. Otherwise I would recommend checking out all the reviews. You will see a lot of recurring thoughts on games...which usually indicates a good amount of truth and value from people that have played those pins a lot.

As much as some pan the top 100, I feel it is really helpful as well. If you take out the recency bias for newer games, it is pretty solid. Once again, however, it doesn't reflect ones nostalgia and personal values for a pin. Only you can decide that.

Well, that pretty much clears that up:

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Are you gonna talk or are you gonna fish? FT

I would get The Shadow. but....

If you want a game you haven't had before you could get Fish Tales and (temporarily) change out the lightning flippers for regular ones for the kids. Once they get tired of the game (or really good at it) you put the lightnings back on.

They’re exactly what pinball needs to be. Perfect integration of design, geometry, clever mechanical features, rules & addicting gameplay. Sometimes people forget that an arcade/pinball game is a different experience than other games. Pac-Man & Donkey Kong are great at being what they are...they don’t need to be Final Fantasy or Halo. Same with pinball. Pinball doesn’t have to shoot for being ultra deep and convoluted to be great. Sometimes it works - LOTR is one of my favs...but that doesn’t negate the perfectly executed 90’s games...they are exactly what they need to be to be a replayable & fun experience.

As for TOM, it’s one of the most popular games ever but gets a weird bad rap now. There’s nothing shallow about it...it has tons of modes & mini-objectives. Some don’t like the lack of a wizard mode...I rarely can finish all the modes in 1 game any way, so it doesn’t bother me. It’s definitely a family crowd pleaser & one of the smoothest flowiest fastest shooters out there.

I guess the main one is relatively easy. You light the locks, shoot the locks, the trunk spins - shoot the trunk & the magnet grabs it & Multiball starts.

As others have said, you should always make your needs a priority over the kids. They'll still get to play and have fun with whatever you get, so no worries. The Shadow is a great choice and will definitely challenge you. It would probably be my pick based on what you've prioritized here.