I took a nap during the third movie (which spends two hours on a battle the book totally skips) and missed nothing.

friend got one in last week, played 6-7 games on it, it sucks right now! But a lot of potential there, all having to do with code of course. no way I would buy one now.

Weak layout, bad design. Balls get stuck, fly off wore forms, weak flippers, worthless third flipper, shooter rod not strong enough. The hobbit is a turd sandwich.

Stay tuned for someone to jump in and say "its not the game" and that ALL FOUR machines (at this VERY high profile pin event) were setup incorrectly... *facepalm*

I removed my 3rd flipper.

Game totally rocks now.

The highlight of The Hobbit is always Smaug. It's the most intense, exciting part! You have this tremendous villain being outwitted by the underdoggiest of underdogs, and everything that happens after that encounter is declining action, which makes the third movie feel totally useless because who cares about the Arkenstone?

Actually, you are very accurate.
Peter Jackson's movie adaptation of Tolkien's TH is currently a good comparison of the JJP TH.
Visually breathtaking, overdone, slow, and a bit taxing on patience.
"Less is more".

But...how do you **really** feel??

I played it once at ZAPCON in Mesa Az last month with my 11 year old daughter. I had a decent game and it was fun. My daughter had fun too. Beautiful game! Love the wide body but struggle with upper flipper purpose not a super jackpot like a Lawler game will be.

I had the chance to play about 5 games on THLE yesterday. To me, the pin seemed rather slow and to be honest with you, kind of boring. I now understand the general concensus about the upper right flipper. Why exactly is it there?? To me it was useless. The dragon, was very uninspiring. On the plus side, though, the LCD display is phenomenal, but then again, how often do you have a chance to look at it when playing??

Would I play it in someone elses collection.....absolutely. Would I buy one, not a chance.

To me, it's a fun unique game. Time based modes, story progression, and quite frankly a fun relaxing play about it with times of intensity. It's not brutally fast, and that to me is a welcome change of pace. It's not slow though. Just watch the metahue 1.01 videos on YouTube, and his has good speed. The flipper will have a small purpose with code, but yeah, not anything to seriously important I'm sure. I know the 3rd flipper helps in some timing modes already. If speed is so important, then just stick to the same old sterns. If you want a different style or pace, hobbit is actually really turning into something great. Everyone has a right to opinions, but just because someone doesn't care for a particular game doesn't make it a turd. I don't care for Ripley's or twilight zone, and they're highly rated games. I'm not dogging them, they're just not for me. Personally, I like variety in my games to keep them all interesting longer. I'm not for one side either. I own and love both stern & jjp games. Hobbit will come into its own soon.

Watch the twitch.tv 1.10 video, I think The Hobbit is on it's way.

LTG : )

I believe the ball getting stuck and the wire form issues have been resolved in current ones being produced and never happened in all of the early games even. Weak flippers isn't an issue as they can be adjusted in the menu. I did get why people really care about the 3rd flipper so much except maybe costs concerns and that it doesn't make many shots?

I've enjoyed the game and I'm not one that pre-ordered either TH or WOZ, although I own a pre-owned WOZ and love it still after 2.5 years of ownership. I don't have enough games yet on TH to give it an objective rating.

Isn't it a tad early to be parting it out ?

Great game. Ball times are short. Got a chance to play it at yegpin. Brutal tournament game if set up right. Fast!!

Seems like a few basics were over looked very early doors.

If no one really knows why the 3rd flipper is there, surely poor design?

And it does seem this design would have been much better in a narrow body?

I question having a USP over Stern if the games don't play as well due to generally narrow bodies playing better?

Is there a third movie?

The upper flipper's main purpose will likely be for one time shots from the player controlled kickback to one of the drop targets under Smaug. I can see this being used for certain modes, maybe even to deliver the final hit to Smaug. If there's anyone that can come up with unique coding solutions it's Keith.

It's already in 1 mode (flashback I think it's called ) you load the winlance and it's a 1-2 shot to finish the mode.

It's also used when you get super jets to get an extra ball. See picture.

Killing smaug in mini wizard mode will probably be the same thing as well.
Drops under smaug as also super jackpots which are easier to hit from the upper flipper especially if you have beast frenzy running.

It is weird that everyone is so demanding over it's use versus the flipper on WOZ which pretty much has the same amount of use. You might say that you can only hit the haunted skill shot from that flipper but I'm pretty sure everyone goes for the witch as it's a bigger target to go for!

People keep asking. Maybe just link to this post next time!

Screenshot_2016-05-09-21-54-05~01_(resized).png

My Hobbit will hopefully be coming in the next few weeks. I'm still cautiously optimistic that the game will be a lot of fun and enjoyable not just for me but for my family and other non-pinheads who just get amazed at flipping.

I would really like to come visit you and play it. I'm REALLY on the fence now with mine. Just crushing to hear and read 90-95% of the posts about this pin as meh to bad. I had such high expectations as I LOOOOVE my Wozle. The posts that worry me the most are Woz owners who don't like it.

The "That's what Bilbo Baggins Hates" song is Peter Jackson's Jar Jar Binks.

I also really hated the Oakenshield character. It was overacted. And he's a dick.

I thought it was good. Casually playing, I didn't notice the third flipper until I was halfway through my second ball. I didn't care for the artwork all that much, but then again, I'm not a huge Hobbit fan either. I really liked the lighting effects and the use of the drop targets though.

My takeaway: I don't think I'll ever consider adding this game to my collection, but I'd gladly pay to play it on location every once in a while if I see it.

As I recall there was a lot of WOZ hate early on as well. I'm paid in full at $7500 for a SE so I'm guessing if the pin is just terrible I could sell and not lose any money. That said, I don't plan on selling it at all. The 4 pop up targets themselves are probably enough to keep the game in a 6-8 game line up if nothing else so that kids have something to shoot at and get excited over.

I'm also in for a GBLE so it sounds like in the relatively near future I'll have a fairly brutal new pin and a fairly longer-ball new pin. I already have speed/flow with STLE so I think it will be a nice variety available for my different moods and for visitors.

1. you said "you must be a terrible player" it's right there.
2. OP was asking for good or bad, not a detailed description of your opinion-my guess is "i'm glad I didn't buy one" is bad

Th is a beautiful soothing game... to fall asleep to. It looks like it's worth the money when you compare it to the other 8000.00 machines. Thing is gorgeous.

a turd sandwich garnished with lots of glitter and sparkly shit.

It certainly seems like the VAST majority of people bullish on this game are the ones that paid for it 3 years ago (and have been defending that position for some time)....

Even the positive reviews point to what they "hope the game will become with software"

The number of people WITHOUT a pre-order (and with no emotion baggage ether way) excited about this game seems VERY slim. Now I think more will warn to it as they tweak the software and fix some of the early issues...

Some of it might be TH-overexposure since nearly every minute artwork change has been dissected for YEARS in the forum, but still... not great news for JJP trying to sell a LOT more of this title (like they did with WoZ).

If Stern build on the success of GB with another strong title this year, JJP is going to be hurting to sell significantly more than those pre-ordered...

And god help JJP if they are still screwing around with incomplete code and Stern finally announces a SW pin with LCD.... and gets it right.

Most of the posts fall into one of two camps- bad to meh - people don't like layout or feel there is no fun factor vs meh to good - primarily governed by the state of current software. Game is fun and will improve with each piece of missing code - movie modes, sound and lighting game cues, Smaug animations etc until it is basically complete and worthy of the version 2.0 label. I see that taking 3-6 months, not what anybody wants to hear but probably realistic. In the meantime, TH games continue to ship daily and Owners are receiving and enjoying their pins. Anticipating a huge runup in appreciation factor after 2.0 release. Until then hang tough and save up your funds.

I like how most are saying...yeah I played it a "couple times" or 10 times or 20 or some other small number at a SHOW and hated it. I hated SM when it came out. Now it's one of my favorites. People despised WOZ when it came out with early code and they played it once or twice at shows, but now it's pretty well liked (except for a few JJP haters and homophobes). It was all the same comments: slow, floaty, weak flippers, boring, weak theme, terrible layout, weak code, blah, blah, blah. Let Keith work his magic. I have zero doubts that TH will be spectacular. It will never play as fast as a narrow Stern like GB, IM, or GOT, but fast doesn't always = great. Different styles. Games can be slower and still awesome (see TZ, WOZ, IJ, STTNG).

One of the things I liked about WOZ was all of the software updates and how each one made it better and better. Right or wrong I am expecting the same thing to happen with TH. While I can't say that JJP is terribly quick to get things done they do get them done and with WOZ on the code side seemed to go a bit above and beyond what people expected.

Good point I hated Star Trek until about two weeks ago, sort of like it now. I still hate GoT..... I have no idea what I am doing on that game LOL

Ok, I agree with that... but if HP is JJP #4.... when would that put production? 2017 earliest, right? Maybe later.... much later.

I removed my third flipper too, Now I can swim straight again and I'm not constantly swimming in circles!
I highly reccomend it!

I've been very careful to not utter this game is the best thing since sliced bread. And, I don't fall into the category of having a pre-order for 3 years. That being said, the game is just interesting. I constantly find myself trying to beat my last score on this one and trying to get shots in a certain order. For now, something just draws me back in where I want to try again. Also, I do love the fact that you can change between skill shots. Considering I currently have AMH and MMR, this fits the rest of the collection well. I think you have to play the game more to truly enjoy it.

So, just like I'm not ranting and raving that I think it's the best game ever, I also would not call this a turd. Not even close. For those who have a pre-order, I wouldn't fret you are going to hate the game. It definitely doesn't have the toys of WOZ, but what it lacks in toys it makes up for in strategy and to me that is fun.

^^^this is exactly how I'm feeling about it. I've been on the fence, but I keep pulling towards hobbit. The new code is already adding a bunch of cool strategy from what I can tell. Its definitely a simpler looking playfield, but sometimes looks are deceiving. I'm not a pre order guy either, but just wanting another game that is different from my others. Hobbit is looking good.

I said, "For all we know, you are a terrible player..." (because you left us to guess WHY you're glad you didn't buy one.)

I understand you much better now. You can't comprehend the distinction. But that's cool.

Sigh. Up here it's $12,390 ... plus 10% tax, plus $200 shipping = $13,829

Up here, that $13,829 is two Stern Pro's.

The Hobbit has 4 programers working on it now, not two like in Woz. I watched Woz turn from a game that not many people liked, to something pretty special. I believe the code updates will be a lot faster with 4 people working on the game. I also remember a lot of people bitching about how Woz was set up, just like people saying that code won't fix the Hobbit. Pffft...
I just like the "feel" of Hobbit. I can still bail on it, as I only have a deposit on it, but I'm going through with it. I already like it, and I think when it is all said and done, it will have a real polished feel to it, Just like Woz is today. Heck, they have Keith Johnson and Ted Estes on it. Two of the greats. Pumped.

Played many times in Louisville and at TPF. Liked it a lot. Not as fast as newer sterns but neither is embryon, fathom, or eight ball deluxe (pins that i like as well). Has a bit of a retro feel to me. Looking forward to playing some more.

Take a peak at some of the original Woz threads.

10x more brutal reviews as Woz was being developed and then as code updates were ramping up. Woz is an excellent pin now despite all of its early criticism.

How many times do you hear people talk about great code making a pinball machine great eventually? Hmmm, TWDLE comes to mind recently for me.

Even though i backed out of TH a year and a half ago, I would have zero concern about what i was going to get soon if i still had it on order. Keith, Ted and crew will make it great. Should be a fantastic "strategy" pin.

Because of the competition and price I doubt it will come close to selling what Woz did but it won't matter, JJP needs to get these out the door and moving onto pins number 3 and 4.

Good points, especially about code. I keep considering The Hobbit simply due to Keith's incredible code work. I don't think we've seen anything yey in terms of just how fun The Hobbit will be once the code is complete.

exactly how i felt

1. whatever you said and however you said it you were exhibiting traits that a d-bag might exhibit
2. comprehend this: "good or bad?" it's right there for your comprehension... and mine