have to second ev on this one, i always hated about everything about speacilly the hoffer stareing me down all creepy like, eyes following me where ever i am in the room......

but i read some decent reviews about people that thought the same but actually liked the play of it, well long story short i found one pretty nice, close and reasonable$. bought it never haveing a game on it befor.
played it for awhile and realized theme is not a (bravo foxtrot delta) to me. the cheesesness has even grow on me a little.

JP, I knew it was a decent game, but assumed I would like higher end games more. JP has become one of my top 10.

I played Whirlwind, EarthShaker, BOP, and later Addams and T2...always avoided Funhouse.
Thought the Rudy thing was dumb...didn't like the pin.

Then..I acquired one on a temp basis and now do not want to sell it back.

Fun pin, tough to keep a multiball going, great replay value, and if the side flipper is gassed a bit (a classic flaw with location syst 11 pins) - you can still make the 2 shots.
Still think it's rediculous for Roadshow to be a less expensive title...but I do not run the market.

Pat Lawlor and Steve Ritchie...where would pinball be without their 35 year long catalogues of pins.

Maverick. Looking at the layout color and theme I thought there was no way I'd like it.

Played a few games last week, and It was actually quite enjoyable.

Lord of the Rings for me. I couldn't stand the photoshop art on the playfield vs. the hand drawn art of earlier pins. It literally kept me from playing for years. What a fool I was.

Reading this thread, certainly reminds me of the old saying "don't judge a book by its cover", which I guess for here is "don't judge a pin by its theme"

NBAFB was one I hated the first time I played it. Also had no love for the theme.
However, my brother picked up an extremely nice one to use for his MM remake and I love it now.
Great overall theme and good game play.

I don't even like sports and I'd love to have a Fastbreak. Probably not a good choice if you only have one pin. People poopoo the scoring, but I think it's incredibly unique. Really fun game.

Of all the pins I owned, NBAFB lasted the least amount of time in my collection. Just had enough, early. I thought I'd love it. I didn't.

Star Trek. I was pretty excited about playing this machine... fan of the franchise, multi-color LEDs, lots of missions, interesting ramp layout, big interactive Vengence...

Played it finally at the Pinball Hall of Fame and I've got to say I'm even more underwhelmed by it than I am by Wizard of Oz. It just seems to be ramp shot after ramp shot... where's the strategy?

For reference, I own a Tron Pro and I find it to require a fair bit of strategy... each mission has clearly defined (and different!) completion rules and multiple missions can be overlapped for greater point totals and more interesting game play (adding balls to a combined Quorra and Light Cycle multi-ball with CLU and ZEUS also activated, for example).

STLE looks exciting but the repetitive gameplay just left me flat. I couldn't imagine dropping $8K on that machine whereas with my TRON, I've spent easily $9K on the NIB machine and mods and play it for nearly an hour a day.

Sorry STLE, you're just not interesting enough to make me want to re-arrange furniture, much less drop the cash.

JM, didn't like it mainly because of theme and the gloves looked lame to me. After getting some longer play time on one with explanation of what to do(tamoore's), and getting Astropin's in a trade, I really enjoy it now.

Used to think most DE and SEGA pins were crap too, mostly based on what I read on RGP years ago, but after playing a good bunch of them, I've come to realize it doesn't have to say Williams or Bally on it to be a good game. And you can save some serious $$ too!

See, you're supposed to post in this thread when you realize you had a wrong first impression. Sounds like you just had one. Come back when you figure Star Trek out.

Cyclone and Taxi.

In both cases, I was thinking, "This game is too hard -- not fun." Now that I got my skills up, I really enjoy both of them.

Next time you think a game is too hard, remind yourself, "It's not the game!"

1. Learn new skills
2. Learn what skills are required to beat that game.

-mof

Harlem Globetrotters - I would play it at a friends house and hated it. The game was just brutal. I'd go through 3 games on it and walk away pissed off. It sucked. Hated it. Fast forward and he was selling it, but couldn't find a buyer. Gave me a "friend" price, so I brought it in almost as a joke. It is now my favorite classic game. I have it setup even more brutal than he did, and I love it. It really just took a bunch of games in my house, and now it would be one of the last to go for me. Great game.

Totally true and that was the case for me on The Shadow. I played it at my first PAPA Circuit tournament. Of course it was set up SUPER hard but I also was pretty sucky and drained really quick. It can be unforgiving if you suck but once you have some skill it's really fun. I am so addicted to it now!

I hated avengers until I rocked the shit out of it at PAPA 16 finals

Funhouse. The first few times I played it I thought it was unfairly tough with the shots so close to the flippers. Year later had chance to put more time on one and it became a keeper.

I have also noticed that some of the games I thought weren't fun (due to short ball times) when I was paying to play them in the arcade are great in a home setting in part because they are so challenging.

Agree, Whitewater is the best pin ever if dialed and broken in properly. Should have a Bally badge on WH2O too

TZ. After reading so much about how great it is, I finally spent a fair amount of time playing one at a local arcade. Just don't get it. Too many doodads and not a good flow in my opinion. Maybe I'd change my mind if I played it another dozen hours or so.

EMs in general.

The good: Avatar. The first few times I played it, it gave me the old "stay in the pops until ball save runs out and then drain down the middle" bag. During our launch party qualifying I shoved it so hard the guys told me I had it on 2 legs! Now after being forced to play it many many times in league, I realized I like it quite a bit. Fun game!

Also CFTBL. I really hated it at first. Now I just really dig the theme and the overall difficulty of the game.

The bad: Austin Powers. I love pinball. I love the Austin Powers movies. Seemed like a no brainer. I bought one sight unseen. I will not go into details but the game is crap! I sold it, but it took me over 6 months to sell it, at a loss.

My AC/DC Pro. I love it more than lamp.

Really love reading all of the explanations, keep em coming!

TZ and TRON for me.

TZ i always avoided on route, hell you can even look back at some of my posts on pinside for my thoughts on TZ, but a nice example fell in my lap, and now i totally get TZ. So many ways you can attack this game, and stacking the different modes and how the powerball can interact with them is really a treat.

TRON was another pin, when i first played it and didnt know the rules, seemed meh. I was aiming for the ramps, and nothing of note was happening, seemed like the only way to advance in the game was CLU or the disc. I have totally different feeling about this pin now, and will own one day

X-Men LE- Was absolutly sure I would love this pin based on theme. Love the comics,cartoons and movies but the pin was a complete mess. Unfun shots, boring rules, some of the worst voice actors ever hired, a sound package that includes a bad porno soundtrack for weapon-x multiball. Did I mention the shots were too tight and not satisfying? Or the spinning magnet that would end up with more drains then fun moments. All bad nothing good and I don't miss you at all.

Simpsons/TSPP again love the theme, with all the hype about rules and deepness i thought sure winner. The game again like Xmen has really boring shots. One of the worst mini playfield and sound effects that I tired of fast. Deep rules or not it felt boring from the moment I got it home.

Tron. bought it with only a couple plays at the store and after a month was bored of it. on the flip side TFLE bought it a low price and its become one of my favorite games. Most of the B/W classics like AFM, MM, CV. TOM, TOTAN I bought due to must haves in you're collection and they did not last long. Just not a fan of the bad humour in pinball or magic theme's. Pinball is a strange thing, I've learned that the theme is way more important for me than anything else. Robocop for instance love that movie and thusly am really enjoying the pin even though it's not rated very high and isn't a deep game. I started buying more of the Data East games and find I enjoy them more than B/W. Wish Total Recall had been finished. DAMN

What's lamp? I keep seeing this but have no idea.

You don't have lamps in your house?

I got rid of all my lamps, but now I realize I made a mistake because I love lamp.

LOTR. I had heard all the praise and when I played it at first I had no idea what was going on, so I gave up on it. Later I tried it again, and started to "get it". Now I own a nice example.

It is a quote from Anchor Man. Said by Steve Carrols character.

I do love lamp.

It's a Gottlieb so it must suck right ... Stargate is fricken AWESOME. Yeah it spits out too many multi balls, yeah shoot the pyramid gets worn out, but play a dialed in one and feel the flow of the shots with the unique layout, great depth and you'll keep coming back.

BSD. i hate it, but it keeps me coming back for more. took several years to really appreciate. once you get a few games of stacked mulitballs...wow! still not my favorite game, but enjoy it much more now then when i first started playing it. just have to view it as a challenge game and not so much as a 'fun' game, like funhouse. also, if the flippers are weak, it's horrible to get anywhere on it.

Transformers - i'm a total fanatic. When I heard the pin was being made I had to have it... but I saw pix early and thought... I might wait and play this first, then decide. Well, as soon as it showed up locally, I was first to play with a cup full of tokens. OMG... what a let down. First of all... frickin' NOTHING TRANSFORMS !!!! NOTHING !!!! The designer clearly knows absolutely nothing about TRANSFORMers. 2nd: the playfield is just ugly. It isn't an attractive playfield. 3rd: what the hell is the canon reference about? 4th: it just isn't fun. I was ticked... seriously ticked. So, I thought, I'd wait & come back and play again. I've done that for a year now. Still can't get into this pin. What a shame This is a pin I "really" want to like, but it just won't let me.

Rolling Stones - I thought that'd be pretty fun. Good grief that was bad when I finally got the chance to play.

new Stern Star Trek - after the lame Transformers pin, I thought this would be just as bad (so I had very low expectations, right)... went and played it at a pin event. It was a total blast. I was completely stunned. I just kept coming back to play it more and more. Very fast, reminds me of Tron. Wish I could play it more. For the people who bought it, I bet they are very happy. Although, the 2 aluminum looking foil rock-toys on the playfield are absurd

Batman Dark Knight - looked a bit goofy. I walked past it many times. Finally decided to try it one day... wow, it was a blast. i'm obsessed with whacking that crane ball. it's a thumbs-up, but i might replace the ugly joker toy with a hot female character toy instead

Pinball Magic - after playing Theatre of Magic so much, I thought this would be awesome... I keep playing maybe once ever few months, but just can't get into it. I haven't given up yet, but I usually go play something else.

Avatar - thought that would be dull, but it is actually fun. It's very simple, but it's fun to get winning shots.

blablabla

Metallica. I played it at PAGG last year before the volume was turned up, and all I could hear were the bad callouts. I was very unimpressed. I got a chance to play one again about a month later, and with the sound up, it was a completely different experience. Now it is one of my favorite games. I am going to wait for complete code before buying, but I try to play it whenever I find one on route. Unfortunately, that means driving to either Sacramento or Vegas.

I have never enjoyed games without sound, and I don't think I ever will. I played a couple of games of Star Trek, but the volume was too low to hear. I need to go back one of these days to see if they turned it up.

POTC , bought it , turned it on expecting something awesome because they had so much material to draw from and then …. yo ho ho and a pirates life for me … ummm wtf is that sh## . yep it stayed for about a week.

Fish Tales and CFTBL, I both didn't like them at first, but I do now (they're still not my 'top 10 games', but I do like them way more than before)