I loved my RBION (wish i'd kept it) but I'd go with MB if I had the choice between the two at the same price and condition.

Well I think rbion is a great pin especially for value and a third of the cost here in the states and I never understood the huge price for mb at 8 -10k bc welll its not that great to play and gets boreing quickly but it does have everything else going for it so id buy one if it was 5 -6k .if both are same price of course go with mb .

Monster is obviously the better of the two but Ripley's is a far greater value and its still a really good and underrated game.

What people often don't get about MB basically comes down to two things:
1. The factory settings are WAY (I mean WAY!!!!) to easy. Change the settings (no body part spotting, no DRAC letters on game start, timers down, etc etc) and set the outlanes to be wide open and it will not be an easy pin at all any more.
2. The ruleset is very simple, but it's catchy as hell, a true Lyman masterpiece. The fact that almost everything is timed and you can stop the timers by starting multiballs makes for a very fun strategy twist. You are basically trying to avoid starting any multiballs (which is not so easy as it seems) until you have all the modes set up and then start them all at once.

The timers (and the theme and the music) are the main factor that make me prefer it over MM (which is also a great game). I'm aware that few people will share my opinion but for me MM feels much more repetitive than MB as there are not really timed "modes" in MM but multi balls instead. Not much pressure is put on the player to accomplish things in time but rather to keep multiple balls in play. It's just crazy fun again and again trying to stack as much modes as possible into Mosh Pit or Frank Multiball on MB. And while Monster Bash is easy to reach, the final wizard mode Monsters of Rock is hard to get with the right settings.

RBION is a great game to which i plan on getting soon, but MB will always be my favorite, the complete package it offers is just awesome fun. It was my very first pin and still, whenever the shine of "the current new one" in the gameroom wears off MB is always the one that gets the most plays.

I don't know much, but I looove playing rbion and monster bash bores me to tears.

I would put it more like this :

MB is the prettier more POPULAR of the 2...

And RBION is the real PLAYER of the 2...

Yep a nice ball save

i found ball times on both games to be too long. i personally think you can't go wrong with either game as long as you don't overpay.

This is even really a question? RBION is a nice game, but MB is one of the very best games ever made. Period.

Pretty much. Hard to compare a modern game to a heavy-weight classic. RBION is pretty fun and like the others said, good value for the money. MB is great but not cheap. For the money, you can get 2-4 good pins. That's more appealing to me. Plus, it's very likely MB will be remade.

I agree. You can pick up a used RBION and another game for the price of a MB.

It think RBION is the better choice for the original layout and depth of rules IMHO.

Get the MB and play the hell out of it.....when it becomes easy and boring, you can then easily sell it and get yourself a nice RBION to play for years

jawjaw said: For the money, you can get 2-4 good pins.

I can only fit 13 pins in my game room. MB is one of my favorites and has to be one of them. It would do me no good to have multiple pins instead of MB (or instead of AFM or BBB) because I'm already out of room.

MB is way better than RBION. The value per dollar is about the same IMO (MB costs roughly 3x RBION).

If you are capable of setting up a game properly (as needed for your skill level) - MB is not easy or boring at all.
I know plenty of top A players that love MB and have it in their collections.

If the main thing for you is a "deep ruleset", then RBION is an excellent bang for the buck choice and may be a better pick for you.
Also, RBION does have a ball save.

I thought RBION only has a ball save if you enable it the latest rom version I believe. I remeber when I updated the long ball saver went away

I love RBION...but I'd take a MB over it

You have to enable the ball save, it is off by default.

As for choosing, if they were the same price, I would buy MB all day, but for the value, RBION is a much better bet. As others have said, you could get RBION and 2-3 other good games for the price of a single MB. That and MB is very easy, where RBION is very challenging.

Yeah I don't do ball savers you have to turn on.

Me neither. I like to keep the factory defaults and play the games the way they were designed.

At the prices you quoted that you can get MB and RBION for -> definitely get the MB - not even a question.

They're both good. I have a RBION and I like it very much. I think they're both keepers. I think you would do well either way.

Ripley's is best bang for buck.

Ripleys has a lot to do, lots of modes and strategy if you have a small collection RBION for the cost, longevity and depth.
RBION has a ball save unless you go for the skill shot - any targets you hit above the skill shot scoop instantly shut off the ball save. Anything below the scoop you can hit and get the ball back infinitely. Dont hit the tiki head though, that will shut off the saver as well.

agreed. MB all day long.

At that delta- RBION is NOT a great value IMO.

Disclosure:
I love MB.
I dislike RBION. As a classic-PL fan, this pin exemplifies how Stern cheapened PL's designs. It almost feels like they said, "hey lets channel some of your bright ideas from TZ and TAF but do it as cheaply as possible"

Get the MB....

When I had a RBION I always though that I should just get rid of it and get a TZ again. Now I don't think they are similar at all. They did steal a lot of Pats ideas and put them into RBION but doesn't that just mean that Pat had a lot of good ideas ? I would like to have another RBION except there are two things that bother me about it. One is just the overall Sternness, meaning the feel, the funny colors compared to W/B way it has a cheaper look. The second is that this game needs subways badly. It could have been sooooo much better if Stern didn't just refuse to put subways on a pin. I cant understand why they refuse to do this either. Just my .02

Cant go wrong either way.

I'll give a vote to RBION. Good depth and challenge. MB is too easy.

RBION feels cheap to me. MB is a classic.

RBION build is pretty rock solid imo anyway.

I agree that it feels and looks cheap but it is a fun pin to play. Lots of things to do and it feel like the rules were made along with the PF unlike the ones now where it seems like the PF was designed and rules were made around it.

Actually though, in my opinion, MB has a cheaper look and feel to it than other W/B pins. I still like it though.

Love my MB, would never give it up, possibly my favorite game (and I have owned almost all of the top 20 games over time).
I have owned RIBION and I liked it, in fact I bet I will own it again some day, it has got a lot going on and it is fun. To me it's like asking "do I order steak or hamburger". Um...I like them both very much, I eat them both, but if I had both put in front of me for the same price I think I would pick the steak every time. If money isn't the primary driver...MONSTER BASH! But again, I like the other too. Best of luck to you!

If you think you can take the bad humour and repetitive jokes that come with MB then its the clear choice, I really liked it but I could not take the jokes for too long same thing with ScaredStiff, I liked RBION more due to rules and theme but thats personal preference. Both are quality games.

Now you have me wanting another RBION.

When I first started playing pinball I said, "theme doesn't really matter". While I still think most themes can be fun, theme integration has become very important to me. In my mind, I like to understand what each shot represents. In my opinion MB does an amazing job of incorporating each shot into the theme.

Agreed 100% - with the rest as well. It MB was so easy, you would not see it so often during competitions... I remembered playing it during an European competition.

MB has nearly un-equaled flow. I love the way you can combo ramps and other shots. Rules are simple, yes, but that's not a bad thing. At least you understand what to do after a few games.

Not saying RBION is a bad game. Apples and orange, really. I find MB better but for its price one can probably have RBION+WOF or WPT.

I haven't played either except on the Pinball Arcade app. I know it's virtual, but I have enjoyed playing both. I learned the rules set. When I get a chance to play a real one I'll know what to do.

That being said, I liked both games and would recommend trying them on Pinball Arcade if you can't find them in the wild to try.

If you like TSPP and LOTR, you will like RBION, they are cut from the same mold. Very mode based, stop and go games that have good quality behind them. I'd take it over MB any time given the price difference. For one MB, you could get TZ and RBION, bot great Lawlor games. MB just isn't that great of game for the price.

MB is very cool but overvalued IMHO. I'm a deep ruleset kind do guy and RBION is very difficult. Atlantis is in my top 4 for Wizrd modes to complete and crazy hard to beat on a three ball game but very very rewarding. Why this game doesn't have a higher value, I will never know. I should've never sold mine!

Not to mention Frog Frenzy...talk aboot tough

there are 2 MB in my town on route, and and i've only MOR'd once. actually never played RBION

No doubt. I still have never hit Frog Frenzy, but have done Atlantis a few times now.

i think the other issue here that skews this heavily to MB is the price differential the OP quoted. I converted the midpoint range to USD so i could better get my head around the relative price.

So, converted to USD:
RBION for $3100
vs
MB for $4200

???!!?!!?!

Anyone STILL want to pick RBION at those prices? THAT is a landslide BUY for a MB, imo.

The delta between the 2 should me more like MB = 2x or 2.5x the Rbion price.

It's like saying do want to buy a Taxi pinball machine, or a Medieval Madness for $1000 more....

Agree. No idea how RBION could be described as cheap. I'm mostly a WMS guy... but RBION feels just as good as TZ, T2, WH20, or any other WMS I own.