Voted.

IMDN vs TZ will be a tough one (not for me - TZ for the win - but for many others I guess).

Wow, I had 5 underdog picks on this one.

This is brutal. First you make me pick between whirlwind and maiden, which are next to each other in my basement. Now I need to pick between maiden and twilight zone, which sits on the other side of maiden.

Twilight Zone all the way.

Easiest round for me so far, except having to say goodbye to TAF, and shocked AIQ is currently behind.

( TZ dominant choice for me here as well)

Ditto

I was 50/50 in round 2. So I seen some good pin fall. Trying to improve my picks.
Need to add VS after Jurassic Park (Stern).

JP vs LotR? EHoH vs AIQ? This is where the brain starts to make little grinding noises....

possibly the 2 toughest ones for some. Didn't LOTR win Stern's version of this? I can't remember.

Changing my Cinderella pick....good grief, TSPP could be just a giant killer this year!!! (to a point I suppose)

TZ left. Maiden isn't

Voted baby

Why my favorites games have to fight one against the other?
Lord vs alien
Twd vs jp
Lord vs jp
Maybe jp vs medieval

In fact my favorite games are all in the same quater table.

AFM and MM are looking very strong, as usual. Amazing games.

Holy shit this is a tight bracket.

So much love for TSPP. It's average at best.

A great game, but looks like it's gonna fall.

I'm surprised AIQ is falling. An amazing machine...I haven't played EHOH however, so stayed away from that one. Is the game really that good?

JP slaying LOTR...that's as far as she goes however...imho

Ehoh should be a top spot contender. Full assets, tons of shots, great field, callouts are good.

Agree. AIQ is a great design but EHOH is a more complete package at this point.

Sounds like I have to find one to play!!!

Wow, I am late to this party.

The fact that Iron Man lost to Lebowski in round 1 makes me question this whole process, the current crop has some "suspect" suspects still. I don't expect this to have a clear winner everybody would agree on, and I am sure all of the current list is fun (even the ones I have not yet played due to the pandemic) but is LoTR really a top 10 tournament game on any planet anybody lives on? A top 10 collection game? Maybe for some.

Are tournament directors really jazzed up to have LoTR in their lineup?

I agree! I think some of these votes on all 3 rounds are going same as top 100. Guys vote based on not the better game but which game fits there agenda. If you posted this same tournament in Williams, Stern, and JJP sub-forums the out come would show the agendas im referring to. This is fun but same as top 100 so take it with a grain of salt and just enjoy it.

Agreed. a "better" game is always going to be subjective in most cases anyway. I do believe, however, that even in these fun threads, top 100, IPDB, etc. there are clearly superior games that are there for a good reason.

It's hard to be truly non agenda based and vote against MM, AFR, and TZ as 3 of the best games ever put out there. They always seem to rise to the top, and imho, deservedly so.

Alot of the others could be considered "flavor of the month" but certainly not the ones I just mentioned.

As a side - I personally couldn't stand LOTR....couldn't trade it fast enough, though I know it's revered by many, so what do I know (except what I like to play)?

I always thought TSPP was so-so, because I was always playing beat-up ones in the wild at beach arcades, bits were sometimes broken, played spongy and slow. When I finally played a speedy well-tuned one and could get pretty deep into the code, it's a great game, really well designed for happy chaos moments.

Yes, but is it a GOOD tournament game? I think watching 4 highly skilled players on that game would be like watching paint dry... and if the game is set up wrong paint would be dry and I would be onto the second coat before their match is done. Is that a good tournament game? I would take a random EM over that if I HAD to as a tournament director (if the only two options were "loose" TSPP or an average EM).

I think " tournament " in this application applies to game itself, not necessarily in a tournament play environment....could be wrong though...

Just a head to head in multiple gameplay scenarios

Ditto. Maybe we missed something in an earlier description?

Oh, I misunderstood the title (doh!). I wondered I had missed something in the directions. I thought this was the Top Tournament Games of all Time.

If this is just "re-do the top 100, for the Xth time", I guess go at it. All in good fun. I just thought this was a different approach (e.g. top games for a smaller collection, top collector games, best bang for the buck games, best location games etc.).

FWIW a game like Monster Bash would rate high on a "best location game" list for me. I love playing it a few times a year. Home use? Oh no...

My problem with putting some of these new games on the list is that people are potentially voting on games that are so new (and during a pandemic) that they couldn't have put enough time on them to make an informed decision. There are a bunch of games here I haven't even played yet...doesn't seem right to vote based on videos.

I think the appeal to this thread vs other " best of" comparisons is it truly weeds out the new games debuting at #1 or super high just for new curb appeal.

I like, enjoy, many of the shineys, but hard to vote against absolutely dominant games ( I have those too).

As much as I love Alien ( my personal favorite) I wouldn't vote for it in a thread like this against the other 3 titles mentioned prior. They have more than stood the test of time and still dominate.

Just fun to watch the others shuffle in the early rounds ( working today so a great distraction)

Agreed. And at the end, it looks like you'll just wind up with the B/W classics. That's not a bad thing.

And I have the exact same issue. I haven’t had an opportunity to play the new Avengers game due to the pandemic. And I’d expect lots of people haven’t played it. And I still haven’t had real time of Elvira since the code updates. I’m glad I’ve seen videos, but it’s not the same.

Agree!! Weed out the weak!

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EVERY TSPP I played in the wild had something wrong w it. There presence on college campuses in the Southeast was incredible back in the day. We did many, many Performing Arts Theaters back then....I couldn't wait for spare time to go to the commons area and play the pins.

When finally buying a nice one and getting it playing perfectly I realized how good the game actually was...and still is...Keith at his best!!

I'd love to see the King of Payne dethroned, but it's not happening anytime soon. Too much emphasis is placed on the LCD in modern games. In my opinion, pinball missed a step, from DMD to Colour DMD with higher pixels. Not DMD to LCD, it's like going from VHS to Blu-ray, and skipping DVD.

I find it amusing that every JJP gameplay vid I see, the player hardly ever looks up at the screen. All those wonderful (and very expensive) animations for the entertainment of spectators only. Madness.

Agreed, but only AFM, TZ and IJ would be capable of doing it.

If only someone would put one in the playfield..

He looks capable

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I think he is and won last year as I recall. With an MMrRE in my lineup now next to it however, not this year for me.

They absolutely nailed the royal version bringing just enough....devastating pin!!!

After playing them all a bunch recently, gotta say.....IJ is now my fave. Wonder if it could go all the way...

Well based on the brackets, either TZ or AFM have to fall, so IJ will have MM all to itself...

Final 4 is THE battle!!!

It's my all time favorite...so from your lips to God's ears. Between buying the game, having Mike Chestnut do the brass and nickel plating, then saying screw it and having HEP fully restore it with a new OEM playfield, I must've spent $17k on the damn thing. I regret nothing...it's still awesome and won't go anywhere. Add the Pinsound card and orchestrations, and it's perfect.

This has become much tougher with this round.

My toughest matchups to choose were JP vs. LOTR and AIQ vs. EHOH

I think the rose-colored glasses have come off for AIQ. Shoots amazing and has dope artwork but everything else(voices, animations, etc)is lackluster.

Is Lord of the Rings really going to lose to Jurassic Park? Don’t get me wrong, JP is a good game. But I consider LOTR to be one of the games in the upper crust of pinball. Not just in its time. And this vote is for “Greatest Pinball Game Of All-Time”. Jurassic Park doesn’t dominate its time like LOTR did.

LOTR was ahead of his time.
Has it caught up 15 years of evolution? Or is it nostalgia who is speaking?

LOTR is a GREAT game. I owned it and sold it just because it started getting really stale. For me, what separates JP from LOTR is that stupid upper playfield on LOTR. Kills the whole flow of the game. And there's only so many times you can hear "The path!...of the dead!" before you want to claw your eyes out. But that ramp and magnet...EPIC.