Star Wars only has six balls so no nine ball multiball. It does have a ton of different multiballs modes though. At least one, TIE Fighter multiball (three balls), is relatively easily achievable by kids. Overall a great game for kids even though it plays fast. My 4 and 6 year old love it and play regularly. And the theme doesn’t hurt.

Where are you located? If you tell us, there’s probably someone in Pinside that knows where you can go to try newer Sterns. That’s always the best way to judge.

Note even a question man. Metallica all day every day. Amazing pin.

Metallica all the way and its not even close, not even a little bit close.

I have Met pro and Star Wars prem. For the kids, Star Wars. I think this is a great pin. The clips, light show, music...they will love. Yes Met is incredible, but if you are concerned about “too adult”, it can be. Some people wouldn’t be bothered by
that, but you sound like it might be. Hands down, go with Star Wars.

I have a Metallica pro and SW prem. Metallica is awesome but not sure kids would be interested in it. Star Wars is also a great game, but if I had to choose for family it would be SW. SW has great movie clips,great lighting, and lots of multi balls to try to achieve. If you like SW then it should be a Winner for your family with no question.

Met is a great game no doubt, but I already owned it so I'm calling SW now.
AS was fun and GB is a piece of garbage. But hey it "looks great" whatever the hell that means.

EDIT: Sorry, after actually the reading the post (I know I hate those people too) if kids are involved it would be MET for sure. Way easier to accomplish things and understand...way more humor as well.

Metallica 100%. I have three young daughters (under 12) and the Sparky scene is a fun cartoon and always has been. They see much worse on Spongebob! With the adult sound turned off, the call outs are all clean.

Go for Metallica. It is actually one of my kids’ favourite games. The snake and sparky all add to the fun.

I haven't played pro versions of any of these so my opinions are based purely on the premiums.

AS. Don't like the music, or callouts. I've played maybe 20 games on one. Not a fan.

I owned GB for a year and I really loved it. The shots can be difficult and the big flipper gap is a pain, especially for kids and new players. Excellent audio, callouts. Art is great. It really needs a code update though. There's A LOT of hate on pinside for it. However, I know a number of people that really like/love it. I've heard the pro is seriously lacking though. I sold my premium, but a good friend of mine has one so I can still play his.

MET. Awesome pin! So much fun. Fantastic, flowing shots. Great art, audio, callouts, animations. This pin is just perfect for kids and newer players. Super popular in my gameroom. You can't go wrong with it. Easy to understand rules. Longer ball times. The premium has the hammer and coffin lock. These are a must IMHO.

SW. Another really fantastic pin. It's getting the most play in my gameroom right now. Men, women, and children all love it. My 9 year old plays it and does great on it. Another great shooter. Light show and audio are seriously off the charts! Great animations and art. Super fast adrenaline rush kind of a pin. Great modes. Shorter ball times than metallica usually I would say.
The theme really can't be beat. After all, it's star wars!

This is a tough call. You really can't go wrong with either MET or SW. I love them both SO MUCH. You need to play them both and then decide.

My vote... If you and the family are star wars fans then you should buy it. You will LOVE it. It's a deeper, more complex game and will probably keep you pressing start longer. I recommend the premium though. Hyperspace loop is bad ass.

Hope this helps

We had the same choices and picked a MET Pro. I didn’t think my 7 and 10 would like it, but they’ve been playing it a bunch. I’ve even caught my 7 year old daughter singing Master of Puppets around the house. I thought the animations would be too much but it hasn’t been an issue. Oddly enough the two pins I never thought we’d get are TWD and MET because of the themes, but both are in the game room and getting played a bunch.

MET Pro

I have a Met pro, SW LE, and 3 kids (ages 7-11). I can see the point of people saying Met based on game play. Let me put in an answer from a kids perspective since the OP mentioned this was important to him. Most kids (and certainly my kids) don't listen to Metallica and don't know their music as anything other than something from their parents generation. They don't have a deep understanding or interest in the rules of either game, and realistically aren't going to get very far into either game. They ask me questions like what did Sparky do that makes us want to kill him which no one can really answer. However, they understand the SW universe completely and the color LCD screen is way cooler to them than the red dots on a stock Met. I should also say kids also love seeing dad blow the Death Star up and the hyper loop - but of course these are absent pro. Of the 14 games in my collection, SW is almost always the one kids want to play when they come over.

Met is fun, but it got to be a chore to play for me and more bashing than I'd like. Very fun but after owning it a year I was eager to move on. Probably kept it a bit longer just because I installed the rising grave marker, spinners and total lightshow and that was a bit of effort.

Using pinball browser to change up the songs is a must though. I'm a Metallica fan, but I never liked having to stick with one main song the entire game. Sometimes I *gasp* wouldn't even want to hear a Metallica song when playing pinball....not exactly fun relaxing music.

Aerosmith's music really works on that game - fun, catchy and you can change songs during gameplay.

Metallica's "One", "Unforgiven" and some other tracks are totally boring and out of place on a pin.

Met. However, if my kids were young. Star Wars.

MET is the clear choice WITHOUT kids. No way in hell would I recommend MET for kids though. Not even sure where to begin on that one. Prob electrocuting someone and his eye balls popping out..... The wife is going to love that one!

My kids BY FAR loved GB the best. GB would be my answer no question. They love slimmer and who doesn't love that theme? SW is such a complete mess of a game (pro being a trash can on fire/ prem is the only way to go if you want to torture yourself). GB code does get stale though but you should be able to enjoy your time with it.

My ten yr old melted shots through lady justice and walked away w/259m on MET last night.

Not sure if it’s his fav, but he sure found joy in kicking my ass.

The only game my young kids won't let me sell is Game of Thrones. I have LE but recommend Pro.

I have two boys (4,6) and they like Met. With the adult filters turned on they are non the wiser. I have no problem with them playing it and it certainly doesn't affect them in a negative way. That being said my 6 year old asked if we could get TMNT back the other day .

Met Pro: Liked it bought it and it has staying power for a while
GB Pro: Played a few games on route. Thought about buying it, but couldn't get into it enough
Areosmith Pro: Played a few games on route. Liked the game play. Thought it could get a little boring in a home setting. Didn't like a lot of the songs on the game and they didn't have a lot of song options
SW pro: Played only a couple of games on route because I could not get into it. I didn't know the rules, but I didn't care for the very little amount I played it. The premium looks like it could be worth it on this title.

Met with more votes than all the others combined? Yeah, that feels about right. Met first, daylight second.

If you like the shots and layout of MET you may want to consider Guardians of the Galaxy. Similar shots, but you get the color screen and PG game. The code will get there eventually...

If i had young children i would probably buy the SW on your list, but the pro just feels lacking to me in comparison to the premium and that drives me nuts.

GoT Pro is an awesome game. I obviously (own both) think Met and Got are top tier games. Which one a person picks depends on if you really enjoy modes or not. One has a great mode based set of rules and the other has a great outside of the box set of rules.

I'm planning on getting SW. My son is into Star Wars (and Minecraft -- there would be a good theme that would be pinball friendly). My daughter doesn't like Star Wars at all -- even with Rey girl power -- but she picked out Shrek two years ago at a pinball show and loves that game so that's her game. MET is a very good game; I know my kids would not relate to it at all and they are not into 'creepy' which Sparky is cool but creepy, so I personally would not buy it. My family universally all hated GB when they played it 2 years ago so I did not buy it -- the large flipper gap sucks; hate it. Aerosmith is not as good a game as MET in my opinion and same problem as MET -- my kids would not relate to it at all; toy box is kinda of cool but its a one trick pony and without any interest in the theme, I think interest would wane quickly.

Good call. Play ‘em all, then decide. I imagine Detroit area will have all four on route at multiple locations.

Best way to do it.

i vote Metallica.

Metallica and it isn't even close.

All 4 are great games.....1 met..2 as...3 gb....4 sw.....you can't go wrong with any of these pins.....newer sterns are my cup of tea.....

MET is clearly the fan favorite. I agree with other that while it's a great pin for players, not sure it's a great family pin. It has a lot of swearing if that is any concern. You can put it on family mode but only bleeps out the swear words. Other than that, I don't think anything is that bad. I bought a pro a few years ago just because I loved the gameplay. My kids are a bit older (almost 14) and they don't play that much. My boys did play a lot in the beginning but rarely now. I suggest finding something you enjoy playing over finding something the kids may like. Kids will probably enjoy GB at first but I found that game to get more frustrating the more I played it. Game does not feel balanced or executed very well. Don't even like playing it anymore. I don't care for AS either but only played it a few times. It just seems to borrow too heavily from other games and theme is really weak imo.

SW is a surprise for me. It didn't look all that fun at first but really is fun to play. Code seems to be well supported and from what I understand pretty solid at the moment. I think it has enough for beginners and deeper stuff for players to keep it fun. MET is still the better game for pinheads but SW is the better choice for a wider audience/family. I wouldn't buy MET nib either. Wait for a good deal on a used one since they are not hard to find.

Metallica and my 2 kids love it. I tried buying something more kids oriented in the past ......Avengers. Even with all the mods and action figures I added on the playfield the result is always the same : Met gets all the love and we sold Avengers. Theme is one thing but when it comes to enjoy a great game Met beats movie blockbusters every time.

Met pro is the stuff, if you’d be open to buying a used pin Iron Man is a nice family game that has a lot in common with Metallica pro.

Met pro has great DMD animations and you *should* factor in the cost of a color DMD into the purchase.

IMO Met pro is probably the best overall Stern pin in the last several years plus its on SAM system which many people prefer.

I’m thinking the best Stern pins of the last 7 years are:

Met pro
AcDc Premium
Tron
TWD
IM

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You may really like GOTG too. Good family pin. Good theme. Great shooter. Has the same** layout as MET so the flow is similar. Plus it has the new spike 2 LCD. You should play it

All 4 pins are really nice. Each one has has its own unique shots, layout and artwork. I’d pick the theme you and your family enjoy the most! Go get the whole family and find some of these pins on location so they can try them out.

NGG

Is your first name Lou and last name zer?

Have a METLE and getting rid of it because nobody plays it but me. The kids don't like the music, wife and grandparents don't like the theme. Guests pick ACDC over MET every time.

It kills me because I love the game and the code is amazing. But you asked about family and being honest its just not a family hit. Ghostbusters is likely in-bound as the wife and kids are demanding it. I'm thrilled they enjoy pinball enough to have an opinion and will do whatever it takes to keep them engaged.

Having said all that I'm getting Maiden whether they like it or not. Haha.

1. Metallica
2. Ghostbusters (though many days I prefer to play GB over MET, but I recognize that MET is a better game)
- noticeable gap -
3. Aerosmith
4. Star Wars

Ghostbusters really needs that next code update. Once that's in place, it could really elevate the game. As it is, GB is already a good game, but it could be one of the greats with a bit more of a push.

there is no iron maiden, so... let it rest.

I will not. But thanks for the advice.

No.? It's actually Mike Hunt.

My wife loved the idea of having a Metallica pin, but really "hated" it because it kicked her ass. She didn't have a great time playing it and other than her it's only me playing the pins. We both enjoy Mustang 10x more than Metallica and I haven't missed Met a bit.

Aerosmith is the only pro I actually enjoyed more than the premium. That being said, I don't think it's necessarily better than the others.
Ghostbusters pro is a lot of fun.

I would go with Met pro, my 8 year old grandson favorite but plays a game or two and moves on.

I have my pins close together and it's a pain to turn on spike games ( AS, SW & GB) from the back. One reason why AS didn't last and I needed to make room for LOTR.
Lastly, my vote trumps everyone elses (what comes and goes) since I'm the one playing 90-95% of the time. Exception would be themes that could scare the be-jesus out of the little ones like BSD and TWD.

Call out the election monitors, GB Pro votes are mounting ...

As a SW Premium owner, I would say no to the SW Pro. Without the Hyperloop, that game loses at least 50% of the fun/wow factor. My kids light up every time they see the ball(s) zoom through it. So, if we are just comparing Pro's, I'd vote Aerosmith Pro. I got to put some time in on this one a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. I think for a family, it would be great as long as you like the band. The animations are corny (Dude looks like a Lady ones are really fun), the music is good (my kids like their music), and the toybox delivers that "wow" moment. Met is a great game. But for me, it is one of those that I enjoy on location, but not enough to have in my home. I was close to getting a GB pro, but the more I played it, the more I felt like I was fighting a battle of hard shots and cheap drains. There are only so many times that you can see the ball jump over the inlane or go SDTM from the bumpers. So, my vote is Aerosmith Pro...but really, you should go SW premium

As a fellow SW Premium owner, I respectfully disagree. The hyperloop is rad, no doubt, but the Pro is still great, and the Death Star shots are much easier to consistently make without the ramp, which would make it easier for kids to progress through the game.

Met Pro is winning the poll by a comfortable margin still. OP if you decide to go that way, you should at least look at HUO pricing, Met's a couple of years old now so you should be able to save a nice bit of cash over NIB and get one that's already tweaked and ready to play.

Bad Cats pinball

Put your monies were your mouth is and actually get one!