Stern Jurassic Park or Willy Wonka?

I'll take the video clips from the movie all day long....not saying what they have is bad, but having the clips would be far superior....just like JJP did with the Hobbit....the sounds and video are almost perfect.

There is a lot of truth to what you say. I just played both today for like 40-45 minutes each jumping back and forth between them.

I own DI LE and to me Wonka feels a lot like that. I mean super smooth shots and diverter action and some magnets (I didn't notice as much magnets on Wonka tho). I own Woz RR too and the light show on Wonka is good (not as good as Woz but very good), I love color changing lights.

I did see paint pooling on the Wonka (slight on one post) but no pooling on JP.

TLDR

Here is my off the top of my head impressions of the two pins. I didn't know the rules to either one and I never read the rules and never watched any explanation tutorials so I was going in the dark and also I still don't know too much about the rules. I know things like how to start the main MB on Wonka and various modes on JP but overall the rules (how to play) are not clear for either one. This is my impression of how the games looked and feel and how they shoot not really anything about the scoring or stacking and such. Just shooting and looking at the games this is what I found.

1) have been collecting pins for 14 years and have owned a lot of top pins like B/W heavyweights, CGC remakes, Stern Whitestar, SAM and Spike as well as Spooky and JJP pins.

2) I don't have any bias against any pins maker, one time I owned all Stern maybe 7 Stern and nothing else so I have nothing against Stern pins.

3) I am a lot into rules, art, sound, shots, music, layout, ramps, toys and gimmicks. I place. these factors higher than theme, I am not a person who swoons over a theme. I love Pink Floyd for example but that does not mean I would just buy a Pink Floyd pin because it's has to be good in the other areas I mentioned.

4) I am looking to buy something new and have cleared the deck so to speak selling my AcDc premium not because I dislike the pin (It's one of my favorites) but I wanted to have some room to get something new.

I had played Wonka before but only 3 games and wasn't that blown away the first time playing, I almost wrote it off because it was just ok. Note that this was a different Wonka machine and maybe that has something to do with my feeling or maybe the first time I was not able to appreciate the layout.

First few games on each I was unimpressed but as I played more I was able to glean some more of the rules and feel out the shots. For both I was at a C- but as I played both I got up to a B+ rating.

Here is one point (IMO) Wonka LE ($9500) vs JP pro ($5600) so this is not a fair comparison a premium or JP LE would level the playing field a bit money wise. But to me hands down seven days a week and twice on Sunday Wonka feels a lot (A lot) more solid and smooth shooting and the lighting on Wonka better (I love color changing inserts). I think Wonka is a bit darker and I think it could use some more GI but I still give the lighting a big win for Wonka. As for solidness and feel Wonka is just a lot more substantial than JP. I am not going to get torn up about the feel or heft of a game but the latest Stern games might feel less substantial than earlier SAM pins. It is what it is. JP feels the same as DP feels the same as Maiden. there are GREAT pins just don't feel as solid as some other Stern from the past much less JJP pins. I'm over it. I do think it's kind of appalling if Stern charges $9K for any LE but hey can charge it if people pay it, but we are talking about a pro and it it costs 40% less than JJP LE so JP is a good deal to me for the money. And while JP, DP, Maiden feel less substantial they are still great pins.

Wonka does have a rules problem of not feeling like the movie. I wish it was more like LotR for example where you play the movie. I am not sure if I like the overall rules, sounds and callouts but the game shoots like butter and it looks great. Hopefully maybe it gets better with code updates but if this is the entire package of assets and sound effect, I am not sure there is enough to make me buy one. I love the Gobstopper ball lock and love the ramp diverters.

JP also does not play the movie either, but it does make it seem like a board game so to me overall this is more of my idea of something with more possibilities. I do think the pro is missing a good bit (I need to see the Raptor pen especially and the T-Rex on the premium). I am not sure if this will make it better but just to me the Raptor pen feels like it's unfinished. I feel the shot of the upper loop is not even close to the magic loops on Maiden. Maybe with time I can rip the loop but currently to me it's kind of so-so. I did not like the jeep Newton balls mech on JP. I am not a fan of rotaiting toys like this (lamp on TotAN for example). Overall JP is a very solid effort but not sure it better than DP and (Iron Maiden is probably the stronger pro and probably will rate higher than JP years form now).

I love both of them but not sure/undecided yet which would get my money or neither because as I said Maiden will leave the nest and I may just want to replace it with another Maiden (or DP)?

Give me a choice money no object I would pick Wonka but with money factored in maybe JP as the value play. I'd say the Wonkanator is very under used (at least as for my understanding so it's not a huge miss if you had to get a standard Wonka). To me that toy seems like the ultimate *can live without it* toy.
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tldr, get JP.

Both will give you potential chipping issues. Wonka has god awful callouts. JP has god awful art. It's a toss up!

How do you guys feel about JP vs Wonka now that code for both games is pretty much complete?

I had a chance to play both a Wonka standard and JP premium a month ago on location and out of a dozen of so games at that place those 2 stood out the most. Wonka just looks breathtaking when you see it, like all JJP games. Once again JJP created a great world under glass and nothing felt cheap. The armour on the cabinet felt durable and the decals felt like they are a bit more durable compared to past games by JJP and Stern. If there's a couple things I would say against Wonka its that the callouts are not great and it feels like the licensed is still underused. There are a lot of moments in Wonka where you hear actor callouts from the film but they are not synced to video playing on the screen, same goes for seeing clips of the actors but no actor audio playing. Also, it was hard to tell what was going on in Wonka as if everything was stacking at once.

The JP premium played great, what a fun layout! I enjoyed the music and sound effects better than those on Wonka. The ruleset seems focused and even though there's stacking it felt less of a mess compared to Wonka. A majority of the callouts are just ok with some that seem subpar. I do like that there are now 4 wizard modes (3 mini and 1 super) in JP and that its relatively easy to see how to reach them. As of .98 JP may be deeper then Wonka. There is still a cheap vibe with some things on JP premium. The tower, helicopter, and raptor models all just look cheap with exposed screw heads. I know there's mods that can improve things but I hate taking off and replacing things on a $7500 pin.

As for model comparison I think a Wonka standard vs JP premium is fair, and then Wonka LE vs JP LE. Pricing is close using that comparison.

You have a DI already, which many folks consider a close cousin to Wonka. I own a DI LE and JP Prem, and they play very differently. JP is crazy fast and to me more demanding - the roaming dinos ensure that you always have some time pressure. I like having the variety along with my other games. Personally I feel like there's a lot of overlap in DI and Wonka in terms of gameplay - not a bad thing per se, but it's fun to mix it up.

One is tons of fun and the first NIB game I bought in almost two years, the other bores me to tears.

You're a cheap date! Same photo(shop) of Gene Wilder all over the game. Possibly the least-inspired (or most license-constrained) playfield art of all time; big pile of "curving" rectangular inserts with zero relation to art or layout, on top of (you guessed it) stock Gene Wilder. Photoshopped rainbow gradient. So many tiny LED holes the playfield looks like it was hit with buckshot. Slot machine logo cabinet & backglass art on the standard, others not much better unless you like seeing the one same photo of each actor repeated everywhere.

Yup, it's powder coated steel like everyone uses.

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Haha...even for Panzer this may be a new low.

? I'm just asking a question. There's things I like and don't like on both games as I mentioned.