That’s not the point most here are making about LZ.
Let’s say for example the gameplay is outstanding on this title.
Would you rather have the art on LZ excellent or crap.
I’m sure most would take the former, you included, I’m sure

I like the artwork. People care WAY too much about what these games look like. So much that they won’t even give it a chance because of how it looks. DOA even before it’s played. It’s nuts to me.

I love all the mechanisms on LZ.

agreed. these 'bumper nests' with safe exits are a waste/nuisance. the BOM of those 3 coils could be used for something more interesting in that same space.

i realize you are discussing LZs pops here, but look at what people will be considering tomorrow when alien is re-released. same thing.

alieneggs2 (resized).jpg

thats quite an expanse of space that alien wastes on a bumper nest. pic below. it has four possible points of entry - both orbits, the current chestbuster shot, and the lower left one, which opens up as a shot from the upper left flipper once the pops are removed.

without elaborating, one way this area could have been reimagined would be a worthwhile toy [space jockey e.g.] that serves as a physical ball lock, with locks at the various entry points. it would be designed and programmed to provide much needed feeds to the upper right flipper. the alternative of adding a featured multiball sounds better than having balls dribble out of a nest. it is a shame that during these past 2 years the pinball brothers didnt consider 1] redesigning the bumper nest, 2] making more playfield modifications that could have improved setting up both upper flippers, and 3] reworking the art.

alienbumpernest01 (resized).jpg

Im sorry but when look at LZ pro, it looks a game we’ve all played many times before.
Hope I’m wrong, look forward to finding out.

Except youll be playing it to Led F*ckin Zepplin!!!!

I can’t really see how it would shoot like any other game. And the rules are definitely unique. Excited to see the stream tomorrow. 8 pm eastern on FB right?

Art is the icing on the cake. Game layout, code, reliability, tournament worthiness and fun factor are a 100x more important to me. I like to play my games, not just look at them. So far i like what i see with LZ and i have faith in Tim Sexton to come up with a great rule set. Personally i think the artwork is fine and will fit into my collection of Rock machines nicely although i do respect some of the criticisms.

Afraid to say guys but it’s common knowledge the album covers from old are known to be a bit crap.
They still had Art Deco styles - Mothership + Celebration day they could have worked with and could have / should have brought in a decent artist like they did with other Stern rock titles, Kiss + Met + Luci + Aero.
Only themselves to blame for the schoolboy errors. A high % of the fans/collectors who were looking forward are unfortunately upset with the look of all 3, they would have caught a break at least if they looked semi decent but from here I feel they have got off on the wrong foot. Sincerely hoping the gameplay will be great cause I really like LZ and love the genre of pins.
I like the majority of the PF and actually like the colours on the PF.

Someone at Stern must have thought fans who love LZ music automatically love their album covers as well - huge mistake!
Anyone who collected vinyl years ago will know album art / covers were hit or miss - we were thankful when picture disks were released

I’ve got boat loads of vinyl in my loft of music I love - all metal + rock - some album covers I truly love, some are total pants!

Didn’t Tim say the final wizard mode( insert with Zep and ?) is qualified by completing all songs to the platinum level? He was pretty specific when talking about that particular wizard mode and went on to say if you happen to do this something really cool and special happens. I took that to mean it’s in there. Who knows?

Yeah I think that’s right. Platinum on all the songs. Sounds like a tough task. Should be a good carrot out there for long lasting play at home. Hopefully it’s not as hard as encore on AC/DC or as wood choppy.

Might be the first rational post of the day, crazy.

Totally agree, art aside, it makes me want to go and re buy AC/DC. Or maybe SM for the 3rd time

I see very little theme integration, the magnet/spinner pop up, I don’t get it

It’s an LZ music pin so it’s still gonna sell regardless, just like Star Wars

I have bought most Stern LEs and only ever dropped out on SW and now this one

Sorry Steve. Layout is lacking. It’s not the artwork

They should have went total 70's arcade esthetic.
Seriously.

- Initials carved into the cab,
- paint-worn coin slots,
- score reels (in addition to LED screen),
- chrome side rails and lockdown bar and legs,
- stenciled cab,
- muted colours (done)
- star rollovers on the playfield
- etc

The minimalistic, clean art style of the machine fits Led Zeppelin's aesthetic, especially for the era the pin is meant to evoke - a dense, overly stylized design would have been out of place, or at least would have taken the mood of the game into a direction the designers (and possibly the license holders) were obviously not trying to move towards. It has a different artistic tone from most pins, and it's totally fine if you don't like it.

With that said, the most obvious way to show that you don't understand the nature of art is to tell other the way art *must* be. That's not how art works, regardless of medium, and pinball is no exception.

I think it looks like a cool game that oozes Led Zeppeliness and the shots and rules seem great - got an LE coming and I am looking forward to it.

Tim has a lot to prove for me. I wasn’t impressed with the rules on BKSOR. Listening to the Jeff T interview didn’t give me any confidence he will knock this one out of the park.

I hope he kills it and the game is awesome but I need to see past work to instill confidence.

The rules on BKSOR Prem were great, never played a pro so don't know if the lack of upper playfield/catapult mb brought it down.

Same. I just dont get it. And some of the comments just reek of hate. Like, people are just pissed off over how some pinball machines look.

Like, hey, it's only pinball.

I think something like this would make a good alternate translite for the premium.

5309540C-CD05-4856-8507-25F8676F018D (resized).jpeg

serious question-- what was wrong with BKSOR rules? I haven't played it enough to find anything i disliked. The only issue i heard of was the upper playfield had an exploit that the super elite tournament players could take advantage of. is there something i'm not seeing with my limited time on it? It seemed like a pretty straight forward rule set that forced you to play all the shots.

I think they should have based it on this photo. Probably the best photo of the band.

zeppinball (resized).jpg

The intensity of the focus on all the lesser aspects of a new game such as art, display, and lights went straight up as the price of these games went straight up, as it should have. It doesn’t mean we don’t care about gameplay all of a sudden. Just that we care about everything when these games cost us more than our first car.

Game looks like shit!

hahahahahaha. So you don't like it huh?

It'll be interesting to see how many people that hate The Hobbit fall in love with this even though it has a barren playfield and from the looks of it a few less features?
For the record TH is a great game and I'm sure this will be too. Congrats to those of you whom this is the dream theme for you.

He's going to be streaming a Premium tomorrow FWIW.

Absolutely right.

Ahh shucks. It's true, the art is important to me. These things are expensive and they take up a bunch of space in my house. I want them to play well AND look cool.

I think what's tough about this one is that I had my hopes up for Star Wars and that was pretty bad on all accounts but I just shrugged it off. "You can't win ‘em all.", I told myself. It’s been twelve games since Star Wars and they have ALL looked amazing. Turtles is a fantastic game but it's not my era so when that one came and went I could appreciate the execution but it didn't resonate with me. However, now with Led Zeppelin it was finally my turn, my era, my nostalgia, and this time all the production kinks have been worked out. I don’t have to worry about an uninspired photoshopped Star Wars playfield or the infamous garishness of Game of Thrones. Unfortunately, what was delivered fell short. It's disappointing man. It kinda hurts to see the one pin you've really been wanting for not get the same attention to detail as the others. I’m still trying to process what went wrong.

I make my living designing things and I also rent my home as a photo location. Aesthetics are an important part of my life. With that said I still play an hour of pinball a day and I made it into the top 100 in California in 2019. I just wanted to make the point that you can comment on the look of a game but still be very interested in the actual game play. It's not one or another.

I'm still looking forward to playing it and would still consider swapping out the Capitan Fantastic in my music room. However, this moment, before we've seen the stream or played it in person, is to talk about the art. To be honest I'm grieving a little bit. I think others are as well and this is the only place where anyone would understand me. I'm not trying to cancel Led Zeppelin the pin before I’ve played it. I'm more just sharing my feelings about what I’ve seen so far.

They didn’t seem to integrate the theme at all . “ oh here’s a magic fk’ing box “ seems like a cheap way to just put a gimmick into the game

Have a beer. It’s just pinball. Enjoy the stream tomorrow. Reveal streams are always fun.

Mikey want Zeppelin. Mikey likey

People like to bitch...

LOTR has pretty bad art ( the LE is really bad) but I would argue that is the best Stern of all time so....

FWIW I understand completely.

Pinside has all types of folk.

Some people just like to shit on stuff and troll it up. Some people get mad when people post their opinions or say something negative and get defensive about every perceived slight on a game. But I think the bulk of people who come into threads like this acting disappointed just wanted something they could fall in love with.

Not everyone has the eye or language to discuss design, but they know what they like, and what they don't. Personally I'd rather gush about how much I love something than bitch about how much I'm let down. But what can you do when you have your hopes up for a theme and get dealt an asset pack cut and paste job?

There's no need to talk down to people.

If i can play pinball to Led Zeppelin, hell yeah. I think the premium has the best art but not sure if the rising lock/ spinner is worth it. Ugh, first world decisions...

Didn’t mean it that way. You seem extremely upset about a pinball reveal. Just take a step back and try to enjoy it. At the end of the day it’s just a game. If it’s not for you it’s not for you. There’s always the next one.

Agreed 100%, seems like people take these things personally. Unfortunately I think social media makes everyone feel like their opinion matters and everyone needs to agree with them or they're bad.

I have an art background and what we are shown is pretty much the art of the game and that’s all we can pretty much comment out till gameplay videos and rules are explained.

And your right they take up a lot of space and I want them to play good and look good. I already mentioned they display like artwork but they take up space like furniture. I don’t want an expensive couch that is comfortable but looks like crap.

Cabinet artwork is now a thing that will be judged and scrutinized because it’s part of the overall package. We want a new car with a nice paint job and color besides it running well. It’s part of the design as is with pinball now.

If it didn’t matter than we would still have games only with a base coat and two stencils for graphics. Sorry, if I am spending $7k for a game I want it to look good also especially when we have themes we really love and have been waiting for like with Led Zeppelin.

Oh I am still in the earth I have to go to north and I see the earth and the sun is out there for a while to see the sun is coming back together so we will be in the north and I have to get my car out there and then maybe I can have some time with the earth for eve or so maybe we should have some time for you and your dad and I are going on the same page for eve and you want me to do that and I will be able you could do you a little while I am still in north and I will have you in my office for eve and I will have to get my stuff back from here on Monday I am going down north and I will have to get them up on my bike I don’t have any time to get there and I’ll be there in the time so maybe I’ll be back together in a couple minutes if we have any other time we will have to get them up on our house

Just got back from the dispensary, eh?

Coop I respect your feelings and am glad you can get things off your chest. What I really like is your demeanor and how you can express yourself without becoming a keyboard commando.

I really feel Stern's hands were tied on this one guys in regards to the art choices and the team had a handful of options to choose from-all being licensed Led Zeppelin albums. If you truly think about authenticity of the brand and franchise-the albums make sense. The bright blue rails on LE that everyone bashed were to represent water below Icarus in another world under the glass. What the heck is Icarus? Icarus is based on ancient Greek mythology. It refers to a youth who attempted to escape from Crete with wings of wax and feathers but flew so high that his wings melted from the heat of the sun, and he plunged to his death in the sea(those bright blue rails). The only thing to be mad at Stern about is not using a different cover within their contractual assets. (Not much to work with)

Led Zeppelin 2 is nothing to write home about either

LZ 2.png

I'd be interested in getting a premium and swapping translites with a pro or vice versa, that would look decent. A mix of both albums.

Ya mannnn, flyin highhhhhhhh

Worried about you Wacky. Hope all is well bro.

That there is the best thing I’ve heard in this thread! Good Idea

Me ok thx

But if you have been waiting for a pin of one of your favorite bands and your let down by the art work not so easy to wait just for the next one. Most likely will never see another Led Zeppelin pin again. So some of us are upset with the art direction that was taken.

Thanks, now I'll take half the TWD topper profits please...jk that was an entertaining thread, good for you!

I was reading your comments and I have to say they felt dismissive. So, I thought I would try to sketch out what people like me are thinking. It is just a pinball machine but I do love pinball and there are truly a very limited amount of grail themes.

In 1977 I was in 5th grade when I saw Star Wars at the Coronet theater in San Francisco—which is where the film premiered. I saw it in the theater 9 times that summer. Led Zeppelin was the soundtrack to my teenage years. Those types of memories are limited. A person may only have a couple of true grail themes. Sure, I'll enjoy the next one as I enjoy them all to some degree but I still think it's fair to leave space for a discussion about lackluster art package.

I listened to Jeff Teolis to raise the same issues that I had this evening on his podcast. He's still buying the game. I too still want to play it and I might even buy one. I do care a lot about this theme and unfortunately, the next one will just be something random that I won't have an emotional connection to. So, for now, I’ll just go ahead and make my points and you can drink my beer for me.

See you tomorrow on Twitch.

P.S. I think you're a cool person. You've helped me out on here with some pinball problems. I know you and I could just totally hang out and it would be fun. I'm just talking about my feelings and stuff.