Have you played JP2 or Maiden? Both games are dynamite and always leave me with the "just one more game" feeling. I haven't played the new Elvira, but I wouldn't lump all new sterns together.

I think stern is doing a great job at appeasing a wide verity of pinball fanatics. Not every release is going to be a unique bombshell.

They have had a some big successes this year, and a few that was the same old layout slapped with a theme that pinsiders were begging for. With that said, there is something to be said about those bare bones games that are "cheap" and easy for ops to work on. I feel like I've seen a lot more pins on route in the past 5 years and almost all of them are stern pros. If these games are helping the popularity of our hobby then that's fine by me. The more people in the hobby means that we can actually have other manufacturers other than stern. Don't like this months brand new stern, fine buy a JJ or spooky or AP etc. When i first got into the hobby over 10 years ago it was hard to find a place to play a game on route, let alone find someone else near me that was into the hobby. I remember so many times people would say "whats a pinball machine".