Stern has definitely felt hit or miss to me throughout the 2010s. I was very disappointed in Elvira HOH. Love the theme, saw all the movies in the game, love Elvira, and the house in the game is cool and so is the lighting, but the gameplay is a pretty big yawn. It's so basic and uncreative. Kind of like BKSOR. And Star Wars. But then lately they also had the two great Keith games, plus Deadpool. I thought Munsters played pretty well too, but don't have enough time on it to comment on the code, which is a lot of people's sticking point.

For me ever since about AC/DC, out of every three pins they release, one I love, one is decent, one is just bland (which is better than they were doing in the 2000s, anyway).

No doubt. And I think Stern is in a good place overall and has made some amazing games lately, but they also have made some very generic/uninspiring games lately, which seems to be a bit of a taboo topic here. When JJP, AP, or Spooky releases a new machine, it's very rarely, "Oh, this again. It's pretty much a re-skin of X." Stern, on the other hand...

Mind you, no hate here. I have two new Sterns (DP, IMDN) coming next week. But I'd also be lying if I said I wasn't really disappointed in some of their recents like BKSOR and EHOH, two games I had pretty high hopes for given their pinball lineage. When 1980's Black Knight is far more creative than 2019's, this seems like a reasonable topic to discuss.

Nah, I wouldn't ding 2019's BK for not being as innovative as 1980's, because it would be pretty hard to do. But how about not another fan layout? How about an upper playfield on the Pro, too, because a Black Knight without an upper playfield is like an Elvira without double entendres? I wasn't hoping they'd be dazzlingly innovative, just something more than they are. A homage to those past titles (they kinda got that) with something to also remind you it's 2019 (not so much).

I'm not trying to set a super high bar for Stern to hurdle, to me it seems more like everything they do now is given a pass because lately they've had some big winners. And this isn't about what I like or anyone else likes. If someone thinks EHOH is one of the best games they've ever played, that's great. There are few pinballs I don't like starting about the mid-'60s. But if someone says it doesn't matter that EHOH and BKSOR have generic layouts because IMDN and DP and JP don't, I don't get that argument. I just wish EHOH and BKSOR came out better than they did. The fact that Jurassic Park exists doesn't improve either of those games.