TWD was the first Stern that clicked with me. Would love to own a premium some day.
TMNT has been in my collection for 2 years, same with Stern’s Jurassic Park. I will sell my Jurassic Park before TMNT and it’s an easy decision for me.
Turtles is just fun. So many people take pinball way too seriously. Serious themes, and themes that take themselves seriously, kinda just suck to me. Jurassic Park is one of those games - zero charm and grindy gameplay for people who take pinball ultra seriously. I do not. I play pinball for fun, so fun games like Deadpool, Turtles, Godzilla, Medieval Madness, Elvira HOH are more my speed.
TMNT is absolutely the best deal in pinball right now. I’ve seen premiums go for like 6-7k. That’s just nuts. This game will absolutely command more value in a couple of years, as Venom draws a group of fans for its persistent code, people will seek out similar pins, and TMNT is the next best thing.
The groupthink of pinside is the same as everywhere else - once the zeitgeist says “TURTLES BAD” people will parrot that to make it seem like they know what they’re talking about “yeah, I played it and didn’t like it either”. Cool, you played two games, in a noisy bar, with early code.
I remember specially not getting Fallout 76 at launch because the video game group think was all “FALLOUT 76 BAD” but a couple months after launch they had a big sale and I got it for cheap just for the lols. Game is incredible, one of the best multiplayer games I’ve ever played. Does it have bugs? Sure. So does Twlight Zone, but that’s the nature of complexity - you either understand that and accept the chaos of it, or stick to Tetris or Pong.
Point being - put a good amount of games on both.