Have it,Love it, Looking forward to restoring it, (can't stop playing it long enough to consider that though).Its just a great pin IMHO.

I also have WH20 and it is my favorite pin. I am glad i bought it when i did because the price seems to be rapidly increasing. From what i have read It is an exspensive pin to restore due to the cost of the ramps. Great game!!!

I'm not a huge fan, relative to all of the praise it gets from other Pinsiders.

I don't like when parts of the playfield aren't visible and in my experience, the whirlpool takes way too long to drop the ball. The sound doesn't appeal much to my taste.

The game can look really cool with good LED lighting and the theme is top-notch.

To me, it's a System11 game on steroids. That isn't a bad thing, it's just not my taste.

All that being said, it's a high demand game for a reason- many people love it.

That's the way it is, Tony. People either love it or hate it. For me, it'd be the second to the last game I'd sell behind AFM. I love the ramps and the flow. Not many other games like it.

I've resored about 5 of them and it's a pain in the ass. Beautiful game once restored with a cleared playfield and all new ramps.

Now we just need someone to repro the plastic sets and the topper decal. And the speaker panel too.

I think I want one because I love ramps. Cannot find one locally to play.

I should also mention, to those who decide to restore this game, because of the added thickness of the ramps and boulders, you will have to make some modifications in order to get the playfield glass back in.

You will also have to make some modifications in order to get all the ramps to fit and play correctly.

Did I say this game is a PITA?

Lots of nuanced stuff but needs a true wizard mode. I bought one to restore and liked it for a while but my collection is too small for such a beatable game. If you're a decent player with a small collection it probably won't last long.

Great game, but overpriced for what it is these days. Needs more 'there' there....

It's a great game!

Really like the game and want one, but it is another game that has become overpriced.

There's a WH20 on route close to me and have grown to really enjoy it. In general I'm not into mini playfields (e.g. FGY) but the two shot mini playfield on WH20 is perfect by me.

I have had mine for at least 6 years it is not going anywhere unless I find a better one. My game is a player not perfect but hell I only paid $1500 for it. It is a keeper for me for sure.

I got one for a pretty good price locally. I really love the theme, art, and I like how you progress thru the game by hitting shots that resemble different parts of a white water rafting experience. I also think it's cool how the game randomizes the different shots you have to hit to advance rafts. Neat touch!

In stock form, the Lost Mine kick-out produces a vicious kick-out, which can send the ball flying out and down and outlane, or bouncing around and then straight down the middle. I put some felt and rubber bump stops in the upkicker to pad and shorten the stroke to produce a milder kick-out, which hits the right flipper, and then bounces over to the left so you can cradle the ball if you want to. This makes it much more fun to play the "Ride the Whirlpool" multiball, but it does alter the game from what the original arcade experience was.

I also love the start of multiball, and the callouts for getting double and triple jackpots going. If you can time this with activation of the 5X playfield mulitplyer, it's pretty awesome!

I've got a Ron Kruzman cleared playfield set to go in mine, along with new mountains, but I can't seem to bring myself to take the machine down yet, as I still have a hankering to play it rather often.

Great game!

It's always been my grail since back in the 90s. I've watched the price go up since 2000 or so when I first started dreaming about buying one. It's really fun, lots of ramps, but not overly complex in the ruleset (which can be a good or a bad thing.) It's a really good looking pin too. The ramps, jet bumpers, caves, bigfoot, etc are well integrated into the playfield (ramps are waterfalls, jut bumpers are boulders, etc.) Overall it's a solid game and tough to find on location in working order (what's not these days). Much like Funhouse and Taxi, there is a reason these are all beat to shit and it's because people play the hell out of them!

A lot of people don't like the sounds on it but I really like the soundtrack. It chages up depending on which river level you're on. Variety is good in my opinion.

I think it gets the "overrated" stigma because of the recent price jump. It used to be relatively cheap and now it's very tough to find one for a decent price. I can understand that people react negatively to the price jump and call it "overrated." The price is hard to justify for some, and others like the pin so much that it could continue to go up. Time will tell.

Granted I never really looked on Pinside but in the past 3 years or so I've had a very hard time finding one. Every time one came up in my area it was either priced way too high or was beat to shit. When a decent one came up locally I pulled the trigger because I simply got sick of waiting. I had to pay about $500 more than I wanted to but I don't have any regrets so far.

I think it's a good game that is currently WAY overpriced. I'd buy a STTNG or IJ before WH2O.

I got a decent one over the summer at 2500, has planking and cab fade. I bought it because I wanted a WH2O and would take what I could get then buy a keeper later and resell the one I have. Turns out I got a new PF at Expo in October so now I'm just swapping out the PF and will have a really nice one. Still have cab fade but I don't play the cab.

I own STTNG and IJ and WH20. WH20 holds it's own. For me, the 2 issues are the low quality audio and the amount of time it takes in the whirpool.

The positives are too many to list, that elusive vacation jackpot is neat, multi-teared wizard mod, upper playfield that doesn't stop the ball for too long, excellent jackpot callouts, great lightshow on the home rom... And many other things.

IJ's and STTNG are around $4K right now. WH20 can still be had for $2,500 - $3K. I'd say it's a lot of game for a lot less buck compared to those.

Wh20 is a great game, no comparison is possible. But this a really love or hate pin. I for one love it!

It seems on my WH2O I can vary the amount of time the ball spends in the whirlpool to help me out. I can slightly sway the machne from side to side to add momentum to the ball to keep it in there indefinantly. What's the fun in that you might ask? Not really much fun, until you have "Ride the Whirlpool" multiball going, and you're trying to space the 2 ball multiball out so that one ball is in the whirlpool, and another is in the Lost Mine getting ready to kick-out. That gets to be a really fun juggling act.

Conversely, since I know how to sway the machine to keep the ball in motion in the whirlpool, I can disrupt the rotation of the ball and make it drop out early. I suppose I have my tilt set just right to allow me to do this without tilting the machine. All it takes is a gentle motion. It might be worth trying with to see if you can find the perfect swaying motion of whatever WH2O you're playing. It's fun to be able to influence the ball in the whirlpool.

Ditto to all the positives. I just finished a 'mini 'restore of my WH20 and it rocks! I love everything about the game. With fresh flipper kits and rubbers and a polished/waxed playfield, it plays smoother and tighter than any pin I've played(to date).

Nothing better imo than being able to hit most all of the critical shots in the game from both flippers. And getting the Vacation Jackpot? Great stuff.

Corvair61, find one and buy it.

great game, great great great! elusive vacation jackpot will keep it interesting and many nice shots, ramps, plays fast (except the whirlpool), awesome falls ramp that cracks the glass everytime. It's worth every penny.

This is the pin I would keep if I could only have one. Reaching Vacation Jackpot is extremely difficult for me, which I like. Meanwhile there are numerous goals along the way that can be tackled in whatever order I choose.

The game is lighthearted with a good sense of humor, and as Jam_Burglar said the playfield elements are tied expertly to the theme. Most of all, I love how the music escalates in tempo, number of instruments, and intensity the deeper into the game you get. I know some people hate on FM synthesis, but for my money WH2O has the best music in pinball (Chris Granner for President).

hated it, couldn't wait to get rid of it. made a profit, but one of the worst pin buys ever.

I have owned WH2O for exactly one year this week and I must admit I not very good at it. Shortest ball times of any machine I have played. I sometimes wonder if the gap between the flippers is wider because most balls end up draining sdtm. Love the lights, sounds and hitting those ramps but my scores are sooo low. I know...practice and play better.

I've always enjoyed the game. It's a strange case, though. It used to be hated and cheap and then one day it became loved and expensive.

I'm only an hour and 30 min from you. Come on by and play and then take it home

Love this game. Wish I would have bought one a few years ago, as I'm sure many would agree

Ryan's WH2O is extremely nice! Surprised it is still around!

That's my fault LOL. I have been out of town and haven't been doing much to sell it. I haven't listed it anywhere but here. Will do more this weekend hopefully

There is no way this pin should be higher than an Addams or twilight. It's suffering from the AFM effect,. It's a blast to play but it's not worth the purchase at the insane prices people are trying to sell it for right now.

I don't really think that it is a love it or hate it pin, because I'm kind of in the middle myself, but very much leaning towards the "like it a lot". It was my first pin, and it got me hooked on the hobby! I think the theme is excellent, and I really love all the sounds, including the call outs and music. The theme is FUN!

The whitewater ramp is great, especially when the ball hits the glass. Good strategy involved, including lining up 5x scoring with the Whitewater multi-ball for the big jackpots (and I love the way you have to hit the jackpots in the upper play field)

The pin can be frustrating though on several levels, including the Lost Mine kick out that can result in an immediate lost ball, and getting the "extra ball" shot usually results in a lost ball as well.

Still a fun pin overall, I do have good memories of it and wouldn't mind having it again...but I am surprised with the price climb.

Agree with the prior comment of this being a system 11 on steroids.

Nice. You will love it. It might take a little tweaking to get it playing well. I adjusted my flippers, especially the upper one, to make hitting Insanity Falls better. Also adjusted the Lost Mine kickout to not be a drain monster. Still does sometimes, but not 7 out of 10 anymore.

Insane prices? Do tell...

if it was a two grand game i'd like it a bunch more.

Best fix for the Lost Mine Kickout is to use a weaker coil. I put an AE-26-1200 into mine and it fixed the lost mine kickout quite nicely.

I had one briefly and traded it away. I miss it dearly and will be getting the same machine back almost 7 years later Hopefully soon.

Great game. Very challenging for seasoned players and easy enough for casual ones. It has one of the most interesting looking playfields to me. It has the most ramps of any game (7 right?) representing the rapids. I consider it a classic and top 10 ish pin overall.

Thanks,
Mike
www.HabosArcade.com

Really enjoyed it but don't miss it yet. I think I got frustrated at always having to get the rafts up the river - a bit too linear. Never got a VJ so maybe if I was a better player it would have been a keeper.

I had it for a very short time, I did not like it much, sound track was annoying to me. I know I am in the minority, but I think the are ALOT of other games that are WAY better for the same money

Great pin that has been in my collection 2 different times. Spent too much on Christmas gifts this year, so anyone around the Carolinas who wants a nice one (no cabinet fade, nice topper) will sell for $4500 OBO

+1 on the replacement kickout coil. Now it doesn't go flying across the playfield out of control and even bounces over to the left flipper for a shot at no way out.

I think the Whitewater playfield is a brilliant, fun design. What kills the game for me is the ruleset. It feels shallow, linear and incomplete to me. IMO, WH2O is the "Mario World" of pinball. There's basically one path in the game and it involves a lot of repetition. The game starts off really slow with uninteresting music and you have to progress through the different levels to ramp things up and make them more exciting -- but it takes a lot of time - and if you manage to get through it, everything just starts over. The game also suffers badly from not having an auto-plunger, so it's really frustrating to go through all the motions of starting multi-ball to have it immediately end because there's no way to implement ball save during multi-ball due to the game not having an auto plunger. I also think the bigfoot character's incorporation into the theme seems a bit clunky... the match animation, while amusing (of Bigfoot going bowling) has nothing to do with whitewater rafting. It just feels like a ton of time was put into designing a really great playfield but when it came time to put the software and ruleset in place, that was rushed.

I think WH2O is the #1 game that could really benefit from a ruleset upgrade. If I had time, I'd take a P-ROC and redesign that game, add an auto-plunger and implement an all new ruleset and I think it could be a lot better.

no ball save? oh no, you actually need to control the balls yourself?!?!?!?!

It's standard on all pinball machines now to have a ball save during the start of multi-ball. And on WH2O, because of the way the plunger works, it's possible to lose the ball SDTM without it ever hitting the flippers. The ball looks like it's going to the upper playfield but if you pull the plunger back too much it ends up looping around and can run straight through the flippers with no chance of controlling it. It's a poor design. On location, it must have infuriated new players who didn't expect the ball to drain 1 second later with no ball save.

Plus, the latest rom version (for home use only) has a ball save incorporated, but because there's no auto-plunger, it can't be used during multi-ball. It's a poor design that could be improved upon, making the game more fun to play, especially for newbies.

If the game is set correctly a full plunge will come down on the flipper, a "correct" plunge stays on the upper PF. I'm aware of the game, I have it. It's not poor design, its poor play. If you do overplunge and don't hit anything you get the ball back anyway in single ball. In MB, learn to make the skill shot. Plus if you screw up MB, it has a restart from no way out. No ball save needed for MB.

Its been years now but I still kick myself for not picking up one that was just down the road from me for 1000 bucks. When I recently got back into the hobby, I was pretty supprised to see the prices went up a bit more then I figured they would since its not really an A title. Or at least wasnt one when I came back to pins.

Want to drop a bombshell in multiplayer? Start 5x playfield, then multiball. That's 15 jackpots right off the bat if you can hit the initial Insanity Falls shot 3 times in a row coming off the VUK.

You do have control. If you lose control it's because of not plunging the ball correctly, I think not giving it a ball save says more about how well it was designed not how poorly it was.

My complaint is that the game is too easily beaten by repeatedly hitting the center shot. You can easily advance to class 6 rapids by lighting the inlanes over and over again.

I do think there is a lot more to this game than people give it credit for, Bigfoot hotfoot and goldfish are great modes and. It is prob all one of the nicest playfield packages mades just not a keeper in a small collection. IMO of course.