I am still hugely disappointed Smaug does do nothing besides talking.

I was so hyped on a Smaug with wings, claws, his head and tail, all over the top half playfield, moving and all had their own interaction with the ball.

Nothing of that.

Only drops are left to shoot for.

Still a very fun pin i think, but could be many times better.

Popeye.

IJ4

Doesn't feel that way when I'm playing it. It's the most-played pin in my house. Three months in, and the honeymoon ain't over.

Now...if you're talking about the technical problems, then yeah...it blows.

Nearly everything Lawlor has done since B/W.

Hugely disappointed becuase I loved nearly EVERY game he did prior.

I really hope he's found his mojo, becuase he hasn't made a great game since the turn of the century.

FGY is super cool. The mini playfield is a phenomenal toy. The game is wanting in the artwork department...

For me it's a tie between Pirates and IJ4.

Judging by the overall Pinside response it would have to be SMVE.

Wwe was not disappointing because no one expected anything in the first place. (Game could be great with good code).

I'm going to go with TF.

SWE1. Owned it for awhile... It made me sad.

I would probably go with Striker Extreme or High Roller Casino for the win. I find IJ4 is pretty good, love the ark multi ball. Kiss on the other hand seems strange why you would mount a spinning disk that is concealed under a huge Gene Simmons head. I wouldn't mind Kiss but I think the hidden disk and sdtm ejects along with the code are a missed opportunity.

Baring Tron, anything with "pro" in the title.

Its not a horrible playing pin but this thread isn't about if its fun or not ..... its about disappointments and what pins could of been something special. G.o.t could of been much much better considering the theme/content they had to work with, especially after 2 years of development as it dont really do a great job representing the show imo. I know many people that were on board to buy it but canceled because it just doesn't represent the g.o.t world . You can look back on the threads and see a huge amount of disappointment following the release. I guess any pin that comes out seems to have some kind of let down bc peoples expectations are way to high these days lol. Also avengers, tf , xmen and rolling Stones could of been much better with just a few changes . All pins are fun and have something great to offer but it takes alot to make a pin special and stand the test of time .

This is how I read it too. To be really disappointing a pin must be based on a big licence with huge expectations (Star wars for example... would not count Popeye in the list for example) or a long gone designer going back to the Hobby after decades.

Each pin that Stern releases without upgraded display (at least color for christsakes!) is increasing my disappointment exponentially.

WOZ for me. It was my favorite movie as a kid, and I really wanted to like the pin, but I just didn't...at all.

One mans trash is another mans treasure, reading through the posts avatar an mustang have been mentioned a few times, an there the only 2 games on my Wishlist, I think there really awsome games..

Stern KISS and transformers.....Also, is it just me or does the new MM remake feel like a stern?

Having only been back into the hobby for six years, I would say the most disappointing game for me after seeing the hype on it's release was Stern's Rolling Stones. I loved the music tracks playing through the game, (although you couldn't select them) but the gameplay felt really poor with the 'Mick on a stick' feeling like an afterthought.

Seeing what Stern did with AC/DC a couple of years later, that was how RS should have been.

I'm wondering how nobody has said Hurricane yet (alright a little bit of a stretch at 24 years but I think still valid). Comet and Cyclone were fantastic games. It seems to be though in games that come in trios (think Jackbot here) the 3rd game seems doomed to failure or to be unloved like the preceeding 2. Hurricane is a good theme, but ultimately the code is very underutilised (Not sure if Williams just wern't sure what they were doing to best use the new DMD technology being only the 3rd game manufactured by them to have one) with not a huge amount to do. The music is awful and the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. The only things I sort of like is the spinning backglass for the random award and the big ramp that goes right round the edge of the playfield (although like the spinning backglass this gets old very quickly). I think it would be much better with a code re-write.

This is a game that features on a list of 'I could happily site this and watch it get trashed by the public' game for me.

All the pins I could not afford to buy ...

Baring that, WoZ. So much expectation, high hopes (you won't need cliffy's! built like a tank! We won't ship pins without complete code!) and after a week it was a big 'meh' for me.

Has to be The Dark Knight. A mediocre game based on one of the best movies ever made, and the playfield is dominated by a toy that has nothing to do with Batman!!!???

True, but if that's the standard for this thread, then every machine is a disappointment. Pinside is known for building up a machine into something almost God-like, then bitching relentlessly when it's released.

Disappointing as our criteria can have many different interpretations, which is why we're seeing so many different games listed here and why everyone is correct for various reasons. We could probably agree on some games if we categorized some of the reasons for our disappointment.

- IJ4 has been listed a lot, but I seem to recall reading that it's a monster earner on route, so maybe it's disappointing to home owners but not operators (if it really is an earner, providing my assumption isn't wrong)
- Some games get bumpy starts and improve. I bought X-Men LE NIB and now loath the game due to what I went through. However, the code ended up improved and now it's a popular game and some folks' favorite game. Likewise, the code roadblocks in T/F (Optimus) and Avengers (B/W Ramp) were fixed far too long after the games were released, which improved those games a little bit, though very late and after much damage was done to the games' fun reputation.
- Some games don't seem to match the theme as well as passionate fans would like. I concur with GoT missing that mark in my mind and 24 not clicking as well. These kinds of games don't give the immersion that rabid fans were hoping for. Maybe expectations were impossible, but it still leads to disappointment for some.
- Then there's the flawed games that are probably beyond rescue for various reasons (code abandoned, WTF questions about game mechanisms, etc), though every game and theme has its fans. WoF, BDK (WTF on that joker canister), WWE, and RS come to mind in this category. I own Tron and love the game, however, the poorly engineered (flawed) GEM shot could have sunk Tron. As it turns out, the outstanding light/sound package and the accidentally difficult GEM shot in an otherwise shallow set of modes somehow combined to make it an awesome game.
- Perhaps a category could be blown expectations or something along those lines and end up in the extremes of being well liked or heavily disliked. SMVE had a disappointing price. GoT was supposedly in development for two years and some people think it missed the mark, despite being apparently fun to play. Some people are disappointed in ST for various reasons, some say chopping wood game play, or redux layout, etc.

Monopoly was also listed a lot, but I haven't played it so I'm not sure where it would fit in the big scheme of things.

IJ4 fer certain.

The bigger the theme, the harder to live up to it. LOTR does a great job of integrating the theme and delivering a deep and and enjoyable ruleset, so I tend to look at other big themes to see if they live up to that, and note often then not, they don't. There are clearly pins designed before a theme is selected and those invariably disappoint. Often when I look at a really crappy theme implementation I wonder if that was the case. Seems that Stern goes into some pins with the plan to take the time to hopefully make it a great game, others are wham, bam thank you ma'am -- lets get it on the line

The new star trek was disappointing, since it seemed more like an updated version of STTNG rather than something new and innovative. Considering that 20 years have past since STTNG I was expecting more. The dots seemed more like a step back from the original.

I think the two Pin2K games are disappointments, but given they were the first on that platform, not a surprise. The playfield were just way, way too vanilla. Would have been interesting to see where they would have taken that platform as they got more comfortable with the technology.

Thrones is great. Don't understand how anybody could be dissapointed by that.

Really? I recall some early whining about the artwork reveal, but once people played it (Expo reveal & beyond) the tide quickly turned and there were instantly multiple threads about how much GOT kicks ass. You're entitled not to like it, but lets keep it real here.

i agree it's a great game, but i think expectations were through the roof. I got pretty excited, for some reason expecting something grand and epic to match the scale of the show, but the end product is what we probably should have been expecting all along. It's more or less a typical (above average) Steve Ritchie Stern: great rules, great flow, lots of fun, but mechanically it's stripped down, and has poor playfield art.

in terms of "disappointment" i wouldn't put it at the top of the list. i can kind of see the argument, but only in relation to the hyperbolic -- and in retrospect unjustified -- expectations of a lot of people, including myself. oh well. it's still a very good game!

TWD...great license that was used only to promote the channel the show airs on. No call outs from the show, it might be an OK game but it is DEFINITELY a disappointment.

yeah, its not a bad game but the theme integration with the art / code / dots just sucks donkey
i was gonna buy my first NIB with this one on theme alone but passed upon reveal

Champion Pub. I can't believe the prices that turd is going for these days - I had three or four NOS playfields for it because they were *giving them away at Expo*.

Anything made by Stern ... Just kidding ....

I think if you look through the tread at least one person or another hates every machine that has been made in the last 20 years.
I'd play them all. Some are better than others and some are just not great but its still pinball. Better than having lumps of coal for toys.

First World Problems.

For me it was GOT. There's not a big sample size there but it was the first pin I was anxiously awaiting the reveal. I just got into pinball last spring and Kiss didn't do anything for me but I love the GOT show. So I was expecting some great looking art on this thing with the show having great art direction. After becoming familiar with recent Sterns it was expected what it would like which made SMVE's reveal not surprising. The game turned out very fun but I would never buy one unless it was really cheap (who doesn't like cheap pinball). I thought it was going to be my first NIB but I was soured on it after the reveal.

Avengers

WoZ for me...was so excited for it. Pre-ordered an LE. Paid it up...waited and waited and waited and waited for it.

Played it at a show and just did not care for it at all. Did not like the geometry of the shots or feel of game play. Slow and uninspiring -- and was very disappointed in the GI lighting situation.

Gorgeous game...but they need to be fun to play and shoot too.

Such an epic let down.

Sold my game and bought an AC/DC Premium instead -- which totally 110% delivers in terms of fun pinball action.

I did not like that either...but it is moot now with the various sound package hacks out there you can easily install.

My favorite is Milhouse's version. It is amazing and takes the game to a new level. With this and the recent update -- TWD is now a totally amazing machine in my view. It has earned what will probably be a permanent position in my game room...which is not an easy thing to do for me.

People say games like wwf, but we knew they would be bad, for me it was GOT, gameplay is good, and I really enjoy the show but its so bland and ugly I wouldnt want it..

RBION and FGY say otherwise.

Judge dredd. People talked how deep and cool and misunderstood it was. Could not wait to get rid of that turd. Huge disappointment.

Sounds more like a personal opinion, or you just didn't understand the game? Hey, at least it looks better and plays better than GOT

Any STERN. Just pic one.

Call outs from the show would have put TWD over the top. It would have been great to hear the Governor, Rick, Daryl, and others yell at you or taunt you. There's no question, TWD without show call outs is a disappointment.

Nah. This thread is about disappointment.

With Stern's multiple game/year schedule and typical BOMs I expect their games will be fast and fun but somewhat minimal in the mech/toy department and lacking polish in other areas (display, sound, etc..). I also expect the artwork and software to be hit or miss.

Since they usually meet these expectations (IMO), there's not a lot of disappointment.

Yes you are correct

"Stay out of trouble"

I guess if you're talking pure disappointment, there's Popeye. It essentially destroyed Williams Pinball.

The Avengers for sure. Such a great theme, but the geometry of the table was off, it was cheaply built, and I sold my beautiful HUO LOTR to buy it...if I ever get a time machine I'm going back in time to reverse that one!!!

Wow, so many to choose from, Stern is more relevant because they're still in business: IMO probably WWE, Avengers, then Transformers. I also agree that we were all pumped about ST and GoT, man what a let down all around with those games. So many bad older Sterns too: High Roller Casino, Wheel of Fortune, Rollercoaster Tycoon etc..etc.

Worst Bally/Williams design: Bugs Bunny Birthday Ball and Popeye.

Bring on the downvotes!!!
Tron legacy!!!,i never played it and paid a driver to pick it up for me.
When i played my first game i could not believe how horrible it was..
It sucked so bad, i could not believe it was a pinball machine.
I hate the stupid cave thingy that holds your ball for a while( i still dont know what that is,your ball spins around in it and then it comes out).
Stupid machine, nothing happened and the led's nearly made it impossible to keep track of the ball.
Epileptic pile of crap, that is what it is.
I played 5 games and put it up for sale the same night,had a hard time selling it,took a huge loss on it.

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This mirrors my sentiments exactly. Waited forever, had numerous issues with it when I finally got the machine and I don't really like playing it. I keep it for my daughter. I did get an AC/DC premium six months later and I play it almost every day.