Who’s your Daddy! It only won Sterns first ever bracket sheet .Honestly even if your not a fan theyre music is made for pinball expecially the modes .When you pick a song stay away from the mode songs you’ll keep the music fresh .Just think, this is the modified homebrew of arguably the best player of all time .As a shooter his “Soul” is in it .Absolutiy my favorite pin I’ve ever played but I’m sure you can’t go wrong with any cornerstones the past 3 years .

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Iron Maiden

Star Wars Comic Prem

BKSOR second place

DEADPOOL

Winner: Elvira
Runners Up: Deadpool and Avengers IQ
Not in the running: Iron Maiden, Munsters(LOL) and Jurassic Park

Notable Nominations: TMNT, STh, Black Knight

Total sleeper pick. Nice call. Not sure it’s the best but it’s way better than people give it credit for.

EHoH & DP! But I admit SW and JP are on my wish list too.

I am not an IM music fan unfortunately - game is fun otherwise.

I like it (only refers to the Premium and LE editions...) a lot, but it doesn't trump Iron Maiden.

I own all three and they are all great. I prefer AIQ the most. I still play it the most and Ive picked up a G N R, TBL and LZ since it’s been released.
TMNT is probably the most brutal of all three and JP has the coolest mech of any recent Stern but the flow of AIQ and Captain Marvel ramp put it at the top of my list.

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IM and JP

Yep... tough choice to pick one. My advice would be to play them all and make your own mind up as we all love different things. If I had to pick one it would be Turtles! I like a game to be a little bit on the harder side. Short ball times for most of the time and occasionally one great ball that gives you a rush. Wood chopping is not me.

Iron Maiden

MMRoyal,Maiden and LZ just going by my keepers.

Not AIQ, IMO. Didn’t have lastability for me. Theme got old, code meh, call outs are lame, and every shot is a ramp which was cool at first, but also got old. Agree with you on LOTR, though. Here to stay.

Iron Maiden
Deadpool

I must be missing something when people think tmnt is a deep code. I’m not dissing the game but if you feel tmnt is a deep code then what do you think of elwins games or A Lyman sheets coded game? Those games are deeeeeeep code. Every Dwight Sullivan coded game I’ve played has felt very simple and basic.

BKSOR pro was my first LCD Stern. I love it, but I suspect that love is driven partially by my nostalgia for BK2000. For some reason I haven't played another modern game that has felt as intense to me, even though on paper it is probably one of the weakest modern Sterns. I'm guessing it is because the primary shots are center and close to the flippers. Sort of a ludicrous speed take on Cross Town. Cheers to the three people reading this thread who have played Cross Town.

Recently I tried to sell my TMNT to fund the purchase of an Iron Maiden. Somehow managed to get sellers remorse before I actually sold it and I am selling other games to fund Maiden.

Long story short: Maiden, TMNT and BKSOR are my three favorite "new" Sterns in that order, but those are the three I've spent the most time with, so I am clearly biased.

TMNT Pro:

This is biased because during the late 80s and early 90s I was around 8-10 years old. For a boy that age during that time, ninja turtles was the best thing on earth. The nostalgia of this game brings me back to those good times.

The artwork is the greatest, original theme music, the fast paced action, final battle multibal is a rushl, pizza mutltiball spinning disk... list goes on and on. My nephews are the same ages now that my brother and I were when we were into the turtles. Seeing how excited they are for the game really makes experience magical for the family.

This game for a pro is pretty loaded. I like to rotate games through my arcade (spare bedroom) but this one will not leave anytime soon.

EHOH, DP and BKSOR/AIQ. I don’t own all of these but these are my favorites.

To be perfectly honest they're all fun as hell. These are my personal favorites as of late

Stern Pinball's Batman '66 (Catwoman Edition) (2019)
All hail, Lyman F. Sheats Jr. software engineer and professionally-ranked pinball player.
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2.

3.

I guess I’d go DeadPool but after scrolling through this thread I realized....Stern has been on a hell of a run. Not every game is for me but it’s hard to deny they’re cranking out tons of fun games.

Had an BK LE for a few weeks. Its fun, but gets old quick. But this is just my opinion. Not much depth, too linear. Art is cool, callouts are amazing, mechs are awesome, just not much lastbility. Maybe with a bigger collection it would be fine. With a smaller collection it wears out quick, feels like groundhog day. Everything is too close up front with the exception of the upper playfield, thats pretty cool.

Deadpool

All the recent Sterns are fun to play but probably have “bare PFs” as you so crassly say, so I hope you enjoy hopscotch brother.

Then wait for BTTF.

Metallic or TWD might be more your speed.

Weird, BKSOR is one of those games that I vastly prefer the Pro model.

Probably Deadpool, tough choice.

JP then BM66

Iron Maiden, where everything is connected and amazing, from Keith Elwin design, the code, the modes , múltiballs, wizard mode, the sound,the unique call outs, the art package from pro to Le. Also an amazing pin from a pro player perspective to a weekend home use only player.
IMO, there are pinball machines before Iron Maiden and pinball machines after Iron Maiden. It’s the benchmark of the evolution of pinball.

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I like four Sterns above the rest from past the past three years. They are all tightly packed together on list, so IMDN is not preferred much more than EHOH. For a mere $27k, you can own them all.

IMDN (pro) > JP2 (premium) > DP (pro) > EHOH (premium)

That’s one of the main reasons I love BKSoR. I always feel like I’m in a real battle when playing. It’s intense and when you lock into a long play it is really satisfying. I saw someone in the thread say it might get old. I will say that I’ve played it on location a lot and the music will definitely get old.

I’ve thought about picking one up but I haven’t seen one for sale in my area for quite awhile.

Irion Maiden but JP in a close second. The game just shoots too well even if your not into their music. Stern really needed Keith Elwin’s creativity to get them out of the fan layout rut they were in.

Tmnt pro

You seem a lot like me in that your approach to the games. BKSOR is more like a game from the 90's. It is not the "Quest" type experience that are EHOH and BM66. Those two games are of a simpler play field design but the code depth is magnificent. It seemed to me in both games, as long as you did not clunk your shot, something scored/happened. Every time you play either EHOH or BM66 one can see something new, which I can see being a top vote getter in this thread. I am not a good player ,but both games seemed to have very long ball times that led to pretty long games. Necessary to see all the fantastic code

JP,DP, IMDN AIQ have some of the freshest play field designs in pinball. The amount of individual achievable shots available off the flippers on each of these games is very impressive especially considering they are standard width games. The play field design on each game is top notch. I can see why each would be a top vote getter by any one. I presently have an AIQ pro which is a hell of a package for a pro. I am very impressed with the play field design, light show , art , sounds, use of shaker as well. I got to admit on this game, I really have no idea how I score some times. The code is very intricate and confusing to me. I need to read a good right up on the rules that goes beyond the basics of the game. I am sure that will be fun .

BKSOR prem is just as you described. It is a keeper for me because it is more of a game than a "quest". It has great sounds / special effects/art/ excellent shaker utilization. I am presently up grading the sound system to pin woofer and the "fun" factor is going up as well. You have to aim your shots to advance which I am seeing I favor overshoot anything at any time. No it does not have the code depth of any of the above and that can easily see down marks for most people, but for me, those games do not for the most part stay in the collection ( there are exceptions like LOTR/Hobbit and Pirates).

Star Wars Comic Prem is the top vote getter for me as it has the total package. Speed , intensity, great sound, great use of the shaker, modes that are very unique , and great toys. The comic art puts it far better than the photo shop art of the Stern original a few years prior. It would be the last game to leave my collection.

As some one mentioned , Stern has put out a lot of great pins over the last several years as can be seen by the Pinside top ten. Great code and great designs.

Maiden

Deadpool

BKSOR (premium or LE, I don’t like the pro)

I have an avengers in my rental fleet, but I haven’t put in enough time on it.

Jurassic is cool, but it doesn’t crack my top three (it would be 4th). Great layout, but the music is so boring.

Have a turtles, and I like it, but it’s just not a top three IMO.

Haven’t put enough time on stranger things but I like that one too. Never played a zeppelin but the pf just looks like a music poster with nothing on it lol.

Every ehoh I’ve payed has been broken when I played it, so eh. And I wasn’t a fan at all of bdk, so I haven’t cozied up to BM66.... I need time on it with the newer code.

Least favorite: Star Wars.

Mike

Favorite Stern in last 3 years is JP hands down. Lots of memorable and exciting moments in the game
After that (and tossing the 3 year rule) I'd pick Star Trek as my favorite Stern in my collection
Honorable mention goes to Spiderman VE (call-outs notwithstanding)

I wish you had set up a poll. So many opinions has me wondering which game is on top.

My top game is Maiden. It's a solid game and if you like the music it makes it a great game.

SW comic premium.

Stern needs to do one more SW comic Prem run!

I agree I would also like to see a poll .There are many excellent games being mentioned here.

I agree.

Jurassic Park premium is by far their best game ever!

Deadpool

Stranger Things LE - My favorite pin out of 30+ pins

The Walking Dead #2