What is your least favorite Stern pin from the past decade or so?

GB pro, then GB LE, then GB Prem

Led Zeppelin: so very disappointed with how sparse the whole game is.

Wrestlemania: not sure I understand what you want me to do with this.

BM66: I understand what to do and I don't want to do it for an hour.

That being said, I'll drop quarters in any of these games here and there.

3-way tie for me:
• Munsters
• WWE
• Avatar

WWE by a mile.

Yeah..WWE does kinda blow.

But I love WOF so what do I know?

WWE
BKSOR
GB

There’s gonna be a lot of WWE and Munsters hate incoming in this thread, but I’ll go another route.

As a fairly huge fan of the traveling circus that is KISS (seen them over 20 times since 96, with another 2-3 to go with my kiddo) it’s such an inferior version of Aerosmith, it hurts… but I also saw KISS open for Aerosmith twice in the mid-2000s so maybe it was meant to be.

Aerosmith is better in toys, layout (slightly), animations (I know many hate AS animations, but look at KISS dots), skill shot (1 vs 0), and upgrades for the Prem/LE (while still having a far better Pro).

The major thing holding them both down is the lazy “shoot a random number of different color shots… because POINTS, and nothing to do with theme or shots” code. But in this instance, KISS sucks compared to AS in every other instance but is equally boring in code.

WWE and the Munsters stand out as disappointments.

My crystal ball is super polished today.

OMG, I was having so much fun looking over the list of modern Sterns and remembering some really rotten games. Didn’t realize I so strongly disliked the following, I’ve developed an internal program that refuses to allow me to play any, ever again. You can stick bamboo under my fingernails and I won’t crack. I noticed there was usually a bad one every year and that Stern didn’t seem capable of predicting which titles would sell and which wouldn’t. Your mileage will vary. This exercise revealed I’m a pinball snob.

Worst Stern of the Year (there so frickin many of them)
2007 WOF
2008 IJ & CSI
2009 NBA
2010 BBH & Avatar
2011 XFRMRS
2012 Avengers
2015 WWE & WNBJM
2016 GB
2019 Munsters
2020 TMNT & LZ

WWE was horrible, but I just assumed it would be; because wrastlin'.

Mustang, WWE and Ghostbusters.

Of the ones I've played, GoTG or Munsters.

I don't like the shots, I have no issue with the code or art. If I don't like shooting a pin, all the code in the world won't help me enjoy it.

WWE
Munsters
BKSOR premium/LE
LZ Pro

When did they make Monopoly? Haha. That one.

20 years ago, close enough. It has some nice shots but overall a stinker indeed.

Code wasn't the real issue for me.
I have played it since but not a ton; but of course I actively avoid it now.

Beatles

Are we excluding the home pins?

I think you can click add a poll to this now that you made it

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I haven't played all titles, but WOF was the worst.

Munsters
I never played a game we’re the ball bounce around more then in rolled

Rolling Stones

Mustang, Monopoly and GotG are my least favorites, but I'll still play them every now and again. I love JP, but I also don't play it a lot at arcades because it's the kind of deep, brutal machine you need to play over and over in a home environment. Underdog Sterns I can't help but dig for some reason: Indiana Jones, Family Guy and Roller Coaster Tycoon. I have more fun with those than some of the top titles.

Turtles is horrible; i also have no time for GOTG or Star Wars

I own GB and LZ premiums so you’d expect me to be supportive of them, but both are genuinely great. I have not stopped playing LZ since I got it in April

Guardians of the Galaxy was too complicated off the bat for me to play and I was confused and bored before the game was over. It’s the worst one I’ve played.

Game of thrones. Good show, snoozefest pin.

Tried to like it but couldn't. Boring fan layout, no fun toys and a bland mini playfield obstructing like half of the regular playfield. Also the DMD animations are ugly and look like a blob of red puke. Pile of crap game imo.

Munsters! I was hopping for a NIB alternative to TAF. Not sure what I got. So much potential as a theme.

Stranger Things for me, I love the show and was super let down.

Joe
(AceJedi)

Well Whoa Nellie, Pabst and Primus are a given, then Rolling Stones, Wrestling and Kiss and The Beatles. Mostly due to theme. I mean I can have fun playing almost any pin. With the exception of EM's of course.

Aerosmith and Avengers Infinity Quest. Fight me... Actually, anything from Elwin. I'm not a fan of Jurassic Park (the new one, old one was awesome) or Iron Maiden either.

To me disappointing means it let me down.

WWE was always going to be meh. If anything it surpassed expectations.

Same with Mustang.

Disappointing:

- Deadpool head and shoulders above everything else. And I don’t know exactly why. I just couldn’t stand it after a week or so. Every game just ended being the same.

- Munsters was great on so many levels- theme, art and layout were brilliant (no hyperbole - just fact). Code was the huge disappointment and killed an otherwise brilliant game. Such a shame.

- Ghostbusters - probably combine both reasons above.

Wow. I was literally writing that all those games surprised me on the upside. Especially Aerosmith. Had no expectations at all, and miss it.

You can edit the first post and add a poll or change the title.

I’ve not played WWE yet.

I’m voting the the new games

Mando (why doesn’t it move?). I’m not that impressed with the gameplay especially the upper PF (pro).

Led Zep (tell me you are phoning it in without telling me you are phoning it in).

AIQ (it’s complicated).

GB... waste of the one of the best licenses ever (and yes I had one on loan for a while so its not like I didnt play it)

Poor design and code "fixed" by adding 150 ball saves for all the BS drains.

Did a great job on the art but thats about it.

Hated DP and Stranger Things at first but like them now after playing more. Loved GB at first but then grew to hate it after many plays. Tried to give it another chance a little while ago but nope.

I think the design was ok, but nothing short of a center post was ever going to fix that flipper gap. The captive balls were also at a bad angle and the rules for them were far too difficult (regarding playfield x). GB also had non adjustable ladder difficulty which I really disliked.

Rob

BKSOR

IJ. What a snooze fest. Waste of one of the greatest licenses ever. Only 100% working game that I ever walked away from mid game. Every time I see it (which thankfully is rare) I play it again to make sure I didn’t miss anything … but nope.

It’s not that bad imo.

Did you know someone modified the code to play the old IJ rules?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/indiana-jones-software-rewrite-the-journey

Rose scented turds are still turds,Ghostbusturds is the king of turds.id rather have a Rogo if prices are the same.

Have only played the Pro for a short time but would be LZ for me. Its just so bare in the middle and I didnt find it that fun to shoot. But of course i have had initial feelings like that about pins and later came around. Like SW. i love SW and initially did not.

The actual pinball part of Iron Maiden was kinda neat. I absolutely hated the music and the Eddie theme stuff.

There was some Spiderman game that I played and hated. Maybe it was just the machine I was on, but it seemed really dark and not fun at all.

I may be in the minority but I actually enjoy all of the Stern machines. My least favorite is WWE, but all of the Stern games are like a fine wine and tend to get better with age. Ghostbusters is in my top 5-great game(super packed), WOF-awesome!, BKSOR-great!, 24/CSI-Yes!, IJ-Classic!, Led Zeppelin while bare is actually one of the best layouts ever and allows for monster flow(the geometry with ramps & combos is epic!). Beatles-bring it on!, Star Wars Home Edition-Fun!

A lot of shit pins released the last couple of years with the exception of Deadpool, Iron Maiden and BKSOR. My vote for king of the turds is The Munsters.