Its NOT !

Great fan layout. Best ever is up for debate. It is a solid title. You must like simple straight forward rules. Not very deep but the theme and exploding castle along with pop up trolls just makes it fun for me.

That said I always state I love my AFM and it sees more play.

Honestly, I love the rules in MM. It is straight forward and easy to understand. The rules are very much like AFM, but it seems to have a bit more depth and would be a tougher game to beat. I guess you can pigeon hole me as a fan of Lyman's rules. I really like MM, AFM, MB and SM.

I am not a fan of games that are hard to understand. I'll take a game with a nice layout and understandable rules over "depth" every time.

They are not really basic as much as easy to understand what is needed.
draw bridge hits open bridge portcullis hits raise gate to allow castle destruction.
The number of hits grows with the castle number all the way through king of paine.
Catupult scores bonus once all objects collected it lights in front of merlin mode start hole.
Same is true for orbits and each ramp.
Light merlin with 3 standing targets on right.
Light trolls with 2 standing targets on either side of castle gate.
If something is lit at merlin then it gives you a multiball the more that is lit the more multiball it gives you. (stacking)
Light fire in outlanes to get video mode. (this too increases each time you make it in the same game)

Is this what you were looking for?

It's fun to play, great flow, it's beautiful, funny & I like it!

Like a few that mentioned above, rules are simple, straight forward and the rewards happen oftenly than few. If you didn't no how to play pinball, you could just bash the castle over and over which ultimately ends with one of the best entertaining mechanical toys ever built to be destroyed before your eyes. By far my lady and daughter say it's their favorite pin from my entire line up and it's the only game I did not put LED's in, go figure. As for pinball experts, I think they appreciate the code, callouts, layout, artwork, humor and moving parts. It's an easier game as most would say, but complete and still very satisfying to play.

MM has a high entertaining element, which is part of the success. The deep part of the rules may only matter if you're a very good player. As a mediocre player I've never managed so far to get Barnyard Multiball, or defeat the King. So to me it wouldn't matter if the game has 10 more levels of deeper rules, the chances I'll ever see them are slim. What matters more to me is that the game is fun to play even for an average player like me. I think it does a great job at that. Easy to understand, difficult to master (again, for a player like me). I think that's part of why the game stands out, even today.

One of the biggest reasons I like MM is because the scoring is balanced. It's a great competitive game.

I prefer LOTR over MM. I'm happy that I do because I would rather not spend as much as people have been asking for them. I do however believe the art and toys in MM are in the top 10 and better then my favorite game LOTR.

If you've played AFM or LOTR, you have already played MM.

A lot of the people that bought MMr, who have never played a MM, are in for some $8K disappointment.

Especially, since everybody thinks that it's the "best pin ever!"

I own one, it's NOT!!!!

I can tell you why its #1 on pinside rankings. The game is strong in every category even if its not somebody's favorite. Great art, theme, sounds, toys, flow you name it. If someone on here rates it without bias it should probably be #1 in rankings just because it's so well rounded. LOTR is IMHO the best playing game ever but MM beats it in several other categories if even just by a little.

It's just so much fun for every kind of player of every kind of skillset. Is it the best at one particular thing? Probably not. But it is pretty darn good at multiple things. Hence, many people love it, many people really like it, very few do not like it, and honestly I haven't met anyone who thinks it sucks. Plus its pretty rare. Would pins like Addams Family or Twilight Zone be as highly regarded if there were only 4K of them instead of 15K+? Would MM be less highly regarded if there were a bunch more? Who knows.

I have played AFM and MM many times, I do not consider them the same as LOTR. I prefer LOTR on its own merit.

AFM, MM, LOTR are all great pins. All are worth owning at some point in time if possible. There is no disappointment in owning any or all of these.

MM's popularity and rating is a mix of emotional investment and acknowledgement by pinball players that it is a great game.

In relation to more casual players or even beginners, it probably isnt even in the top 50 or even 100.

I bought heavy on MM in 97. Bought 5 from the dist. and 2 more from ops later on. That was a time when I had lots of locations and a storefront to sell used equipment. MM was a game that sold itself in the store very easily. It sold new in the 3695 range. We would operate a 2-3 years and sell for 4500 to home. Wish all titles were this way.

I had a movie theatre that had a wcs in it doing maybe 30-40 per week. The location wasn't a pinball spot as the gun games and driver did exceptionally well. Heck even the 6 slot sticker machine made as much as a driver at that location! We figured on trying a MM in the spot. Right away it did great and continued to do so. The employees were addicted. Funny thing is the location NEVER called on a game being broke. We just would drop in weekly and clear coin jams etc. But when MM was installed and a troll switch was bad the employees were on the phone right away upset! The MM did 140+ per week for a long time!
MM is a game that played a couple times by non pinball people will pull them in for more. In addition its pretty reliable and easy to maintain.
Im speaking from years past as I don't operate much anymore so I don't know what a MM would earn in todays locations but I imagine if set up at $1 per play in the right spot it would do well.

I like the arrow sound.

I like it because of the call outs and the game play. I like fan style layouts (MM, MB, T2). I hate playfield targets in the middle so close to the filppers (Fishtales). I like comedy in my pins. I would say its the best but I enjoy MB and TAF more.

Universal appeal.

Good point to bring up. An operator asked me about MMr and whether he should buy the game. I think the simple reasoning that if MMr will play as good as the original it is likely to make money on location easily sold a few games. MM has been a good earner for them and if it comes down to choosing between a beat up game one or a new one for the same price (plus taking in account the time they can operate it) made it a no brainer.

I see this kind of statement all the time and it makes no sense. You have not played MM if you've played AFM or LOTR. The layouts may be similar but the games are different.

You might as well say that FH, Whirlwind, Earthshaker, Tron, Jurassic Park are all the same and if you've played one, you've played them all. There's only so much you can do with a 2 flipper layout or a 3 flipper layout and everything is a variation on the first one.

Every game has fans and others who don't think its that great. All you can do is figure out what type of game appeals to you and seek those out.

I disagree, it is 'one of the best pins every built', as voted for on the very forum. It may not be for you or maybe me, but;

This is born out by it being rated around the globe by folks from all different walks of life along with voting for many other pins, but MM being rated in the top 2 and at present #1!

That said any of the top 5 or even 10 pins can be classified as 'one of the best pins every built'.

So it IS 'one of the best pins every built'.

I think that the interactive castle is a huge draw to the game and combined with having to destroy castles it makes the game addicting. There's a lot of toys in pinball but I can only think of a few that interact with the ball in several different ways like MM.

Sometimes it not all about rules, MM and the like (AFM, MB to name a few) its about fun fun fun.

MM is great at this, its pythonesque humour, the fast fan layout, the theme and art, what's not to like?

Would I have one as an only machine? I highly doubt it, but as part of a collection (and money not being an issue) sure, would love one.

I ruleset does not have to be deep for a game to be enjoyable. I love Champion Pub and in my opinion, the rules are very shallow. The one thing that I love about MM is the theme and the humor. I can not say if it is one of the best games out there, but I can say that I wouldn't mind owning one some day and adding it to the lineup of games that I already own which may or may not be the best games out there.

It gets old after awhile.

Doesn't every game?

Very true. I have to step away from my games for a while. Then when I go back to them they seem all new again. Except for Stargate. I could play that machine 24/7.

Kind of like its fans... I was about half the age I am now when I first played MM and fell in love. If I want to own one what the heck, I may as well throw down for a remake

Very fun/funny theme and audio/visual package but gameplay snoozer, IMO. Shoot ramps over and over again, try not to hit merlin hole before you have all four ramp/orbit madnesses lit, then cash it and hope for troll madness reward and shoot castle repeatedly during multiball. Rinse/repeat...

Quick, someone tell PPS they picked the wrong title to re-make.

If we hurry they may change their minds and tool-up for popeye... We can but hope

I think it's a combination of things which makes it so hard to nail it down. The medieval type of theme does well as a starter. It's got three really cool toys: castle, trolls, and catapult, which is more than 95% of other games IMHO. But the real winner might be the humorous adaptation. We all need more humor in our lives and I find that when I play it I'm more relaxed than other games. So, in that regard, it's non-serious, thus non-threatening, and it has a high "one more time" quality about it.

I don't know about best, I'm not a huge fan of wpc95's as they all suffer from being much more shallow all in all than the previous wpc's. As others mentioned, its fast, fun, funny, looks great, it's a fun machine, no doubt, but I don't think it would crack the top ten for me personally. I don't have it. I have AFM and enjoy that more, and have MB, and enjoy that less than MM, but I don't think any of them are true top tens.

Casual players don't have a top anything. They're casual about playing. But I don't agree even with the spirit of what you're trying to say. In my experience, non pinheads really love MM. The art is cool, the audio is great, the theme is generic and universal enough that you don't have to be a fan of (some specific thing) to "get it". It's got a great interactive toy that even novice players can make do things.

I've had pins for the entirety of my children's lives. Neither one of them has really gotten very 'into' pinball, but after the first time the my 8 year old daughter played MM at a friends house she declared that it was a great game and we should get one of those (this is when they still cost $15k+).

And I've heard similar tales from several other people that put MM into a 'gateway game' kind of role.

So the short version of what I'm saying is, IF casual players actually had a ranked list - IMHO MM would be all over the top of it. Based on my experience.

I'm on the MMRLE list. I have to admit, that IF I do go through with it, it'll basically be a pin for my kids and wife.

I've played it a few times over the last few months and it's ok. I personally like AFM much better. I think it is a lot like chopping wood. Get the ball to the right flipper and bash the castle over and over. At least that's the safest play on the one I've played to eliminate SDTM drains. I don't worry about flow typically, but MM is a tough one in that dept. The trolls piss me off. My kids love when they appear though.

I totally get why people like it. I've been playing the hell out of MM on the Farsight app to convince myself it's a great game.

Our experiences vary. I've always found that the non pinheads (good term, thanks!) prefer games they can understand without being told what to do. Things which are easy access is probably a better way of looking at it.

A rather weird example was when I was a university. A twilight zone sat next to a phantom of the opera. Two machines at the opposite end of the complexity spectrum. The pinball players played both, the rest played phantom.

" They stole our Pinball Machines"
"They took our wives!"
"I am howard hurts who da beep are you."
"I´m Howard Hurtz, and I´m gonna put the hurt on you!"
"I will boil you in oil, and wrap your feet in cabbage!"

EPIC Classic!

Phantom has a big thing in the upper right that opens up after you hit it a few times. TZ is a dense mass that you can bang the ball around in for an extended period of time and not really get any obvious physical feedback like that.

The "large obvious moving thing" is a great hook for non pinheads. Ringmaster, AFM Saucer, Castle in MM, etc. If you've got a big obvious target, and smashing it with the ball a few times does something, the casual player is much more engaged. Even more so if it interacts with the ball well.

Wait, what's this thread about? Oh yeah, MM is the coolest because: reasons.

It's a great pinball machine, but I have 25 that I like better.

Maybe not #1 but, certainly top 5. I feel TZ and STTNG are better personally. I'd say third place maybe with LOTR in a deadlock for the 3rd spot and with MB fighting TOTAN for the fifth spot. I do have a pre-order in for MMR and it’s definitely one I have wanted for a while. The price is a little steep for comfort but, at least with the MMR you’re getting a brand new pin, so the extra bucks are giving you something in that fact.

Why is it a top five pin? Theme-flow-toys-humor-art-rules-callouts It does very well in every category though it may not be the best in anyone specifically. Since it does not miss in any category (where most games do somewhere), it just plays with a certain harmony that makes it a great pin.

To me, AFM, MM, and Monster Bash are all like siblings. At a glance they are all the same game, but they do all have differences. Of the three, I think I would call Bash the shallowest and probably the hardest, but I personally don't find any of the three to be all that 'deep' or 'complex'. What they are is a true measure of skill in terms of making or NOT making shots.

Ignoring the obligatory 'lock 3 balls for MB' - All three depend on making very simple repeated shots to start things, and doing so across the entire playfield. Then each game has a reason or method for when to activate/cash in you work: MB has multiball that stops mode timers, AFM has a 1 billion point hurry up for completing the shots properly, MM has Multiball Madness for completed shots. These all require shots be built up and executed in one fell swoop which is very difficult, but it's not at all complicated. To me it would be akin to calling Metallica deep because ultimately you want Coffin MB, then stack another MB, Fuel, 4x scoring, Seek and Destroy... is it hard to do? yes. Is it 'deep'? Not really - I just described it in one sentence. AFM, MM, and MB extend the depth a bit by having wizard modes to achieve but the overall scoring strategy remains relatively unchainged until the mode is in reach.

I can appreciate these games for what they are, but they are not at all my favorites. I find they do blend together over time in terms of play, callouts, strategy, etc. and they don't quite do it for me. Of the three, I would say AFM is my fav, but MM has the best humor. Monster Bash is borderline disliked by myself due to theme - I hate all the horror themes by default with the exception of maybe BSD.

I'm really hoping Metallica doesn't follow suit with these three games in terms of play style - the layout is eerily similar, but the existing software (specifically Seek and Destroy) seems to indicate a departure from this in some ways.

Why? Mostly hype and the high cost of the game make people want it. Most people are very easily influenced by hype.

You had me until you said LOTR was the best PLAYING game ever. LOTR is one of the top 10 clunkiest DMDs out there in terms of PLAYING. Deep rules, decent flow, great theme, great sound, but clunky. Very clunky.

For me, MB is far and away the easiest of the 3. MM being the toughest by far. Lighting all the blue inserts is no easy task. Rule the Universe is way easier to get to than Battle for the Kingdom. But YMMV.

Truthfully I haven't played enough MM to really be sure. My struggle with MB (or any game for that matter) is time limits. When completing MB modes I tend to get into panic mode and flail pretty good. With AFM and MM there's less of that and I tend to play better progression-wise. I would say MM wizard mode requires more work, I just find i can take my time and progress easier without a time limit failure requiring replay of modes. If you keep the ball in play on AFM and MM I feel like I'll EVENTUALLY get there. On MB I can fail over and over at say, bride, and never get to the end. Fortunately the mini wizard mode is quite lucrative on MB so I don't normally need to get to the end.