Are you happy with the purchase thus far?

Is it really one dimensional in game play, i.e. get to ring, win match, rinse, repeat?

Maybe I missed it, but does the game look like a keeper?

Damn.

Hope those parts are robust enough to handle being on route!

Played this at Fun last week. Game is clearly a one-toy pony, and the ring gets old fast when the flippers activate the ropes even when no ball is within. Not designed at all for pinheads but rather for the casual bar/bowling alley player or WWE nut, in the case of the LE.

looks like a fun game

Ring slammers fire every time a flipper is activated which will need to be changed in the next code release to prevent wear and aggravation.-Hearing them go off when I flip the flippers drives me nuts!

This is the main reason why I didn't preorder one. I think the ring being the main and only toy will get old very fast. Im waiting a while to see where this one ends up on the popularity list before i buy.

They already do this on ACDC, so I wouldn't think it would be that hard coding it in.

Depends on who is coding it.

To get into the upper ring the ball has to go over one of the rollovers at the top correct?

I think it is fun to shoot. Code is still too early to really decide. I really enjoy the top ring, but as Mike said, they NEED to get the slammers and flippers seperated so they both do not flip together all the time. SO annoying.

I think they are doing a nice job of putting good tunes in to a non music pin. The theme intergration is done well also and the long term call on overall game quality will rest firmly on what they do with the code and how creative the ring is used. If they do enough fun modes and make the ring have different objectives then it wil be great. Currently it dos not have much depth. There is some scoring strategy for when to pin vs exit from a side and also te show boating specials post pin.

I hope they also code in so the bonus count up can be bypassed by holding both flippers post drain.

I am a real American

I just got to play it at a tournament yesterday.
The flippers were weak so it was hard to hit ramps

The game is pretty fun if you can get over the theme but man this code and from what i heard the code that it was shipped with are some of the worst.

but all sterns have incomplete codes when released

overall it was enjoyable, i do wish it was the LE though

I keep hearing this weak flipper complaint. And I know they changed the way they do flippers, are they adjustable in the settings?

Is it true that new code is dropping on Monday?

the flippers on the one I played were solid

I noticed right away that the flippers were aligned a bit lower than 'normal' The holes for aligning show this to be intentional.

I did not like if and always prefer flippers to come off the lane guide in a straight line. I redid mine on day 1 and ramps were tough to make. After thinking it was some sort of odd thing and troubleshooting, I finally moved them back to the original factory intended alignment (slight slop down coming out of lane guide) and strong shots to ramps.

Makes sense since the main power stroke angle needs to send the ball to the far outside corners and up a pretty steep ramp.

Once in 'proper' factory intended alignment they are plenty strong.

I'm so glad I'm not a wrestling fan and would want to buy this on theme alone. I'll drop in a few bucks to try it when I see it out in the wild, but know I'll never want to own one.

Flippers on the one I played last weekend were strong at first then got weaker as the game got played thus ramp shots got harder and harder to make.

The one I played, the flippers were plenty strong.

These items are a fail. The DBA power issue is a huge fail for the pro models.

There was an included cable that we ran from inside the power supply to a connector up by the DBV connector, so it was pretty straight forward. I really don't know why they didn't just run cable to begin with, certainly much easier.

Oh, well that's no big deal then.

I think all these decisions aren't awesome, I don't care for changing the location of a power button that's been around for ages, but if it makes for a better design, and we can do simple shit like run a cable if we're the kind of people who need it (and if you need it and running a cable is a big deal maybe you don't really need it!) then I'm gonna just not worry about it overmuch.

Hey, I hope SPIKE has a cheaper BOM and it's less labor to assemble. And dare I hope at least some of those savings go back into the game design?

LOL...give me a toke of what you're smokin'! You're in dreamland. Back into game design? Those "savings" are going into the new facility, Lyman's raise, and Gary's pocket!

Hey, I'd settle for Lyman's raise at least.

Played this game last night. The ring is definitely the worst part. I was bored to tears flipping it around the ring. Maybe when the code gets some goals in it, the ring will be more fun. I just felt like I was flipping around for nothing. Also, the ring was less controllable than I thought it would be and I played it for along time and just couldn't set up shots in there. It felt more random which I don't really care for. I heard a few complaints about the weak flippers but I found them to be the perfect strength. The ramps have that Oursler positioning that are just more difficult to hit than your typical fan layout. I think this leads some players to believe the flippers are weak, but they're just hitting inaccurate shots.

Overall, I like the layout and it feels like a good flipper. I could do less with the stop and go of the ring. I'm assuming as the code matures, the ring won't be activated every single time you get it up there. This game really reminds me of jokers from the layout.

Tell him to bring White Water back

This game was okay so far, I played only 5 games so far and I wasn't wowed but am hoping it will grow on me!

Any other reviews out there

Got to play several games on it and it was different, which is good but it started to feel repetitive with the ring. The ring play is unique and actually has a strategy to control the ball and hit targets. One problem I found in correlation with the ring and the lower flippers is I was unable to perform bump passes. It would only bump lower flipper with full release of flipper because of tie in with ring deflectors. Music was modern with a rap tune playing most of the time. The sound was very muted and sounded like mono with a very high treble and not much bass. Not sure if that can be adjusted or not. It felt like ramp shots to ring and several orbit shots and center drops. Some ball times were long and enjoyable. The ring takes up most of the time of gameplay. I think this title is going to do very well on location and appeal to the youth. As for a game in the home collection I think it would get repetitive quickly and lose its luster. It is a really sharp looking machine with bright vivid colors. A couple things I would have changed from factory is not using white rubbers, but other colored rubbers. The rubbers in the ring after a few days had already turned black. The other thing is the backbox speaker panel brushed aluminum sticker. Unlike Star Trek LE panel with real metal, the sticker in brushed metal shows every imperfection and appears to have dents in it. I really think this game is great for pinball and it will do very well for operators. I can see the ring and theme really attracting the youth to want to play it, which is awesome.

Got a chance to play Wrestlemania last night, and I have to say that I am pretty impressed. It was loud, so I couldn't hear the sound package, but overall, I thought the shot layout was pretty interesting, with some nice ramps and a fast turnaround loop reminiscent of Black Knight.

I like the upper ring, though I hope they find a way to minimize the time you spend up there. The flippers have that classic Trudeau flatness to them, which takes some getting used to, since it changes the bounces, and makes it difficult to control into a cradle.

The lighting on the pro is nice, and I like the brushed metal speaker panel.

Scoring seems a bit unbalanced at present, but for release code, it is fairly robust (looking at you, Walking Dead and Mustang).

Overall, I think this one is a winner!

Wow that's great to hear. Did you play it at the Silverballroom? I never expected to be interested in this game, but I must admit that the layout does look interesting. I guess I will have to get out there and get some time on this game!

I have put about 12 games on this machine. Looks pretty amazing and play was pretty fun. Not my type of theme but the ring toy and interaction is really a lot of fun, something different. Was able to get referee multiball pretty easy by hitting the ramps to the ring. You hit targets in the ring to do wrestling moves and then shoot for the center target to try and pin your opponent. Got several pins but no reward? Must need quite a few pins to get another multiball. Didn't know what I was shooting for most of the time so tried to hit lit targets and ramps. Overall impression, FUN!

Do you have any tips to share on how to advance the bonus multiplier? Once I had it up to 4X, but I don't really know how I did it.

It seems that the wrestler that you choose before launching the ball determines which top lane to hit to get 2X, but I'm not even sure about that. Also, the stand-ups that improve your "signature move" appear able to increase the bonus multiplier.

The top lanes sometimes are locked so that the middle three lanes are lit and sometimes they seem unlocked so that the flipper buttons move the lit lanes around.

Please share any insight that you have on how the bonus multiplier can be bumped and how the top lanes work with respect to scoring and other features. Everyone feel free to chime in.

Thanks,
blurfocus

stern needs to add dots to display what player is up when the ball is kicked into the shooter lane. it announces it preplunge, but if it is loud or sound is turned down there is no way to tell...

Played it today. Very very boring game. Ring gets old quick. Never would consider buying it. On to the next one.

First and last Impressions are "its a stern"

Played it last week thought it was very refreshing and different layout; much better then Star Trek and Twd

Played it last night and I'm really not a fan of the ring. I'm all for games with upper playfields but this just felt clunky and unrewarding with the slammers. Big disappointment and not something a code update can fix.

not a great theme. music sucked. ring needs to be more lively. i passed on the LE.

I'm no pinball expert, I apologize upfront, but I don't think Stern should release games with such undeveloped code.

this game has potential, but I think all their games have huge potential. Can somebody explain why they operate like this?