I got to play this game at Expo 2019.
The Pros:
Ummmmmmms, it's elvira? The mistress of the dark is BACK! This game is FUN. The theatre on this game, OG horror clips of the highest Bgrade rating and more silly-gore than you can shake a Gar-goil on a stick at. The lighting in particular is well designed. The haunted house is set up so that it reflects the colors of the modes running in the game. Multiball is straightforward and well done. The deadheads are now an active mode running along with all the rest of the action of the table simultaneously. At first the shots seem narrow, but they are well laid out and very make-able. This game should sell well and keep lots of pinheads happy. Using the button on the animated wheel to skillfully stop on the award you want. Why hasn't this been done this well before?
The Cons:
The kickout on the right shoots the ball directly across the PF. Sling-sling-out with consistency. I know that the power on the coil can be adjusted, but the direction of the VUK may not (?). You should not be punished for making a successful shot and then have the control taken out of your hands. Almost as bad as a badly adjusted kickout on MB. A semi-standard fan layout with most shots around the perimeter of the PF. Junk in the trunk can be accidentally started by the ball bumbling it's way into the exit. No one way gate?
The takeaway:
So far a really good game, will it be a really great game...? We shall see. As software updates come out, that will be the real test. There are lots of inserts on the PF that need to have code assigned to them. The best news is that just shooting this game is a hoot and that is always a good start. Updates will follow as the game code is flushed out.
Update:
The software and rules have gotten much better since I first played this game. The polish and depth is apparent. However, the playfield is the same. In particular, the kicker from the right hand side of the playfield is either too strong or too weak. This makes the game less than ideal for street operation. Better in a home, or a tourney environment. Good thing they added a ball saver when the ball spits out into the left outline as compared to the 3 targets on the left hand side of the pf. The game shoots well and the theme integration is excellent. Similar to Batman ‘66, mechanically complex mechanisms (just like any/all pinball games) fail or deteriorate in performance over time without proper care and maintenance. What can I say, Elvira has needs. But when she is happy, she is a lot of fun!
Update v.2:
Are there are two types of Elvira games. The first time is more common. Games that are not tuned or maintained to the ideal for this design to work properly. Unfortunately, that’s the most games on location. The second type is a Home player takes fantastic care of their game and make sure that everything is just right. When this happens, I have relatively straightforward fan loud becomes an incredible player and the ruleset design is one of the best that has ever been created. Unfortunately, this was the last game that Lyman sheets worked on for Sterne. The rules that is what makes this game. The multiple layers of modes multiples and the wizard modes are fantastic. The gap angry mode in particular is one of the most impressive displays of pinball code ever put together.
What this means for the game is that most location play it’s going to be less than ideal. Does this make this game unworthy of the street? I don’t think so. But you’re more likely to get the ideal experience from a home collector who pampers their copy and make sure that does everything that it should, when it should, no credit dots allowed!
Out of the three games with Elvira‘s name on it, the first is the most highly produced and unfortunately, the least refined ruleset. This led to Indianapolis 500 which had a very similar layout with a third flipper. Scared Stiff, the second Elvira game is a damn fine game in it’s own right. When the third installation of the series was first released, the rule set was not fully realized and it showed. Today, thanks to the brilliant work of Lyman Sheats, we have one of the best pinball games that Stern has ever created. Rest In Peace.
The music, artwork, animation, lighting and (when tuned) engineering is cohesive and gives this spooky and silly world under glass the theater it deserves. Dennis Nortman put together a great layout and toy with the Haunted mansion in the middle of this playfield. This game is a blast to play. Go a copy, play it and enjoy it. Frights, tongue and cheek goofiness, sexually charged humor that shows its power by using it and not taking itself so damn seriously. More than anything else the Elvira pinball trilogy shows how much fun the theme of the pinball game can be. If you don’t like everything about this game... it might be you. In the meantime, I’m going to play this game and thank Cassandra for being the only woman to grace pinball with her awesomeness 3 times!
Update v.3:
The art, sound, animations and rules a re great. Gappa Angry may be one of the best and most varied wizard modes ever created. That's the good news. The bad news is the playfield layout leads to balls hanging up (behind the house on 696 creepy street) that will start our game out from the first plunge with a "ball missing" ball search that makes the software put you in instant multi-ball for the rest of the game and any drain leads to ball/game over. That and playing this game can get boring.
Will lightning flippers and a good tune help? Maybe. But a boring shooting pinball game makes people walk away from an incredible team effort. I love so much about this pinball game other than playing it. Scores adjusted accordingly
