Found 2 ratings (with comment) on this game

I know Four Stars is remake of 1952’s Quartette, another Gottlieb game made earlier in the same year. I don’t know why a second version was necessary, but I like the look of Four Stars much better, both the playfield and back glass. The showgirls and the stage-door gawkers just work better for me than the dancers/barbershop quartet.

Don’t be turned off by the trap holes. They are an essential part of the game and harder to land in than you think. The ultimate goal is to put each of the first four balls in the trap holes, then send the final ball through the center rollover to collect five replays.

There are numerous other ways to win, including high score, which is hard to achieve without land in at least a couple of the 500,000-point trap holes.

You also can achieve multiple replays by scoring single “points” — which are achieved by hitting the lit pop bumpers at the top of the playfield. The pop bumpers are lit by dropping balls the four trap holes that correspond with the color of each bumper.

Other replays are possible by hitting each of the eight bumpers on the game’s side rails. Each bumper you hit turns off a light, making the playfield become more dim as the game goes along. Playing in a dark room just adds to this game’s challenge. Once you turn out all of the side bumper lights, putting a ball through the center rollover results in a replay.

The double flippers take some getting used to, and the pass-through lanes between flippers drain a lot of balls, owing to the angles of the side bumpers. It pays to have fresh, bouncy rubber on this game.

Overall, a very pretty game that’s easy to come oh so close to beating almost every game. It keeps you coming back again and again to try. A guest who came to play spent a half hour just trying to beat this game — a testament to its playability.

A very pretty machine, especially when everything is lit correctly with the colored gels installed. Great artwork, although perhaps with more of a 1940's feel than 1950's, especially the girls on the back glass.

The game play is not quite up to par for a Gottlieb wood rail. The 4 flippers, especially when the right and left pairs flip together, takes a lot of getting used to, but the real problem is that the bumpers don't start lighting until your get balls in the trap holes. Until you light them, you're just not scoring any points. As a result, you use your first 3 or 4 balls getting things set up to make a lot of points on the 4th or 5th ball, and that's assuming every ball goes into a trap hole. It also take 4 balls in 4 trap holes to win a special when many of the other games only require 3.

I'm a fan of trap hole games, but if you're only getting one example of a trap hole game, this probably isn't the one you want. Find a Chinatown, Happy Days, or a Pin Wheel instead. On the other hand, if you want a game that's just beautiful to look at when it's lit up, this one is gorgeous.