Gottlieb

Gladiators

Pinside Rating

This game received 70 approved Pinsider ratings and currently rates 7.283 _/10

7.283

Top 100 ranking

This game ranks #220 in the Pinside Pinball Top 100.

Score breakdown

Score breakdown in the 4 main categories:

Game Design: 7.468

Artwork: 6.762

Sounds/Music: 7.068

Other Aspects: 7.49

Pinside staff rating

This is how we, the very knowledgeable (wink wink) Pinside.com staff & moderators rate this game. 3 of us have rated this game.

7.186

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Found 44 ratings (with comment) on this game

There are 44 ratings (that include a comment) on this game.
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7.780/10

7 years ago

ALC

comment23

Pinball Workshop

8y 67,550 595 1 9

Finally adding my comment to this game. I have to say that everyone who comes over to play this game always has a great time playing it. It seems that there is a die-hard fan base for this game. If you haven't played this pin, you're missing out a great experience. It's probably the best 90's Gottlieb pins made.

comment23 has owned this game in the past.

8.616/10

7 years ago

MAX

Pinballmaxx

Pinside member

Pfaffenschlag Bei Waidhofen An Der Thaya

7y 25,750 2 23

Very fast Pinballmachine !

Pinballmaxx has owned this game in the past.

8.620/10

8 years ago

AMK

amkoepfer

Pinside member

Toledo, OH

9y 162K 4,923 23 51

Very fun game, backglass art is just so so, but the playfield art is good. With leds the game brightens up great. Overall a blast to play and a keeper in my collection

amkoepfer has owned this game in the past.

7.443/10

8 years ago

JDC

JosiahCox

Inactive member

10y 56,550 696 19

What a fun and fast flowing System 3!

The rules and scoring are a bit tricky to understand at first but it really is a fun game. Hard to find one but I recommend it. Can be had for a decent price.
We just ours a couple of weeks ago and finally got it working 100% correctly last night. I'll update the review when I've had more time with it.

8.320/10

8 years ago

KLC

keanan_connell

Pinside member

Wilmington, DE

11y 38,550 45 20 20

interesting layout with good rule set and modes including a final mode “beast challenge”. the art could have been better in places and the theme is a little strange. Other then that this game is on par with some Bally Williams games I've played so I think that says a lot for a gottlieb. Very solid game all around. Glad I stumbled upon this one

Edit: the shaker in this game is very obnoxious. personaly I hate it so I keep that unplugged

keanan_connell edited previous rating on December 03, 2020.
keanan_connell currently owns this game.

9.000/10

9 years ago

DJB

brenna98

Pinside+ Frequent

Wind Point, WI

10y 132K 2,245 59 54

Love this game! I first played at a pinsider’s house; who had a massive collection. This was the one game he would never sell; and he had all the A-list titles. So, I had to have one. I love the unique shots! The ball lock at the top by the catapult is the most challenging and the shot to hit the ball lock under the flipper is really cool. The music and sounds are my favorite! The 80’s sounding music goes great with the kinda cheesy artwork; I think it fits well. The dragon taunts are cool too. Then there is the crazy industrial shaker motor!! It’s much stronger than any other shaker I’ve seen and I think it adds to the already unique game. O, and one last thing. The speed of this game is really fast; so a 3 ball multiball is more than enough to keep track of; especially with the two flipper areas on the playfield. I don’t see this game leaving my collection any time soon.

brenna98 currently owns this game.

8.159/10

9 years ago

DOG

pmWolf

Pinside Moderator

Union City, MI

13y 157K 4,526 59 112

Gladiators is a hidden gem that is often overlooked. It has a layout that is unlike anything else, which leads to some crazy combos and interesting shots.

DMD animations are pretty limited, and the sound is early-era...so the music sounds like it was ripped straight from a Sega Genesis. Still, the ruleset is solid, and the game is just pure fun to play.

pmWolf currently owns this game.

2 Pinsiders starred this!

7.172/10

9 years ago

DMS

Elevatorman

Premier Pinball Stl

St. Louis, MO

10y 116K 1,860 71 171

I recently picked this game up for a great price fully working,it just needs a good shop out to really give it an accurate rating.
I've only played about five games but it has a few ok shots,some good sounds and music and the PF layout is pretty good.
Once I clean it,set it up right well see what happens.

Elevatorman has owned this game in the past.

5.362/10

9 years ago

DAN

BeaverBrewing

Pinside member

Beaver Falls, PA

11y 80,150 289 7 282

Its pinball so it is fun, but comparatively speaking this is not one that you really need to play. Art is lacking, probably the worst System 3 there is.

Edit: played this a lot more...beginning to enjoy it...however the scoring is way off balanced for a tournament mode or a four player game...music is growing on me.

BeaverBrewing edited previous rating on April 25, 2015.

5.870/10

10 years ago

SAP

seshpilot

Pinside member

11y 112K 2,530 169 3

This is one of those games where I find that the way Pinside scores games to be confusing. Though my score is low, I found this game to be AWESOME! I'd definitely add to my small collection.

There are some crazy shots on this that I've never seen before in pinball. This is definitely a try-before-you-diss/buy game, but I loved it. Sure, the callouts are a little cheesy and the artwork isn't going to win any prizes, but the game just exudes fun to me.

The reverse shot at the top of the playfield is super cool, as is the shot where the right flipper has to be up in order to make with the left flipper. The shaker is POWERFUL! If this game were released as "Legend of Zelda," which rumor has that it was originally slated to be, this game would be in the top 100 easy. The theme definitely kills it.

7.563/10

10 years ago

III

singlebanana

Pinside member

Summerfield, NC

12y 59,950 593 15 141

I recently picked up this title for a friend to shop out and put in his house. I found a nice, clean example that was pretty dialed in already, only a few minor tweaks. I had played this game at Pinburgh several months ago and wasn't really impressed (didn't know the rules/theirs wasn't dialed in very well/too many other cool machines to play there so didn't spend a lot of time on it), but for the price, it was a good deal for my beginning pinhead buddy and his family.

I was really surprised with how the game played and really like the variety of shots. It has decent modes and even a pretty cool wizard mode; decapitating the dragon was really unexpected and made me chuckle. The shaker is a nice feature, but it's not really integrated into the game very well. The bg and pf artwork is kind of blah, but I really like the art on the cab.

Even though there are a few negatives, this is a fun machine. I'd recommend it for a beginning player or for someone with a larger collection if you enjoy having a game with long ball times or like to have a machine around for non-pinhead friends. I'm first on the list if my buddy ever wants to part with it. A surprisingly fun machine.

7.212/10

11 years ago

LCK

lorenk

Inactive member

Gainesville, FL

13y 20,000 6 4 9

This game is good for folks who haven't played much pinball. It's fairly easy, so new players will feel accomplished while playing. Experienced pinball players will probably get a bit bored after a while.

lorenk has owned this game in the past.

3.417/10

11 years ago

RSJ

juster

Inactive member

Van Nuys, CA

11y 27,650 23 5 12

meh.

4.763/10

11 years ago

ZUL

Caucasian2Step

Evil McBooty

12y 163K 1,455 51 1011

I remember playing this game once... and it was once too many.

The Pros: A solid layout with 4 flippers.

The Cons:
Too many to list. Unbalancing rules, clunky mechanics. The game just feels incomplete. It's too bad too, the PF design had promise.

The Takeaway:
Take it away... please. - Milton Berle

Update:
I got to play a really sweet copy of this game and the owner did their homework. The game was originally supposed to be a zelda, then an american gladiators (tv show) game and agreements just could not be finalized with all involved. so gottlieb said "whatever..." and turned it into "gladiators." The good news is that this game shoots great! damn the rules, to hell with strategy. You want a fun game to PLAY!?!? Shoot for the saucer under the upper right hand flipper with a cross playfield shot from the upper left hand flipper. Oh yeah, and the rest of the playfield shoots great! Mystery programmer, where are you?!? As long as your name isn't Louis Koziarz... we good. Would this game have a place in my collection? I'd love to shoot it every day. Now, there is a homebrew pinball maker that took this game and re-themed it to Zelda and made better rules. Where is this thing? I want to play it now! However, in it's current state, I'd play it. Just to shoot it. I just wouldn't pay attention to the score.

Pinball Trivia time! When was the next powerful creative layout with 4 full sized flippers? It's not Radical (1990). This game was made in 1993. Could it be... Willy Wonka?!? NO! There was also Game of Thrones Preem/LE with the upper playfield! What other games have 4 full sized flippers after this design? let me know!

Caucasian2Step edited previous rating on October 29, 2020.

7 Pinsiders flagged this.

6.288/10

11 years ago

JJS

jonogo

Pinside member

12y 75,300 2,987 1 51

This one has some pretty fun combo shots that require a good amount of concentration to nail down regularly. The modes are fun and the theme is pretty well done. The game itself has weird quirks and that shaker is border-line obnoxious at times (beast mode). Over all a great game.

jonogo has owned this game in the past.

7.323/10

11 years ago

NJL

njlovold

Inactive member

Duluth, MN

12y 25,900 103 1 9

This is a fun game that's fairly simple and straight forward. It doesn't give you much direction on what you should be doing, but it's not too difficult to figure it out. I would play this again for sure.

4.640/10

11 years ago

SFC

scasey

Pinside member

San Jose, CA

13y 52,800 473 10 7

It is an OK game. I am not a huge fan of the System 3 games because of the artwork. In my opinion, they are most robust pinball machines ever designed.

scasey has owned this game in the past.

6.932/10

12 years ago

TSM

darkfaith

Inactive member

Iaeger, WV

12y 56,400 360 1 130

very very good under-rated game..has all the bells and whistles you could want..even a shaker.
i have to admit, this may be in my top 5 favorite games..if it had williams slapped on the side of it, it would get the attention it truly deserves

darkfaith edited previous rating on April 11, 2014.
darkfaith has owned this game in the past.

7.412/10

12 years ago

JSS

Jamesiewaimsy

Inactive member

Greensborough

12y 33,150 269 2 16

I miss her :(

Jamesiewaimsy edited previous rating on October 03, 2011.
Jamesiewaimsy has owned this game in the past.

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