Pinside rating

This game received 17 approved Pinsider ratings and currently rates 6.515 _/10

6.515

Top 100 ranking

This game ranks #283 in the Pinside EM Top 100.

Score breakdown

Score breakdown in the 4 main categories:

Game Design: 6

Artwork: 7.45

Sounds/Music: 1.845

Other Aspects: 6.332

Pinside staff rating

None of the Pinside.com staff have rated this game. Sorry, no rating from us.

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Found 13 ratings (with comment) on this game

There are 13 ratings (that include a comment) on this game.
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7.328/10

1 year ago

BZK

Blackzarak

Pinside+ Frequent

Lakewood, CA

5y 88,800 380 22 1

Fun pin, old schools. Typical EM sweet looking back glass.

7.185/10

1 year ago

HAM

FunkMachine

Inactive member

Philadelphia, PA

1y 13,500 6

Challenging isn't bad. Avoiding the center rebound drain is good skill building

5.577/10

1 year ago

TPD

tomdrum

Tom's Pinball

Port Matilda, PA

6y 164K 5,617 18 52

I found this this game boring. Sold it quick.

tomdrum has owned this game in the past.

6.848/10

3 years ago

PGR

Presumably inspired by Jack Kirby's cosmic comic book art (he was having a bit of a renaissance in the mid-'70s), Magnotron and its 2-player brother Duotron, is a bit of a smelly fish wrapped in beautiful paper. The backglass is stunning, and so are the plastics. The playfield art is nice, but more plain and functional.

Alas, the good things to say about this game run out there. The center captive ball horseshoe and saucer are really hard to hit, and are big time drain monsters being front and center like they are. Even worse, they take up enough area in the middle that it really reduces the flow of the machine, cutting down your angles for getting the ball back up top. But even when you do get it back up top, not much happens. There are a pair of kickbacks on either side, but landing in those is luck. It's also pure luck to bounce around enough to get your ball back over a top rollover. Just not a very fun shooter.

6.956/10

5 years ago

???

Chromeballs

Inactive member

Unknown

6y 11,000 20

Amazing backglass! This was my first machine and we played the crap out of it! Then I got my hands on a nightrider and never had any interest in wanting to play magnaton again. Game play is pretty bad! Theme is awesome! Robot dude is great, love the robots hands!

5.453/10

5 years ago

SDJ

SergioJ

Pinside member

10y 57,050 502 44 28

This and it’s two player sibling Duotron are titles that I’ve tried to like for a long time. They have features that I like, the layout seems like it should be fun, and the theme has appeal, almost like an early version of Pinbot. Sadly I always walk away disappointed.

Sometimes the total of a series of good ideas ends up less than the sum of its parts, this is one of those times. While the features and art concepts of these titles were all good ideas, the execution of those is off, resulting in a lackluster game that always teases me with the idea that “maybe it’s me” and there’s a great game hiding in there. I’ve finally had to come to the conclusion that’s it’s not me Magnotron, it’s you. We just can’t see each other anymore. And that goes for your sister too....

3.993/10

6 years ago

BAD

Badfingers

Inactive member

6y 20,250 1 23

This game I thought was going good at first, then the symmetry and fast drains off the main feature of the game: the bang the ball in the center with only 2 spots it can be hit at got unfun in a hurry due to it being just too easy to drain.

The upper bumpers can/will hit the ball down into the side slider & kicker and there isn't much skill involved but that's where a good amount of points may come from.

So comparing this to other games, I have to give someone a low score, and this is one of them.

Still worthy of playing, just lastability to me is awful, and no drop targets at all: my own preference.

7.803/10

7 years ago

???

jefftollensdorf

Inactive member

Denver, CO

7y 18,400 1 10 8

My brother and I played this machine for many a quarter in our early teens
Still fun for me

jefftollensdorf currently owns this game.

8.828/10

8 years ago

MFA

Moe90002

Inactive member

Hamilton, ON

8y 11,250 1 4 6

Great game!

Moe90002 currently owns this game.

7.870/10

9 years ago

???

rubendub

Pinside member

Sint-niklaas

9y 28,500 4 52

after a few games i realized that its not that bad at all.

rubendub has owned this game in the past.

6.506/10

10 years ago

JLM

jlm33

Pinside member

Villejuif

11y 152K 5,890 7 169

Gorgeous backglass that acts like a magnet to force you to play... and discover this was a trap.
The game is decent but does not live to your expectations f. Too many luck shots and too many risky shots (given these greedy outlanes).

7.419/10

10 years ago

LJH

GreyScale

Pinside member

Lawrence, KS

11y 64,650 398 240

Love the backglass and cab artwork, one of the best done by the legendary Gordon Morrison. Game is a an absolute drain monster, learn to nudge or get ready to accept short ball times. Saucer and the Bonus Booster can be tough shots to make, very high risk but the payoff is nice especially if the saucer is up to 5,000. Lot of luck involved in this one. The kickers and the gate are a nice touch.

GreyScale edited previous rating on August 21, 2014.
GreyScale has owned this game in the past.

3.298/10

11 years ago

ZUL

Caucasian2Step

Evil McBooty

12y 163K 1,449 51 1006

Magnotron is a game that was a lot more fun when I was a kid.

The Good:
Incredibly detailed artwork by Gordon Morrison. The Robot on the BG looks like he is going to swallow you whole. I like the 2 player Duotron artwork better due to 2 fewer wheels on the BG.

The Cons:
The saucer seems to be more luck than skill making this shot as well as the captive ball horseshoe that builds the scoring here an almost non-factor in this game. Too much risk, not enough reward for the middle 1/3 of the PF. One of the worst playing Gottleibs to ever be produced. Surprisingly, the games I played seem to score best when I could get the ball into the top kickout holes to add bonus as well as scoring pts. These are luck shots, possibly bounced into the kickout lanes from the bumpers, not skilled snots. Playing this game it makes you wonder what was going through the mind of Ed Krynski, if it was the bill of construction had been too high at Gottlieb or if it was a matter of he just got tired of using drop targets. I wonder if they even play tested this deck.

The Takeaway:
This could be a fun game, but can be a matter of luck as compared to skilled shots. Luck if you land the saucer. Lucky if you get a bounce into the top kickout lanes. This game needs fresh rubbers and wax, but you may ask yourself... why bother?

1

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