Williams

Swords of Fury

Pinside Rating

This game received 234 approved Pinsider ratings and currently rates 7.979 _/10

7.979

Top 100 ranking

This game ranks #89 in the Pinside Pinball Top 100.

Score breakdown

Score breakdown in the 4 main categories:

Game Design: 7.942

Artwork: 7.883

Sounds/Music: 7.731

Other Aspects: 8.05

Pinside staff rating

This is how we, the very knowledgeable (wink wink) Pinside.com staff & moderators rate this game. 7 of us have rated this game.

7.715

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Found 118 ratings (with comment) on this game

There are 118 ratings (that include a comment) on this game.
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6.964/10

11 years ago

ZUL

Caucasian2Step

Evil McBooty

12y 163K 1,454 51 1011

Swords of Fury is another pinball game that I spend a great deal of time with at college. When I play it now... I start to see some flaws in the design.

The Pros:
The shots are varied (I can' think of any other game of this vintage with 2 horseshoe loops in it) and the upper pf plays very well for only having one flipper. Timers and well lit flashing lights to discern targets have been done very well. The audio has its own character and is very much in like with the LOTR like theme. The art package is spot on, even with the (quasi?) runes on the cabinet.

The Cons:
Multiball on the left lane, rinse and repeat... that's pretty much it. "Lionman!...Lionman!"

The Takeaway:
A good game for it's age, ruleset could be tweaked a bit... ( set it to ex- hard??) but it's still good game. If this game had a multiball qualifier within the rules, it would be a much better one. Scoring the JP on the upper pf is always an incredibly satisfying shot. I think it would be a good game in a multi-game collection or for someone who grew up playing D&D.

"Here Cum Da Guards!"

"Another bad one was Swords of Fury, we called that one Dick Swords. It was terrible."
-Steve Ritchie

Caucasian2Step edited previous rating on September 22, 2014.

9.440/10

11 years ago

TKL

Tighe

Pinside member

Richmondville, NY

11y 31,400 137 4 10

Very fun, but I feel like I want more!

Tighe has this game on the wishlist.

8.320/10

11 years ago

WES

wesperron

Pinside member

Boston, MA

13y 53,900 1,360 9 56

Here is my honest opinion of this game.
If you are a player that likes DMD animations and lots of toys with talking heads and ball times that last 20 mins....This game is not for you.

If you are a player that is more concerned with play and control and shot making. If you love aggressive games with aggressive sound....This game is for you. This is a players game. I love this game.
This game reminds me of Black Knight 2000. That's another players game. This game has great art, sound and has a great challenging game play.

So my opinion is, some will love this game and some will not. It depends on what you want. If your a player you will like it. If your a looker who needs toys and gimmicks you may not like it.

This game has a darker theme and suspenceful music unlike the other games in my collection. I get tired of the humor and uplifting music sometimes I want to go to battle and thats when I play SOF. I find it to be one of the best 80's games made. It fits my collection great and it's not going anywhere soon. These pins are not that easy to find and will get harder as players are finding out that this is a great game. Not many were made and even fewer exsist. If you got one don't let it go as the price on this one will rise in the comming years as collectors/players realize how great this one is. I find it a forgotten gem.

wesperron has owned this game in the past.

9.740/10

11 years ago

NEO

CaptainNeo

Playfield restorations

Burlington, WI

11y 148K 22,435 37 77 1

awesome game. Love this game. So unique. Love the battle of the drop targets. Fun fun fun..

CaptainNeo edited previous rating on September 11, 2017.
CaptainNeo currently owns this game.

8.580/10

11 years ago

RND

RawleyD

Pinside member

Roanoke, VA

14y 67,650 3,243 36

Great old system 11 game.
This pin has the BEST music I have ever heard from any game, so cool.
gotta love that D&D'ish theme, Lionman and ?Elfwoman?, battling the monsters of fiction.
Challenging mini playfield.
And that is one tough Multiball! real glad we picked this game up.

RawleyD has owned this game in the past.

3.639/10

11 years ago

SDG

BloodyCactus

Pinside member

Lexington, VA

12y 40,150 534 2 8

Wanted to like this game sooo much but... bored me to tears, really nothing to do in this game. Multiball is a snap, no challenge.. and thats it. the mini pf is the actual main pf, the big large boring main pf has nothing going on. The entire game is about getting to the mini pf and staying there.

8.291/10

12 years ago

???

ArtoM

Inactive member

Unknown

12y 2,500 23

Game is fun to play and skill level is quite demanding so for me there is lot to play. Music is awesome, sound effects ok. Art work I really love personally and the darkness goes very well with the theme.

7.775/10

12 years ago

JT

DEVILinIRON

Inactive member

12y 28,150 445 6

As a previous owner of this game, one thing that really bugged me was how the ball drops from the upper playfield to the lower. I just wish they had included some kind of protection to that area. Every time it dropped, I felt like wincing from the sound. Another nitpick is that I wish there was another digit added to the scoreboard. I think if I had kept it just a bit longer, I could have rolled it. I only had it for 2-3 weeks. Otherwise, the game is pretty darn fun. I love the music and the light show and the backglass is freakin' sweet.

DEVILinIRON has owned this game in the past.

7.930/10

12 years ago

RJW

s1500

Pinside member

St Paul, MN

12y 68,650 1,482 2 9

The only downside is the sound uttered from every flipper hit. Other than that, this game is a sleeper hit. The fantasy theme goes well, and the playfield is very unique. There's so much going on & so many places for the ball to go around. Compare this with cookie cutter layouts of more recent machines.

7.646/10

12 years ago

ESA

stangbat

KC Pins

13y 86,900 3,109 19

A pretty fun game. The rules are a little simple and it isn't a deep game, but the shots are pretty good and challenging.

The music is great but some of the sound effects can be a little grating. I had to rig mine up so that I can switch on/off what are equivalent to the lane change switches at the flipper buttons to get rid of the swoosh sound with every flipper button push. (There is no lane change in this game so disabling the switches does not effect game play, they are only used for initial entry and in the menus.)

The mini playfield is pretty neat. The varying time for the drop targets to reset adds an interesting challenge.

I really like the theme and the entire art package. It is a great looking game.

4.161/10

12 years ago

BUK

pinballslave

Pinside member

Litvinov

12y 138K 6,356 133 149

An interesting game from a playability point of view, but the sounds are really annoying... much too aggressive for my liking... If you're looking for a Medieval Knights kind of game, Black Knight is much better from an artwork and sounds viewpoint, but this is all my own opinion of course...

pinballslave has owned this game in the past.

7.085/10

12 years ago

NML

NickBuffaloPinball

Buffalo Pinball

Buffalo, NY

13y 94,550 1,461 18 53

This game has a "one more play" quality to it. I really like the fact that the playfield is unique to everything else that is out there. While it doesn't have the crazy flow of a Steve Ritchie game, there is some flow here none the less. Lastly, the music is simply awesome and is only 2nd to the music of BK2000. Fun, unique game to have a in a collection.

Oh, and when the lights in the machine go out during the "Lionman!" call, very very cool if playing in a dark room.

NickBuffaloPinball edited previous rating on July 31, 2012.
NickBuffaloPinball has owned this game in the past.

8.244/10

13 years ago

BRI

gweempose

Pinside Moderator

13y 154K 20,204 37 1

SoF is a fun game that probably doesn't get as much attention as it deserves due to its small production run. It has a great original theme, cool artwork, and a nice playfield layout. The thing that truly stands out, however, is the music. It perfectly fits the theme, and I love how it gets more intricate with each locked ball. The multiball music is simply awesome, and it really gets your adrenaline pumping. I also thoroughly enjoy how the game plays. It's quite fast, and you can actually get some decent flow going once you know where to shoot. I love the two horseshoe lanes, particularly the lower one with it's in-your-face flashers. The icing on the cake is the mini-playfield, which is really a game within a game. It's a lot of fun, and quite challenging to master. The mini-playfield is also used to score the jackpot during multiball mode, which is no easy feat.

Overall, SoF is a great game that compares favorably to the best pins of that era. I highly recommend it!

gweempose edited previous rating on September 07, 2010.

9.095/10

14 years ago

JPM

EvilJack

Inactive member

Allentown, PA

14y 47,150 688 26

Finally picked up this pin Friday night during Pin Fest in Allentown. Love this game and so does the wife. I have been wanting to pick up this title for a while now and I am not dissapointed. I only have room for one pin in the house right now, and if I end up trading it for a different one I know I will miss it.

EvilJack edited previous rating on May 29, 2012.
EvilJack has owned this game in the past.

7.547/10

14 years ago

???

brentxyz

Inactive member

Pasadena, CA

18y 25,500 3 2 227

Over-Looked Black Knight Era Williams!

9.006/10

14 years ago

JLW

jrrdw

Pinside member

White Hall, MD

14y 56,100 2,144 1 12

This is one of the funnest pinball games i've ever played!

jrrdw currently owns this game.

8.867/10

15 years ago

BEE

Finrod

Pinside member

Atlanta, GA

15y 45,950 947 6 6

This is a very understated machine; it's also a machine that's brutal to newbies but wizards can go to town on it (I knew someone that rolled it over *twice* in one game). The upper playfield is a perfect example: wizards can keep the ball up there for a very long time, but newbies drain it out of there within 5 seconds most times. The jackpot is a bit overbearing and overweighted, but that's a common feature for most late 1980s Williams pins.

Finrod currently owns this game.

6.098/10

19 years ago

JCS

jeffspinballpalace

JeffSPinballPalace

20y 242K 19,062 556

Can you say LIONMAN?

jeffspinballpalace edited previous rating on January 22, 2017.

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