Jersey Jack
The Hobbit Pinside Rating
This game received 558 approved Pinsider ratings and currently rates 8.337 /10
The Hobbit
Score breakdown
Score breakdown in the 4 main categories:
Game Design: 7.735
Artwork: 8.924
Sounds/Music: 8.631
Other Aspects: 8.134
Pinside staff rating
This is how we, the very knowledgeable (wink wink) Pinside.com staff & moderators rate this game. 5 of us have rated this game.
Found 317 ratings (with comment) on this game
There are 317 ratings (that include a comment) on this game.
Currently showing results page 12 of 13.
List options
8.566/10
7 years ago
San Francisco, CA
After 20 plays at an arcade, here is my first review of the almighty Hobbit:
LAYOUT:
Action/Per/Minute: good
Backhands: both L and R had good backhand shots
Bonus Multiplier Goal: unknown?
Dink Donk: none - Great
Drops: 3 banks, 11 total, smart drops like Barracora, even could lock in place. Amazing
Drops Sweep: indirect only
Extra Balls: 2-3 ways to get em.
Flippers: 3
Goal -EB/BC/MB/Jackpot: Yes all goals present
Inlane Lane Change: NONE
Inlane Ramp Release: WEAK - clunky ball return, bounces a bit before you get it. Velocity lost.
Inlane Swoosh : good
Jackpot/Bonus Collect: unknown?
Lane Change: NONE
MB Earning: average difficulty
MB Fun: EXCELLENT
Metal Ramp: yes, 2
Nudging: good — very surprising for a wide body.
Orbits (Repeatable): YES, excellent
Outlane Fun: Yes, very manageable
Pops: fair. moderate risk on exit, but they don’t do much.
Rules (time/order): best in class.
Shots (total): 20: most of any single-level pinball machine ever.
Skill Shot: Best of all time. Tops Whirlwind.
Slap-saves: good
Spinners: 2 but there are no spinner sounds (HUGE LOSS-but fixable with code updates)
Stop'n'Go: fair: quite a lot of stop n go.
Taunting: none. if it’s there, it’s not very rude, imo
Toy/Gimmick: very good: smart drops, lockdown bar button,
Voice / V. choreography: fair, but it’s not very locked in verbally.
SOUND:
very very weak.
1. it doesn’t sound like a pinball machine. Mostly explosion and sword swoosh sounds. If you didn’t hear the click-clack of the flippers, you’d have no idea this is a pinball machine. I think they missed the mark here in a BIG way.
DISPLAYS:
mini-display on PF is important for hurry ups. It’s in a good place to look. I never once looked up at the 27” LCD, since I was trying to play pinball, and not watch a movie. I am concerned that you won’t know what to do if you don’t look up. Could be a BIG negative here. Need to learn more.
FEEL:
Very solid and stable. fun shaker motor. Big plus.
OVERALL:
It’s the best modern by a landslide in terms of rules and layout, but if you are a sound-first guy like me, I have no problem if you want to stick with Metallica as the best modern.
LAYOUT:
Action/Per/Minute: good
Backhands: both L and R had good backhand shots
Bonus Multiplier Goal: unknown?
Dink Donk: none - Great
Drops: 3 banks, 11 total, smart drops like Barracora, even could lock in place. Amazing
Drops Sweep: indirect only
Extra Balls: 2-3 ways to get em.
Flippers: 3
Goal -EB/BC/MB/Jackpot: Yes all goals present
Inlane Lane Change: NONE
Inlane Ramp Release: WEAK - clunky ball return, bounces a bit before you get it. Velocity lost.
Inlane Swoosh : good
Jackpot/Bonus Collect: unknown?
Lane Change: NONE
MB Earning: average difficulty
MB Fun: EXCELLENT
Metal Ramp: yes, 2
Nudging: good — very surprising for a wide body.
Orbits (Repeatable): YES, excellent
Outlane Fun: Yes, very manageable
Pops: fair. moderate risk on exit, but they don’t do much.
Rules (time/order): best in class.
Shots (total): 20: most of any single-level pinball machine ever.
Skill Shot: Best of all time. Tops Whirlwind.
Slap-saves: good
Spinners: 2 but there are no spinner sounds (HUGE LOSS-but fixable with code updates)
Stop'n'Go: fair: quite a lot of stop n go.
Taunting: none. if it’s there, it’s not very rude, imo
Toy/Gimmick: very good: smart drops, lockdown bar button,
Voice / V. choreography: fair, but it’s not very locked in verbally.
SOUND:
very very weak.
1. it doesn’t sound like a pinball machine. Mostly explosion and sword swoosh sounds. If you didn’t hear the click-clack of the flippers, you’d have no idea this is a pinball machine. I think they missed the mark here in a BIG way.
DISPLAYS:
mini-display on PF is important for hurry ups. It’s in a good place to look. I never once looked up at the 27” LCD, since I was trying to play pinball, and not watch a movie. I am concerned that you won’t know what to do if you don’t look up. Could be a BIG negative here. Need to learn more.
FEEL:
Very solid and stable. fun shaker motor. Big plus.
OVERALL:
It’s the best modern by a landslide in terms of rules and layout, but if you are a sound-first guy like me, I have no problem if you want to stick with Metallica as the best modern.
7.392/10
8 years ago
So far, I've only played JJ's The Hobbit 3 times, which isn't really enough to make a fair analysis. However, while the LCD and sound are neat, and while the theme is fun for Tolkien fans, the shots and rules were way to simple. Left ramp, right ramp, repeat (while occasionally hitting the captive ball between the ramps). There's not much else going on for this machine.
Of course, I'd like to have one in a collection, but I wouldn't pay anything near MSRP for it. Play it just to watch the videos - especially if you're into LotR. but don't expect too much.
Of course, I'd like to have one in a collection, but I wouldn't pay anything near MSRP for it. Play it just to watch the videos - especially if you're into LotR. but don't expect too much.
9.400/10
8 years ago
The game has the basic architecture to become a really great game. Code is a WIP but when it's done, I expect it will be as good or better than WOZ. The quality and construction is best in class and the attention and integration of the theme is outstanding. I admit the game has evolved during the last year based on feedback from Jersey Jacks customer base which speaks well to Jacks commitment to constant improvement. All the negative chatter is simply from individuals that have nothing better to do with their time. My advice is to play this game, enjoy it, it's only going to get better over time but to be honest it's already fun and has more going for it than many of the competitive pins in the market.
7.816/10
8 years ago
got six games on this one, seemed slow ,decent flow didnt feel the urge to keep playing ....nice looking machine... didnt like the bumpy under playfield pop up bash toys, i do like hitting them jus they are not smooth enough in down position, it felt like it needed massive open playfield to accomidate 4 pop ups, two woulda been better i think, they seemed clutterd up wen hitting all four... all an all pretty good game, very nice.. ..t.v screen is cool.... didnt hit many modes was trying to get a good feel on game play which jus seemed ok to good....id play it again not goin out of my way to look for it.. good job JJP on another beatiful not to fun to play machine (woz) oh and what a waste of a third flipper not needed !! not buying this one!!!!
7.940/10
8 years ago
Played at Marvin's in Farmington, MI 4-07-16. I have mixed feelings. I think there is overuse of magnets. I like the physics aspect of pinball, where you learn to predict how shots will interact with the field and can predict where rebounded shots will go. The magnets in the top center of the field continuously disrupted smooth gameplay and frequently sent the ball SDTM. Not a fan of the LOCK rollovers centerfield either, as they too seemed to interfere too much with movement of the ball. I like the wide-open center field (aside from the rollovers mentioned) in theory, but it made for very slow gameplay, especially with the magnets almost constantly disrupting play. That being said, this is a widebody machine, so it shouldn't be expected to play as fast as a standard pin. Those times when I activated multiball, the action was fast and furious and left me wanting to come back for more. I had a blast on this table during the multiballs. The same location has WOZ also, so I went back and forth between the two. I do not like the WOZ theme. At all. But ignoring the themes, WOZ has a lot more to interact with on the table, and it is a more fun game to me. Flipper power on TH was fine to make all ramp shots - plenty of power most of the time. The exception was when two or three balls were at a flipper at the same time. The right VUK also had trouble getting the ball up and had to fire four times in a row to get the ball out of the hole. This only occurred once, and other time the VUK was fine. I had three balls gets stuck on this table, one of which could not be bumped loose and would require glass removal. The game was able to continue despite being short one ball after several rounds of coils firing.
Updated 9-21-16: updated ratings after having more time on this game. Shiny-new feeling has worn off, and it just doesn't have the "fun" factor going for it to me. Still hope to own one one day to give it a more thorough in-house trial, but it's much farther down on the list. Despite the terrible theme, would pick WOZ (great game!) over this 100%.
Updated 9-21-16: updated ratings after having more time on this game. Shiny-new feeling has worn off, and it just doesn't have the "fun" factor going for it to me. Still hope to own one one day to give it a more thorough in-house trial, but it's much farther down on the list. Despite the terrible theme, would pick WOZ (great game!) over this 100%.
7.125/10
8 years ago
This is a game you must play before you buy. I wanted to love it but 'walked away after only a few games. It was way to complex for me but even worse it didn't have the fun factor to make me want to stay and learn the rules.
The finish is beautiful and I'm sure the sound is awesome when cranked up - all games are a bit quiet at the arcade.
That said you just might love this game if you were raised in the dragon/fantasy era and care to stick around to learn the rules. It is very, very deep and Hobbit will provide a long term rewarding game - there are scenes and levels you'll probably never see. In addition JJP is super about code updates (if WOZ is any indication) so your Hobbit will stay "new" for years to come.
The finish is beautiful and I'm sure the sound is awesome when cranked up - all games are a bit quiet at the arcade.
That said you just might love this game if you were raised in the dragon/fantasy era and care to stick around to learn the rules. It is very, very deep and Hobbit will provide a long term rewarding game - there are scenes and levels you'll probably never see. In addition JJP is super about code updates (if WOZ is any indication) so your Hobbit will stay "new" for years to come.
7.882/10
8 years ago
After playing it my first thought is that it will be a great game to get kids into playing pinball, because gameplay-wise it is one of the slowest (and easiest) machines to come out in while. It's a slow and flowy game (if that makes sense). The pop-up monsters don't even add that much difficulty at making your shots because the playfield is so open you can easily get around them if you like. The ramps are a piece of cake to make since they're pretty much straight up the middle.
Rules-wise, I can't tell from the screen what I'm working toward. Seemingly random modes I am able to start and complete, and there isn't much of a score payoff for them. It shocks me when I complete 10 modes and have a lower score than someone who just has a long-running multiball. Yes, that's true of a lot of games, but not to this particular degree.
The RGB inserts are creating some greens, pinks, and blues that are way too light for the theme. They need to create darker colors (like the insert colors on LOTR). The playfield art is beautiful, but the cabinet is very non-original (a bunch of photo-shopped arranged characters). The sound quality is amazing (and love the seemingly endless music). In the current code the game has very few callouts however (other than a couple of funny lines from the movies).
Overall, a fun game to play that really needs some more code badly, and especially needs more speech to add tension to the game and guidance of what you're doing.
Rules-wise, I can't tell from the screen what I'm working toward. Seemingly random modes I am able to start and complete, and there isn't much of a score payoff for them. It shocks me when I complete 10 modes and have a lower score than someone who just has a long-running multiball. Yes, that's true of a lot of games, but not to this particular degree.
The RGB inserts are creating some greens, pinks, and blues that are way too light for the theme. They need to create darker colors (like the insert colors on LOTR). The playfield art is beautiful, but the cabinet is very non-original (a bunch of photo-shopped arranged characters). The sound quality is amazing (and love the seemingly endless music). In the current code the game has very few callouts however (other than a couple of funny lines from the movies).
Overall, a fun game to play that really needs some more code badly, and especially needs more speech to add tension to the game and guidance of what you're doing.
9.444/10
8 years ago
The Hobbit is a very unique and fun pinball machine to play. The code is good right now, as I think it is very impressive that 31 modes can be started with launch code. This is quite an incredible feat as they all include unique video, sounds, shots and dialogue. Keith did an amazing job with WOZ and I truly believe Hobbit will be no different. It is a different game, which is part of the reason it is good right now, and without doubt be great/deep very, very soon. The game hits the theming out of the park, as no pinball machine rivals its high definition color and style. The armor on the game also looks fantastic. This is a game that anyone can come up to and play, while also insuring that fantastic challenges abound for the true pinball player. I hadn't played a Hobbit for over a year and this weekend left me very impressed with the entire package. It is unfortunate that the wait was so long, and the timing of its release may not be perfect, but this is a very exciting game and should not be missed.
9.004/10
8 years ago
Okay, I played an LE around 5-6 times - in general, I was very impressed. One thing this game has is a "wow" factor in terms of amazing sound system and light show - unmatched on any other machine, including the latest Stern, Full Throttle and JJ's very own WOZ. After playing Hobbit and walking over to a Medieval Madness - the MM seemed completely "dead" to me... slow, visuals and and audio drab... like a crappy EM. And I normally love MM. It just felt like I walked from an amazing IMAX screening into a basement with an old TV. Big picture: I still believe MM is a better pin. But, novelty is an odd thing.
The third flipper is puzzling - I didn't mind it, but no specific shot was odd. The game does seem mono-dimensionally routed around the pop-ups and drops, and I didn't play enough to really get a sense of the rule set. So take this review with a grain of salt, from that perspective.
The third flipper is puzzling - I didn't mind it, but no specific shot was odd. The game does seem mono-dimensionally routed around the pop-ups and drops, and I didn't play enough to really get a sense of the rule set. So take this review with a grain of salt, from that perspective.
6.638/10
8 years ago
I found this game to be lacking in features. The playfield pop ups are so-so. Game feels like it is missing a big something. WOZ felt too crowded and this feels to sparse. After playing it a few time sI really didnt feel like I needed to play it anymore. The volume was up and I could hear the effects and music. Pretty decent. Its The Hobbit sounds of which I am a big fan. I really liked the animations leading up to multiball and I liked the animated dragon. :)
7.961/10
8 years ago
Even though I'm not a fan of photoshop this pin is awesome looking. The animations, sound and toys are some of the best. Playing it though, is a little underwhelming. I would love to put more time into it to see more of the code but the layout is a little lackluster.
9.368/10
8 years ago
Mississauga
The playfield, cabinet and music are top notch. Spent an afternoon playing this. It really is a fabulous pin. The code is very basic at this stage, as always. I will go back and change the real rating of the code in a year based upon updates. JJP did a fantastic job on updates for WOZ so hopefully they will do the same for TH. I had a lot of fun. The video screen is a step up from WOZ. It looks really crisp and vibrant. The quality is there, and I'm sure they will provide quality code. It is Keith Johnson after all.
6.780/10
8 years ago
Upper right flipper has no function - how could a designer put that there without a shot to be made with it??? ramps too easy. no points for the short ramp shot though there is optos that could sense it. roll over lock targets interrupt shots and ball travel. The LCD has too much info that is needed for game play and you have to look away from the playfield to understand what you need to do.
8.403/10
8 years ago
I was lucky enough to play a Hobbit. Great looking game and great targets to hit. I liked the drop target feature and the game is beautiful. I cannot wait to see what JJP does in the future. Please let it be a BTTF. That would be amazing!!!
You too can add your own comment by rating this game! Click here to rate this game!
Over the years
Visualizing this game's rating and rank over the years
Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!
Donate to PinsideGreat to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
