Found 5 ratings (with comment) on this game

I could barely hit 2-3 shots before a dumb drain and somehow I have a top recorded score. It’s great theming but nigh unplayable.

Played at Pinfest 2023.

My god, This is Spinal Tap is comedically bad. So bad, it crosses the threshold of bad and becomes ‘so bad it’s good’, and I played it three times as a result.

Artwork-wise, it’s okay, but the playfield build (ramps, apron, etc.) looks like someone did it at home in their shed and brought it to a show as a homebrew. If Homepin wasn’t confident of welding ramps, they should have gone for the sensible option of assembling from old Bally/Williams parts as others have done.

The huge video screen has no relation to play and is there only to entertain onlookers, should they not already be entertained by watching someone struggling to understand/play this thing. Pertinent information (such as it is provided) is on the DMD screen. I was in a group of three (strangers) playing and we laughed A LOT. Basically, my first game finished in seconds as the ball flew straight down the middle three times from plunge without really touching the flippers - an experience that reminded me heavily of playing classics (i.e. 70s/80s pins) in tournament.

Another player complained the gameplay was floaty and maybe not levelled correctly. I didn’t notice that, or rather, I did notice but just put it down to the overall 70/80s feel of the pin. We also experienced another couple of hilarious auto-drains (so, not just me then). I suggested this table needed a lot of nudging.

Anyway, determined to actually hit the ball with the flippers, I had another two goes on This is Spinal Tap. There was a ‘goes up to 11’ insert dial in the centre, but it wasn’t clear what it was measuring/indicating. The game kept telling me to go for ‘Big Bottom’ or some other shot (I forget the name), but I simply couldn’t see it. The rule card was talking about pods, but nothing on the playfield - that I saw - seemed to be about pods. I, personally, just went for the time-honoured approach of hitting the flashing lights but, as with 70s/80s pins, that didn’t seem to net me a high score, unlike the dude stood with me who was also hitting the ball around randomly wondering what to do.

And then, folks, the ramps… the ramps… I still have no idea how you hit the middle ramp. It looks like it should be hit with a third flipper, but I couldn’t see/find a third flipper. There appears to be no obvious geometric way of hitting it with a two flipper arrangement. I tried backhanding it, fronthanding it, every angle imaginable (I’m not a good pinball player, so I figured the problem was probably with me). Then, I read a review on Pinside saying the middle ramps were inaccessible, which explains it.

Apart from the ‘one more game’ feel of trying not to auto-drain and to work out what to do, I felt the layout was less inspired than Homepin’s previous offering Thunderbirds, which had an entertainingly unconventional - but functional - layout. Apart from the inaccessible ramp, This is Spinal Tap had an unadventurous mix of standard features from Bally-Williams/classics layouts, including three side targets on the lower playfield, a row of three knockdown targets near the flippers, and the hint of a fan layout. I was disappointed. A truly unconventional bats**t layout on this already entertainingly bad pin would have taken the ‘so bad it’s good’ vibe up to 11. More weirdly-thin ramps that go nowhere, bash toys on lifting targets and other such quirky features, please.

played in vegas. feels very wobbly. two ramps are extremely hard to make. design flaw imo.. not even sure which flipper i should use to try hit them. The callouts are not good... sleepers. Super floaty. cool artwork and screen tho, but these Pins have such a far way to go to compete with any other brand.

I want the brand to succeed as competition is good. But they can't with this.

They feel like they are cheaply made. Thunderbirds was on the same level. I wanted my 4 quarters back

First game I played at the Pinball Hall of Fame in Vegas. I was so excited when I saw it right after walking through the door. It looks beautiful, inviting you to play. I was even considering picking this one up instead of the Stern 007 Premium I have on pre-order now. What could go wrong?

The answer is a lot actually. There are two ramp shots right in the middle that are absolutely impossible to make. Horrible red flag on a brand new game. It really only gets worse from there. Incomplete code leaves a lot to be desired (but fixable with time?), playfield artwork is pretty shoddy upon close inspection, and it's just not fun to play. Maybe if i had dumped more quarters into it I could have felt a connection, but my gut told me to run.

Fantastic theme, really wanted to love this. But sadly it falls down for me in several ways. Flipper feel is weak, (early?) code sees callouts playing over callouts, and repeatedly too. The construction is lacking, some toys are on light springs and just bounce around, it just did nothing for me at all.

Just a handful of games on this one, hopefully over time they improve these aspects and it becomes better.