Stern
Venom (Pro) Pinside Rating
This game received 122 approved Pinsider ratings and currently rates 7.342 /10
Venom (Pro)
Top 100 ranking
This game ranks 3rd in the game group "Venom". The group itself ranks #61 in the Pinside Pinball Top 100.
Score breakdown
Score breakdown in the 4 main categories:
Game Design: 6.861
Artwork: 8.286
Sounds/Music: 7.043
Other Aspects: 6.941
Pinside staff rating
This is how we, the very knowledgeable (wink wink) Pinside.com staff & moderators rate this game. 1 of us has rated this game.
This title is part of group: "Venom"
Found 41 ratings (with comment) on this game
There are 41 ratings (that include a comment) on this game.
Currently showing results page 1 of 2.
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7.508/10
42 days ago
Bristol
Things I liked: the quick locks make for a fast and furious experience, no breather whilst balls return down wireforms. I also like that this was the first game to bring in the IC progression system.
What I don’t like is that the machine I played shot like a bag of spanners. Even though the playfield is wide open, hitting the shots is not straightforward and I rattled shots very often. Partly skill issue, but the geometry just doesn’t feel quite right.
I also feel like the theme is ill-conceived, nobody asked for this machine and rumours are that the sales figures reflect this. Venom is sandwiched between two Elwin classics and the innovative Foo Fighters, unfortunately I think it was DOA.
What I don’t like is that the machine I played shot like a bag of spanners. Even though the playfield is wide open, hitting the shots is not straightforward and I rattled shots very often. Partly skill issue, but the geometry just doesn’t feel quite right.
I also feel like the theme is ill-conceived, nobody asked for this machine and rumours are that the sales figures reflect this. Venom is sandwiched between two Elwin classics and the innovative Foo Fighters, unfortunately I think it was DOA.
5.478/10
3 months ago
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
I don't know what to think about this machine.
The playfield is empty and seems like it would get boring fast but it is fun and kept sucking me back in to just 1 more game.
The shots are sort of simple and repetitive, but the pace is fast and fun. lining up and repeating shots became rewarding quickly.
I don't really care for the theme, but found that I started to enjoy working through the various characters.
contradictions all around on this machine.
I suspect that if I spent more time on this machine that I would probably start to hate it, and also find that I had poured hours into it trying to find a way to "finish" my journey through the gameplay.
The playfield is empty and seems like it would get boring fast but it is fun and kept sucking me back in to just 1 more game.
The shots are sort of simple and repetitive, but the pace is fast and fun. lining up and repeating shots became rewarding quickly.
I don't really care for the theme, but found that I started to enjoy working through the various characters.
contradictions all around on this machine.
I suspect that if I spent more time on this machine that I would probably start to hate it, and also find that I had poured hours into it trying to find a way to "finish" my journey through the gameplay.
7.972/10
4 months ago
Played on location and for awhile! Very approachable but confusing at the beginning. The rules had me all over the place but I think I just need more time on it. Could see owning this one and I liked how it was different but felt familiar. Animation on this is top notch. I’m not a fan of the theme but I could still see owning this one so if you’re a Venom fan this is a no brainer.
8.247/10
5 months ago
Budapest
Played a few games on location. my basic approach was not very optimistic, I dont like the Venom theme, the playfield is empty, etc. BUT I had fun! I really like the speed how the ramps feed quickly the balls, and how quickly you need to react to your next shot. Surprise, but I liked it!
Dont know yet if it woulnt become old quickly at home, but on location I would surely sink some coins in this machine, the gameplay unique and fast!
After this cant wait to try out the premium!
Dont know yet if it woulnt become old quickly at home, but on location I would surely sink some coins in this machine, the gameplay unique and fast!
After this cant wait to try out the premium!
6.745/10
5 months ago
Just played this for the first time on location last night. I own AIQ Pro so my comparisons come mostly from that flow etc. overall fun and simple layout but seemed to be missing something. Very little variability in the shots. Tons of ramps/orbits which were super smooth and satisfying to hit, but that's about it. I scored ~500 million on my first game with no understanding of the rule set (not sure of scoring but seemed high in comparison to other Stern games).
Theme and artwork are great but gameplay is priority. I walked away after 3 games just wanting more. Was super fun and I could see non pinball players stepping up and loving it for the shots but I don't see it having longevity.
I prefer AIQ's depth, complexity and variety of shots.
Take it with a grain of salt. Only 3 games played.
Theme and artwork are great but gameplay is priority. I walked away after 3 games just wanting more. Was super fun and I could see non pinball players stepping up and loving it for the shots but I don't see it having longevity.
I prefer AIQ's depth, complexity and variety of shots.
Take it with a grain of salt. Only 3 games played.
9.140/10
5 months ago
I played the pro in location over 100 times and had a ton of fun. The speed is a lot like Star Wars (pro) with the horseshoe. Love Venom and the artwork that is in this game. Tons of fun with the progression and modes. Highly recommend.
8.603/10
5 months ago
This game had a lot more flow than I expected and plays nice and fast. The ball damns on the ramps on the left and right surprisingly kept the game flowing. It timed giving you balls at the same time it would have come around or maybe even slightly soon. I had a lot of fun shooting this game. Venom as a them is OK, but at least it is tied with Spiderman, which makes it cool. Artwork is great. It has the same static animations as Avengers, which is not good.
I was able to play a Pro and Premium right next to each other and was able to put as much time as I wanted and I liked the Pro the best. For some reason it just felt like it flowed a lot better. The extras on the Premium are cool, but for some reason didn't make the game better. I would consider buying this game.
I was able to play a Pro and Premium right next to each other and was able to put as much time as I wanted and I liked the Pro the best. For some reason it just felt like it flowed a lot better. The extras on the Premium are cool, but for some reason didn't make the game better. I would consider buying this game.
6.295/10
6 months ago
UPDATE: Venom Pro is growing on me. I came back to it on location at Funland in central London after an injury, and spent ages playing it. It had good fast flow, needed some nudging to play well, and the fan layout reminded me of my AFM at home (it's by the same designer). The rules still needed postdoctoral study to understand, but it was better to casually shoot than the most of the (much denuded) collection of modern Sterns on that location.
***
My husband and I had a bunch of plays on the Venom Pro at Funland in Russell Square, London.
His one-line review: “It didn’t fill me with joy.” My take was that it played like “a freemium mobile phone game transmuted weirdly into physical form”.
On the Pro nothing really moves - I can’t comment on the Premium/LE. I went through the (moving) replay a couple of times.
The art and music package feel great - lively, colourful and vibrant (which, unfortunately, just adds oddly to the overall mobile phone game feel).
The shots are very smooth. It’s not any faster than, say, TNA or Foo Fighters, but you can just shoot (on the Pro) anywhere and the ball will zip around the playfield like it’s on a Star Wars hyperloop (I will refer to other, better games here). This means that aiming is optional, and you can just keep flipping the ball anywhere, without negative consequences.
Obviously, if it had good code, this frictionless play would be an asset. However, the code is not… good.
For starters, nothing is explained, so you get concepts like ‘choose your team-up’ thrown at you randomly, with no idea what a team-up is or the impact of a ‘+1 Miles Morales combo’. I’m sure the score maximisers will have a field day in tournament, but it’s inaccessible on a walk-up play and, from choosing different team-ups and hosts, the differences are marginal (on the Pro).
Added to this, the insert lighting has the slight issue of tiny lights buried next to huge artwork in places, making it harder to gauge the game state at a glance. Take advice from the golden oldies. AFM does this right, people. Huge insert lights with lettering on.
My first play was really fun. I got through a bunch of levels, did three multiballs and was excited to see what I would see next, as the game unravelled its narrative secrets on the way to Level 50. Varied boss fights with timed flipper shots? Increasingly varied and engrossing modes? Then I played a second game… and a third... And I was still getting the exact same Carnage and Mayhem multiballs, with little change or improvement in anything that wasn’t entirely numerical (at one point Stern Insider told me I’d achieved a 5-way combo. After achieving a 3-way and a 4-way one. Should I be impressed? ) I even started a mini-mode - Stern Insider told me, but I hadn’t actually noticed.
I assumed I’d missed something. Eventually, I just trapped up the ball and tried shooting at stuff - lit or unlit - in the hope of starting a big, whoopy whomping mode of multi-levelled awesomeness. But, no, it really was that grindy. Ball after ball, game-after-game, starting the same two mediocre multiballs, spaffing the balls around the playfield like Ferraris on glass, and then getting a set of incomprehensible stats (e.g. infected defeated) that progressed me towards Level 50.
It really does play like a mobile phone game in physical form. If it had offered me a shovel to do three-in-a-row mining sim, or to dig a geometrical field of cabbages, I would have felt the same sense of tedious, pointless repetition in the hope of longer-term excitement.
A miss for me. Genuinely, the worst thing in Funland [which has eight or nine Spike 2 Sterns] right now that isn’t broken.
***
My husband and I had a bunch of plays on the Venom Pro at Funland in Russell Square, London.
His one-line review: “It didn’t fill me with joy.” My take was that it played like “a freemium mobile phone game transmuted weirdly into physical form”.
On the Pro nothing really moves - I can’t comment on the Premium/LE. I went through the (moving) replay a couple of times.
The art and music package feel great - lively, colourful and vibrant (which, unfortunately, just adds oddly to the overall mobile phone game feel).
The shots are very smooth. It’s not any faster than, say, TNA or Foo Fighters, but you can just shoot (on the Pro) anywhere and the ball will zip around the playfield like it’s on a Star Wars hyperloop (I will refer to other, better games here). This means that aiming is optional, and you can just keep flipping the ball anywhere, without negative consequences.
Obviously, if it had good code, this frictionless play would be an asset. However, the code is not… good.
For starters, nothing is explained, so you get concepts like ‘choose your team-up’ thrown at you randomly, with no idea what a team-up is or the impact of a ‘+1 Miles Morales combo’. I’m sure the score maximisers will have a field day in tournament, but it’s inaccessible on a walk-up play and, from choosing different team-ups and hosts, the differences are marginal (on the Pro).
Added to this, the insert lighting has the slight issue of tiny lights buried next to huge artwork in places, making it harder to gauge the game state at a glance. Take advice from the golden oldies. AFM does this right, people. Huge insert lights with lettering on.
My first play was really fun. I got through a bunch of levels, did three multiballs and was excited to see what I would see next, as the game unravelled its narrative secrets on the way to Level 50. Varied boss fights with timed flipper shots? Increasingly varied and engrossing modes? Then I played a second game… and a third... And I was still getting the exact same Carnage and Mayhem multiballs, with little change or improvement in anything that wasn’t entirely numerical (at one point Stern Insider told me I’d achieved a 5-way combo. After achieving a 3-way and a 4-way one. Should I be impressed? ) I even started a mini-mode - Stern Insider told me, but I hadn’t actually noticed.
I assumed I’d missed something. Eventually, I just trapped up the ball and tried shooting at stuff - lit or unlit - in the hope of starting a big, whoopy whomping mode of multi-levelled awesomeness. But, no, it really was that grindy. Ball after ball, game-after-game, starting the same two mediocre multiballs, spaffing the balls around the playfield like Ferraris on glass, and then getting a set of incomprehensible stats (e.g. infected defeated) that progressed me towards Level 50.
It really does play like a mobile phone game in physical form. If it had offered me a shovel to do three-in-a-row mining sim, or to dig a geometrical field of cabbages, I would have felt the same sense of tedious, pointless repetition in the hope of longer-term excitement.
A miss for me. Genuinely, the worst thing in Funland [which has eight or nine Spike 2 Sterns] right now that isn’t broken.
7.950/10
6 months ago
There are few games with lanes that feel this satisfying to hit, when you find your shots, it feels just smooth as silk. I am a big fan of games that reward and use frequent backhand shots and both sides have a variety of techniques to get the ball where you want. It's also pretty damn easy to get into multi ball and you can ignore most of the game and seek it out for high scores in a way I would not have expected in 2023. The insider connected progression is fascinating and pretty cool, makes it interesting to keep coming back for, but the ruleset is pretty weird and somewhat difficult for me to follow. I think there's a ton of depth there, especially for someone that has this pin at home, but I am usually at a loss of just what to do next at times. The pro is definitely just fine, but some of the clear plastic pieces that replace the articulating stuff on the premium is a little strange and feels cheap for a pin of this cost. Art package and visuals are spectacular and us the theme as well as they possibly could. There's a darkness and a lean into the comic book them that I find very attractive, even as someone who doesn't love comic book pins all that much typically. I'll still choose other Sterns on location but a really cool pin all in all.
Oakville, ON
6.872/10
8 months ago
Game is still very early code wise but I do like the general concept and new level up gameplay mechanics. The layout on the pro is extremely barren and isn’t very fun to shoot. If it wasn’t for how fast it plays with the fast lock system it would be a complete dud.
6.291/10
8 months ago
Pro model is way too stripped-down on this one; it's devoid of toys except carnage. Mostly shoots OK, but the horseshoe loop isn't great (much prefer the premium's ramps in that spot) and the return from the right orbit is very clunky. Ruleset shows a lot of promise (but is better integrated on Premium.) Decent art, but isn't Zombie Yeti's best art package (though the source material is more limiting than a lot of other themes.)
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