The game play is unique and different from the typical cookie cutter pins seen today. I love the gameplay and the theme is certainly welcome!

Really like TWD show so figured I needed to give this a few quarters.

Art is great, really nice work on backglass and side art. Playfield is nice as well.

Well zombie plays a bit too big of a role in the art/gameplay...it was a kind of insignificant part of the show/comic...,but dominates the playfield. On top of that it registers about half of the hits....not good for a shot that can result in some drainage.

Pops are strong! You can get some real action on them...HATE the amount of center drains off the pops release. Watched other people play as well as myself and this happened about 20% of the time...that's not good...should be a clean release considering you hit there off the plunge.

Love the ramps going through the back of the playfield. Barn is a neat toy. Skill shot actually takes skill which is nice.

DMD animation is top notch, but cmon stern, take it to the next level. JJP has the video screen, Spooky is one table deep and thier animations are as good if not better. Get rid of the DMD (or at least go full color) and move on to the next generation....still good considering thier use of technology. But it needs to improve...if it doesn't more pinball makers will pop up and take market share.

It was me and a few friends playing in the arcade and after a few plays We felt we'd rather play iron man, ac/dc, pinbot, or Star Trek as opposed to TWD.

Overall good game.

Alright, I gots to play The Walking Dead pinball game over at Dan Gutchess's spot. I have to say, I am impressed!

The Pros:
A fantastic layout with wide open shots as well as tight orbits. JB must be taking lessons from The King because this game has FLOW! Drop targets that MEAN SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO THE ENTIRE GAME!!! A skill shot that requires... skill (Rollovers are way sweet!). The extra ball shot to the shooter is not really easily hit by the left sling. You have to shoot the short, tight and valuable shot. One wide, steep ramp, on the left and lots of tight accurate shots (through the pops!) all around mean that skillful play is required. The music pax on this game is tense and makes every shot more nerve wracking than it should be. The combo system on this game is righteous and making the combo shots feels a real accomplishment. I need more time on this deck as... I don't know the rules yet, but I will say that reading the rulesheet on this apron made a big difference in understanding the game's priorities. A great game that is easy to understand? Cool! One last thing... this game has the best match sequence EVER!

The Cons:
Bash toy... again? Switches on the well dweller didn't register half the time with direct hits, probably in need of adjustment. I guess that's why Gooch had people over, burn-in play testing! The Skill shot needs to be tweaked from the launch lane to hit the target at the top of the skill shot figure 8. Steep ramps will require fleeeper mechs to be nice and crispy at all times. Sometimes the magnet in front of the barn doensn't pulse and can drop the ball SDTM!

The Takeaway:
Release version software was really solid. Will update again when this game's code is refined. I already like this game better than 'Tallikuh (With it's "finished" software) and I think this game will rank as Tron +1 for me. It's still not AC/DC, but then again... will any game ever be that incredible? Kudos to Stern, John Borg and his entire team for creating a fantastic game. I can't wait to play the LE and have sincere hopes for a Premium. People quoted Gary Stern as saying "This theme is too gross, women won't play it." Gary, if this is true, thank you for reminding yourself that the primary demographic of pinball players are men. Joins Centaur is the Red, white and black color scheme of horror awesomeness!!!

From my initial 6-10 games on this table with other great players, and subsequent play at the 1up... I declare this deck is a PIN-WINNER!

Update: The doors on the barn are liable to break. This seems to be more of a matter of poor engineering as compared to bad play design. Hopefully Stern will release more burly brackets or some type of a physical fix for this issue. Not as much of an issue at home as on the street... but still. The game hasn't been out for 2 weeks and the big toy is failing from operating as it was intended. Score for the toy reduced accordingly.

Update v2:
The more I play this game, the more I respect it. One complaint that I hear about this game is that it has no flow, and that is simply not true. I will say that the flow on this game is uneven comparing the left side of the PF with the two narrow lanes and the wide ramp as compared to the right side with the tight shot through the pops and the narrow ramp. However, I see this as a good kind of a variance in asymmetrical pinball design. This layout requires you to consider and play the table differently from many angles. I am still not sure about some of the rules, especially the combo rules. However, hitting the inlane doubler on a combo shot with Bicycle Girl showed up as an 8.4 million + 1 million for BG. I gotta learn me some combos on this table! Multi-kill can really light up the table and 2x scoring is always a good thing. Make sure to start your well walker before your prison multiball sequence as this stack is crucial to getting good scores on this deck.

Update v3:
The newest version of the software is an interesting adjustment. The refining of the rules has eliminated the prison/well walker stack, but has greatly increased the scoring opportunity of Blood Bath multiball stacks. I'm also surprised how much the lane/ramp modes can be worth with a 2x PF + 2x lane multiplier. 15-20 mil a shot. WOW! This reminds me of the 3x multiplier on WPT. Ya gotta cash that shot in right quick! This game now has a HORDE mode and lots of smaller adjustments that are not readily apparent until you put some serious mileage on this table. Thus... more mileage! So gits out and play this game. It's a solid one and in my opinion, a design that is going to age well.

Update v4:
This game is frikkin' DANGEROUS! There are only 2 shots on the PF that are safe. And those ramps are not the most generous "safe" shots either. The biggest targets in the center of the PF are sucker shots. All orbits go in or out of the danger pops! The drops are dangerous at any angle and the Woodbury shot has been known to mystery eject at a dangerous angle back towards the flippers. The new software is very well done and solid play is rewarded with excellent scores. The new Multi-kill code in particular is evidence of this theory in practice. Is this game an exercise in ball control and shot accuracy? Yes. Is it a good operator's game? Yes. Is it a good competition game? Yes. Do most players dread playing this table with good reason? Yes. I guess this deck really is representative of The Walking Dead.

Update v5:
Blood Bath, Blood Bath, Blood Bath. Rinse and repeat. Is your ball saver lit? Go for Blood Bath. In multiball? Go for Blood Bath. Not sure what to do? Go for Blood Bath. Timed drops and dangerous shots, that is the name of this game. Everything else worthwhile eminates from there. Lane/ Ramp modes are lit from the drops, that's how you get most of your multikills rolling. You have judge risk/reward with EVERY SHOT. This game is only slightly less unforgiving than BSD for missed shots. Is your game on? It better be. Because you are going to have to earn your big scores on this table. I frikkin' love it!

LYMAN SAVES!!!

Update v6:
So I finally got a copy of this game for myself. And the more I played it the more I realized that the layout was very similar to World Cup soccer. Now, I love World Cup soccer it's a great game and wouldn't you know the people at Stern took a lot of similarities in the layout and the shots and turned it into this table and give it Fantastic rules. The audio upgrade is an absolute must and this may be Stern's best pro version of a game out there.

Scores upgraded accordingly.

I was looking forward to release of this pin because I enjoy the show, there appeared to be some original features/toys, and the playfield layout looked challenging. However, I wasn't overly impressed. Put in around one hour and that was more than enough for me. The layout is decent - for the most part a fan layout. The "cellblock c" feature (bashing the doors to eventually reveal a zombie head behind the doors) is solid but I expected more. The "well walker bash toy" in the lower/middle of the playfield is also a decent feature. Besides that, not much creativity in my opinion. In addition, I didn't think there was much flow. I'll revise my rating as the code is updated but so far I'm not real impressed - very average at best.

I like this game.
I prefer the pro and not the LE/premium
smooth ramps
save money and get this one, don't buy the LE or premium :-)

Played about 25 games on the pre-release pro version with early code. The more I play it the more I enjoy it and relish the challenge it faces. This game has great sounds and dots, and although TWD actor call-outs would have been good, I didn't miss them during game play. The music is integrated well with the modes giving a sense of excitement and tension when things change, or the stakes become higher. It has a good combination of humor and seriousness with the dots showing grim scenes on cartoonish figures. Many of the shots are very hard, which is a welcome challenge. The Well Walker, Prison and left ramp are pretty routine shots, but the rest are narrow and hard to hit. In conclusion I really like this game and look forward to playing it more. It does have an originality to it that most serious players will appreciate. I'd say there will be a lot more to offer in future code updates based upon what I could see on the playfield and buyers won't be disappointed. Stern's on a winner here - give it a try.