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Stern Venom

Stern are still producing better alternatives, Deadpool, Elvira and Godzilla spring to mind. If you have these. Fill your boots with Venom. I would have preferred the playfield and art to be a lot darker but understand it needs to stand out in a line-up. However if all your pins look the same. Kinda defeats the purpose..
 
Just watched most of the dead flip stream and liking the look of this game actually. Trying to pick out all the things I likes so far, Fast ball locks, Video mode, Co-op, Reversed flippers, Fast Ball Locks.

I was really hoping the game sound effects were more like Deadpool but some are really good, though hard to make out properly on the stream.

I am not one for complex rules but I'll be reading up on this.

As someone who keeps looking for a fast game this is like crazy fast. I also look for a good quick multiplayer game that would also be great for co-op, so looking forward to hearing and seeing more about that. Can't wait to see how fast the pro plays later on the next stream as that should play even faster :)
 
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Holy **** thats fast! Far too fast for my limited skills.
Got to around 45 min mark and gave up watching as saw enough. Even Jacks spidey senses coudnt cope at times so what chance do mere mortals like me have :rofl:

Without ****ing on anyones party and getting overly negative its not for me as DP is in another galaxy altogether in every respect. Foo buyers can now relax till the GOAT reveals his next masterpiece.
 
Managed to watch about an hour of the stream, will watch the rest later. Seemed to play very fast, quite a few half shot rejects from the ramps, especially the centre one. The rules concept is interesting, something different anyway, no idea if it will be popular or not though. Not really traditional modes just mini tasks that build your xp, get enough xp/ levels to do a mini wiz or wiz mode.

Save your level over games on IC so you can get to the final boss no matter your ability. I think also if you wait and build your level even higher before attempting the battles, they are easier depending on your level. Speed run timer carries over games too so you can try to improve your time to the final boss, if it takes you multiple games each time you have something to measure your progress against as scores will be weird with possibly being able to start the final wizard mode early in a game if that's where you're saved to.

Overall not excited by the gameplay stream but interesting code choice, try something new and see what people think. Maybe one I pick up at 1.0 code just to see if the different code direction is something that appeals to me or not.
 
I like the bell shot being the playfield multiplier and also don't mind the fan layout at all. I really like the ball paths on Foo Fighters and GZ but I don't need every game to do that.

I also think it's good that the ball locks are physical and release the ball quickly.

As someone who wasn't even aware of the licence or the character I think it looks pretty cool.

The pro in particular looks awesome in that purple.

When it was announced I wasn't sure how many it would sell, because the theme seemed niche.

AIQ had too many characters and rules, if this is the same then Stern clearly haven't learnt. But if the team-ups are done in same way as Deadpool it will help. Also, deep rules are fine if they're intuitive and assisted by playfield insert prompts and . . . . AIQ did neither of those imo.

Honestly . . . . it's a lot better than I expected but I'd really need to see how tough those tight shots are in person.
 
I could see the saved progress thing being more popular for location play than home play. Home play I probably still want to see what I can do in 1 game, which I think is still an option in code. Location play, sometimes you know you don't want a game at home but would like to see deeper into the game, the saved progress should give that option.
 
Anyone watch the stream?

Love the ball release from the two outer wire forms. Reminds me of Spectrum or to a lesser extent LOTR.
One of R&M super nice features (teleport) along with the dangerous pop bumper GZ seemed to acquire. Stern are not stupid and know when others have used tricks to their best potential. I wouldn‘t be suprsed is they steal the idea or the 2 spouting cocks on Scooby apron in there next outing :rofl:
 
I could see the saved progress thing being more popular for location play than home play. Home play I probably still want to see what I can do in 1 game, which I think is still an option in code. Location play, sometimes you know you don't want a game at home but would like to see deeper into the game, the saved progress should give that option.
I do think the code is the best part about the game albeit complex the fact you level up and get to see mini wizard modes and the final wizard mode is genius and should be implemented on all games going forward. I have said this about TMNT its code is brilliant for co-op play and challenge modes. Dwight does excel at this IMO
 
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Looks like they tried to make the fannest of all fan layouts. Surely this has the lowest BOM of any Stern yet?
I was going to say. I've just started watching the stream. I just went in on a JP2 Prem and I did keep worrying 'should I have waited and got something else?' but I'm not worried seeing this.

Put bluntly, so far, it looks like a combination of Spiderman and No Fear with the ruleset of A:IQ. I'm sure high-level competition players will enjoy it because of the fast play and option to optimise characters for maximum points (same as Final Fantasy fans), but I don't see why you'd want to own it unless you had literally owned everything else made by Stern in the last ten years plus the B/W back catalogue.

Personally, if this layout and the speed excited me, I'd buy the player's condition No Fear currently on here for £2,700, spend a couple of thousand doing it up and still have change for a small car!

I do, however, have 'London privilege' (i.e. I live an hour's cycle ride from Funland in Russell Square and I'm sure it will turn up there at some point). If one does turn up at Funland, I'm sure I'll play it long enough to level up and finish the game - as a rubbish player, there's a certain novelty in being able to see the wizard mode just by playing lots of times. However, that's not sufficiently novel to spend £11k on.
 
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Watched the Twitch stream. Rules look better than Mando hit the razor crest- still think the Pro is bare- Premium playfield mechs change the game play significantly I’d imagine
 
Watched the Twitch stream. Rules look better than Mando hit the razor crest- still think the Pro is bare- Premium playfield mechs change the game play significantly I’d imagine
Speaking as a TNA owner, pins aren't all about rules... :cool:

Personally, if I'd come up with the 'levelling-up' idea, I'd have got the Pathfinder or D&D licences and gone full in, e.g.


The whole 'levelling up' idea comes from Dungeons & Dragons, JPRGs and other fantasy derivatives, and everyone is familiar with those because they're part of popular culture. Really simple rules - you complete quests/modes to get weapons and gain experience to level-up abilities, which save onto Insider Connected so you can continue your quest across multiple machines 🤷‍♂️ The game gets easier with multiple level ups until you can get through to the final wizard mode at your level of play, e.g. you grind for extra balls, multi-balls and to make fewer shots.

Eventually, if you're a rubbish player, you have so many 'extra ball potions' and weapons that you can get through to the final wizard mode with three balls, even if you're a toddler who hits both flipper buttons at the same time (but you'd have to play for ages to get that many level ups). I'd go for a fun, nostalgic 80s look for the whole thing and spin off the cheesy pinball fantasy art from that era.

Stern, if you want to steal this idea... You're welcome.
 
Maybe I’m just getting old but right now when I play / watch new Sterns I just feel like I’m being SHOUTED AT constantly whilst the ball screams around at mental speed. The relentless aural assault from the call-outs and generic EXCITING MUSIC is brain frazzling.

My face watching a minute of that stream ….


I might get into EMs 😁
 
No offence to Jason at Knapp but if Rufer says Stern have He-Man I’ll go with him everytime, the man’s never wrong on what’s coming from Stern. 95% track record since about 2011.
 
No offence to Jason at Knapp but if Rufer says Stern have He-Man I’ll go with him everytime, the man’s never wrong on what’s coming from Stern. 95% track record since about 2011.
Hopefully it will be stern over American pinball
 
You stop right now with that sort of talk ! We will get a Wayne’s World pin and we will be worthy 🙌

I hope you’re right. If you are…

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But to get back on topic - watched a bit of the Deadflip stream today. Theme does nothing for me, and I haven’t watched enough to really begin to understand the rules. I do however really enjoy fast games and have nothing against fan layouts, so this looks like a ton of fun to shoot. I love how the locks stage balls so you don’t even have to wait for the ball to retuen to the flippers from a ramp shot, it just fires another one at you. I’d like to play one.
 
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