On Saturday February 1, 2025 we got our first chance to flip the rare Turner Pinball original theme game Ninja Eclipse about 30 minute south of Tacoma, WA at an arcade called Insert Coin.
How rare? Turner are only making 100 and all of them are sold out. According to Pinside (https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/tp-ninja-eclipse) as of this writing, there are only 3 places to play them at on location:
Insert Coin in Olympia, WA also had the premium version of the new Metallica: Remastered. They also had the sound cranked up on a Spooky fav of ours Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle. Wasn’t aware the sound was that good on there, but it is.
In this article, like we’ll cover my first thoughts after flipping Ninja Eclipse in detail. We’ve been doing this for every new pinball machine we encounter after Venom. We skipped Jaws, because we had so much other coverage on that game and my son bought one, too, see: Our Son Bought a New In Box Jaws Stern Premium – The First 40 Days of Ownership – What’s the Experience Really Like?
Before getting to Ninja Eclipse, here are other first thoughts after flipping you might enjoy reading:
- Metallica: Remastered (Stern 2024) LE
- Avatar (Jersey Jack Pinball 2024)
- The Uncanny X-Men (Stern 2024)
- Pulp Fiction SE (2023)
- John Wick Pro + Premium (Stern 2024 v0.81 code)
- Labyrinth (Barrels of Fun 2023)
- Looney Tunes (Spooky 2024)
Want to add that now that we’ve seen Metallica: Remastered the green artwork that I disliked strongly looks much better in person. I didn’t have as much a problem with the alien Metallica translite, but still wish they’d gone with a different color.
There is only one first time flipping a game and then it’s over, so capturing these first thoughts, seems like a useful experience to share. Let’s tackle …
Ninja Eclipse [Turner Pinball 2024] Detailed First Thoughts After Flipping on Location
MIXED – Theme
Original themes are a tough sell. Stuff like American Pinball’s Barry O’s BBQ and Turner Pinball Ninja Eclipse are at an immediate disadvantage compared to well known IPs like Jaws, The Uncanny X-Men, Avatar, Dungeons & Dragons and so on.
That said, a creative story involving ninjas has potential. Much more potential than a barbecue pin, so points for coming up with an original story and then adopting into a pinball. Have shared here before that the theme is only a small part of the game play-wise to me. It could be a theme that I dislike but still really enjoy playing the game. The Shadow comes to mind. Not a fan of that movie, but like the game. Pinball themes, however, do matter for buying a game. I would be much less likely to buy a game with a theme I don’t care that much about. It’s just about the art and the fact these games take up so much space.
As an original theme, however, Ninja Eclipse is decent. It’s not great, it’s not bad, it’s about average.
MIXED – Playfield Design, Mechs & Toys
It doesn’t feel barebones for design and there are some challenging shots, particularly the side flipper to go up and around the ramp. I struggled to make that shot with the power of that flipper, which let me down a bit. There also aren’t very many toys or mechs in this game. There is a shot in the upper left corner to knock down a target and twice we had a ball wedge when the target was up and stuck the game.
After a long time, the ball search shot out an additional ball and then when one of the two drained the ball counter was off and it drained the ball. This will probably be fixed in code, but it was a bummer, no doubt for a game that cost $1 per game.
LIKE – Translite, Side and Playfield Artwork
At first glance, in pictures and in person, the artwork pops on this one. It’s not Avatar level of beauty or even most modern Sterns, but the artist did a good job here. I like how the purple color accents.
MIXED – Plunger / Skill Shots
There are skill shots, but the plunger on this game felt a little cheesy. I didn’t experience anything that innovative with the skill shots, but it’s possible I missed some cool skill shots that do exist. The sense I had flipping was there was a lot more to this game than apparent right away. That’s a positive.
MIXED – Gameplay Flow
From the promotional feature set (pictured below), Ninja Eclipse promises “code complete at delivery” at launch. This, alone, if true is unusual in the current release of games. As for flow in the game itself, it’s a bit clunky in places. I found some shots, as mentioned earlier, difficult to pull off. Like there just isn’t enough flipper power. This might be a setting adjustment, in fairness, as the actual feel of the main flippers is good. Similar enough to a Stern or old Bally/Williams game. I liked the flipper feel overall.
As for the flow, it was a bit chunky. I didn’t identify shots that felt smooth and rewarding. Instead, I was bricking off stuff — a lot. I don’t think this is so much the game layout as it is more my familiarity and comfort level with it at first. I think in time, I’d like the way it shoots more than my initials few plays.
There’s a lot to shoot for and do, including picking different Ninjas with special powers. I liked the interaction of the story and modes with the play. This almost immediately feels more polished than expected. I didn’t think there would be this level of interaction from a code standpoint for an original first game.
LIKE – scoring
The scoring is more medium than higher tier, but it doesn’t feel punishing like some other middle tier scoring games like John Wick. 100 million feels like it would be a pretty good game and 500 to a billion would be a serious challenge. I liked the scoring here.
LIKE – LCD movie assets and callouts
The original animation and callouts are good. The LCD display itself is a good size, not too small, not overbearingly large. It wasn’t distracting, but supplemental and you could look up and get your score at various times fairly quickly, which is always appreciated.
DISLIKE – Music/sounds
The music and sounds are underwhelming. They aren’t terrible, but they aren’t really anything that stood out to me. Disappointing, considering so much other creativity was put into this game, clearly. Maybe in part the volume of the game wasn’t loud enough, but right next to Ninja Eclipse was Spooky’s Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle and the sound was so much better, with thumping bass, than Ninja Eclipse I was disappointed comparison. Maybe it’s unfair to compare a music pin sound to this, but the comparison is stark and very noticeable.
MIXED – Lighting
The lighting is serviceable, but nothing special. Plenty of games with better lighting like Pulp Fiction, Avatar and Uncanny X-Men, but I’d say Ninja Eclipse is a little better than Jaws. Maybe on par with John Wick, perhaps a little better. This might be a cost-cutting area.
MIXED – Additional Game/Video Modes
I didn’t experience any special interactive video modes, which would be cool to see added.
MIXED – Connected features
Turner Pinball has their own Insider Connected like service called PinAccess, but it’s beta and wasn’t available to check out when playing.
This was the one feature I was most excited to check out and then was bummed when it wasn’t working yet.
LIKE – Pricing
Think this is the first game released that I actually find the pricing reasonable, and marked it ‘like’. It could be 20% cheaper, but feel like Turner put enough premium features into their game to make the $7,000 price enticing. If it was $5,400 it would have sold out faster, of course, but at $7k it seems fair. These are the extra premium features they included:
After research and feedback, Turner Pinball lowered their launch price for Ninja Eclipse. It must have worked, because they sold out of the 100 games.
Instead of going on about pricing, I’ll just link up this: OPINION: Active, Interested Buyer: New in Box Modern Pinball Prices are 20% (at least) Too Expensive
Overall early feelings – Not interested in buying, interested in playing more
Grade: C+
For a first title launch there is a lot to like about Ninja Eclipse. I almost gave this a B- but it plays in a way that feels a bit unpolished. I’m sure with their next game they will do better, but this is a pretty good first effort. I’d put this above some of the Spooky games comparatively, but it never really raises to the level of a JJP or Stern. Play Elton John and then play this? Elton John destroys. Jaws vs. Ninja Eclipse? Come on. This is more in line between John Wick and Venom, from a gameplay standpoint. It’s way better than American’s Barry O’s Barbecue. In fact, I’d compare it play-wise to Houdini, at least in how it feels. I think this has a stronger story and modes that are more fun.
We will go back and play Ninja Eclipse again. Hopefully to check out PinAccess. I think this is the #1 reason to watch what Turner Pinball is doing, because they have put focus on connected pinball, even trademarked their program. If that had been working when I played, my grade would likely be higher.
If you have a chance to flip Ninja Eclipse anywhere, definitely get on it. I like most of what I saw and played and look forward to what Turner does next and continuing to see this game evolve.
The biggest problem with Ninja Eclipse is that there are only 100 of these games. That’s too few produced to be widespread and gain much gameplay from pinfolk. I’d recommend that Turner shoot for 500 or more games for their next run. If 70% of the people buying this game are HUO (Home Use Only) that leaves a paltry 30 games to be put on location worldwide? Not enough.
I get it, make it something rare so more people might want it, but this works for Limited Editions more than a first title. I’m sure Turner also kept the number low so that they could guarantee they’d be able to get the games produced in a reasonable amount of time.