I’ve been excited to flip the new Stern Dungeons & Dragons pinball more than any other theme in years. Seriously, we need to go back to Godzilla since I was last this excited for a theme. Certainly more than anything released in the last year from anybody, including Jaws, a game which I have played nearly 2,000 times (and love, btw!).
When I first saw the playfield with that dragon, gelatinous cube and Insider Connected leveling system a la Venom, I was even more stoked. The pin looks gorgeous from the pictures alone.
And I got to play it — two different times — this week.
As of this writing, the game is popping up on location, at least the Pro version of it, anyway, so visit: https://insider.sternpinball.com/ic/locations enter a zip code near you and filter for “Dungeons & Dragons” to see where you need to visit.
This game was primarily designed by Brian Eddy with software by Dwight Sullivan. Via pinside, here’s the complete design team behind this game:
Good to see Elizabeth Gieske working on the code as well, she was responsible for programming several fun modes on Jaws, the 2024 first Stern Pinball cornerstone launch. She indicated in a Flip N Out stream (see below) that she plays D&D and has watched all of Critical Role’s coverage (~500 hours).
She found out about D&D in development during Jaws and was asked if she wanted to be involved and was an enthusiastic, “Yes!”
Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye [Stern Pro Pinball 2024] Detailed First Thoughts After Flipping on Location
LOVE – Theme
This is one of the best themes Stern Pinball has done in years. Going back, for me, anyway, their last title was Godzilla that has this kind of “hey, I love that!” Last year, they had Jaws, which at least the first movie is iconic, but the sequels not so much. Before that, Jurassic Park and Star Wars, those are on the level of Dungeons & Dragons.
How popular is D&D? There are 50 million players. That’s way above the number of active and even casual pinball players worldwide. If we looked at Stern Insider Connected, the numbers aren’t public, but we used to be able to see until they hid the numbers how many people had a badge for playing for three days. That number was less than 100,000. Am sure that number has exponentially grown and it’s probably pushing multiples of that now, but the pinball hobby despite its recent resurgence in popularity is still somewhat niche and Dungeons & Dragons, clearly, is not.
This all said, I love the theme. It’s a perfect fit for pinball, especially a game that can provide expanding play, leveling up, something beside a more set type of game. Dwight Sullivan, the software lead, did leveling on Venom before, but that didn’t really seem to fit as well as it does with D&D. I’m stoked for the potential here.
LIKE – Playfield Design, Mechs & Toys
The main mech is the red dragon and a secondary mech is the shield between the flippers. On the pro the dragon moves left and right and up and down and does not shoot balls like the premium. It is really easy to launch the dragon multiball, maybe too easy. You spell out D-R-A-G-O-N by hitting the targets beneath the dragon and maybe there are some other ways, but I only played 6 games the first session and wasn’t sure. My son and I went back and played another 10 games or so a couple days later. It does seem like that might be the only way.
Once the multiball starts, you can raise the shield with the action button. I found that it only lasts a small amount of time so you need to pay attention when the shield drops and re-activate right away. The number of balls that get shot onto the playfield is numerous and frenzied in a good way. I lost count how many, but it seems like every ball is on you so that shield becomes really important. It also can be very high scoring fighting the dragon, as multiple times I beat it for over 100 million.
If you’re playing with another person they can call out how many dragon hits are still needed to beat it, which is what my son and I did for each other. Looking up at the LCD while the dragon mode is active? Forget about it. Too much action.
If you don’t beat the dragon the machine goes dark and all balls drain, then a new ball queues up. A celebration mode kicks in once you beat the dragon and you need to hit yellow shots for bonus points. This mode battle is frenetic, exciting and really shines.
The weakest toy is the gelatinous cube. It looks like it should do more than it does … maybe lightning inside it or something, but it just is there. At least I didn’t see any sort of interaction with it beyond the ball going through hit. It does look pretty bada$$ however.
This dragon battle is the key feature of the game and yes, yes, yes it’s fun.
MIXED – Translite, Side and Playfield Artwork
I don’t care as much for the playfield artwork, it seems a little plain. It doesn’t feel as D&D as it could be, if that makes sense. I was left a little underwhelmed. Maybe it’s the color scheme, maybe it used too many dull colors and shades.
Before people bash me on this in the comments or elsewhere, go back and look at some of the early artwork. I bought the 500+ page book The Making of D&D and some of those early drawings are wild. Would have love to have seen some of that. Yes, some of it is very adult, which they might have had to not go that far, but the playfield art is too safe. I won’t call it vanilla, but it’s vanilla with some chunks of chocolate in it.
The artwork on the sides and backbox, however, I like. Very colorful and very D&D. The LE has some really sweet flaming red powder coat armor that would be cool to be added to the pro or premium, should that become an option someday. The font used for The Tyrant’s Eye is too minimalist, too simplistic. Compared to the iconic D&D logo, it comes off as uninspired.
The translite looks as great in person as it does in pictures. The side art is also visually appealing.
The artwork on the playfield itself is just not as impressive. I normally don’t criticize playfield art, but feel like this just comes up a bit short. Maybe I’m being hypercritical, but as with all these subjective things, judge for yourselves.
LIKE – Plunger / Skill Shots
You have a variety of skill shots and the plunger felt good. You can hit the dragon for a skill shot, you can go up the middle through the dice spinner. I didn’t feel like the plunges were jerky or unable to meet the shots I wanted, including a full plunge. I didn’t see any short plunge opportunities, which is a bit on the boring side. I held the left flipper to see what might be added options there and didn’t see anything yet, but maybe I missed or that’s coming in a future code update.
MIXED – Gameplay Flow
I felt this was primarily a circular, distance flow game, where most of the shots are arching and wide and not really straight on, besides the Dragon. The shots are further range from the flipper, a distance layout except for the hold shot on the left. I found the angles of some of these shots a bit tricky initially, bricking more than should have, especially the shots to the right of the dice.
Initial feeling is (much) more time needed to perfect the shots and angles. Flow reminds me here a bit of John Wick and that’s a bit disappointing shot-wise, but I might warm up more to it on future plays. The Dragon hit from the right flipper is a drain monster, literally. Better to hit that dragon from the left flipper as backhand shot — and lighter the better — or you’re going to be having a ball wildly richochet and race for the drain. The right outlane is brutal at times, so be ready to nudge there.
LIKE – Scoring
Scoring is in the high tier (see: Ranking Stern Spike 2 Games by Scoring Tier +Took 900+ days to score over a billion). I was able to score a couple hundred million my second game ever played. Feeling like maybe even the scoring needs to be tweaked down a bit, because it might be too high scoring. They will tweak the multipliers and score bonuses as the code matures, so this is minor. I’d rather see the scoring lean higher on the initial launch and be diale back a bit as they go full 1.0 code. This would benefit early players, encouraging people to go out and play the new games even more. This is good for the hobby and operators to generate excitement. I’m not saying they should intentionally inflate scoring at the start, but balancing a bit on the higher side would be better than undershooting.
LIKE – LCD movie assets and callouts
One small criticism is the text and font are very plain, kind of like the lighting. This will be updated in future code, I’m certain, so not really grading this down at this time, however it’s too generic. I really love the callouts and know they will add even more as the code matures, filling out the game’s ambience. As it stands now, you primarily get a lot of Michael Dorn as the dragon and his voice is guttural and it works well. It’s like a dragon is talking to you, really talking to you. Perfect voice.
LIKE – Music/sounds
Again, voiceovers from the dragon (Worf! Michael Dorn) are fantastic. The dice rolling in a cup sound is amazing. I didn’t hear much music, so that’s a letdown of sorts. It could have been the location, as sound in some locations are difficult to hear, especially when you have a row of other pins on either side and other ambient sound.
DISLIKE – Lighting
At times when playing felt literally like I was in a dungeon. Please Dungeon Master, roll me a torch or two. Maybe it’s brilliant that it’s dark intentionally, because the word “dungeon” is in the name, but I would rather imagine a colorful D&D experience like what shows on Stern’s site when you look at the playfield lit up well. The default pro lighting is poor IMO.
Upon a second pass and play in more modes, I began to appreciate and enjoy the lighting better. There is a purple mode that lights up nice.
LIKE – Additional Game/Video Modes
There is a dice game that is activated and played through the center spinner. You buy to unlock from the store. There is a dungeon mode that changes paths every Sunday, which is a neat idea, and I thought this dungeon would be completely controlled from the flippers. When playing, it’s natural to try and memorize the pattern of which way to travel through the dungeon. Did I go right? Left? Push forward last time? How do avoid the trap? Yes, this is satisfying and with the change every Sunday it adds to the replay.
LIKE – Connected features
This is where the leveling comes in. So, you can use one of the created characters: I chose the Paladin for the first six plays and on the second play with my son, played the rogue, cleric and wizard. The speed of which you level seems reasonably swift. Perhaps a little slower than in Venom, but you get a satisfying sense of progression. My paladin is like level 5 or 6, and the other characters 2-3 with only a small number of overall plays.
DISLIKE – Pricing
One positive here is Stern didn’t raise their prices for D&D. Same as all last year games: $7,000 for the Pro, the one I played and $9,699 for the Premium and $13,000 for the LE. I’ve already gone on record that I dislike this pricing, but it’s cool they didn’t raise the price yet, because I hear that’s what is coming with future games. I get it, prices go up, but it just feels like there are some cost savings in materials and manufacturing efficiency that could be passed along to the customer.
Am far and away not alone in thinking that modern pinball games are too expensive. Instead of railing against it again, see this: OPINION: Active, Interested Buyer: New in Box Modern Pinball Prices are 20% (at least) Too Expensive
Overall early feelings – I don’t know on buying it yet, think it’s good as a start, but something probably enjoy playing mostly on location. My son is interested in possibly buying after he played the first session. I do want to play it much, much more and plan to do so at TPF next month (see: We will be at Texas Pinball Festival on Saturday March 22, 2025, Are you Attending?)
Despite the 0.85 code, this one feels a little further along than the code says. Is it launch worthy in this state? I’m kinda on the fence, especially at these prices. Just seems like these games should launch closer to completely done, but that is the way Stern has chosen and they are at least consistent with each release. They are using the initial launch to work out kinks and use their customers, us, as beta testers.
Then again, for those not buying, just playing, there will continue to be code updates — and likely good ones, based on the skilled people working -. I’m looking forward to seeing where this adventure leads. D&D, save for some issues with some cabling issues impacting the dragon (fixed) is off to a promising start. I feel like with the addition of even more inspired play modes, quests, challenges, this one could become a real winner long term. We’ll see.
Grade: B
Enjoy reading articles like this? Here are other detailed first thoughts after flipping for some other games released in the not too distant past:
Fantastic article Todd!!! Well written and thought out points from a gameplay and design perspective.