By Todd Russell
At TPF (Unpacking random thoughts after attending first Texas Pinball Festival 2025 with pics + Humpday Wednesday 3/26) got my first chance to play Evil Dead. That game, you know, with the killer looking topper. Oh my, that topper! I haven’t bought a topper yet, but this topper, along with Black Knight and the Labyrinth one sure make me want to reach for my wallet.
Look at that sick topper! For someone that doesn’t own any toppers for the games we have, I want to buy that one.
I only got to play Evil Dead one time, so this first thoughts is going to be a bit thinner — at least from a confidence standpoint — than most others where I’ve played multiple times. Still, I had plenty of thoughts about it.
Evil Dead [Spooky 2025] Detailed First Thoughts After Flipping on Location
LOVE – Theme
Evil Dead is an amazing horror pinball theme. I was never a big fan of the movies — sacrilege, I know — but really any popular horror movie franchise is going to hit all the right buttons with me. I like reading horror fiction and wrote a bunch of horror fiction, horror is my jam! That all said, this is one of the most gorgeous looking pins I’ve ever seen and played. Christopher Franchi’s work is outstanding. It just doesn’t get much better than this.
MIXED – Playfield Design, Mechs & Toys
Artwork-wise, the playfield is fantastic, as for the layout, in a wide body, there is a lot going on. This can be good or bad, depending on how everything is used and how it shoots.
I found the shooting to be a little lethargic. It didn’t immediately grab me as “hey, I love playing this” as much as the way it looks. A lot of JJP games do that to me. It’s like there was so much time spent on the style and presentation, but the shots themselves are just OK. They aren’t bad, they aren’t great, they are just OK. This has been my experience with too many Spooky games.
After playing the first game, I didn’t immediately want to play more. I was like, “Ok, next.”
LOVE – Translite, Side and Playfield Artwork
Again, visually, this game is stunning. In pictures, print, online and in person. Sometimes you see games online and think, “wow, that looks great!” and then see them in person and it’s not as exciting. That isn’t the case with Evil Dead. This game really kicks.
DISLIKE – Plunger / Skill Shots
I didn’t like the double-barrel shotgun plunger mech. It kept having the ball bounce back into the outlane.
Maybe, it grows on me with repeated uses, but it’s boring as a button to press. Why is it not a gun that you’re pulling the trigger and the harder you pull — analog user skill shot action — but no, it’s a big, boring button. Spooky needs to use real plungers. They have done for games like Halloween. Get back to the plunger or if they are going to do a button, then make it so the button presses matter beyond when you press the button. That’s just not the kind of skill shot pinball plunging that turns me on.
Heck, make it a chainsaw and you rev up the chainsaw to shoot the ball. The double-barrel shotgun idea is something, but the execution for me is shallow. Maybe I’ll warm up to it on repeated plays, but didn’t think it was that cool on the start.
MIXED – Gameplay Flow
Flow was a bit plodding and I was bricking shots. This might not be the layout, it might just be my first time playing, so not sure I’d stick with this on repeated plays. As mentioned above, I didn’t like that this was a wide body machine and felt it would have been a faster and smoother game as a standard body. I’m not anti-wide body games, but not sure about the use here.
LIKE – Scoring
Scoring fits this game. It seemed medium on the tiers (see: Ranking Stern Spike 2 Games by Scoring Tier +Took 900+ days to score over a billion), similar to Labyrinth from Barrels of Fun and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Hard to say if 100-500+ million games would be possible, but think probably so once modes are learned and conquered.
LIKE – LCD movie assets and callouts
The LCD clips, including graphics are great. It’s a bit crowded at times, but all of what I caught are well done.
UNKNOWN / No Rating – Music/sounds
The show where I played was too loud to hear much of any sounds or music. Will have to revisit this when played again to see what it’s like. I noticed from Spooky’s Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle that the sound was fantastic when I played that several times before and couldn’t hear anything. The sound is so important for pinball and on location — especially in busy pinball show crowds — often sound is not good. It’s nothing compared to home (HUO).
I did hear a few callouts and they were good, but no music or other sound really.
LOVE – Lighting
Lighting on this game is great. A variety of colors and plenty of blood reds.
MIXED – Additional Game/Video Modes
Didn’t see/experience any dedicated video modes, but noticed several game modes to complete. Need more play to flesh out this section.
DISLIKE – Connected features
Spooky Pinball does not come with any sort of Insider Connected features. They need to come up with something comparable. Yes, you can install a Scorbitron, but Spooky is getting big enough now that they need to think about adding connected features to their modern pins.
MIXED – Pricing
At TPF, we heard Spooky sold out, but as of this writing you can still buy one of these for $10,000 through Nitro Pinball (https://nitropinballusa.com/products/evil-dead-collectors-edition-preorder):
In this author’s opinion, the price is — or rather was — too high for this and all new Spooky games. That opinion is clearly on shaky ground considering Evil Dead sold through … at least to distros. If enough customers buy something out it doesn’t necessarily mean the price is right, but was surely right. The market wins over tire kicker sentiment.
What pricing would make Spooky pinball games attractive? 20% at least less, see: OPINION: Active, Interested Buyer: New in Box Modern Pinball Prices are 20% (at least) Too Expensive
Overall early feelings – I need to play this more to better gauge the gameplay and see if it grows on me, as I haven’t played it enough yet. Am not super eager to play this soon again, but sure do love how it looks. Am curious how it sounds?
Grade: B
My first experience seeing the machine in person was better than playing it, so my overall grade is based more on the aesthetics, not my play, which I would rate that much lower. The game is just so good looking in person that it screams “add me to your collection!” I am sure everybody that bought one of these will love how it looks in their lineup. Congrats to those who purchased!
I will play Evil Dead again. Am hoping — and probably will — warm more to the play experience.
Enjoy reading articles like this? Here are other detailed first thoughts after flipping for some other games released in the not too distant past:
- Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye (0.85 code) Stern Pinball Pro 2025
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Spooky 2024)
- Ninja Eclipse (Turner 2024)
- 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)