By Todd Russell
There’s been a lot new happening in the world of pinball lately, so we can use a week to decompress. To play games we have that were a bit neglected, to read up and follow what might have been missed.
That’s largely the story since last week’s Humpday (104 games of Iron Maiden played in a single play session over 17+ hour Live Stream + Humpday Wednesday S2E3).
Let’s dig around and find a few new notes of interest.
Pinside Top 100 – Evil Dead debuts at #1
Like updates to Pinside Top 100 list. Look what game has debuted at #1?
Evil Dead is not a #1 game of all time. That’s not a knock on this beautifully designed wide body game, but I think over time we’ll see this settle into somewhere in the 15-30 range, maybe lower or higher depending on how the game settles in. Most people haven’t played Evil Dead yet, so this is really early Pinside voting.
Will this be Spooky’s best game? As far as artwork and theme go, no question it’s the best looking Spooky game (++++ Franchi ++++), but is it the best playing? My lone play of the game at TPF doesn’t give me anywhere close to enough information to fairly evaluate this game long term, but you can check out my Evil Dead (Spooky 2025) Detailed First Thoughts after Flipping on Location. TL:DR is I gave it a B. It’s one of the better first thoughts on any game I’ve had since I started doing this with John Wick.
This is typical Pinside top 100 over-exuberance for a new game. Metallica: Remastered debuted #1 and has been dropping, now tied with Iron Maiden at #6. Jaws debuted at #1, it’s at #12 some 15 months later or so.
Perhaps more interesting is where Dungeons & Dragons currently sits:
Ouch, #45?
It has good company with White Water but those are some chillier waters near the bottom of the top 50. And it’s the pro, not the LE or the premium that has the best votes. Should we take this as an early sign that the pro is the standout version here or is it too early to tell? The D&D LE is one sweet looking game but the code is still very early.
Where will King Kong drop in? It’s Elwin and smart money is that debuts at #1, but who knows? I am looking very forward to playing at the … See you at the Northwest Pinball & Arcade 2025 Show June 6-8, 2025. Rumor is there will be 20 King Kongs there, not sure what the breakdown will be between pro and premium, but sounds like we’re going to have ample opportunity over three days to play a bunch of King Kong. Love it! Will have much more to say after that event the first week in June.
Speaking of the NW Pinball & Arcade Show you’re running out of time to buy tickets at the lower price if you’re planning to attend. Price goes up May 1, 2025. If you’re planning on going, get your tickets before May 1 and save some $$.
Skullbox686 Zaccaria Pinball of the week: Cinestar EM
PGM Weekly Tournament Game: Curse of the Mummy – Pinball FX
SEARCH ID# Xjl2pq6zp5
Metallica is planning 301 song reissue for Load album, why didn’t their pinball get some of this unreleased content?
The following MSN article (https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/metallica-compile-245-unreleased-tracks-for-new-load-reissue/ar-AA1DRhkJ) talks about the 15 CD Load reissue featuring some 240 previously unreleased tracks.
available via Metallica.com to buy here (as shown above for $274.98 USD): https://www.metallica.com/store/load-remastered-deluxe-box-set/REMLOADDLX.html
One of my questions was with all that Metallica has in their vault — and we know there is a ton — why didn’t Metallica: Remastered come with some of this unreleased/rare content? It would make the pinball more valuable and be more fan-friendly. Alas, Metallica: Remastered, unless there are unknown, undiscovered Easter eggs, contains none of this.
Stern Pinball does encourage Easter eggs in their code, so maybe something is in there … (?)
What’s Happening in Your last week of Pinball?
Your turn. What have you been up to the last week with pinball — real, virtual, whatever pinball you’re playing? What are you playing the most? What do you want to play that feel you’ve neglected, if anything? What news has happened that turned you on … or off? The comments await on anything pinball-related and/or stop by the live Humpday Wednesday Pinball stream from 6am-11am. We sometimes will start earlier, so watch for it at: https://www.twitch.tv/playgamesmoredotcom