By Todd Russell
Last week was the first week in a long time I didn’t play any physical pinball, only (limited) virtual pinball.
Was out of town for a class in the day job for two days and near an arcade, but was too tired to go out and play. Long work days just gobbled up the excess time. Am sure at least some other readers note the sentiment. Time is the one thing every game is competing for, not just pinball.
There were some happenings in the world of pinball, so let’s cover ’em and get over that hump of the week. We do this on Wednesdays and this week I’m planning to be back with another Humpday Wednesday live stream, playing one of our three pins: Iron Maiden, James Bond or Jaws. You can tune in this morning – Wednesday 5/21/2025 starting at/around 5am PST on our PGM Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/playgamesmoredotcom
The Blame Game for Tariffs is on
Chicago Gaming Company is among the first to cite delays due to tariffs according to Jason Knapp on Monday (Chicago Gaming Company Cactus Canyon Expansion Delayed).
In fairness, it’s a relatively short delay, but the blame game is on, be ready for more pinball-related delays. I wouldn’t be surprised if Stern pushes back their next game release, in fact, and just runs with 3 releases in 2025. The node boards and CPUs in their SPIKE 2 games, althought I didn’t verify, must be sourced outside the United States.
King Kong: Myth of Terror Island appearing in more places to play
Feedback continues to roll in on Stern’s newest Elwin team game, King Kong: Myth of Terror Island and, as previously mentioned (Stern Pinball second cornerstone of 2025 is King Kong: Myth of Terror Island to be talk of Humpday Wednesday S2E2), Elwin’s design prowess remains on display. Feedback for those playing I’ve been seeing, reading, hearing is much more positive than the artwork and unspectacular LE trim.
As we say again and again here at PGM (and some disagree: Pinball owner Larry Kirchner believes theme and art more important than fun factor and code for sales), gameplay is what matters. Art, graphics and sound can be underwhelming, but if the gameplay is fun, a lot will be overlooked, forgiven and ignored.
I’m hoping to get down to Next Level Pinball, they have an LE down there for over a week now, but if that doesn’t happen, they definitely will have King Kongs to play at … See you at the Northwest Pinball & Arcade 2025 Show June 6-8, 2025.
Being two of the three games we own are Elwins, I’m not doubting the early player feedback that Kong delivers, but how much can’t say until playing. Dirtypoolpinball (https://www.twitch.tv/dirtypoolpinball) bought the LE and was watching his Twitch stream and he puts Kong up there next to Godzilla with Jaws at #3 in the Elwin lineup. He also owns Jurassic Park, but didn’t rank that one in the top 3. He doesn’t care for music pins, so Iron Maiden from Elwin didn’t get ranked either. We both agreed in his stream chat that Elwin doesn’t have any weak designed games.
Elwin’s weakest design, IMO, is Bond 60th, and that game is still fun to play. Others might cite Avengers: Infinity Quest, but if that is his worst game, it’s still a lot better than most other modern designer’s games.
Anyway, as with all games, draw your own conclusions on what is good, bad or indifferent to play. I’m very much in the jury is out until flipping this one, but more hopeful than after seeing the Kong art and rather lame-looking original story.
Zaccaria pushed out another update with two new games: Supersonic Deluxe and Vampire
Magic Pixel just keeps cranking out updates and adding new games to their Zaccaria Pinball collection, with Supersonic Deluxe and Vampire Award being their newest offerings for $1.64+tax DLC, if you own their Steam Platinum pack.
Keep your eye on this pack, virtual pinball players, to go on sale in the upcoming Summer sale. That platinum pack is usually 50%+ off during the Summer sale and it brings down these DLC packs.
We continue to score chase PGM member Skullbox686’s weekly picked game. Last week it was Nautilus EM, this week …
Skullbox Zaccaria Pinball Score Chasing: Red Show EM:
PGM Tournament Game: Boba Fett – Pinball FX
SEARCH ID# Oept679h93
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.