By Todd Russell
If you could dream up the GOAT of pinball design, that person would look exactly like Keith Elwin. The guy is on his seventh game now, and certainly working on #8 and beyond, if even just scribbling notes.
Stern is blessed by having Elwin, the current king of modern pinball designers on their team. His games, from a shooting perspective, just always seem to have a chef’s kiss on them. Just look at what he’s done: Godzilla, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Iron Maiden … he could have retired on those four titles alone far atop a pedestal of modern pinball designers.
But no, thankfully for us, Elwin keeps going.
Elwin’s newest game is King Kong: Myth of Terror Island and on Friday 5/23/2025 on location at Next Level Pinball we got our first chance to flip an LE. No, this wasn’t a private event by a distro, or an invitation from Stern or in some lucky pinball owner’s house, it was a public location that we paid admission just like anybody else could do visiting. In fact, you can stop by there the next time it’s open and play the very same machine as us and others.
The Kong code is at a very early v0.82, which sounds — and is — appalling, but the game doesn’t shoot like it’s 82% done, considering 1.0 will be the final code.
Last year, when Jaws was announced, my son immediately ordered the premium. He of course could not play it, he took a chance on a theme he loved and a designer many people believe in. Fortunately, that game didn’t disappoint; it’s a winner. It released in a state with more to come, but far enough along to be plenty playable and fun.
So, let’s see if Elwin dug around in the pinball playfield of wonder and struck gold again. And if the game is far enough along to consider buying or it’s wait and see.
King Kong: Myth of Terror Island [Stern Pinball 2025 v0.82 code] Detailed First Thoughts After Flipping on Location
MIXED – Theme
I love King Kong as a theme, so why am I starting this out by giving Myth of Terror Island a “mixed” reaction? Because it’s an unnecessary unlicensed theme.
Stern had multiple IP options. Heck, I just saw a teaser for another Universal movie with Godzilla and Kong called Supernova that’s in active development.
Obviously, this is too new, but there are multiple Godzilla vs. Kong movies, including the Toho one and 2021 one that grossed nearly a half billion dollars. People love Godzilla and King Kong and it’s even better when this tag team is in action.
But let’s say Stern is planning this for a future game, then what about the original 1933 movie? Or the 1976 remake?
Alas, Myth of Terror is not the classic 1933 movie, which will go into public domain in 2029 or the iconic 1976 film and has zero to do with any of the modern and timely Universal Kong theme. As a theme it could have been so much more, instead of an original story based on characters in the novel that is in the public domain. It’s a major letdown considering the massive amount of exciting IP that already exists.
We get none of that in Myth of Terror Island.
At this early stage of code and release, the theme integration for whatever this Kong is about is puzzling. It feels incomplete to me and, well, it is. Will it turn out to be a good, maybe even great story when the code goes 1.0+? Jury is out on this one, but holding hope.
Elwin’s last game, Jaws, was based on an iconic property. The first film of one of the most suspenseful movies ever made. A total classic 70s movie and it even had the voice of one of the lead actors (Richard Dreyfuss that played Matt Hooper). It had clips from the movie, very familiar, iconic sounds.
Try and compare Jaws to something based on an original story using assets created from public domain characters and it’s just comically bad. The novel is the movie adaptation of the 1933 King Kong movie by Merian Cooper. The novelization was written by Cooper’s friend Delos W. Lovelace.
This book, now in the public domain, is a distant step beneath Jaws as a theme. That doesn’t even seem controversial, but fact. Doesn’t mean whatever story is cooked up inside King Kong: Myth of Terror Island won’t be super cool when it’s part of the 1.0+ finished code, but right now, it’s muddier than the swamp Kong is walking through.
That said, I do like some of what I’ve seen of the story so far. Don’t completely understand it, no, but it seems promising. It’s maybe something that needs a book to go along with it? It seemed all over the place and disjointed at times to me. That doesn’t mean it won’t be a good story when the code is finished, but the different animations telling the story aren’t even consistent. We’ll get to that in a bit further down, but it’s like they just slapped together the LCD assets in some places and others they look good.
Bottom line: the theme had major potential and whether or not being an original story is a benefit or detriment is leaning more to the latter at launch.
LOVE – Playfield Design, Mechs & Toys
Now, let’s get to the meaty part, because themes are not what we play. Themes are what might draw us in, might interest in checking out a game or being fond of a game, but once we plunge the ball, we’re playing at the world underneath glass.
The gameplay is where Kong shines in many, many ways.
This is one of Elwin’s best playfield designs. I can see elements of his other games, and not just paying homage but outright copying elements. Kong’s playfield is jam-packed — in a good way — with stuff to shoot, experience and interact with.
The gong is a good place to hit upon first.
The gong is, most easily hit from the main left flipper, down about 20% at the tip. Hit that twice in short time to activate a mode. It feels placed similarly to where the roving shark fin is at on Jaws, only down a little closer to the player. The gong not only starts a selectable mode but becomes pivotal to shooting and scoring higher on some modes like “Save Ann” (an early favorite mode that can be selected), where you shoot blue shots and then have to hit the gong to collect millions within a short amount of time.
After a few games, we realized just how central this gong shot is to the game and it’s fun to shoot. Especially when you nail it hard and the ball locks in there, allowing you to select the mode, then it shoots back out. It doesn’t eject, however, in a completely threatening way, it heads about the middle of the left flipper and can be rather easily controlled. If you time it right you can have the ball bounce off or skate back. I kept trying to have it deflect into the spider for some reason, but that isn’t natural.
Everybody playing in our group, myself included, and every player I asked about it over two days on location likes that gong shot. It’s something unique, kind of like Elwin did with the roving fin in Jaws or the Mechagodzilla shot in Godzilla. Elwin always seems to find some regular shot you want to shoot repeatedly and feel satisifed shooting it. In Iron Maiden its the ramp or the Trooper lock loop.
Then there is the bi-plane loop, which can be shot up the plastic (grrr, wish that was metal, btw) ramp through the center. This is a lesser used ramp, presumably, but plastic ramps like to break much easier than metal. Still, it’s a very satisfying shot when you can make it with the right flipper.
The left corner to mid-left area of the playfield is loaded, continuing the Kong playfield design, as previously mentioned. Multiple different shots and interaction available in this area with a small left flipper to help. It looks like not much is happening here but there is quite a bit. Here’s a breakdown of what can be done in just this area:
- upper left flipper to knock down K-O-N-G targets. The G is the hardest letter to hit because you have to knock it down off the very edge. TIP: found it easier to hit this G with the main right flipper below going back into this area.
- Shoot the climb ramp – a bit of a tricky shot, but feels good when you hit it. When you come out of this you can combo to the biplane from the upper right flipper. That is one of the best combo shots in any Keith Elwin game to date. It’s not as seductive as the cross quick shot in Jaws to pump up your multiplier, but it’s fun and I can see this being used in future code for more than it is at launch
- Divert from flipper to side outlane where you can press the action button to save the ball before it passes. This save shot reminds of the Jaws action button save from outlane. I didn’t see from the limited playing what causes the ball to sometimes divert onto the flipper vs. falling down toward the outlane, but it seems to happen about 50-50. If you look in the picture below, you’ll barely be able to see the flipper, but it’s there, cleverly positioned.
Next up is that agitated spider, which looks much better in person than it does on video and in pictures (See: Rewatching King Kong (1933) and comparing to modern films and Stern Pinball King Kong).
The spider is placed much closer to the lower left slingshot than I’d realized and creates very challenging play dynamic. Hit it a few times and start a two-ball multiball. The spider will sling the ball at times and capture like the mech in Godzilla. The placement in the game is interesting and effective. Didn’t think I’d like the spider interaction very much, but we all liked it. There are numerous 2-ball multiball opportunities and the spider is one of the easiest to launch into.
Let’s not forget the central figure: King Kong himself in the upper right corner. He is the bell of this ball, and the animatronics are quite the sight.
He moves around, swinging his arms and sometimes stops the ball. In fact, there is some kind of bug or adjustment necessary, because sometimes he hangs on the ball and the game has to cycle through the ball find to move the arm and let the ball pass. It does this intentionally on the third ball with the subway train so that Kong can animate as getting angry and then dump the 3-ball multiball on the playfield, but in 10 games one player said it stuck the ball at a non-programmed time three different times. This is something they will iron out with code.
Kong’s animations are a lot of fun. It seems like whatever is happening on the LCD, Kong is up to something similar. That just adds a kind of character to this game, a living-like creature that gives the game personality. I don’t know how the pro will play with Kong just sitting there like some wax statue. Feel like a lot of King Kong will be dead without these animatronics. Maybe it’s not a big deal to on location players that don’t want Kong stopping the ball and moving to distract, but I found this really made the game feel like I was playing with Kong as an interactive part of the game.
Another comparison might be Jaws with the pro having the static Jaws and hitting the stationary target vs. the premium where Jaws appears from underneath the boat as a bash toy. I like the premium toy much better. We’ll have plenty of opportunity to play the pro version of King Kong at the upcoming NW Pinball & Arcade show in a couple weeks and I’ll know better if this is that big of a deal, but I do like this animated Kong in the Premium/LE.
The shot up the middle to lock balls in the train reminds me of Iron Maiden’s ramp shot and is similarly placed. Is this Elwin just giving us shots we liked in his other games in slightly different ways? Think it is. He’s giving a panel at the show in a couple weeks and am curious if this will come up.
DISLIKE – Translite, Side and Playfield Artwork
From left to right pictured: pro, premium and LE artwork, credit: Stern Pinball
I’ve seen a few folks say they like the Kong art, but I’m not one of them. The sides and translite artwork on King Kong LE are not very good compared to just about every other SPIKE 2 Stern pinball game. Seriously, this is among the worst art I’ve seen to date.
One side has the premium art and the other has the pro, is that right? Huh? Sorry in advance to the team that worked on this, but it just doesn’t work at all for me, and if I spent $13k on this, I’d be wanting to reskin it to something, pretty much anything better.
Compare Kong to the art of say Spooky’s Evil Dead — a gorgeous looking game all around — or Avatar from JJP and Kong’s art is noticeably inferior. I’m surprised Stern signed off on this game art, as most of the art in their games are amazing. They should have used a single artist like Randy Martinez or kept Franchi from defecting to Spooky. Heck, use the artist that did Jaws. I like some of Zombie Yeti’s work in certain games — Godzilla the color version is amazing, btw, but not so excited about the black and while — but I don’t want every new game Zombie Yeti styled. Sure hope that’s not the direction Stern is headed with Packer leading the art department (congrats to him on the promotion, however).
Others may want to defend Kong’s art, but it’s really indefensible. It looks slapped together and comic in a very disappointing way. The good news is you can put Kong in the middle of your lineup and not see the side art anyway. And you can swap out the lame translite on the LE for the pro or premium. I haven’t seen and/or played a pro or premium yet with those translites, but from the pictures, those are both better than the LE. Way better, in fact. If I had an LE, I’d swap out for one of those or just use a third party translite. Guaranteed there will be some amazing third party translite options available.
None of this art stuff is that big of a deal and very subjective. I don’t have to like the artwork to love playing a game.
The playfield artwork, although considerably better, first impression in person is it’s too busy for my taste. Give me any other Elwin game playfield: Bond 60th, Avengers: IQ, my two least favorite Elwin games, and prefer the playfield artwork much more in those games to King Kong. Jaws? Godzilla? Iron Maiden? Jurassic Park? The playfield art there is way better.
Disappointed that Kong could not have been better in this area, but I quickly forgot about any of this while playing and enjoyed playing. This game is a lot of fun to play.
LOVE – Plunger / Skill Shots
Am beginning to think that Elwin loves the short plunge because Iron Maiden has short plunge skill shots that are challenging and fun, Jaws does the same thing and now we have Kong with short plunge shots galore. You can short plunge to the outlane for a super skill shot, plunge into the spider area, above the spider area and back behind. So, he’s got medium and short plunges. Kong is a paradise of skill shot plunge shots and I love every minute of it.
Take Kong plunger vs. Evil Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Looney Tunes with a freaking button press. Modern game designers look at what Elwin is doing here. He is finding skill in literally every facet of the game, including the plunger. A button is almost always lame by comparison.
LOVE – Gameplay Flow
The flow of King Kong is master class.
There are shots all over the place that shine. You have the loop up the biplane from the upper right flipper, there are loops up to a ramp from the short left flipper, not to mention the short and yet super challenging target drops on the left side small flipper. As mentioned above, we found the bottom letter target the hardest to shoot, but there are actually multiple ways you can hit that letter, including from the main flippers below.
I swear Keith Elwin must be dreaming up these angles and shots because on the first play alone I just kept finding new and/or different angles and ways to shoot the main shots. Take, for example, the center ramp shot which is a common shot. Just like Iron Maiden you can shoot that from either main flipper. Both are fairly easy to shoot right as the ball enters the flipper area. Unlike Jaws going to the upper boat, which requires a little extra timing and precision, this shot can be pulled off somewhat easily. It’s very satisfying when you have the train area open to shoot up that center amp into the train, lock the three balls, and have Kong go off and dump all three balls into the playfield. You can do those three shots in succession from the plunge to either flipper, trap and then up the middle. We all did this multiple times and it’s good fun.
The pro doesn’t have the train and the lock, so my guess is you still shoot up there, but the balls just get released? That probably isn’t a huge miss vs. the premium/LE, but it is a miss that you don’t see Kong’s animations and him dumping the train. I’m reminded a bit of that from the 1933 movie where Kong beats on train cars.
Dude is raging. He wants his girl!
LIKE – scoring
Once the code goes complete, this will likely be a higher scoring game, but right now it’s closer to Iron Maiden scoring territory than Jaws, meaning scoring a billion is possible but not easy. My first ever game was 110 million. I’d put Kong in the intermediate score tier (see: Ranking Stern Spike 2 Games by Scoring Tier +Took 900+ days to score over a billion)
The scoring feels a little imbalanced at code v0.82 with some modes a bit limp and others like Save Ann more point-friendly. This is an area that I think will improve allowing more 250-500+ million average games which, for those of shooting for the billion, we’ll see our way beyond.
It’s definitely not an average to lower scoring game like TMNT or Aerosmith. It seems with Stern’s new releases over the last year, except for Jaws, they’ve targeted the intermediate scoring tier (100-500+ million). I’d put D&D, Metallica: Remastered, X-Men and John Wick all in the same intermediate tier, with Kong trending closer to the higher tier, I would guess by the time the code goes complete. Just guessing, it has the feel of a game that getting a billion on will be really satisfying vs. too easy.
Time will tell.
MIXED – LCD movie assets and callouts
The look in person of the LCD is pretty good. I liked it, actually, but the animations are all over the place and clearly placeholders. We’ll get better animations I think, hope, but right now some of them are just terrible and the consistency between them is awful. In some areas you’ll go “wow, that looks cool” and in others you’ll wonder how they fit the other animations. The use of black and white vs. color is oft-putting as well. Why didn’t/don’t they stick with a consistent theme and structure? I’m not sure why the black and white was used in the modes? Was this to give it more of an older 1933-ish look? That makes sense, but how it’s pulled off is cheesy.
The text overlays is one area where we watched Jaws improve with code updates. I think at v0.82 Kong is ahead of where Jaws was at launch in 2024, but can see clear room to pretty up the text styles in future updates.
As for movie assets? It’s an original so we don’t get any assets from the classic 1933 movie which, frankly, would have been so much better than whatever they are trying to do with the original theme. Imagine Kong grabbing Fay Wray on that pole … or dumping the woman from the building when Kong realizes it’s not the right person (perfect for a drain shot!). Here, let me show you an old still from the classic movie again:
We are deprived of rather obvious clips like these with the game and it makes a difference when comparing to Elwin’s last game, Jaws, where we have all of that and more. Kong seems like a downgrade, a pretty significant one in this department.
Callouts seem OK, but sparse at this version of code. Again, feel like this will improve in time. We got more D&D callouts with future updates after launch.
N/A Unknown – Music/sounds
Once again the sound and music is an area I’m unable to rate on the first machine played. This is a real bummer to me, but if you can’t hear the sound and music the first time you play, you can’t rate the experience. Giving this an N/A-Unknown. Am sure at home you’ll be able to hear and experience the sound and music much better. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on that experience yet. And that’s a bummer to me.
AVERAGE – Lighting
The lighting on King Kong is average to good. Stern rarely blows me away with lighting on any of their games, but Kong is about average. I can’t think of anything that stood out on the LE to mention here, which isn’t a compliment. Compare Kong to say Avatar’s lighting? JJP is so much better at this.
At the same time, I don’t think Kong’s lighting is bad. You can see everything you need to see, but it’s just a little too vanilla to me.
MIXED – Additional Game/Video Modes
Kong does not have any video modes like Jaws had Shark Hunter and it doesn’t sound like it’s getting any. This is a bit of a letdown, because a Kong climbing mingame would be amazing. I mean, Elwin follows up a game that had Shark Hunter (in 3D!) and the best challenge mode in any game Jaws: The Revenge with … nothing? Yeah, that seems to be the case here and it’s definitely a downgrade.
At the same time the whole gong to launch selectable modes is really cool and fun. I liked being able to try out the many different modes that exist and they are varied and creative.
LIKE – Connected features
King Kong, a SPIKE 2 game, is Insider Connected.
Stern Insider Connected continues to be #1 and really nothing also compares for connectivity, badges, score chasing, leaderboards. All SPIKE 2 games from them have Insider Connected and anything they’ve re-ran in production, even older games like Iron Maiden that I bought last year, come with Insider Connected standard. I wish JJP, Spooky and others would see the value in providing a connected pinball experience like this. Those with SPIKE 2 games prior to Godzilla can retrofit with IC. Would strongly recommend others do that.
That aside, King Kong doesn’t add anything new to IC. No special types of integration, at least that I noticed in the first play. Would have been cool if you could control the animatronics of Kong with some kind of silly phone app or something. Make him dance to music streamed or something … these kind of creative opportunities exist for Stern, if they ever go after this low hanging fruit.
Turner Pinball is the only other modern pinball company that seems to have any focus on a baked in IC-like platform. They have two games out now, but still very little is known about their system. It’s encouraging to see some other modern pinball company care about this.
(hesitantly) NEUTRAL – Pricing
Let’s lead with King Kong LE not being worth $13,000 USD. Those of us not employed, contracted or working closely with Stern will tell you that prices are too high on these games. The expensive stuff is what’s on the playfield and Kong has a lot going for it on the playfield. It’s a packed playfield compared to Wick, even more to do than Jaws.
I’m “neutral” on pricing because Stern didn’t increase the price for Kong when the most obvious thing would have been to release as their first SPIKE 3 title and with some kind of price hike. They’ve been telegraphing that their prices can’t stay the same, and yet they kept the same prices, so that’s why I’m neutral here. Pretty much every other first thoughts I’ve done has been “dislike” for pricing.
I don’t think these SPIKE 2 games should cost what they are and a sentiment shared by many, many pinfolks. Instead of railing more here, 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 – Another hugely fun Elwin game to shoot, challenging with much replay value – would consider buying a premium, not that interested in pro
I don’t have to think about whether or not buy this game because my son is already thinking about it and since we are grouping the games, we wouldn’t buy the same game. He has taken my other son and I off the hook on this one. He has been interested in D&D — strongly considering buying one — but after playing Kong, there isn’t a serious comparison play-wise. Kong is a much more fun game to shoot, Kong has way more shots and creative ones and the code feels further along, despite being lower code version. Also, he has been able to play two other Elwin games in his house: Jaws, purchased by his brother early last year, and Iron Maiden purchased by me in the fall of 2024. He likes playing Elwin games. We all do. What else can I say, we’re becoming serious fans of Elwin’s work.
Elwin has a panel coming up early next month at See you at the Northwest Pinball & Arcade 2025 Show June 6-8, 2025. Am hoping to get him and others on his creative team to autograph something for Jaws and Iron Maiden.
Started this article praising Elwin’s work, but really, is there anybody better in pinball design right now? Every game he comes out with, regardless if you like the theme or not, are fun to shoot. At the end of the day, we’re playing pinball and fun to shoot pinball games trump every other detail. Kong is packed with a variety of shots that will keep players repeat playing.
I’m looking forward to playing a lot more Kong. Will it be as much as Jaws? Don’t know. I’ve played more Jaws than any other pinball game in my 50+ year history of pinball and still very much enjoy playing. Elwin is on a roll and I’m excited to be along for the ride.
While writing this, my son was still considering whether or not to put down a deposit on buying King Kong: Myth of Terror. Our group agreed that you need the animatronic Kong on this one for the most active Kong experience, so the pro really wouldn’t factor into a buying consideration for us, anyway. That doesn’t mean the pro wouldn’t be worth buying, we have to play that still to compare, it’s just that we like what we played and wouldn’t want to miss those features. Darn you, Stern!
As announced during the season 3 finale of the Sunday Score Chasing Recap show yesterday morning 5/24/25, my son decided to put down on a deposit on King Kong. The ETA is 3-4 weeks for arrival, per the distro. Stay tuned, after pick up and setup it will certainly be streamed on future Humpday Wednesday pinball shows and elsewhere, as we’ve done with our other games: Jaws, Iron Maiden and James Bond.
Speaking of ranking pins against others, I’m not going to be crazy and rank Kong against Godzilla right now like (too many) others are doing prematurely. The things we can compare that are complete like artwork, translite, LE features all pale to Godzilla in comparison. In time, as Kong development matures and more sales come in, a meaningful comparison can be made where Kong sits in the 7 Elwin games. Don’t ask me to rank them — yet. I will in time. Probably by the end of 2025 😉
The reality is that Kong isn’t Godzilla, not even close right now. It’s not a fair comparison in its current state — no matter if you love, hate or feel neutral to it. One is the bestselling game Stern has ever produced and another is brand new, incomplete and unknown with how it’s going to sell and be received. I will say that I think people that do buy Kong, at least the premium version, since it’s the same game as the LE play-wise, will not be disappointed. It’s a lot of fun to shoot and earns the highest detailed first thoughts grade I’ve given any game to date. That says more than the 5,000+ words you just read (thank you, btw, if you made it through all of ’em).
Grade: A-
Enjoy reading articles like this? Here are other detailed first thoughts after flipping for other games released in the last few years:
- King Kong: Myth of Terror Island (v0.82 code) Stern Pinball LE 2025
- [D] ABBA (Pinball Brothers 2024) [1,239 words]
- [B-] Portal (Multimorphic P3 2025) [1,180+ words]
- [B] Evil Dead (Spooky 2025) [1,303+ words]
- [B] Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye (0.85 code) Stern Pinball Pro 2025 [2,446+ words]
- [C+] The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Spooky 2024) [2,167+ words]
- [C+] Ninja Eclipse (Turner 2024) [1,764+ words]
- [B] Metallica: Remastered (Stern 2024) LE [3,347+ words]
- [C] Avatar (Jersey Jack Pinball 2024) [1,933+ words]
- [B-] The Uncanny X-Men (Stern 2024) [3,992+ words]
- [C+] Pulp Fiction SE (2023) [1,379+ words]
- [D+] John Wick Pro + Premium (Stern 2024 v0.81 code) [2,518+ words]
- [B-] Labyrinth (Barrels of Fun 2023) [1,161+ words]
- [C-] Looney Tunes (Spooky 2024) [1,828+ words]