By Todd RussellOh my, what a headline to break down. Relax, it’s not my opinion and I don’t think it’s meant to be hyperbolic for the purpose of hits/clicks/views, but could be totally wrong.
I think the guy that said it is, well, serious. He believes it. Or seems to.
Here’s a video from Pinball owner and purveyor of Hauntworld (https://www.hauntworld.com/), Larry Kirchner, with a pretty harsh view of King Kong (LE), but not of the gameplay, which he labels “fun”, and his belief that Harry Potter from JJP will outsell “seven to one” King Kong. He has several LEs showing in the location video.
Look, everybody who plays pinball has a right to their opinion. We all can like and dislike certain games and our opinion is just as valid as the next person. Mr. Kirchner doesn’t have to like King Kong, if he doesn’t like it.
Guess that’s my only request of folks with opinions on games: just tell the truth. Even when it hurts. I think some, maybe too many, don’t. Not saying that about this OP.
That aside, I’ve got some major disagreements with things in this video.
Firstly, this notion that Harry Potter will sell seven times as many games as King Kong. Even Kaneda, one of the most cynical pinball guys on the planet is saying 3 to 1. I will be shocked if King Kong doesn’t sell multiple thousands of games, even if it turns out to be one of Elwin’s less exciting games. There’s no way, as popular a title as Harry Potter will be for JJP, that it will sell 14k-20,000+ Harry Potter pinball machines in this current economy. I do think Harry Potter will be JJP’s biggest theme to date, but there just aren’t that many buyers for these games at $12,000+ USD. Yes, there are plenty of people that can afford to buy these games, but a tiny percentage of those that can afford these games will be interested in pinball and, specifically, Harry Potter. This isn’t Freddy’s Nightmare on Elm Street dream pinland.
As for Mr. Kirchner’s other thoughts on Kong. His belief that sales are driven by theme and art package more than gameplay, fun factor and code? Like the primary pinfolk that care about the play are tournament and hardcore pinball players? This I also don’t believe, but do find to be a curious viewpoint.
If a game isn’t fun, it isn’t fun. To me, anyway, and am not currently an active tournament player but probably would be considered a hardcore pinball player. I think some much more casual players won’t bother with a game beyond a game or three if the game isn’t fun. Yes, it might very well be the theme and art package that brings them to play the game, but fun factor, rules and code will keep them playing. Repeatedly. It might even get some of them to buy the game.
For a counter opinion, and to watch some actual gameplay, check out Pinbolls playing Kong video below. About the same amount of time, but compared to the other video that is just talking about Kong, Pinbolls is playing the v0.81 King Kong game through the entire 36 or so minute video.
Back to the first video. I do think theme is very important from a marketing standpoint, but disagree that Kong isn’t a great theme. Kong is one of the greatest monsters of all time. The fact that Stern went on the cheap by basing the game on the public domain novel, has potential to lead to some very cool story possibilities. I’m not going to dismiss it as easily as the OP in the video. He is making a good argument that if it was based on the 1933 or 1976 Kong and included the movie assets it would definitely be more immediately interesting than it is as a story based off a public domain novel that preceded the 1933 movie and probably 99.9% of the pinaudience hasn’t ever read.
The OP also makes a great point that Stern didn’t pass along any of the no licensing fee part to customers in the form of a price break. Instead, they simply didn’t raise the price. If you don’t raise the price on something many people feel is already overpriced, that’s not having the desired effect on potential n
Also, although I haven’t seen in person (I must see this in person to judge fairly), agree that the artwork does not look very good. The OP is clearly not much of a Zombie Yeti fan, but Yeti only finished some of the artwork, he didn’t do the main work on it. Three different artists, as far as I understand, contributed to the work and it looks like not a very cohesive style work. Stern should only have one central artist for each game. Let that artist style to the theme.
That said, I haven’t seen or played Kong in person. That will likely happen first at See you at the Northwest Pinball & Arcade 2025 Show June 6-8, 2025 a month from now, but Next Level in Oregon might get it in sooner and we could always take a trip down there if that happens. I’ll be able to comment on the fun factor of the game and will share a Detailed First Thoughts after Flipping article on King Kong. Until then, I can’t say whether or not the game is “fun.” I can’t get this from watching videos from others playing and certainly not from others talking about their experience playing.
And it might be fun to most others, like Evil Dead has been for most folks playing it. I didn’t have as excited a first play experience of Evil Dead, see: Evil Dead (Spooky 2025) Detailed First Thoughts after Flipping on Location. I may totally agree that Kong is a ton of fun to shoot. Don’t want to underestimate Keith Elwin’s design. He’s proven he can create game after fun shooting game. I expect Kong will join his list of fun games, but yeah, don’t know yet myself.
We will definitely talk more on today’s Humpday Wednesday Pinball show about this curious opinion involving theme and artwork being more important than gameplay when it comes to sales. It’s a good topic to ponder while playing pinball, no matter if pinfolks agree or disagree.
Venom Code updated to v1.06
Check out a pretty extensive update for Venom that was already past v1.0 that dropped.
Skullbox Zaccaria Pinball Score Chasing: Wood’s Queen
Skullbox chose a Zaccaria game this week that really tests bank target shooting. I have been enjoying it, although it seems to be one some other PGM members are saying “luck” is involved in scoring higher.
I think it’s very skill-based, actually. Bank shots are definitely a skill to work on and older games, or games based on older games seem to often focus on refining pin skills like this one.
PGM Tournament Game: Back To The Future – Pinball FX
This week’s tournament game will go for two weeks, not one, as there will be no Humpday Wednesday show on Wednesday 5/14/2025. I will be in a management training class all day. There will be a show today 5/7/2025 and the next show after that will be 5/21/2025 and we’ll review the Back To The Future scores on that show.
SEARCH ID# Ka5ntpa0tb
Unlimited attempts, as high as you can score in 3 minutes.
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