By Todd Russell
Besides pinball shows, I’ve encountered only one Multimorphic P3 on location. It was showcasing Weird Al at the time. I played it a few times and thought, “yeah, it’s OK.” We’ve covered the P3 a few times here at PGM including:
- P3 Multimorphic Pinball = 2/3 Virtual, 1/3 Physical Pin – Swappable Games
- Multimorphic P3 Has Connected Pinball Feature
- The Princess Bride Sets New Pricing High for P3 Module Pricing: $1,500 Deposit, $5,000 for LE, $3,750 for Standard
On our visit to the Texas Pinball Festival in 2025, we finally had the chance to see a whole bunch of P3s, setup with both newer and older games to play. In total, I played 6 different P3 games: Lexy Lightspeed: Escape from Earth, Heist, Drained, Final Resistance, The Princess Bride and Portal. I’m working on first play reviews for all of these, with this one for …
Portal [Multimorphic P3 2025] Detailed First Thoughts After Flipping on Location
MIXED – Theme
I wasn’t a Portal player and to date my only significant experience with the franchise, ironically, is with the Zen Pinball FX3 Portal virtual pinball machine. That game hasn’t blown me away and had me clamoring to see a real pin for the IP.
And yet here we are, thanks to Multimorphic. It’s clearly not a theme I’m that thrilled about or look forward to. I think some popular PC games could become PC ports, but not sure about this one…
LIKE – Playfield Design, Mechs & Toys
This has a number of interesting design choice shots including the one that you should up the middle and have the ball jump into a ramp in the back that leads to locking a ball. It’s a neat scoop-like effect that reminds me a bit of the toy box in Aerosmith, only it launches towards the back at the same position, not off to the left and above like the toy box lock.
They’ve also added an optional “extended” version — and yes it costs a little more money — that includes addition ramp that lowers into the middle right of the game. I found the ramp about the same difficulty as going to the upper mini boat in Jaws Premium/LE. I played a non-extended version without the ramp and found the gameplay superior using that ramp. Worth it? Yes, I think so, for those buying this game.
LIKE – Translite, Side and Playfield Artwork
The side artwork is very blue and matches the game. The translite and 2/3 of the playfield are code generated digitally, not static artwork, so changing these is literally as easy as loading a different game, assuming you own any other modules, of course. This dynamic artwork changing reminds me of using Baller for VPX and FP.
DISLIKE – Plunger / Skill Shots
I didn’t experience much emphasis on plunger skill shots and this is always a disappointment, regardless of company
LIKE – Gameplay Flow
Was a bit surprised just how much I enjoyed the flow on this one. I tend to enjoy some longer, more open playfields and most P3 are not very busy in the first two-thirds making it so you can shoot medium to long shots up the playfield. This gives a certain kind of fast flow to the game compared against more crowded objects on the playfield. Some designers, like Keith Elwin, can hide the busy playfields with lots of sweet shots.
MIXED – scoring
This is a low scoring game. It’s not Stern Beatles, Bond 60th or TMNT low level scoring, but a good 10+ minute game is going to be something like 10 million or so points. Unfortunately, that’s too low score to be for modern day pinball games. YMMV.
MIXED – LCD movie assets and callouts
There aren’t movie assets here, so that’s irrelevant. I couldn’t hear much in the way of narration or
*UNDECIDED – Music/sounds
What I could hear of the sound package was limited. I’m thinking if I was in a quieter setting it would be easier to grade this. Unfortunately, I can’t rate this part of the gameplay experience at this time.
LIKE – Lighting
Having the lower 2/3rd of the playfield digital — 1080p — lends itself to some unique lighting possibilities.
MIXED – Additional Game/Video Modes
I didn’t experience any video modes, so that’s a fail, if it’s true. On the other hand, I did get the sense that if I played a lot more, I’d see some varying modes.
DISLIKE – Connected features
Multimorphic does have some connected features on at least one game, but I didn’t see anything that stuck out when playing either version of Portal. It’s possible this could be added as a code upgrade. Really, in the pinball space, Stern and Turner are the only ones that seem to care about this functionality. Would love to see this change and more companies embracing some kind of Insider Connected type feature for score chasing.
DISLIKE – Pricing
The #1 problem with Multimorphic pinball games are price. They will say: wait, their game modules are much cheaper than buying even the lowest priced NIB Stern. This is a convoluted, however.
They have made the base P3 about the cost of a Stern Premium, which is regrettable, since you still have to buy a game module. Most of their first party developed games are between $3,000-4,000. That drives up the cost of a P3 game to Stern LE pricing which is, frankly, crazy.
Am far and away not alone in thinking that modern pinball games are too expensive. Instead of firing 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 – No interest in buying new, but it was good enough to intrigue me into the possibility of playing more and maybe buying one used someday. That’s a big maybe, however.
Grade: B-
My grade put this at/among the top P3 games, but if I’m grading against all modern games, then I’d knock this down to a C-. This might sound confusing, but these P3 sort of belong in a group by themselves and not easily compared to other pins that aren’t hybrid real-virtual pins.
I could see a future, although unlikely, that I’d buy a P3 used with several game modules if the price was right. The price would have to be a ridiculously good deal, say about 25% of the price they are currently charging NIB. Think this is a game I’ll only/primarily be playing at shows.
Enjoy reading articles like this? Here are other detailed first thoughts after flipping for some other games released in the not too distant past:
- Evil Dead (Spooky 2025)
- 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)
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