For those that don’t know, I’m a huge horror fan. I don’t write much about horror here (we do have a horror category at PGM, however) and don’t even play very many horror games, but I’ve read a ton of horror fiction and watched a ton of horror movies spanning dozens of years.
I’ve even written and completed several horror novels myself. So, yeah, I know about Leatherface in what is one of the most raw, brutal movies of the 70s: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (TCM).
Note: IMDB has a space in the word “chainsaw” for some odd reason. The correct spelling of the word is without a space, but in the opening of the film director Tobe Hooper uses a space in the word, which is probably a mistake on his part, I haven’t done the research on that. Take a look at how many different places use the IMDB listing with the space?
The box art for the movie has no space, but online you’ll see that erroneous space added. Thankfully, Spooky Pinball spells the word correctly in their pinball description.
Naturally, I’ve been looking very forward to playing TCM from Spooky Pinball. One of my disappointments with most Spooky games is they are harder to find on location in the area. Yes, I’ve seen Scooby Doo and Rick and Morty in a number of places and Next Level has had most of their games, but locally it’s like operators don’t want to put Spooky pins out there. It’s mostly modern Sterns and older games. Yeah, you’ll see a Jersey Jack Pinball here and there, too, but they are pretty rare in our fairly active on location pinball season. You do see other modern manufacturers, but it’s here and there, it’s not anything like seeing the Spike 2 modern Sterns.
To my utter delight this last Saturday 11/30 at Next Level Pinball we stopped by and not only got to play for the first time the new Metallica: Remastered (Stern 2024) LE, but also saw and flipped TCM. What a great visit! I had seen Next Level had Metallica: Remastered, but didn’t see they had TCM, so this was a bonus surprise.
Below, I’m going to go through what that first experience flipping TCM was like and I’m going to compare it to other Spooky games as well as pins from other manufacturers. If they choose to charge $10,000 for their pins, a similar price to competitors, then it’s only fair to compare their games.
Before we get to my first thoughts on Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Spooky 2024) after flipping on location, if you enjoy what follows and want to read more then you’ll find other detailed first thoughts I’ve done. My goal is to do a write-up for (most) every new pinball game I play, while the thoughts are raw and fresh. As I’ve stated in prior reviews, these opinions can and will likely change. My first thoughts are usually more critical and they soften over time. I’ve actually bought a pinball machine in 2024 that I didn’t care much at all for at launch (James Bond 007 [Stern 2022]) and now think it’s one of the better Stern pins, so games can and do improve.
I think what’s more important is how a game evolves and how it plays once the code is 100% complete. Few, if any, modern pinball games launch with the code 100% complete, so it’s reasonable for them to get better with time. Also, when more people play them, mechanical design issues can be fixed and overcome in future production runs. It’s not an over and done with situation with these games when we first play them. There is opportunity for growth and improvement.
That said, if you’d like to read more of my detailed first thoughts on pinball:
A, Subscribe for free (no ads, no affiliate links, clean), and
B. Other detailed thoughts after playing for first time articles I’ve written:
- 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)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre [Spooky 2024] Detailed First Thoughts After Flipping on Location
LIKE – Theme
Some might argue that horror movies as themes for pinball are not very good, but I think the opposite is true. In fact, an entire pinball manufacturer is in our midst — Spooky Pinball — with horror and in their name. They just keep making pinball games with a priority on horror. Love it.
As for Texas Chainsaw Massacre? It’s a classic horror film in the 70s, it’s got blood, guts and backwoods horror. It needs a pinball game like Leatherface needs his chainsaw.
LIKE – Playfield Design, Mechs & Toys
Spooky sometimes reskins their playfields with two different games. In the case of TCM, it’s reskinned from Looney Tunes and vice versa. That means it’s the same playfield design, only the artwork, mechs and toys differ. They did this for Ultraman and Halloween, also. Depending on how far the game code and ruleset is, this can make or break a design you enjoy playing otherwise.
Looking at the Looney Tunes playfield layout, my first experience was mixed, I felt like the ramp entrances were too big and pronounced, gobbling up valuable playfield space unnecessarily. Yet here, on TCM, I didn’t feel that same problem. Maybe I just didn’t notice it as much with TCM? I actually rated the playfield as “mixed” for Looney Tunes and yet here, I liked how it played. Making the shots seemed easier, somehow.
I was also underwhelmed with the power of the Looney Tunes flipper whereas I had no issue with the power of the main flippers on TCM. They worked good and were some of the best feel Spooky flippers power-wise I’ve played to date. Maybe the Looney Tunes flippers power was turned down or there were mechanical issues? I don’t know, but the TCM flippers always felt they had enough power.
One odd thing I noticed with TCM was that you could hold the upper flipper and the ball would wrap around and almost every time go into the hole in the target area. That seemed a little too easy. It didn’t work on every loop but it was a repeating shot that seemed a little too easy and frequently repeating. This felt more like poor design than intentional, but maybe it was.
LIKE – Translite, Side and Playfield Artwork
While I feel like Looney Tunes went too orange, TCM is just right with the bloody red in the design. Maybe it’s impossible to put too much red into a horror-themed pin, even if it’s cliche. I don’t think the artwork is amazing, but it’s good. TCM is one of the nicer looking Spooky pins. Their newest announced Evil Dead looks even nicer. Their cabinet and translite artwork is looking more and more professional as they continue to add new machines. Generally, I like what they’ve done here.
DISLIKE – Plunger / Skill Shots
Have said before I’m generally not in favor of plunger-less, button only plungers. Well, unfortunately, TCM fails in this department by using a button instead of a plunger. It would be cool if they had made the plunger shaped like a chainsaw, at least, but nope, nothing but a boring button. There is no creativity in the plunger, an important part of the game of pinball. No, the lack of a plunger doesn’t mean the game can’t be good, but it definitely means it mailed it in creatively.
LIKE – Gameplay Flow
Not sure how it’s possible for me to not be as excited about the flow on Looney Tunes as TCM, but here I am. Playing this against LT, it just comes out (way) on top to me. I found shots more enjoyable and with the better flipper strength, at least in the TCM I played, it was easier to make them. Few things in pinball are more damaging to flow than limp flipper strength. You want to make the shot, you try, but then it’s like you’re slamming the buttons hoping the flippers will … just … make … it … up… the ramp.
There are weird moments here, though, like the hole in the targets in the middle and being able to loop that from the upper flipper into the hole too easily. Again, not sure if that design was/is intentional, but it’s something I figured pretty fast and didn’t think it should be that way.
LIKE – scoring
The scoring is medium tier, not high scoring, you’ll score into the millions fairly easily, but not hundreds of millions or billions.
MIXED – LCD movie assets and callouts
I like the whole grocery store item system here and it’s represented well in LCD assets. The callouts voice was a bit plain, but pleasant. There could have been more movie assets, which left me feeling a little underwhelmed in that department. Maybe the assets are there aplenty, but when playing and looking up here and there, felt there could have been more. It’s an iconic horror film and a lot of it is very, very adult, so that might explain why there weren’t more clips(?).
DISLIKE – Music/sounds
Where is the music in this game? All I heard were creaks, groans, screams and other cliched horror sounds. The sound effects are timely used and I liked those, but missed some kind of sound track in the background. This would have been amazing to have some aggressive metal, some distorted guitar wailing, but there’s nothing but the sound effects. This is a miss. Don’t play TCM looking for any music as a backdrop.
LOVE – Lighting
The lighting is one of the stronger points in this game. Spooky has really upped their focus on lighting and it shows, literally. The lighting increased and strongly contributed to the overall ambience. It drew me in, more, to playing. I love it when a game does this. Godfather from JJP, a game some like to diss, has this same type of lighting feel. Pulp Fiction is another great one for lighting. Avatar, JJP’s newest game, is also spectacular lighting-wise. Stern’s just aren’t up to par on most of their games. I do like The Uncanny X-Men lighting as a means of comparison to TCM, so some Sterns do a good job on lighting.
TCM has very good lighting and light effects.
DISLIKE – Additional Game/Video Modes
Where are the video modes? Are there any whatsoever … anywhere? This is a game that just screams, pardon the pun: put in a chainsaw video mode! Use the chainsaw to cut up body parts or drop body parts in Tetris shapes and line them up. These aren’t good ideas, necessarily, but give us something in a playable video mode, Spooky. Anything!
DISLIKE – Connected features
Once again, Spooky misses the boat on connected features. I’ll keep saying this with every pinball game they make until/if they do something in this department. Yes, you can add a Scorbitron, but that’s on owners to mod the connected play and every modern pinball machine should come with some sort of connected system when they are selling these games at $10,000 USD. There is zero excuse or reason for these companies not to include some sort of connected pinball system other than they are being cheap and overlooking the fact that devices that cost far, far less have connected systems.
DISLIKE – Pricing
I wish Spooky would use the Turner model for pricing: $7,000 for their games. If they want to do a fancier, limited edition model for a thousand bucks more, fine, but $10,000 for TCM is stupidly expensive. And I like the game, too, but it just doesn’t matter.
Am far and away not alone in thinking that modern pinball games are too expensive. Instead of railing against it again, 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 – Somewhat interested in buying, but only if the price is thousands less, and interested in playing more
Grade: C+
Although I’m grading this lower than Metallica: Remastered, I enjoyed playing TCM a little more the first time. Probably over time, I’ll enjoy playing Metallica more, but initial experience the nod goes to TCM. What brings down the rating of this pin is the price and the company. I’m leery of the reliability of Spooky Pinball games. We just don’t see enough Spooky Pinball games in our area. I have a friend that is in the business and he’s told me his concerns over the games. That’s enough for me to feel like these games are potentially more prone to mechanical concerns than Stern. Maybe that’s not fair, I don’t know, but it’s my personal opinion. That’s what you get here, my opinion after playing. Your experience might differ.