Customer Reviews

Stern Pinball Batman Arcade Pinball Machine

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recently had the opportunity to play this game for about 3 hours straight. I had heard some bad reviews of the game, but definitely wanted to check it out for myself. I must say I was really pleased with the game. The first thing you will notice when you see this machine is the striking cabinet art and translite. I believe these are stock images from Warner Brothers Batman Style Guide (not positive) but they really look good. The side art is especially nice as well as the backbox sides. The translite is good, but I would have preferred just Batman and the Joker on it. The playfield art is also very good, and is similiar to Spiderman in that it has the photos of key players in the movie. There are plenty of lights in this game which make the lighting very good.
The game features many toys, but they arent as interactive as in some games. Toys include: Batmobile Teeter Totter, a spinning Joker Stage, and the Scarecrow Crane. The Batmobile Teeter Totter doesnt really do anything special other than provide a break from gameplay. Joker Stage simply turns and reveals the Joker. The real winner of the toys is the Scarecrow Crane. At certain points in the game the Crane will move out onto the playfield over certain targets displayed on the playfield. The crane features a ball attached to a spring that you have to hit. This definitely adds a a good bit of randomness to where the ball will go which is always fun.

There is only one ramp in this game, which is not an issue, as for some reason while playing it felt like there were more. There are plenty of shots on this game, and the gameplay is very smooth. Its not an extremely hard game, but it is fairly challenging. I am not sure what version of software the machine I played had, but it honestly didn't matter. I wasn't playing the "modes" of the game, I was more interested in just playing the game and figuring out what everything did. People trashed this game because of the initial software, but after reading Sterns software updates, it seems like plenty of improvements have been made to the code. One of the features that is now enable is support for a shaker motor. I haven't played one with a shaker, but I'm sure it really enhances the game, especially during crane hits.

Overall I found this to be a really fun game with striking art and one of the coolest toys in pinball, the Scarecrow Crane. Its a great theme, and since it isn't specific to either Batman Begins or The Dark Knight, Stern will have an opportunity to rerelease this when the next movie comes out, assuming they still have the license. Continued software updates will make this game a sleeper hit in my opinion.

I bought this thing thinking it was just going to be another game made by mindless developers to sell their game off through amazing graphics. But I was surprised when it arrived, I took it out of the box and plugged it in. Right away I realized I was wrong. as soon as I started up the game the graphics were amazing and the gameplay was impeccable. though I think I need a new board cause with this one I get a crappy FPS considering the floor of it is sticky, thats what I get for buying used.