Theme is one of the biggest factors for me when buying a game. I view my machines as furniture, which is how they function 95% of the time. I want them to reflect my personality and interests. I tend to gravitate to machines on location based on the theme also. I don’t like playing TMNT. However if that same layout and similar ruleset was on a Back to the Future, I would have a different attitude. I don’t care much for Iron Maiden the band. The game is alright. Re-themed as another band, I would play it more.
Pinball machines are just as valid as any form of media in introducing their source material to an audience.
For sure. It may even be fair to say that knowing the theme of the game well may make the gameplay more enjoyable. I’ve never seen the Twilight Zone series and it’s been years since i’ve seen The Addams Family, and it makes me want to watch both of them in order to better understand the pinball games of the same titles. If you listen to Rush or Iron Maiden, you’ll definitely understand the references much more, so it’s the same across the board for any theme, i’d imagine.
It’s nice when you don’t have to be super familiar with a theme to enjoy a game though. One of the things i loved right away about Monster Bash when i first played it was how intuitive it was. I didn’t understand pinball that well, and there wasn’t much online in the way of tutorials or forums like this that help enthusiasts become better players in the early 2000s. But after playing MB a couple of times, i quickly realized that i’m to “collect” all the monsters, and to do that, i need to hit the shots that are assigned to each monster in order to get them to jam out together. Even a burnout like me could understand that!
So I definitely love it when i don’t have to be an expert to enjoy and understand a game. I only watched The Mandalorian season once, but had i not, i would still have a pretty good understanding of the game and it isn’t necessary to be a Mando or Star Wars buff to “get it”. And much like the OP, i’ve never once watched a GZ film, and to add to that, Marvel has never really been my thing whatsoever. But that doesn’t sway my opinion that Godzilla and Avengers Infinity Quest are two of the best pinball machines ever designed → produced.
The theme is just an excellent bonus that feels great when done correctly, in my extremely humbled opinion.
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there’s a TMNT on location and i fear the exact same thing
I also found it strange that of all the modern IC Stern machines, that TMNT was the lowest scoring machine of them all. That seemed counterintuitive to me, since you would think that the company would want casual youngsters drawn to the game to feel like they had achieved somewhat of a high score after playing the game. Most casuals would likely be lucky to hit a million points.
Just an observation i made a couple of days ago.
Theme is rarely a positive, more often a negative. I like the game play of both AC/DC and Iron Maiden, but they’re a turnoff sound-wise and visually (my wife would be harsher), so I didn’t buy either. TOTAN and AFM were mildly positive theme-wise, but I bought those for the game play, not the themes. I’m a Zep fan, but I don’t care for the machine at all, either game-play or visually. Personally, I’d rather they didn’t do licensed-theme games. While I have mixed feelings about the game play on Dialed in, I like the fact that it’s an interesting free-standing concept rather than a license. I’m a big Star Trek fan, too, but I don’t care for any of the four ST-themed games that much.
BTW, yes, I do understand the marketing reasons for licensed themes. It clearly works for a lot of people, that’s why they do it. I just don’t care for it for me.
[quote=“BMU, post:25, topic:7425, full:true”]
Personally, I’d rather they didn’t do licensed-theme games. While I have mixed feelings about the game play on Dialed in, I like the fact that it’s an interesting free-standing concept rather than a license.[/quote]
I don’t mind seeing a few licensed themes*, but they should comprise at most about 50% of the games released every year. And I’m going to go out on a limb and say this, but I think Twilight Zone (among others) would be more fun as a non-licensed theme. It just gets repetitive to see yet another movie theme for Every. Single. New. Game.
- As in themes originating from outside the pinball universe. A new Black Knight game, even though technically a licensed theme, would be okay. Ditto for High Speed or a revisit of something like Earthshaker or Whirlwind.