Jaws is the Next Stern Pinball Release [Updated 1.5.24]
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Note: Given Stern's staggered content release schedule, this page is updated frequently with mostly live reactions to new material.
As if there was any serious doubt, Stern Pinball has just released the first teaser trailer for their much hyped JAWS pinball machine, the next cornerstone game from designer Keith Elwin.
Hunting Soon...🦈
Jaws has long held the #2 spot in our Hype Rankings index as it's been a theme pinball fans have discussed and hoped to see for some time. Few interesting stats on this particular IP:
Colin is the chief pixel pusher at Kineticist. He's a lifetime gamer who became enamored with pinball after taking in a family copy of the 1979 classic Joker Poker (the EM version). Since then he's bought, sold and repaired many machines, competed in all kinds of tournaments, and contributes to This Week in Pinball, the New England Pinball League, and Pin-Masters of New England. Previously, Colin spent over a decade working in marketing for agencies and tech startups. He also started and ran a music blog, happy hour website, and wrote a regular craft beer review column for Central Track in Dallas. Once aspired to be an artsy film director.
Complete BASH BOAT to light SHARK ENCOUNTERS.
Close all 5 beaches to begin RESCUE MULTIBALL.
SHARK TOWER TARGETS add BEACHGOERS to each beach. Collect all 3 on same beach to begin BEACH CLOSED hurry-up.
Complete white arrows to light FISHFINDER. Shoot lit drop target from MINI FLIPPER to collect FISHFINDER award.
Collect shark tower standups to begin FEEDING FRENZY.
Shoot the chum bucket to Chum the Water. Complete CHUM LINE to light READY BARREL.
Complete DROP targets when lit to attach a BARREL to the HARPOON.
Shoot fin target with BARREL attached to light JAWS MULTIBALL.
Shooting Harpoon lane from MINI FLIPPER activates QUICKSHOT. QUICKSHOT multiplier increases the further the ball is shot up the HARPOON LANE. Shoot fin target to collect QUICKSHOT value.
JAWS Pinball Story Trailer
Stern has released the official "story" trailer. It's all film clips and voiceover, so no gameplay footage or other specific game details. If anything it reminds me of a much shorter theatrical trailer for the original Jaws film. It does seem very carefully edited, however, so it will be interesting as we see more revealed to see what kind of assets they got access to for the final game.
Jaws - Theatrical Trailer (HD) (1975)
Things that stood out:
Jaws Theme Song
Quick hit reactions on two views of the trailer:
JAWS Pinball Presented by Stern Pinball
By my count, Stern has nearly 200 photos of the different trim levels on their website, so we're not going to post them all here, but will call out a few highlights from each trim level below.
It's always tough to make these determinations from gameplay videos and marketing material but I was impressed with how the Pro edition seemed to translate from the Premium/LE editions, purely from a shots and flow perspective. Most of the core "moments" all feel pretty intact, so it doesn't seem like the gameplay experience will degrade much from the LE version.
I'm also finding myself obsessed with the quickshot/harpoon shot coming off the right mini-flipper. Both how you can use the mini-flipper to trap the ball and the path the ball appears to take across the playfield in a way that may function like a more challenging scoop-shot.
On the Premium/LE, I love the upper playfield shots and the wave ramp into lookout tower combo. I would be trying to shoot for that constantly if I that was the model I had available to play.
We'll continue updating this page as more information is revealed.
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