Pinball Content Creators Share their Favorite Games And What They Love About Pinball

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Special thanks to Joel Engelberth (for the idea) and Erin Seiden (for the transcription assistance).
In early October, I received a message from Joel Engelberth of Triple Drain Pinball Podcast and Flip n’ Out streaming fame. He had an idea for a large-scale pinball media collaboration project and wanted to see if I was interested in helping make it happen. To which I said, “of course!”
His idea was simple: ask a bunch of people in the pinball media and content creation space to list their top five games and share their picks on their own channels. I’d then compile all the responses into a summary article and publish on Kineticist.
I added a small wrinkle, which was to also ask the content creators what they loved most about pinball.
We received an incredible response to the project, with over 35 entities responding to the request from 6 different countries.
The response was so incredible that we’re going to be breaking this up into two different posts. The first one (this one) will aggregate and share all the responses. The second post is turning into a new dedicated page on the site that we're calling the PPPOWER 100, or the Pinball Promoters' Power 100. There we will detail the rankings of everyone's favorite games and a few other interesting tidbits from the data.
So, without further ado, here are all the pinball creators' responses to this request.
We’ll kick it off with Triple Drain as a thank you to Joel, and then go alphabetically from there.
Few things to keep in mind as you read:
Finally - if we didn’t get to you in our outreach and you’d like to participate, please

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.

Erin organizes and attends a lot of events but she’s in it for the people and community way more than points. Pinball people are the best no matter where you travel!
Check out the new PPPOWER 100 pinball machine rankings at the link or clicking on the image below.
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Triple Drain Pinball Podcast Episode 43 - Our Top 5 Games and Expo Prep!
Germany

Abe's TOP 5 Pinball Machines
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Australia
Australia
United States & Australia

BlahCade Pinball: Top 10 Digital Pinball Tables You Need
Note - BlahCade covers digital pinball in their podcast, so these are digital pinball games only!
Presented in no particular order.
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My Top 5 and WHY I Choose Pinball
Presented in no particular order
Seriously, watch his video till the very end. I'm not going to do his answer justice by summarizing, but here goes.
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Why pinball matters and the top 5 games by DRI374. Recorded for Kineticist at Raccoon City Pinball.
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Listed in no particular order.
Listed in no particular order.
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The Electric Bat Cast :: Episode 6
These games are favorites from an operating perspective.
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My Top 5 Pinball Machines
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🔴LIVE - Final Rick and Morty Pinball Stream!
Provided by Jared Engelberth.
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Why We Love Pinball and My Top 5 Pins of All Time!
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Collab link: MY CURRENT FAVORITE TOP 5 PINBALL GAMES
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France
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My current TOP 5 Pinball favorites!
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Website (you're on it!) | Facebook
This is a hard list to make. Just because a game isn’t mentioned here doesn’t mean I don’t love it. This list is definitely subject to change, and is sorted by year of release, not by any sort of ranking!
Paragon (Bally, 1979)
Paragon will forever hold a special place in my heart as (one of) the first games I ever played, having grown up with one at home. Make no mistake, this isn’t just a nostalgic pick: Paragon isn’t just the greatest single-ball game of all time, the greatest Solid State of all time, or even the best game of the 1970s. This is one of the greatest pinball machines ever made. It’s relentlessly difficult, featuring a layout that’s just unusual enough to be unique, but not so unusual that it’s uncomfortable to play. There are so many achievements you can go for, whether it’s maxing out Golden Cliffs or scoring a max bonus, there’s always something to go for. Plus, it’s a game that’s just incredibly fun to control, requiring so much finesse that it can make my head spin in the best of ways. Add on a spectacular art package by Paul Faris and Paragon is one for the history books.
World Cup Soccer (Bally, 1994)
Everyone’s entitled to their own pinball opinions. If you dislike a game that I like, you’re fully entitled to your opinion, and I respect that - unless you’re talking about World Cup Soccer. If you don’t like this game, I’m sorry, but you’re just plain wrong. This game is a masterpiece. John Popadiuk put out quite a few legendary games during his stint at Bally (notable others include Theatre of Magic, Tales of the Arabian Nights, and Cirqus Voltaire), but WCS is on another level. Despite being incredibly easy to learn, the game features a ton of ways to score solid points. Whether you’re trying to reach Los Angeles, score points through Ultra features, or defeat Germany for the Cup, you have lots of options. With every goal scored, I find my hands just shoot up into the air in excitement, and I’m not even a soccer fan. It’s pinball bliss.
Attack from Mars (Bally, 1995)
Some might argue that Medieval Madness - which is extremely similar to AFM in rules and layout - is the superior game due to some extra complexities that deepen the strategy. Personally, I’ve always preferred blowing up saucers to blowing up castles. This was one of the games that I grew up on, having one at my local arcade (alongside a Super Mario Bros. Mushroom World) that I sunk loads of quarters into. Sure, it has a very simplistic ruleset and is relatively easy to complete, but it is a game that’s always going to be near and dear to my heart. The super-inflated scoring, spectacular callouts, bouncing martians, and the satisfaction of the center hole to obliterate a saucer - it’s a cocktail that’s impossible to not enjoy. Maybe it’s a bit straightforward, but man is it fun.
Scared Stiff (Bally, 1996)
Saying that Scared Stiff is the best horror-comedy game is no small praise, given that the competition includes Monster Bash, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and two other Elvira games. Arguably the corniest pinball machine ever made, nearly everything about this table - including the name itself - is some kind of double entendre, which fits the theme quite well. It’s not all goofiness and silliness, though. The soundtrack, in particular, is spectacular, as it increases in intensity the further along the game you get. The playfield is fun and forgiving, the objectives are achievable yet rewarding, and the rules are easy to pick up but unique. Honestly, it’s just a blast all around.
The Simpsons Pinball Party (Stern, 2003)
I’ve had one at home for nearly 20 years and have played it more than any other machine. Arguably the most complicated pinball machine ever made, Pinball Party has dozens of modes, multiballs, jackpots, and bonuses scattered around for you to stack up and cash in on. Where this game truly shines, however, is in the stacking rules. Where most other games require you to start modes before multiballs or painstakingly line up a golden stack, TSPP effectively turns a blind eye to you and lets you start whatever you want whenever you want to. The end result is a challenging layout that’s constantly incentivizing you to start more stuff, running literal dozens of modes and multiballs at the same time, and giving you a super satisfying feeling when one shot collects half a dozen different awards.
If you know me, you know that I love modern pinball machines from the 90s to present. There are a lot of older games I enjoy too, and I enjoy playing any machine no matter how unique just to have the opportunity, but these are my five favorite pinball machines as of 2023.
Honorable mentions for this list include Williams’ Twilight Zone and Star Trek: The Next Generation, Stern’s Rush and Iron Maiden, JJP’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and The Godfather, and CGC’s Pulp Fiction.
#5 The Addams Family (Bally, 1993)
Of course, we can’t talk about “modern” pinball without bringing up this early 90s classic, an insanely influential game in drawing me further into the hobby. Pat Lawlor had already made a name for himself with games like Whirlwind and FunHouse but this game was where his identity as a designer truly became his own. There are two ways to play this game for score - either go through all the mansion rooms or go for multiball at the vault - and both of them feel very fleshed out and well-defined for their time. Combine this with one of the greatest multiball intros in any machine and a layout with a mix of easy and difficult shots, and you have an iconic classic.
I have this machine ranked fairly low on the list because I have a nostalgic connection to it, and I feel it has some flaws with how repetitive longer games on it can feel and especially the exploits that can disable the Power magnets. However, without The Addams Family, I think many of the games coming out these days would be very different.
#4 Lord Of The Rings (Stern, 2003)
For the longest time, pinball machines played quick and fast and their rulesets were comparatively shallow (yet still a ton of fun). Lord of the Rings I felt was the first pinball machine to defy this mindset, including a very in-depth & exhaustive ruleset that portrays a demanding, difficult, but very rewarding journey through the three stories in Tolkien’s compendium. Over ten years since I first played this game and I’ve still yet to reach Valinor Multiball, though maybe it’ll happen someday.
While I truly love this game, I also understand why players would dislike it, due to long game times not being conducive to tournament friendliness. It’s a great game for sure, just not one that makes sense in a competitive setting where machines have to be set up fast and difficult.
#3 The Shadow (Bally, 1994)
There are a lot of Williams machines I was thinking of putting on this list - Attack from Mars and Medieval Madness I truly enjoy - but before either of those games came The Shadow, Brian Eddy’s experimental masterpiece of a machine based on a pretty forgettable film. While the game has rules similar to its early 90s brethren, the layout is anything but familiar with the Battlefield mini-playfield, the Sanctum target that magnetizes the ball and sends it into the lock, and especially the Phurba ring diverters at the ramps that are player-controllable and can completely change how the game is played. Not to mention one of my absolute favorite combo shots, in the lucrative left loop - side loop combo.
The closest modern comparison to this table would be Venom, also designed by Brian Eddy and emphasizing game speed above all else, but with a more RPG-aligned ruleset designed by Dwight Sullivan. While I enjoy Venom for what it is, The Shadow works well as both a traditional pinball machine and an experimental mix of ideas.
#2 Foo Fighters (Stern, 2023)
It was a real treat to learn that Jack Danger had finally been hired as a designer for a cornerstone Stern release, and even more of a surprise to learn what game he was assigned to. Just like with James Bond 007, I had minimal experience with Foo Fighters besides having heard some of their songs on the radio; I was worried it would be another “band pin” without much differentiating it. Then the game came out, and it was a giant tribute to 80s & 90s Saturday morning cartoons’ unashamed goofiness disguised as a band game. The layout and theme sold me pretty much right away - with insanely clever shot flow and the raygun targets lending themselves to tricky risk vs. reward play.
One thing I really love about this game is how many valid ways there are to approach it for high scores. I’ve known people who have blown up Los Angeles mode but I’ve also known people who have blown up Seattle or New York in similar ways. Rayday & Tanio’s code encourages many different playstyles, even offering up a “gimme” multiball for new players at the Overlord.
#1 Godzilla (Stern, 2021)
What else did you expect? If you’ve ever talked to me or known about my online presence, you know that I find Godzilla to be one of the best pinball machines ever made. I understand that the game has seen some critical backlash as of late, but I’m here to say that the game’s quality should speak for itself. While the game can feel slightly overwhelming early on with many objectives running concurrently, once you take the time to learn the game, you’re in for a truly unique pinball experience with some of the most well-crafted rules on any machine ever made. Like Foo Fighters, the game appeals to me on a “professional player” level with deep aspects like Monster Zero mode and the elusive Tier 2 battles, but also appeals to novice players who might have never played before with an easy multiball at the building and clear feedback on what to shoot for.
And concluding the “holy trinity” of pinball machines I love based on themes I had no experience with, I had never seen a single Godzilla film prior to the machine releasing and love what I’ve seen so far. Even the American / Japanese dialogue settings prove the reverence Keith Elwin & Rick Naegle’s team had for these films. While the campy English dialogue appeals to my pinball sensibilities, the Japanese dialogue is comparatively serious and almost makes the game feel completely different.
#5 Pulp Fiction
We’re spoiled in Chicagoland so for months I’ve had access to not one but two test prototypes of Pulp Fiction. One at Logan Arcade and the other at Enterrium. It shoots so fun and the sound package is absolutely amazing. David Theil at his best! The spinner noise, gunshots, and perfectly timed movie quotes are all chef’s kiss! I really love shooting for the saucer on launch and getting the drops down to set up my briefcase multiball. I just ordered one as a bonus to myself for getting a new job!
#4 Nine Ball
Nine Ball is my current grail (although price and being able to pick it up locally is factored in as I’ve seen a few come up). My favorite art package in all of pinball! It looks more like it should be airbrushed on the side of a van than on a pinball machine. That bitchin’ space pool wizard gets me every time. It's also got a look of cool stuff for a solid state, like a bazillion drops, horseshoe, locks, and a weirdly mounted spinner. I miss living near a friend who had one!
#3 Dialed In!
Dialed In is the first and only game I ordered before playing it, and I have no regrets! Lots of people crap on this game calling it Mr. Mom Jeans or Old Man Cell Phone game. I don’t get it. The phone isn’t nearly as annoying as the stupid Bat Phone ringing noise in Batman 66. Anyway to me it's more about disasters than cell phones, so it's totally Pat Lawlor’s greatest hits (Whirlwind, Earthquake, etc.). And I love how they kind of snuck video modes in there with the theater adding in more spinners and other virtual elements that don’t take you out of the game.
#2 Elvira's House of Horrors
I will never not be mad at myself for not buying Elvira and the Party Monsters and Scared Stiff when I thought 3K and 6K were too much money. So I used that as justification to go NIB Elvira House of Horrors, and I have no regrets. I love the theme, love the shots, love all the terrible, terrible puns (“Somebody call an artist, I need some butter drawn” is my favorite for the lobster “monsters” in Teenagers from Outer Space). And I just keep finding cool stuff in the game. Did you know for December, not only do you get Santa Claus Versus the Martians in the round window, but each day of the month adds new sounds or things on the screen, like an advent calendar? So freaking cool all the little things in this game! Super excited for expanded code coming soon!
#1 Doctor Who
Doctor Who will always have a special place in my heart since it's the first one I ever bought. I lucked out buying on the internet, not really knowing what I was doing, and after some initial hiccups, everything works great (though years later, we realized the DMD is held up by toothpicks). It was missing the little ships on the playfield, which I didn’t realize, but a friend did, and it drove him crazy, and he didn’t stop till he found us some on the internet. I love the gameplay. It's a lot like Pinbot but even more fun for me because I really like the theme. I love getting to choose Doctors to go along with your strategy. My defaults are Baker for Millions!, Troughton for multiplying multiballs, and McCoy for getting multiballs. Or if no one else is doing well and I need some points, it's Hartnell for video mode. I know WHO loops are key, too but I suck at hitting successive shots in order in a row, so it's not my go-to.
Top 3 things I love about pinball:
I’ve been playing pinball ever since I could reach both flippers. As a kid, there was something fascinating about the game: unlike the video games that I would play, pinball machines were real, physical devices. They were moving, kinetic, haptic, and had flashing lights, great sound effects, and cool art. They were physical worlds, and not just shapes on a screen. But, these worlds were hidden under a glass barrier - as tangible as the playfields were, you couldn’t touch them. In retrospect, this contradiction was the thing that most interested me, gradually exposing how much of a paradox the game really is. Controlling the ball keeps your game going, but you have to induce chaos in order to score points. You’re expected to control the game, but are given minimal agency to do so. But the best paradox of all is that it’s a game which, inherently, cannot be won.
Some might view it as an exercise in futility - after all, you’re fighting a literal uphill battle that will only end with your ball in the drain. I prefer to view it as an exercise in persistence - you have to overcome all these adversities in order for things to pay off. But beating these adversities isn’t solely dependent on rules knowledge, luck, or reflexes. It’s a game all about feel. The best way to play pinball is to not overthink it - you need to synchronize yourself with the game, anticipate the trajectory of the ball, and get into your zone. That’s why I love pinball so much - while playing the game, learning the rules, and hearing the lights and sounds is so much fun, getting into that trance feels like you’ve beaten the game entirely. Your scores shoot up, you can hit the difficult shots, and the game becomes much more satisfying.
What I think I love about pinball the most is how it combines video games, already one of my favorite pastimes, with a physical experience that can’t be replicated. As a modern pinball fan, I especially enjoy creating rules guides and trying to help people out if they’re struggling with machines (as long as they want that help). The people I’ve met in the community are also some of the nicest people I’ve met in any community and I’m proud to call myself both a pinball fan, and a resource for any questions about the current state of the hobby. I hope to see the pinball hobby become more inclusive as more and more people are introduced (or re-introduced) to it!
I am one of the Kineticist folks collecting and transcribing all this stuff, so I’ve already heard more than a few other content creators' answers, so I’ll do a new spin on the community, making it so great! Don’t get me wrong, I do love all my pinball peeps at tournaments and the friends I’ve made, but here’s another aspect of the community that’s amazing: The industry folks. I’m the pinball history nerd who has read all the compendiums, Pinball Magazines, and anything I can get my hands on. I have always been fascinated with the stories of the characters and the twists and turns to get games released. But in this industry, you don’t have to just read about the folks in books. Where else do you see designers and heads of departments commenting on Facebook groups with fixes, questions, or kudos on people’s collections? Or showing up at launch parties and charity tournaments (well, maybe that’s unique to Chicagoland, but it happens a lot there, and before I moved out here, they were always accessible and friendly at shows). And despite perceived company rivalries, I’ve seen more than one instance of teams from different companies congratulating each other on new games and signing things for each other.
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Note: Even though we had no rules, Scott for sure cheated here by responding with "all 4 CGC remakes" in the #2 spot.
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Pinball Degenerates (Joe C.) Top 5 Pinball Machines
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Note: due to recording and release schedules, Dan and his Pinball Innovators & Makers podcast won't be releasing their episode for a bit, however has provided his answers for us below! We'll update this page with his episode when it airs.
This hobby has found my interest, voice and focus on those pinball enthusiasts, makers and innovators who take the plunge and build, retheme or otherwise make their own pinball machines, as well as those that create technology to empower these makers.
While I have a collection of “my favorite pinball machines” (Red and Teds Road Show, Stranger Things, Back to the Future, Multimorphic P3, F-14 Tomcat), I decided to stay on brand and offer my favorite custom and home brew machines.
I scoured almost 7 years of just under 5000 photos in the Strictly Custom Pinball Facebook group, the epicenter of the custom and homebrew scene. While not everything filters through this Facebook group, Jake Danzig and many of the other enthusiasts do a great job cross posting photos and information from many other sources, as well as posting old photos of custom and homebrew machines.
The 5000 photos covered design concepts, white woods, playfield sketches and prints, cabinet builds, wiring layouts, control boards, plastic sets, art packages, custom mechanism, ramps, habit trails, toys, videos, sound and music as well as many pictures of community members proudly showing off their time together.
Themes pulled from movies, TV, video games, comics, music, sports, leisure, businesses, historical events & people, original characters and themes, theoretical concepts and art pieces.
Showing skills on technical processes of 3D Printing, CAD, plastic vacuum forming & cutting, woodwork, CNC routing, metal bending, painting, laminating, clear coating, crimping, soldering and programming.
Specific parts, like buttons, switches, coils, rubbers, flippers, spinners, magnets, bumpers, targets, displays, troughs, pinballs, lights, wires, and tools were sourced ordered and shown from Marco, Pinball Life and Pinball Resource.
Software and controllers showcased from MPF, Cobra Pin, FAST and Multimorphic.
There are just shy of 400 machines featured in the group over this timeframe. No two machines were alike, and 5000 pictures across 400 machines documented the work of 100s of hours of work from individuals, couples, families and groups of friends.
Customs and homebrews span so many different categories, I wanted to make sure that in my picking of “top 5” I did the hobby and those making these machines justice.
As such, I chose 5 categories and winners in each. I chose 5 winners based on integrated theme, a class of machines built on a platform for innovation, as well as categories for Best to Play, Most polished & ready for production, and a custom homebrew that has been produced.
And my choices are:
This list of machines picks some of my favorites out of the vast number of machines, but every maker and innovator who started a project and posted something deserves credit, it is not an easy road to travel and I am in awe of their journeys.
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Collab link: Pinball Mag’s favorite pinball machines
No particular order.
Canada
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Germany
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Top 5 Fave Pins + What we love most about Pinball!
Denmark

TOP 5 Pinball Machines
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Silverball Chronicles BONUS: Our Top Pins
Note: these are themed after the designers that have been featured on prior episodes.
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Note: Slam Tilt put their own spin on this and did their top 5 hated games instead of favorite games.
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My **TOP 5 PINBALL MACHINES**
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Labyrinth Chat, Top 5 Pinball Machines, and John Speights Reveal
Note: Wormhole did 1 top pick from each of their "top 5 Wormholers".
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