022 Is Beetlejuice Worth The Squeeze?

Hosts praise Beetlejuice's design but critique voice control and limited production; announce arcade soft opening with new points system.

The Punk Rock Pinball Podcast hosts discuss the newly announced Beetlejuice pinball machine by Spooky Pinball, praising its art design and physical integration of theme elements while expressing frustration with the voice-activated 'Spooky Speak' feature and limited production availability. They also announce their soft opening tournament on November 22nd and introduce the Punk Rock Pinball Points (PRPPs) system, a casual alternative to competitive IFPA scoring that rewards participation and volume of play.

Highlights

• Beetlejuice has more physical content/mods than Jaws, requiring $600-$2000 in modifications to match Beetlejuice's out-of-box features
• Christopher Franchi, the artist behind Beetlejuice, has a distinctive style also evident in The Munsters and Evil Dead artwork
• Evil Dead, when stripped to whitewood layout, would not rank in top 10-15 Spike 2+ machines based on shot flow and feel alone
• Stern machines are more readily available for purchase (can obtain Pro model within weeks) compared to Spooky's limited production model
• Spooky Pinball has made significant progress in craftsmanship despite lacking decades of industry knowledge that Stern possesses