# 025 - Our Top 5 Pins of 2025

**Source:** Punk Rock Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2025-12-08  
**Duration:** 40m 23s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://share.transistor.fm/s/d974b4d0

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## Analysis

Punk Rock Pinball hosts discuss their individual top 5 pinball machines released in 2025, comparing rankings and reasoning. Both hosts largely agree on machines like Dune (Barrels of Fun) and Evil Dead (Spooky), though they diverge on #1: one chose Star Wars Fall of the Empire while the other chose Jaws 50th Anniversary. The episode also covers Punk Rock Pinball HQ updates, upcoming December IFPA tournaments, and the launch of a new Punk Rock Pinball Association leaderboard system.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Star Wars Fall of the Empire is the most fun pinball machine to play in 2025 for one host — _Host states Star Wars is #1 because it's the most fun to play; cites two-flipper layout, Raymond Davidson's code, and film asset integration as key factors_
- [HIGH] King Kong has the best layout of 2025 and possibly the best layout of the last five years — _Host explicitly states 'King Kong is the best layout of 2025, and I think it's not close' and 'it might be like a top five ever for the layout'_
- [HIGH] Punk Rock Pinball HQ now has 23 pinball machines — _Host mentions '23 pinball machines at the Punk Rock Pinball HQ' with two recent additions (John Wick Pro and Judge Dredd)_
- [HIGH] Apple Podcast listeners represent nearly as many listeners as YouTube video views — _Host states 'Apple Podcast episodes have almost as many listeners as, like, the YouTube videos have views' with 85-90% average listening completion_
- [MEDIUM] Evil Dead is the coolest looking pinball machine ever made — _Host opinion: 'Evil Dead is the coolest looking pinball machine. There's not a cooler looking pinball machine... Evil Dead is probably the coolest looking pinball machine ever, maybe'_
- [MEDIUM] Jaws 50th Anniversary is the best-looking version of Jaws pinball, better than the LE — _Host opinion: 'I think it looks way better than the LE' and 'The 50th is cooler. It's the way this machine was meant to be'_
- [HIGH] Punk Rock Pinball Association leaderboard will launch by January 1st, possibly this month — _Host states 'we are just about to roll out the Punk Rock Pinball leaderboard in a matter of weeks. Yeah. Definitely by January 1st, but maybe this month'_
- [MEDIUM] Jersey Jack pinball machines have decreased in appeal over time for one host — _Host expresses changed opinion: 'the more i play the jersey jacks sadly the more i don't want to play the jersey jack pinball machines... right now i'm just kind of down on jersey jack games'_

### Notable Quotes

> "King Kong is the best layout of 2025, and I think it's not close in terms of the shots and the types of combos you can do and the flow of the game. Nothing is even in the ballpark of King Kong on the layout."
> — **Mike**, N/A
> _Strong endorsement of King Kong's mechanical design despite reservations about art and code_

> "Evil Dead is probably the coolest looking pinball machine. There's not a cooler looking pinball machine."
> — **Mike**, N/A
> _Superlative praise for Evil Dead's aesthetic design_

> "I'm saying the best pinball machine of 2025 for me is Star Wars Fall of the Empire... because I like to play it... the most fun to play for me when the death star shot works yes more fun than Jaws"
> — **Co-host**, N/A
> _Explains rationale for #1 pick based on gameplay fun rather than aesthetics_

> "just because you can make all these crazy ball paths doesn't mean that you need to and it doesn't mean it makes the game more fun"
> — **Co-host**, N/A
> _Design philosophy critique of modern pinball complexity_

> "The Chum and Brody mod should just have been in the game. It's badass."
> — **Mike**, N/A
> _Commentary on post-release modifications improving Jaws 50th_

> "It's been a big week... the dream of pinball is alive in Bloomington"
> — **Mike**, Opening
> _Community building moment describing local pinball culture development_

> "if somebody gave us $40,000 tomorrow and we could buy four machines, Dune would probably be one of them"
> — **Co-host**, N/A
> _Practical purchasing priority metric for evaluating machines_

> "the more i play the jersey jacks sadly the more i don't want to play the jersey jack pinball machines"
> — **Co-host**, N/A
> _Sentiment shift away from Jersey Jack Pinball machines_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Punk Rock Pinball HQ | organization | Training facility and pinball arcade in Bloomington, Illinois; now has 23 machines; hosts tournaments and community events |
| Mike | person | Co-host of Punk Rock Pinball Podcast; operates Punk Rock Pinball HQ; organizes tournaments and events; ranked King Kong #3, Dune #4, Star Wars #5 in 2025 top 5 |
| Stephanie | person | Co-host of Punk Rock Pinball Podcast; tournament director alongside Mike; ranked Evil Dead #2, Jaws 50th #5 in 2025 top 5 |
| Star Wars: Fall of the Empire | game | Stern Pinball 2025 release; ranked #1 by co-host for fun factor; two-flipper fan layout with Raymond Davidson code |
| Jaws 50th Anniversary | game | Stern Pinball 2025 release; ranked #1 by Mike for overall quality and aesthetics; features Chumming Brody mod |
| Evil Dead | game | Spooky Pinball 2025 release; ranked #2 by both hosts; praised for aesthetics and lighting; wide-body format |
| King Kong | game | Stern Pinball 2025 release; ranked #3 by co-host and #5 by Mike; praised for superior layout design despite art/code concerns |
| Dune | game | Barrels of Fun 2025 release; ranked #4 by both hosts; brown/gray theme, praised for shots and lighting integration |
| Loser Kid Pinball Podcast | media | Referenced for their 2025 top 5 episode; both hosts on Loser Kid list had Portal in their top 5 |
| Punk Rock Pinball Association | organization | New tournament/leaderboard system launching by January 1st; geared toward mid-level players; rewards all results (not top finishes only) |
| Punk Rock Pinball Facebook Group | organization | Community hub where upcoming tournament events are listed |
| Portal | game | P3 Multimorphic 2025 release; cartridge-based system; neither host played it; flipper concerns mentioned |
| Poor Bros Taproom | organization | Bloomington, Illinois venue hosting IFPA tournament December 14th at 3:30 PM |
| Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Star Wars, Jaws 50th, King Kong, Dungeons and Dragons, and other 2025 releases |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Evil Dead 2025 release |
| Barrels of Fun | company | Manufacturer of Dune and Winchester Mystery House 2025 releases |
| Marshall | person | Dog; sleeps under pinball machines at HQ; prefers Jaws; appears at end of episodes but YouTube viewers miss him due to early clickaway |
| Keith Elwin | person | Designer of Jaws 50th Anniversary pinball machine |
| Raymond Davidson | person | Code developer for Star Wars: Fall of the Empire; praised for work on the game |
| John Borg | person | Designers referenced as creator of fast, punishing two-flipper fan layout games; mentioned in context of Monsters comparison |

### Topics

- **Primary:** 2025 Pinball Machine Rankings, Punk Rock Pinball HQ Community Events, Punk Rock Pinball Association Leaderboard Launch, Tournament Organization and IFPA Events
- **Secondary:** Pinball Machine Design Philosophy (Layout vs Aesthetics vs Code), Podcast Analytics and Listener Platforms, Jersey Jack Pinball Sentiment Shift
- **Mentioned:** Post-Release Modifications (Chumming Brody mod)

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.78) — Generally enthusiastic about 2025 releases with constructive criticism. Both hosts find most machines fun to play. Some reservations about Jersey Jack machines and specific design elements (King Kong art, Portal flippers) but overall positive tone regarding the year's lineup and community growth.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Punk Rock Pinball Association launching new leaderboard/tournament system as alternative to IFPA for mid-level players (confidence: high) — Leaderboard launching by January 1st; geared toward mid-level grinders; accumulates all tournament results rather than top finishes only; separate from IFPA but compatible with IFPA events
- **[community_signal]** Punk Rock Pinball HQ expanding with new machines and hosting frequent social events; training program concept to develop next Illinois state champion (confidence: high) — HQ now has 23 machines with recent additions (John Wick Pro, Judge Dredd); retirement party afterparty hosting; plan to recruit young players for competitive development
- **[competitive_signal]** Two-flipper fan layout games emerging as preferred tournament/casual play style over complex layouts (confidence: medium) — Co-host references John Wick and Monsters as frequent-play machines; contrasts with complex modern games; cites fast, punishing gameplay as preferred aesthetic
- **[design_philosophy]** Preference for simpler, more focused two-flipper fan layouts over complex multi-ball-path designs (confidence: high) — Co-host explicitly states Star Wars #1 pick is partly due to two-flipper fan layout preference; references John Wick and Monsters as preferred simple layouts; criticizes games with 'so many crazy ball paths' as unnecessary complexity
- **[market_signal]** Purchase priority analysis suggests Dune and Evil Dead perceived as strong value in $10k-12k range despite concerns (confidence: medium) — Both hosts state if given $40k tomorrow, would prioritize Dune and Evil Dead; Evil Dead availability constraint noted (one seen for $13k); willingness to wait for Evil Dead price reduction
- **[community_signal]** Solo music project completion by podcast co-host with distribution/promotion challenges (confidence: medium) — Mike completed mixing three solo songs after nearly one year; uncertain how to distribute due to lack of fanbase and no touring; seeks community input on distribution strategy
- **[product_strategy]** Chumming Brody mod for Jaws 50th Anniversary praised as valuable post-release enhancement (confidence: medium) — Mike mentions 'we've got the Chumming Brody mod on it. It's like perfect' and states 'The Chum and Brody mod should just have been in the game. It's badass.'
- **[product_concern]** King Kong praised for layout but criticized for art direction and code execution (confidence: high) — Mike rates King Kong layout as best of 2025/last 5 years but states 'I wish the art was different. I wish the code was a bit different' and notes animations don't appeal to him
- **[sentiment_shift]** Declining interest in Jersey Jack Pinball machines despite past positive reception (confidence: medium) — Co-host states 'the more i play the jersey jacks sadly the more i don't want to play the jersey jack pinball machines... right now i'm just kind of down on jersey jack games'; owns Avatar but no JJP in top 50 today

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## Transcript

 Hey there. Hi. How are you? I'm good. We just had to fight Marshall out of Mike's seat. And I went and got him a biscuit and then he tried to race me back to the seat. He really wants to be part of the podcast. So bad. He's got things to say about pinball. I don't know what. He likes to sleep under the pinball machines. Yeah, he likes Jaws. I think Jaws is his favorite. It's the funniest thing because he's such a weird, weird dog. he's afraid of so much stuff but pinball ball noise not afraid of it no when we got the first machine we were afraid that marshall was going to be afraid of like all the sounds and he'd cower into the bedroom but he he'll like sleep right under it while you're playing born to be part of pinball yeah that's that darn pinball hound well welcome back to episode 25 25. Can you believe it? Is there like a medal for that? Like if it's your anniversary, is that like silver? Maybe. Is it? I don't know. Well. It's like our silver anniversary. It is like our silver anniversary. I'm going to move that over a little bit. Okay. All right. So it's been a big week. Was it a big week? It was like. Feels like it. It feels like a big week, but mostly like over at the Punk Rock Pinball HQ, there weren't any like official events but there was a lot of people playing this weekend yeah the dream is uh coming to life the dream of pinball is alive in bloomington it's true we um our friend cj he had a retirement party yep congratulations cj on your retirement i don't think he listens but yeah cj i think he does but he's like 10 episodes behind he'll get there one day So what an awesome life moment. He had a big retirement party at the movie theater where he has some games on location. So that was fun. Lots of non-pinballers there that were playing the games. Yeah. And then the pinball fam came out. Yeah. And then we had an after party at the HQ. The Punk Rock Pinball HQ and Training Center. Yeah, it's a training center. It's a pinball training facility. What do you envision for this training facility? Well, we'd like to breed the next Illinois state champion at the Punk Rock Pinball HQ and training center. But we're going to need like a young child, apparently. So there needs to be a young child that has games at home. At least one. preferably two or three but at least one at home and then they need to be able to come to the training center a few times a week and get on the uh joe and cj and luke uh pinball training program okay what happens in this training program so luke's young guy's probably he's a contender contender he's already pretty good and you're you know you're going to do learning with luke Luke will teach you some games and some strategy, and Joe and CJ will come up with their own practice regimen and stuff to breed the next Illinois state champion. It's going to be tough because Illinois is very competitive, the state, for pinball. It's crazy. Also, there are two Lukes with contenders. There's Luke in Galesburg and Luke in Champaign. Both have little guys who are pretty good. I was talking about Luke Pirovsky. OK, but both Luke's could enter their kids into the Illinois state champion training program at the Punk Rock Pinball HQ. How cool would it be, though? There's going to be math exams. I mean, I feel like you have to be good at math to excel at pinball, which is why I will never be great because I'm not so great at math. Oh, my gosh. So, yeah, so we had some folks there, and then on Friday night, we were at the HQ. Yeah, some people came out Friday, yeah? Mm-hmm. It's all a blur. I know. And then Saturday, yesterday, all day. Marathon. Me and my good friend Ruben Baird were over at the Bombsite Studio next door mixing. I have some solo songs that I recorded with some friends. Was that like over the summer? or was it like a year ago? It was almost a year ago because remember when I fell getting the door dash? Like a year and a half ago. It was almost a year ago. Okay. Was it in the summer? I don't even remember. No, it was wintertime because I fell in the Jon Snow. Okay. So it's been a long time. My friends Lydia and Zach recorded it with me and me and Ruben just finally mixed it all yesterday and it sounds fantastic. How many songs? Three songs. Okay. And I don't know what to do with them Because this is like I like all of my solo music I think it's all good But this is like the best of it And usually It's not like the Smoking Popes Who have fans Right Our band has some fans And we put out a record And a lot of people listen to it And enjoy it And then for my solo music Like, I don't, nobody really knows about it. Yeah. I don't really have any fans. I have, like, ten. I'm a fan. Thank you. You're welcome. I have eleven fans. I might actually have, like, a hundred fans. But I don't know how to, I wish I knew a way to release it where it would get heard more. Well, if anybody out there has ideas. And, like, I don't really play shows or tours, so that really limits the... Exposure. exposure and and possibilities to promote it but i like my songs i like singing the songs i'm not i'm not a great front man live you are getting better i'm not the worst like i'm not terrible but i'm not comfortable up there rather drum yeah like i don't feel like a pro up there I don't really want to play shows and not be a pro. Yeah. That's all right. You don't have to. Yeah, I've got to figure out how to release these. I'm really proud of them. My friend Lydia really just smashed it on all the keys and stuff. Man, what a talent. Very talented. Yeah, it's amazing. But this isn't the Mike Felon Lee solo music podcast. Oh, it isn't? No. Oh, I thought it was your podcast. because i said that last week i mean it is my podcast and your podcast i know i'm just fucking with you you can say it's your podcast well it's ours it is yeah it's yours a lot of times when we upload the video and i'll tell you later that afternoon like hey your video got your podcast got 250 views i do phrase it that way i'm just fucking with you why you gotta do that Oh, come on. So, okay. Let's do some announcements. We have some upcoming events. Well, I just want to talk real quick about who came by the HQ yesterday because it was kind of fun. It was fun. Well, you were busy. I was busy. I didn't even see anybody. People didn't even know you were there. I wasn't really there. I know. You were next door. But it was really fun. So Ruben and his wife Angie came down. They had a sleepover. Mm-hmm. And that was fun. And then we had just, it was kind of a revolving door of people coming through yesterday. Zach showed up. Zach Morey? Yeah. Or no, he was there Friday. He was there Friday. Friday. That's when he, like, he gave Mando a what's what. Yeah. What did he shoot? Like 700 something? Yeah. Crazy, Zach. Yeah. Thanks, Zach, because that Mando was mean. Can't wait to reset that leaderboard. He's being naughty. The leaderboard will be reset in January. Rosie and JD came out both days. CJ and Dean. Did John Youssi Dean? I saw Dean. I don't know if I got to say hi to him. I was walking by to get a Coke and he was there. He was there. And Jen and Rob, our new friend from Bloomington, he was there. Kevin Johnson. Kevin was there like Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Yeah. And Spicy Rich. spicy rich and his wife yeah and she knows a little bit about obs so it's going to help us with um some live streams that we're planning on doing in the new year very excited about that yeah it sounds like maybe wednesday night's going to be our streaming night yeah wednesday night if that works for folks we'll take a poll yeah but um yeah and oh my gosh and on Friday. That's also when Greg was there and he brought a couple friends and a couple machines. So we have two new additions to the HQ. We got Wick. John Wick Pro. And a Judge Dredd. Did you play the Super Game? No. Everybody was on it all day yesterday and every time I wanted to, someone was playing it so I didn't get a chance yet. I came through the studio into the club a couple times and every time there's somebody playing Judge Dredd. And I don't know, is it like based off of the movie or a comic or something? I don't know. I'll have to investigate. But it's a wide body. It is a gigantic machine. With lots of mechs and toys in there. Heavy. Yeah. It's probably heavier than that EM that we carried. I don't know about that. That thing I think takes a world record It might be And we got it up those steps Yeah I rolled a couple machines a couple of the old EMs That was real fun Anyways it was a good few days at the HQ You know, I've never rolled an EM over on the score. Really? Yeah. I did Grand Prix at Landmark. You've done Grand Prix. You've rolled Target Alpha. You've rolled Knight Rider. Yeah. Yeah. You're better at the EMs. You've got to get on it. Yeah, I guess so. All right, what are your announcements? Can we do the announcements? Yeah. Okay. I don't even know what you're announcing. The upcoming tournaments for December, IFPA tournaments. You want to get those points. Sunday, December 14th at Porbro's Taproom in Bloomington, Illinois, 3.30 p.m., IFPA tournament, tournament directed by Stephanie and myself. Yes. That's Sunday, December 14th at Porbrose in Bloomington after the football 3.30pm, we'll see you there and then Friday, December 19th same week more points at Punk Rock Pinball HQ in Bloomington, Illinois IFPA tournament 5.30pm the events are listed in the Punk Rock Pinball Facebook group. If you join that group and you click on events, you'll see them. It starts at 5.30 on a Friday? 5.30 warm-up, 6.30 p.m. start. Okay. So the same with the Poor Bros is 3.30 warm-ups. I think it starts at 4 or 4.30. Yeah. So the start time is always when the warm-ups start. Okay. And you can get in there and you flip some games. Poor Bros machines probably won't be on free play. No, it's a coin drop. There'll be a coin drop for those. If you come to the Punk Rock Pinball HQ, you get there at 5.30 for warm-ups. Those games are all free play, so you can just play. There's 23 in there now? I think so. 23 pinball machines at the Punk Rock Pinball HQ. Those are the next two tournaments you should come to. And then we are just about to roll out the Punk Rock Pinball leaderboard. in a matter of weeks. Yeah. Definitely by January 1st, but maybe this month. We've got some tournaments that are counting for those results already, like the last Punk Rock Pinball HQ tournament and Nick's tournament out in Kansas City. If you are a tournament director and you want to host a Punk Rock Pinball Association sanctioned event and try it out, you can email me, mike at livefromtherockroom.com. We'll have a portal on the site where we don't have it so you can create an event on there yet. The events will just post in the Facebook group. But there will be a portal where as a tournament director I can give you a login and you can go in and enter your results. Yep. So if you want to host one, email me mike at livefromtherockroom.com and we can get you going there all of the punk rock pinball HQ tournaments are going to get you punk rock pinball points more points more fun and how it works is for our IFPA tournaments you know you have a main and a finals or not the main but the qualifying and the finals for the punk rock pinball we're not as serious it's a serious thing but it's not as hardcore serious with the all the calculations for the points as ifpa uh it's really geared more towards the mid-level player giving them something to grind for and just have fun so we take the results from the qualifying so if you're hosting one it can be an ifpa tournament and you would just upload your results from the qualifying and those are the final results for the Punk Rock Pinball Tournament. You can carry on to your IFPA finals and do all you want to there with IFPA. We're not really competing with them. It's kind of an accompaniment in something where, you know, in our events, the more you play, kind of the more you can earn. So if you're a grinder like our friend Cat Davis and you play a ton of tournaments, like you can keep stacking those points. and it's not like a golf handicap or IFPA where it only takes your top so many results. It's going to take them all. Take them all. Collect them all. Yeah. So it's for fun. It's like there's going to be rules. I'll have a landing page on our website with rules and things like that. Very similar to IFPA rules. So if you're doing IFPA tournaments, that can apply to your punk rock pinball tournaments. So it's all happy and gelled there. and then we didn't talk on the tip about what this episode is actually about well it'll be titled as such yeah it probably will be yeah that's that's your your deal well you titled the podcast i know i just make shit up oh you know what about the podcast huh sorry kevin johnson i'm going off track i know i hate sitting there like oh you know what Sorry, KJ. I realized, I thought the mass majority of our listenership and views were coming from YouTube. Turns out, that's not true. Really? Because I was able to get access to the back end on Apple Podcasts. Podcasts. And the Apple Podcast episodes have almost as many listeners as, like, the YouTube videos have views. Wow. And then Spotify is there up in there about, like, 50 to 75% of that. So if you're listening on the Apple Podcasts, thank you very much. Thank you very, very much. And the Apple podcast listener, they average listening like 85 to 90% of the episode. So they're listening right now. They're still listening. Like the YouTube average view duration is good for YouTube, but it's nowhere near 90% of the episode. That's why they never get to see the dog at the end. So they don't see Marshall at the end. That's why they don't comment about the dog. They don't even see him. Huh. Because you might see him at the end of this. Nobody knows. Steph does little tricks at the end, but people on YouTube just click away. Interesting. Yeah. So thanks for listening on the Apple podcast and Spotify. And I think we have some good reviews on Apple, too. We've got 10 ratings and reviews and some nice reviews. So thank you. And if you're listening on Apple, please take two seconds to give us like a five-star review if you like it. Even if you don't like it, it'd be nice if you gave a five-star review anyway. it would be nice be a nice christmas gift it'd be a great christmas gift a five-star review on apple podcast that's all we need so what's this episode about now that we've gotten through all this business all right well it's the end of the year and this is um steph and mike's we're each rating our top five pinball machines that were out this year like out as in released and playable not just announced yes but actually like out there and playable and i was looking at the list and we have not shared our top fives with each other but i realized there's only two that i didn't play on this list i think i you i think there's one you have not there's only one i have not played so it's hard to read the list of the ones that were released yeah is this in any kind of order This is in chronological order, thanks to the Kevin Loza Kid Pinball Podcast. Thank you, Joshua. Because Josh did their episode. They have a similar episode to this, and he listed them all in chronological order at 33 minutes into their episode. I went back, and thanks to Josh, was able to just write them down as he read them. Thank you, Josh. So I didn't have to look any of this up. Well, okay. So we appreciate it. Would you like to read the list in order of release? Okay. Okay. So the pinball machines released in 2025, not announced, so there's no Beetlejuice. And I didn't put Walking Dead on there, even though you can play it now, but it's too late. We can't play it. So Walking Dead's going to be next year. Evil Dead by Spooky. Dungeons and Dragons by Stern. Portal by P3 Multimorphic Merlin's Arcade by Turner Pinball Dune from Barrels of Fun King Kong by Stern Medieval Madness Merlin Edition Chicago Gaming Company Harry Potter by Jersey Jack Pinball Predator by Pinball Brothers Jaws 50th Anniversary sitting right there by Stern Star Wars Follow the Empire also by Stern and Winchester Mystery House by Barrels of Fun. Okay. So there are two on this list that I have not played. So I'm not considering Portal. Okay. I watched you play it. Yep. But I didn't play it. And I have not played Predator. I have also not played Predator. So Predator was not really up for consideration on my list either. Okay. Okay, do you want to do like five, like we'll go five, five, four, four. You want to start? Okay. My number five out of this list is again we not shared this with each other I going King Kong That my number five which I did win the Bells and Chimes Grand Champion Launch plaque for I like this game a lot. The theme I don't really care about. I know there's all kinds of discussion about the artwork and blah, blah, blah, blah. But it's, I think, really fun to shoot. I like the shots on it. I have fun playing that game. I give it, it's in my five slot. It's in your top five. It's number five. Number five. My number five, and this is only because it's not technically a new machine to me. Even though it's a new version of a machine, my number five is Jaws 50th. What the hell? It's number five. Are we talking 2024? It's number one. But this is, I don't care. Your list is your list and my list is my list I'm giving Jaws 50th my number 5 spot everyone knows it's my favorite game but I'm giving it number 5 because it's not new like these other ones Your list, that's your list Alright, well then give me your number 4 My number 4 I wish I'd played this more, it maybe could be higher but I've played it just a handful of times would be Dune by Barrels of Fun. I think it's a really fun layout. I think the lighting and the game lighting and the way they've worked things in with the theme is pretty incredible. I think it shoots real nice. It would have potential to be higher. I just have not played it as much as I've played some of the others on here. But I'm giving Dune by Barrels of Fun number four. Well, I too gave Dune number four. I think it's really fun. I want to play it more. When I was thinking about these, there's a lot of the games on this list I really enjoyed playing. And I was just thinking about what are those games that make me want to hit the start button again? And Dune does it for me. I want to play it again. I like the flow of it. I don't really, like, I wasn't into the movie or the series or the book the way that you got into it. So the theme doesn't do anything for me, but I have fun with those shots. They're not easy for me. I would like to spend a lot of time and play on it, and I like that one way more than Labyrinth as far as a theme, even though I like the movie Labyrinth a lot. This one seems, for some reason, less of a rainy day, even though it is very dune. It's like brown and gray, because it's a desert. Right. but i agree i like dune a lot better than labyrinth i think they really stepped it up on how the game like shoots and plays if we had a lot of money i would buy a dune like tomorrow yeah i agree that's also how i kind of rank these of like do i want to hit play again and if you told me i could get a pinball machine today that's kind of how i ranked them yeah Dune would be on my list. Not top on my list, but if somebody gave us $40,000 tomorrow and we could buy four machines, Dune would probably be one of them. Okay. I agree. What's your number three? My number three is the Star Wars Fall of the Empire. I think that one's really fun. I've played it a handful of times at a few different places, and that's one that I want to do it again. I'm hitting the start. Give me another chance. I want to do it again. I want to learn the force. It's great. It's a great game. Yes. I'm going to reserve my comments about it. That's fine, because I know it's on your list. It's on my list. What's your number three? My number three is King Kong. Oh, okay. I was surprised I had King Kong higher than you did, because I have not won anything on King Kong. You've won a women's championship on King Kong. and I was a lot harder on King Kong than you. You hated it. I still don't. There are a lot of things I don't like about King Kong, but I think King Kong, we talked about this a few episodes ago where I talked about how would the spooky machines really compare to Stern if you just took all the art and everything away and it's just shooting the layout with no art, no nothing. A whitewood? A whitewood. King Kong is the best layout of 2025, and I think it's not close in terms of the shots and the types of combos you can do and the flow of the game. Nothing is even in the ballpark of King Kong on the layout. Yeah, the flow is great. Of this year. It's not close. Do I like the animations in the code? Not very much. so that's what's killing it for me to not be the best but it's the best layout and it might be the best layout of like the last five years wow it's a better layout than jaws do you think it's better than godzilla way better interesting i think layout wise it's probably it i haven't played it quite enough but it might be like a top five ever for the layout it's it's a great game yeah It's fantastic with the layout. I wish the art was different. I wish the code was a bit different, but that's all subjective, but the layout's phenomenal. Okay. So am I doing two or you want to do number two? I can do two. Let's hear your two. My number two is Evil Dead. Spooky's Evil Dead. That one, again, I mean, it's like eye candy. It's beautiful. so where the um the king kong artwork doesn't really do anything for us the evil dead is just it is wow the lights wow the whole experience wow yeah it's pretty awesome yeah it's pretty pretty awesome and i haven't gotten to spend a ton of time on it but again whenever i see it i play it and i want to hit start again and i want to do it again and i just want to experience everything in that game. Yes. And it's also my number two. Well, how about that? I have Spooky's Evil Dead at the second best pinball machine of 2025. And I'm probably going to get a lot of shit for the one I ranked above it. Yeah, you will. A lot of shit. But Evil Dead is probably the coolest looking pinball machine. There's not a cooler looking pinball machine. Well, yeah, there is my number one. Your number one looks cooler than Evil Dead? I don't think so. In my opinion, Evil Dead is the coolest looking pinball machine ever, maybe. I agree. No, I totally agree. And very fun to play. Yes. I don't love how wide bodies play, so that kind of hurt it. And it's maybe partly why it's not my number one. I also haven't played it a ton. It's my number two. And again, much like Dune, if somebody gave us 40 grand tomorrow, if I could get an Evil Dead for like 11, that would be part of it. Yeah. Well, I agree. I mean, just looking at the top four that we just discussed, so I had King Kong, Dune, Star Wars, Evil Dead. That's the order I like. That's how I would want to purchase these games. my games are in order of what I would want to purchase it's funny because I forgot for a second what your number one is oh my god, everyone knows what my number one is because I'm like, what the hell on this list looks cooler than Evil Dead I mean the best pinball machine ever made I must be tired what's your number one pinball machine? my number one is right behind you Jaws 50th edition by Mr. Keith Elwin It is the best pinball machine in the whole world. I love it. I love it so much. I love the movie integration into it. I love the red armor on it. I love everything about this game. I love it. And now we've got the Chumming Brody mod on it. It's like perfect. A lot of people, I posted that little short video on our Instagram of the Chumming Brody. It got a lot of interaction on it. It's amazing. The Chum and Brody mod should just have been in the game. It's badass. It's badass. Okay, so I'll give you that. Jaws 50th, a lot of people poo-pooed the art package when they first saw it. Those people are nuts. The art package kills. It's the best-looking Jaws pinball. I think it looks way better than the LE. I'm sorry if you own an LE, but the 50th is cooler. It's the way this machine was meant to be. Like the side art, a lot of people crapped on it because it's so simplistic. But it is Jaws. Minimalist, but it's Jaws. I love it. I love it so much more than the inspired by artwork. On the premium, the regular premium, it's interesting artwork on the back glass of the perspective of going into the Jaws' mouth off the boat, if that's Quint or whoever. that's cool but like not worthy of back glass like Jaws is so iconic I feel like the artwork on here is well done yeah I mean the side art is Jaws and the back glass is like the only thing that could make that better is if that mirrored and if you could do this art in like the foiled package like the le but i think even like the brass like ramps and rails in the game like make a difference in terms it just it is maybe it's up there with evil dead it's it's kind of apples and oranges evil dead in terms of true i agree looking what's your number one honey my number one besides me probably be a polarizing choice but i'm saying the best pinball machine of 2025 for me is star wars fall of the empire and that is because i like to play it is it the coolest and most unique layout no does it have the best art package no is it the most fun to play for me when the death star shot works yes more fun than jaws well i jaws i discounted because to me jaws is the best pinball machine of 2024 okay it's not more fun than jaws okay but i think it could be up there i think raymond davidson's doing a hell of a job on the code i think the code is awesome i think the way they use the film assets and the music from the film is amazing the shots i think are awesome and i like a fan a two flipper fan layout like john wick is one of my favorite pinball machines it's a two flipper fan layout jaws is almost that except you have the mini flipper like some of the games we played modern games we played recently i'm not going to name the games there's so many crazy ball paths and it's like okay like just because you can make all these crazy ball paths doesn't mean that you need to and it doesn't mean it makes the game more fun like one of my one of the games i play the most too is monsters which is a two flipper fan layout fewer shots than even wick or star wars i like to play it and i like to play a john borg and it's fast and it's punishing and there's like stand-ups that you hit and it just sends it back and screws you into the out lane and i love it and i just want to play it again and again so to me it's the most fun game to play 2025 star wars fall of the empire and it's more fun than evil dead and if I could buy one game tomorrow I'm buying Star Wars Fall of the Empire over Evil Dead that's why it's number one well you can't get an Evil Dead somebody saw one for $13,000 I'm waiting until they come down a bit if I could buy two games tomorrow I'd buy Fall of the Empire and Evil Dead okay I mean we're there, that's my two and three so and you already have your Jaws you own the Jaws already so yeah tomorrow we could buy two machines Fall of the Empire and Evil Dead. We agree on that. We agree. Yeah. And then the next one would probably be Doom. That's exactly what I have. And then the next one after that might be King Kong. That's exactly what I have. But what was your number five again? My number five was Jaws. Oh. Okay. Yeah. Good list. Yeah, we kind of agree on that, which I'm not surprised. Yeah. I just didn't want to put Jaws at number one because to me it's not really a 2025 game, even though it is. To me it is. Because even like Kevin Loza Kid had it on the list, and the Medieval Madness Merlin edition, again, is not a new game, but it's a new version of the game. But yeah. What was his number one? I don't remember. Oh, I fell asleep. I watched it, but it's been a while. They both had the portal on there. I didn't like that one. I mean, I didn't play it, but I didn't even like looking at it. But I don't want to also give spoilers to the Kevin Loza Kid episode. Well, we weren't. But I know both guys had Portal in their top five. I love the concept of it. I love the concept of everything they're doing at Multimorphic, of, like, the cartridges of the play field. But I played that Weird Al one down in Nashville, and I wanted to love it. Yeah. I've only played one game on the Portal, and I just can't get on board with those flippers. You know, it could be one of those things, too, that maybe you just need to play it more to really experience that kind of machine and appreciate it for what it is. Because I remember when we started this pinball journey, and we went down to Decatur and played on Troy's games down there. When we got on the Spookies and the Jersey Jacks, we were like, ugh, I don't like these. I'm kind of back there on the Jersey Jacks. well like initially i when we started i first played a jersey jack i'm like this is not for me and then i came around to him we own one we own an avatar but the more i play the jersey jacks sadly the more i don't want to play the jersey jack pinball machines i want to play that elton john again like really like jam on it for a while yeah there's not a single one on the list in my top 50 that i'd want to buy well that's today yeah it could change it will can change people can change people can change but right now i'm just kind of down on jersey jack games i don't like how they feel i don't like the flipper feel i don't like how there's just like a feel of the machine when you're playing it and I don't like any of theirs and I can't fully explain it but I just don't like how it feels well that's why they make that's why there's multiple pinball manufacturers out there and taste change I'll probably come back to the Jersey Jacks we're in a lull right now in our relationship and that's totally fair they make beautiful games their games are gorgeous some of the best looking pinball machines like that Harry Potter our friend Dwayne has a Harry Potter CE that we got to play. We did that this week, too. We did that. Shit, we did. We played at Dwayne's house. Thank you, Dwayne, for hosting. Yeah, it was super awesome. Great collection. The Harry Potter CE is beautiful. The topper on that is incredible. Sorry, Joe and Shelly, you'll never know what that topper is like, but that topper is really cool. And the way it shoots the gobo lights or whatever onto the ceiling, That was such an experience. Yeah. Such an experience. Yeah. Beautiful game. The Jersey Jack games look way better than the Stern Machines. Oh, God, yeah. There's other podcasters that have said, like, oh, you sit like a Harry Potter CE next to the Fall of the Empire Ellie, and the Fall of the Empire Ellie looks cheap. You're right. It's way more fun to play, but man, if you're just looking at them, if you just showed somebody that's never played, and you turned them both on, you walked up to them and said, which one of these do you want? They're going to pick the Jersey Jack. Yeah, it's gorgeous. They look better. Avatar is beautiful. The Elton John machine is beautiful, which they felt a little different. But, man, they sure know how to do the lighting and the art package and do it up so that it looks like a premium. I mean, when you compare them, it looks like a Lamborghini, like a Jersey Jacks, a Lamborghini, and the Stern is a Honda. Looks-wise. Yeah. That's just, it's kind of hard to even argue that. I still like playing, like, most of my top list is Sterns. And then you've got a Barrels of Fun and a Spooky in there. Yeah. But yeah, thank you, Duane. Duane has an awesome collection. mando le yeah oh my gosh beautiful machine the backlash on that's cool amazing the alvira the blood red kiss edition modded out so cool scooby-doo that was so fun fun game he had the the centaur man i loved playing that game centaur is great we probably should get a centaur yeah it's pretty awesome and then the potter ce which i did i uh not during the league not like after league when I was waiting for you to finish up. I did the QR code for the easy version where you hold it up to the camera on the potter. I don't know what makes it easier, but it was easier. You scored way more. I scored way more, and I don't know. I think it takes fewer shots to do everything. Oh, okay. Well, it made me feel really good about myself, so thanks, Dwayne. Yeah, Dwayne had a really cool set up in his basement. Yeah. Thanks for hosting the league in Champaign. That was awesome. It was very cool. But I got to wrap it up because I got to go watch the Bears play the Packers. Oh, geez. It's the Packers? It's the Bears versus Packers. Who's supposed to win? Probably the Packers. Okay. But I got to get over to my parents' house. Yeah. So we'll wrap it up. Thank you for listening. And do all the things. Subscribe and like it. Join the Facebook group, all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Buy our merch. The link's down there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Buy the merch. Ryan's back from tour He's got other cool shit on his website Oh yeah we got the thing at Bottom Lounge We can talk about that next episode Oh yeah if you guys are in Chicago On December 28th Save the date for a gimmick at Bottom Lounge Pinball gimmick at Bottom Lounge Before the mustard plug show We'll see you there Alright let's wrap it up Toodaloo Thank you bye

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: c03125b3-3ca0-4435-9b04-2fe19bb80a99*