King Kong Pinball: Overhyped or Pinball Masterpiece?

RetroRalph·video·19m 9s·analyzed·May 31, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

RetroRalph praises Kong's layout & shots but notes limited mech integration and early code in positive early review.

Summary

RetroRalph provides an in-depth gameplay walkthrough and review of King Kong: Myth of Terror Island, demonstrating core mechanics (King Kong Multiball, Spider Multiball, mode starts via gong) and shot layouts. He praises the game's shot design and accessibility despite early code, but criticizes limited Kong animatronic integration, audio quality, and questions LE value proposition relative to Premium tier. He predicts the game will become a top Stern seller as code matures.

Key Claims

King Kong Multiball is qualified by sweeping the Kong drop targets twice, then locking three balls up the center ramp
high confidence · Demonstrated live gameplay with multiple successful executions
Early code lacks additional mode call-outs and more modes will be added over time
medium confidence · RetroRalph states 'I'm sure they're going to put more modes in over time' and wishes for more call-outs
Kong animatronic (beyond knocking the train car) doesn't integrate much into gameplay and isn't missed on Pro models
medium confidence · RetroRalph: 'if you did get the pro and you didn't have the fully animatronic Kong, would you really be missing out on that much? I don't really think so'
Stern Spike 2 audio systems with Kenwood speakers don't have adequate power; Pinpower upgrade recommended
medium confidence · RetroRalph discusses speaker limitations and recommends Pinpower bundle investment
Premium is the better value proposition than LE; LE mainly justified by theme love
high confidence · RetroRalph: 'If I was going to do it again, I'd probably get the Premium... if you're buying the LE, it's because you really love Kong as a property'
Keith Elwin designed Kong and game layout is considered excellent by reviewer
high confidence · RetroRalph: 'That's what you'd expect from Keith Elwin'
Playfield art is a collaboration between Zombie Yeti and another artist, lacking cohesiveness
medium confidence · RetroRalph prefers if 'Jeremy Packer aka Zombie Yeti did the whole thing' and notes cabinet art looks different than playfield art
Kong LE lacks sufficient cosmetic differentiation from Premium to justify price premium
high confidence · RetroRalph: 'I don't know if the Kong LE does enough to differentiate it to sort of demand that additional money'

Notable Quotes

“It's that easy to get King Kong Multiball. Not bad.”
RetroRalph @ ~7:00 — Emphasizes accessibility of core multiball mechanic despite game complexity
“The game layout is awesome, and there's so many cool shots. Shots that are really satisfying no matter how many times you shoot them.”
RetroRalph @ ~20:30 — Primary strength: shot design and repeatability; core reason for positive review
“If you did get the pro and you didn't have the fully animatronic Kong, would you really be missing out on that much? I don't really think so.”
RetroRalph @ ~24:00 — Directly questions value of LE animatronic feature vs Pro tier
“I would actually have preferred it if Jeremy Packer aka Zombie Yeti did the whole thing... it feels like a collaboration versus one person doing the whole thing”
RetroRalph @ ~26:30 — Art direction concern about cohesiveness and multiple artist collaboration
“If I was going to do it again, I'd probably get the Premium. I think the Premium is the sweet spot for this game. Not the LE.”
RetroRalph @ ~29:00 — Clear pricing/value recommendation; contradicts LE purchase rationale
“I think this game is going to have some legs. I think as the code continues to evolve, it's going to be one of those games that will be a top seller for Stern.”
RetroRalph @ ~31:30 — Positive sales prediction tied to code maturation and shot design appeal
“The gong I really like. That's something fun to interact with. It does act as like sort of something that fights back at you because your first two shots on it are going to fire the ball back.”
RetroRalph @ ~23:00 — Gong mechanic praised as engaging despite challenge; primary interactive mechanism
“The Helix shot is super fun. It's just one of those repeatable shots that every time you hit, it just feels incredibly satisfying.”

Entities

RetroRalphpersonKing Kong: Myth of Terror Islandgame Keith Elwinperson Zombie YetipersonStern PinballcompanyPinpowerproductJawsgame Godzillagame

Signals

~
sentiment_shift: Community has complaints about playfield artwork aesthetics; RetroRalph not in full agreement but acknowledges critique validity
medium · RetroRalph: 'I know there's been some complaints about certain things on the playfield art' though 'I don't really mind it'
?
design_philosophy: Playfield art is collaborative effort between multiple artists rather than singular vision; lacks cohesiveness with cabinet art
medium · RetroRalph: 'it feels like a collaboration versus one person doing the whole thing' and cabinet art 'looks very different than the playfield art'
?
design_philosophy: Game mechanics prioritize shot variety and layout excellence over animatronic/mechanism interaction depth
high · RetroRalph praises layout and shots; downplays mechanical complexity as not particularly missed on Pro
$
market_signal: Unlicensed IP approach (Kong, D&D precedent) appears commercially viable alternative to licensed properties for Stern
medium · RetroRalph: 'They decided not to do a licensed property and this is their own unique story... They've done this a couple times' citing D&D success
?
community_signal: Zombie Yeti (Jeremy Packer) is head of Stern art department; community scrutiny of his collaborative vs sole creative direction
high · RetroRalph identifies Zombie Yeti as cabinet artist and expresses preference for his unified vision across all art

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

1:13

[Music] Hey, hey, hey. Okay, we are going to play some King Kong Myth of Terror Island. What we're going to focus on is King Kong Multiball first. It's actually a lot easier than you'd think. So, basically what you got to do is we're going to focus on the drop target area right here. the ones that say Kong. What you have to do is you have to sweep those drop targets twice and then it's going to light the lock right here in the middle ramp. And then all you're really going to have to do right there is just get three balls up the ramp and you'll start King Kong Multiball. It's that easy. Now, there's a couple different ways you can sweep these drop targets. You can shoot from the right flipper diagonally over and try to sweep them that way. You can kind of um cradle the ball on the left and then shoot up and knock them down that way. Or you can actually on the right side of the ramp, you can feed this little this little ramp that goes or this little mini orbit, if you want to call it that, that comes over and sometimes your diverter will come up. If it doesn't, you can hit your action button if you have one and then try to start to attack those from there. So, there's a couple different ways you can do it. So, don't think there's just one way. There's various different ways and some easier than others, right? If you just um I don't know if you backhand it from the left, if you have that opportunity, it actually is pretty simple. So, all right, we're going to launch the Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, that's good right there. Okay, let me try to do the sweep from the right. It's It's a It's a little tricky sometimes, but once you get it, it's actually not bad. There, I got a couple. See if I can hit the rest of them with with the sweep method. Nope. All right. Now you see the lock diver the log diverter kicked

3:25

in. Okay. Now you can see from my left flipper. There we go. I hit two of them down. So you can see there's a couple different ways you can do this. I'm going to try it again. So I'm going to trap up here on the left. There. I got two in the middle. Let's try it again. See if I can get the final two. All right. See, I got him. So now that's it. I qualified for King Kong multig ball. So now all I got to do is shoot the center ramp. There we go. Ball one locked. It's that easy. It's not that hard. So you know, and I hit my little log diverter there if I want to. See, I can like install the ball there if I want. Now, if I don't do anything, it's going to do what it just did right there. It's going to let the ball down. So that that thing does time out after a period of time. Okay. So, I'm gonna hit my Let's see. It's going to roll back

7:30

Okay, we hit the gong once. Now, you see it didn't it didn't go back too violently. All right, we hit it twice. Now, on this third shot, let's see if we can get it now. We should be able to get it. There we go. So, now we start a mode. So, this is where you have the modes you can start. And these are the only ones they have right now. So there's save an across the chasm, pterodactyl attack, stegosaurus encounter, escape the swamp. These are the only ones. So that's all you have to choose from right now. Now I'm sure they're going to put more modes in over time. And basically it it'll tell you on the back glass what you're or on the LCD what you're supposed to do. I wish they would put a few more call outs in this. I think maybe those are coming cuz I feel like on some of these modes I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to do yet. But that's that's how easy it is to start modes. That's it. You just hit the gong and uh and you're off and running. That wasn't very good, but you get the point. That is how you start modes. So, you've seen the spider multiball, King Kong multiball, and how to start modes. So, I feel like hopefully what you got out of that is this game is pretty approachable. Like even though there's a lot of difficult um shots to master, I do feel like it's pretty easy to pick up and play when you just know some basic fundamentals if you just want to have fun. The diverter does come in really handy though, so just like keep in mind that that can be a fun thing to play with. But now I'm just going to show you a couple of the shots. I personally really love this helix shot. And I'll show you the quickest way to sort of tee up that helix shot. So, basically what we're going to do is from the left flipper, you're going to go right to the left of the gong and right to the right of the ramp. There's that orbit that goes around. I'll show you real quick. So, basically, you're going to go up here and around and then you're going to shoot up this ramp and it's going to feed that right flipper and then you're going to shoot it up. Or you can go all the way to the right and there's a there's a kickback behind King Kong which will flip the ball back really really fast and then you can hit it right on the tip of the flipper and hit the helix shot. That's probably the easiest way to do it. So maybe that's what we'll do. Okay, here it is. It's going to come back. I got it. All right, that's what I want to do now. That was a little slow motion, but that was it. See, I'm going to try to postpass and do it again. All

10:05

right, here it is. Got it. All right, that's such a fun shot. Like I said, you can also shoot it up that other ramp to get it. There's a bunch of different things you ways you can get it there, but super fun shot once you master it. You can kind of have fun with that. It never gets old. So, that's a brief look at some of the features. Like I said, very, very fun, very approachable game. You just have to know a little bit of the basics. That's the thing with pinball. Someone just tells you a little bit of the fundamentals of how to play and you can get going really quick. So, hopefully that helps. But I am very much enjoying this game. I'm excited because this is early code, so I'm interested to see where they're going to take this. But this is quickly becoming one of my favorites just because of how fun the shots are. I will say if there was one thing that I'd like to see more out of is like King Kong outside of just knocking over the car, he doesn't really do a whole lot or the train car. So, I don't know what they could do to incorporate him a little bit more, but it'd be kind of nice if he did a little bit more in the game. But the gong's fun. The spider uh I I don't like the spider aesthetically, but that is a fun and easy thing. And then I didn't even mention there's this thing, leap of faith over here. And there's a little rubber there. If you can kind of nudge the ball if you feel like it's going out, you could kind of save your ball. Kind of similar to what Keith did on Jaws. Anyways, I'll give you some final thoughts and then we'll wrap things up. Look, there is a lot to like about King Kong: The Myth of Terror Island, but if I had to say what my favorite part of this game is, it's the layout. The game layout is awesome, and there's so many cool shots. Shots that are really satisfying no matter how many times you shoot them. The Helix shot is super fun. It's just one of those repeatable shots that every time you hit, it just feels incredibly satisfying. The other thing that's really cool is that kickback when you shoot the shot over on the right hand side and it goes over by Kong and it shoots it back real quick and then you can kind of combo that up the helix ramp. Again, a really fun shot. I love the whole like river log diverter thing. I really enjoy oddly the drop targets in that area, the ones that spell Kong that you have to sort of use those as your means to qualify the King Kong multiball as well as some of the other jackpots within the modes. It's just a very welldesigned game. And of course, that's what you'd expect from Keith Elwin. So, if you're looking for a fun shooter, you can't go wrong with King Kong. Now, the negatives I have right now is the code is obviously in its early stages. But, anyone that's used to buying Stern in the modern era knows that this is just part of the territory. So, if you decide to buy in Newbox on any of these games, at least from a Stern perspective, your code maturity is going to take time. Some people may like that that over time they get updates and some may say look I'm going to wait and there's nothing wrong with either choice. That's as far as gameplay and code goes. I'm really enjoying it. It's got four flippers. You've got the mini baby one. You have three full-size flippers. It's it's just a lot of fun and there's a lot of different shot variety which makes this game in my opinion fun to play. Now as far as like mechanisms and things you interact with the ball with, it's lacking a little bit in that department. The really the only major mechanisms is going to be the King Kong mech in the back, which really doesn't do a whole lot. He stops the ball. He messes around and does stuff. He doesn't do a whole lot. He just kind of moves around. It It's fun. He's large in size and it's kind of shocking at first cuz you're like, "Oh man, that thing is actually a lot bigger than I thought." But he doesn't really do a whole lot. So maybe over time they'll integrate him a little bit more. But for right now, he's just kind of there. And it's cool that he knocks the train car over. I like that. It's a fun pinball moment. But um you know if you did get the pro and you didn't have the fully animatronic Kong, would you really be missing out on that much? I don't really think so. The gong I really like. That's something fun to interact with. It does act as like sort of something that fights back at you because your first two shots on it are going to fire the ball back. So it's something where it keeps you on your toes. I think that's really fun. I've never really been a gigantic fan of the spider in itself. It does seem like a little bit cheap, but I'm I've grown to like it. But at the same time, if it wasn't there, would I really miss it? I don't really think so. If it would still lock the ball there and kind of act as a means to start multiball, I think I'd be okay with that. There's definitely going to be people that say, "Man, you went in on the LE. What do you think about the LE?" I think the LE is prettyl looking. I do like the cabinet artwork despite some of the community conversation around it. I really like the mirrored back glass on this one in particular. Do I feel like I'm getting the value out of the Ellie? Not necessarily, but I also never have been one to buy into this idea that I'm buying the LE as this major value or I'm getting a lot more. I'm someone that usually changes out a lot of the things in their game. So, audio-wise, I don't even think the LE audio is all that great. Really, Stern kind of misses the mark when it comes to the audio side of the house. This is where I'd recommend investing in something like Pinwoer. Pinwoer sells a great bundle for the uh Stern Spike 2 machines and you will it will unlock the soundtrack. So if it's a game where you like the soundtrack, holy crap, man, it will open up that game for you and you'll really be impressed with the upgradability you get when you do something like that. It's a massive upgrade and the sound is amazing. So if you're buying an LE thinking you're getting some amazing sound, you're really not. You're getting some cheaper Kenwood speakers and I can't remember the brand of the subwoofer. It's actually not bad, the subwoofer, but again, the power on the Stern Spike 2 system is just not there to really drive better speakers in general. And the Kenwoods, they just kind of fall flat on the range of frequency that that speaker has. It's it's just not that great. So, anyways, as far as like the aesthetics go, I know there's been some complaints about certain things on the Playfield art. I would actually have preferred it if Jeremy Packer aka Zombie Yeti did the whole thing. Not that I don't like the artwork, but I feel like it feels like a collaboration versus one person doing the whole thing or having the vision. I don't want this to be taken as me not liking the Playfield artwork, but I feel like it would have felt more cohesive if it was sort of the same way throughout because the cabinet art looks very different than the Playfield art. Again, I don't really mind it, but you know, it is what it is. They did do the expression lights on the backbox speakers, but there's none inside. I don't think L1 has ever done a game where he's incorporated the cabinet expression lights. I don't really know why that is. This is one of those weird inconsistencies with Stern. Like, why do you not have the lighting on everything? I feel like that lighting is sort of I don't know. It takes the game to the next level. There's more you can do around light shows. And I feel like why would you not have that in every game? I don't know. But that'd be my my suggestion there. But overall, I really like it. If I was going to do it again, I'd probably get the premium. I think the premium is the sweet spot for this game. not the LE. As far as the cost and what you're getting for the money, I'd say this one is premium all day long. So really, if you're buying the LE, it's because you really love Kong as a property or any game for that matter. If there's a theme that you really love, then I can see splurging and getting an LE. But just know going into it like the Ellie is a lot more money than it is you're getting value out of it. And I think everyone knows this. If they really love a property, they'll get the LE. Like the Jaws LE was absolutely gorgeous. I loved that. And I kind of made my premium look like an Ellie. I really liked Godzilla Ellie, although I have the the Godzilla 70th. So, it gets you right. You get bit by the bug when when you see it. You're like, "Oh, man. This is beautiful." I don't know if the Kongle LE does enough to differentiate it to sort of demand that additional money that they want for it. But also, that's kind of the same with all. So, if you're new to this, the LE's aren't where you're going to get the value. It's just because you really like that game and you want some of the unique features, whether it be, you know, the armor looks good or the artwork package is better to you. But like I said, there's not enough variance on King Kong to go Ellie. In my opinion, I really got the Ellie cuz I wanted to get it and make some content on it. And it's probably one I'm going to keep in my collection for a while. So, no big deal. It is what it