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My PROS and CONS with Stern Pinball's KING KONG!

Cary Hardy·video·24m 20s·analyzed·May 23, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

King Kong LE: excellent layout/audio, but problematic drains and Kong mechanic inconsistencies.

Summary

Cary Hardy provides an in-depth pros and cons analysis of Stern's King Kong LE after 100+ games of play, praising the shot layout, combo-friendly design, audio work by Jerry Thompson, and skilled-player mechanics while criticizing the left outlane drain frequency, unpredictable spider magnet behavior, Kong animation slowdown, ball control issues with the train mechanism, and code-level ball recognition bugs that persist on version 0.82.

Key Claims

  • King Kong's shot layout is combo-friendly with repeatable, loopable shots that reward skilled play across multiple playfield segments

    high confidence · Cary extensively details shot design, crossing the chasm mode, pterodactyl mode, river mode; compares favorably to 'combo fanatics wet dream'

  • Left outlane drains significantly more frequently than expected and may be a design or tolerance issue

    high confidence · Cary repeatedly emphasizes this is 'the most common way I have drained on this game' and jokes about the frequency

  • Jerry Thompson's audio/orchestration is among his best work, particularly the biplane mode music and shaker motor sync with gun effects

    high confidence · Cary praises Thompson's work, notes he reached out about one minor issue, emphasizes orchestration quality requires home setting to appreciate

  • Kong animation and train mechanism slow down gameplay significantly, causing player fatigue and a desire to skip past the sequence

    high confidence · Cary states 'after you've played this a while I really do feel that the whole kong and the train thing is gonna get old'

  • Code version 0.82 has unresolved ball recognition bugs where Kong position sensor fails to properly load balls into the train, triggering unwanted multiball

    high confidence · Cary documents multiple instances of ball search triggering unexpected multiball; claims 'that should be getting resolved in code in the future' but persists at 0.82

  • Spider magnet behaves erratically—sometimes grabbing the ball, sometimes flinging it to random playfield locations, creating unwanted chaos

    high confidence · Cary: 'it doesn't just grab the ball and then let go of it, it sometimes flings it sometimes it'll fling it down the middle sometimes it'll fling it over here to the left out lane'

  • Pro model offers all key shots and layout features except the gong mechanism, making it potentially better value than Premium/LE

    medium confidence · Cary states 'the pro model you're getting all of the shots that the premium le has' and leans toward Pro if he were to buy another tier

Notable Quotes

  • “This is a combo fanatics wet dream. The way I love games that allow you to set up a shot from one flipper to the next flipper to get you to somewhere else and I love loopable repeatable shots if you're skilled enough and this game's got it all.”

    Cary Hardy@ 7:13 — Core praise for Kong's shot design and skill-shot accessibility; sets tone for layout appreciation

  • “Jerry Thompson, you're doing great. Dare I say this is at least one of your best works so far... the orchestration that he has put together on this you will appreciate this game so much more.”

    Cary Hardy@ 11:37 — High praise for Jerry Thompson's audio work; emphasizes home-play advantage over location play

  • “Without a doubt the most common way i have drained on this game is that damn left out lane that lane has caught more balls than... you know where i'm going with that.”

    Cary Hardy@ 14:00 — Identifies left outlane as primary mechanical complaint; suggests possible design flaw or tolerance issue

  • “After you've played this a while i really do feel that the whole kong and the train thing is gonna get old i'm already feeling me wanting to skip past it like come on let's get back to shooting.”

    Cary Hardy@ 16:23 — Player fatigue with Premium/LE exclusive Kong animation; supports Pro model preference for faster gameplay

  • “Kong you're starting to piss me off man... Kong. Why do you hate me? Why do you hate me? What is this? Just give me the ball. Give it to me.”

    Cary Hardy@ 19:20 — Frustration with ball recognition/Kong position bugs; demonstrates real gameplay impact of code issues

Entities

Cary HardypersonKing KonggameJerry ThompsonpersonKeith ElwinpersonEricpersonStern PinballcompanyJoelpersonFun Superstoreorganization

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Cary provides detailed playfield layout breakdown and skill-shot discovery, supporting player education and gameplay mastery

    medium · Extensive shot-by-shot layout tutorial; detailed mode progression analysis; skill shot alternatives; supports broader community engagement

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Kong animation and train mechanism create gameplay slowdown leading to player fatigue and desire to skip sequences after extended play

    high · Cary: 'after you've played this a while I really do feel that the whole kong and the train thing is gonna get old... i'm already feeling me wanting to skip past it'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Spider magnet behaves unpredictably—sometimes grabbing, sometimes flinging ball to random locations—creating unwanted chaos rather than tactical challenge

    high · Cary: 'it doesn't just grab the ball... it sometimes flings it... you just don't know' creating 'randomness that's pretty close' to a pop bumper

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Kong incorporates hidden audio Easter eggs and licensing references (James Bond, Breaking Bad) intentionally crafted by audio/design team

    medium · Cary notes Jerry Thompson intentional 'ad-libbing and little call-outs and notes to other licenses' including Breaking Bad reference; highlights audio appreciation requires home play

  • ?

    product_strategy: Pro model strategically excludes gong mechanism and Kong animation; aftermarket community expected to fill gap with mods

    medium · Cary: 'Pro you're getting all the shots... except for that gong' and 'I know there's going to be mods out there that will give you semi of that kind of feeling'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.073

0:00
What's up guys I'm here in Mesquite Texas visiting Fun Superstore to pick up my first ever limited edition pinball machine. My buddy Eric from Titan Pinball and a supporter of the channel was gracious enough to help me pick this game up and unbox it on his country property, the Snake Ranch. After we did the live unboxing for my patrons and put a dozen or so games on it, we loaded it up and I took it home to really dive into it. Now I currently have over 100 games on this beast, so let's talk about it.
0:59
And here it is guys out of the box King Kong LE and in this video I'm gonna tell you the things I love about this game and the things that I give me my damn ball give it to me don't like so much. Now in a lot of my previous content when it comes to what I think about these games it's merely me just having a bunch of I say a bunch but a few games on it and telling you how I feel about it Whereas this, I have the game here. And now I've got a lot of games on it. So now we're going to take the glass off. I want to get in deep with the play field for you right here and go over some of the shots and lay.
1:47
So let's go over shots and lay out real quick. I'll try to make as brief as I possibly can, guys, just to give you an idea of where the ball can travel and how the play field layout works. and going from the left side and working our way over we have the very far left orbit that goes up and I'll get a camera in there so you can see it but it has the option to feed down this way or all the way over behind this to your upper flipper right here if you have enough momentum and you'll see why it requires a little bit of momentum because there's a small little gradual heel back behind here that allows the ball to separate from this whole region that we have down below Kong. Now the next shot over is your left ramp. This one goes up 180s around feeds to your upper flipper. Every time the ball hits here it's going to set up your shot for your upper flipper. Very nice. Now the shots for your upper flipper are two, but possibly three, honestly, but two for a guarantee. The third one is if you're able to hit up this ramp right here, which is honestly, I think it's just blind luck if you hit this particular post at a correct angle. I've had it go up this ramp before, but otherwise you've got two shots. One shot, which is probably the nicest satisfying shot in this game goes up this ramp and then it spirals back down here and all the way down to your left flipper and then the other shot goes up and does a 180 around and feeds over back down to this area right here to this upper flipper now again this is the premium MLE playfield, but your ramp has two paths it can take depending on if your ball lock is lit or not. If the ball lock is not lit, it will go up, go behind this back panel, and feed all the way down to your right flipper. Now, if you have the ball lock lit, it goes up this ramp. There's diverter back here let me show you this diverter right here actuates and changes the ball path between going towards the train to lock your ball or to the ramp that feeds your left flipper or right yeah left flipper i'm sorry and when it feeds the mechanism it feeds it right here into this train car the train car is able to dump the balls out like that and two out of three typically go to feed your upper right flipper. And the third one, sometimes it goes down there, but a lot more times than not, it flies out, hits the glass, or it goes down. It's more chaos. The third one isn't a guarantee that I have seen. Next shot over down here is the opto spinner. This feeds up underneath all of this, back down this path to your upper flipper. Next shot over is the gong. Now this is a very nice honestly it gives you the ability to have rebound but it also later on gives you the ability for it to swing open when you hit it to feed the vuck. The vuck that is down there will launch the ball onto this wire form that feeds down onto your right flipper and the next shot over in the very far right orbit that goes all the way up here will feed on up underneath here and can spiral around over here to hit this kickback target.

  • Ball sometimes flies off the helix wire form due to velocity, occasionally landing down the center drain

    medium confidence · Cary describes occasional ball ejection from ramp into wire form; notes 'this is going to be the nature of the beast of the game'

    • “I know there's going to be mods out there that will give you semi of that kind of feeling... The gong, someone's going to mod that.”

    Cary Hardy@ 21:20 — Expectation that aftermarket community will address perceived LE/Premium exclusive feature gaps

  • “If I was to keep this game, not the LE obviously, but if I was to get another tier, I might lean towards the Pro, honestly.”

    Cary Hardy@ 23:25 — Despite owning LE, expresses preference for Pro model; reiterates criticism of LE-specific features

  • “The game is super fun if you... even if it's not the assets and the way that you perceive kong to be you're still going to enjoy playing this game.”

    Cary Hardy@ 20:45 — Separates game design quality from art direction criticism; validates prior viral video comment about LE aesthetics

    • Patreon supporters / Hardy Party
    organization
  • ?

    product_strategy: Minor audio issue reached out by Cary to Jerry Thompson; acknowledged by Thompson as fixable in future code updates

    medium · Cary mentions reaching out to Thompson about one small audio concern; Thompson 'agreed it will be fixed coming up'

  • ?

    product_concern: Left outlane exhibits excessive drain frequency suggesting possible design flaw, tolerance issue, or playfield angle problem

    high · Cary repeatedly cites left outlane as 'the most common way I have drained' after 100+ games; suggests possible magnet or mechanical design issue

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Despite owning King Kong LE, Cary expresses preference for Pro model due to gameplay fatigue with Premium/LE exclusive features (Kong animation, train)

    high · Cary: 'if I was to keep this game, not the LE obviously, but if I was to get another tier, I might lean towards the Pro'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Code version 0.82 has unresolved ball position recognition bugs causing Kong to fail loading balls into train, triggering unwanted multiball activation

    high · Multiple documented instances of ball search/unwanted multiball; Cary notes code should resolve issue but persists at 0.82; demonstrates opto/sensor alignment problem

    • 5:33
    Sometimes it'll kick back and launch the ball all the way around back to feed your upper flipper again and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it does it just enough but it doesn't actually hit it very hard and it just falls down into this area down here. You also have the ability for it to hit this switch up in there, might get the camera angle in there right. Well if the ball falls down there where does it go to Well that hole leads to this buck down here Same area will launch and feed to your right flipper
    6:11
    And then further down we have the Kong Cave. You feed this behind the upper flipper and it will launch back up and feed to your right flipper.
    6:24
    Let me give you a little visual of what Kong looks like. This panel right here looks like it would be removed. So you could do, not you personally, but what Stern at the factory will do when it comes to putting him together. But that's how the mechanism essentially looks right there. So there you have basically the complete layout for King Kong on your Premium LE. And I basically have a list of the things that I would consider pros and cons. My game is currently running on code 0.82 and I'm very well aware that some of my cons will no longer be a con as the code develops. Let's go down my list of pros right here and the very first thing I've got is quite obviously the shots and layout. I'm loving this layout and I love the shots. This is a combo fanatics wet dream. the way I love games that allow you to set up a shot from one flipper to the next flipper to get you to somewhere else and I love loopable repeatable shots if you're skilled enough and this game's got it all and I like I said I pointed out one of the things when it comes to the skill shot and that's on my things that I also like is that there's multiple skill shots you could go for the the main one that there's other ones that you're that you could also go for but the one that i particularly enjoyed that i just kind of discovered on my own and i'm sure there's probably a better one but the one i particularly like involves feeding to another flipper to hit another ramp it's just in my opinion much more enjoyable of a skill shot compared to other game skill shots that i've played all right so when you start a game the game's gonna want you to go for right here for your skill shot see how it's just strobing like yeah this is what you want this is the skill shot that you want don't bother with that crap that's a that's a crap skill shot the one you want is to launch forward to this upper flipper and then go for the ramp and uh i did it myself but i had joel on flipping out pinball give you an example there it is there you go
    8:49
    There it was, Carrie. I like that, bro. I did the thing, Carrie. Are you still here? Carrie, I did the thing, Carrie. Carrie, are you here? And it's not just the layout and the shots and the combos. It's when it comes to code, how the modes so far that we have are utilizing different areas of the play field. It's almost like it's segmenting out certain portions of the playfield for you to utilize them progressing through the mode. And particularly, you have the crossing the chasm where you have to utilize your upper left portion of the playfield that feeds to your upper right flipper and get it back over there. And you repeat that shot to get through that particular mode. And then there's another mode, the pterodactyl mode, I believe, where you have to hit the drop targets and then go to the other side of the playfield into the concave. it's i'm loving that the river mode you have to just hit a particular shot over and over again i i could go through every mode and tell you that i enjoy it because it's not just a mode everything is lit hit it kind of thing and that's what i'm liking also is that even on your multi ball your king kong multi ball you don't just immediately have everything lit you need to hit all your drop targets in order for you to even start getting jackpots so I thought that was interesting I'm like cool I'm in multi-ball and I can hit other shots that are lit green but if I really want to rack up a good score with using jackpots and I need to knock down these drop targets so that way I got something else that will get more points and then you also have the fact that there's like multiple objectives if you want to like for me particularly there was one time where I mainly just wanted to see how high up the building I could get. So I was just climbing, just aiming for the climb up shots. And there's always climb up arrows that you can hit. I think the ABC of King Kong probably is always be climbing if you want to basically progress that way. Something else that I really enjoy is having the ability to manually activate the log diverter for your upper left flipper. Aside from shots and layout, I mean, I'm loving the play field. That's said and done. I love it. But what also has impressed me is the audio package on this game. Jerry Thompson, you're doing great. Dare I say this is at least one of your best works so far. and it's it's sad that a lot of people in on locations or going to these particular shows are not going to really like hear it and really appreciate it because they're not in a home setting if there's ever a time guys that you're able to play this and completely like engross yourself and hear the orchestration that he has put together on this you will appreciate this game so much more and particularly the the biplane mode whenever that's going on just the music that goes along with it it's just it really uh it like brings me into that mode
    12:04
    but the orchestration overall is really good i'm loving the audio there was only one small little thing that was just bothered me about audio wise i even reached out to jerry told him about it he agreed it will be fixed coming up so but other than that one little small call out i have no issues with what we got going on with the sound and i'm loving this these are just things that are popping my head as i'm talking about the game guys but a biplane when you're in that mode and every time that you hit a spinner or it's the sound effect of the gun firing on the plane the shaker motor is like synced with the gunfire so when it's like the shaker motor is doing the shaking so it's I really enjoyed that that really brought me into the world that I was playing in at that time too it just something I really enjoyed something to point out so if you plan on getting a pro or a premium and you don't have a shaker motor I recommend that you get one in this game so let's talk a little bit about the visuals on the screen now this is something that's difficult for me to completely judge because most of the time I'm staring at down at the play field. But from what I've seen, I don't have any complaints. From while I'm playing, things are going on, I'm missing it, but whenever I do get a chance to look up at it, everything seems fine to me. Okay, so let's talk about the cons. Some of these can be fixed in code, some of them I don't think they can and it's just the nature of the beast with this game without a doubt the most common way i have drained on this game is that damn left out lane that lane has caught more balls than i'm going to try to keep this video clean so but you know where i'm going with that more than likely for you guys that are up here but that drain my lanta that is that thing is just like I'm like I'm almost thought that there was a magnet there at one point to where it just seemed like everything was just going to that left out lane sometimes I got lucky and it managed to bump a little bit and go into feed my flipper so that was nice but it's it's very rare that it happens more commonly than not that left out lane is a killer for me at least this bastard right here oh i feel like there's a magnet right here or something god next up is the spider magnet this little guy right here is not a problem he just does his little thing reacts with the ball that's you know being attracted by the magnet down here the issue i have with this is that it's not a pop bumper but it might as well be sometimes because you know it doesn't just grab the ball and then let go of it it sometimes flings it sometimes it'll fling it down the middle sometimes it'll fling it over here to the left out lane or sometimes it'll fling it up play field you just don't know so it's a randomness that's pretty close so it's already a little chaotic if you get to right here so don't just assume that you're safe because this little guy which is actually the magnet may cause you some problems now this is something that's at least on my game i don't know if anybody else has had this problem but it's the ball flying off the helix wire form because it's going so damn fast and there's just times where it just it shoots up that ramp comes swinging down that wire form and it just flies straight off and I've even had it to where it flies straight off and goes directly down the damn middle now this is something that's going to be the nature of the beast of the game I don't see this changing obviously but this is going to be for the premium slash le so that is that king kong his movements and the whole multi-ball thing really slows down gameplay and it didn't bother me at first on this because like oh it's cool but after you've played this a while i really do feel that the whole kong and the train thing is gonna get old i'm already feeling me wanting to skip past it like come on let's get back to let's get back to shooting kind of thing and so that's why I lean towards the pro when it comes to something like that but man you're missing out on the gong which I really enjoy having in the premium le model that gong is pretty cool because it gives you the ability to have where it ricochets and comes back to you but if you hit it enough you're able to break through and move on whereas you're never going to have that on your pro it's always just going to go straight into the bug and then feed back to your flipper kind of thing whereas the premium it's kind of a dangerous shot almost all the time and not to mention I still don't know if it's by design but it's always the last ball in the train that typically flies out and hits the glass and kind of goes wherever I don't think that's a good thing over time if it's by design okay and there's no concerns about your glass having issues from taking the hits over and over again on this type of thing but it's not consistent that's why i don't think it's by design because i've had it where times where all three balls roll out into my right orbit and all is hunky-dory but then there's also more often than not where the ball flies out of there and goes somewhere random i mean you definitely get the whole like oh it's chaos but there's also the concern of like is it gonna damage something will it fly up or not What are you going to do, Kong? What are you going to do?
    18:13
    There that one and i guess my final con that is i hoping going to be resolved over time in the code it has to be because i don't understand why the game doesn't recognize that i've hit a ball that direction when there's an opto that should tell the game that i have placed a ball that direction and the game should go okay what orientation is Kong in and adjust but there's been quite a few times where my ball goes up the ramp and it's supposed to load into the train and it can't and it's the typical third ball for the train where it should stop but for whatever reason there's times where Kong is not where he's supposed to be causing the ball to sit there then the game has to do a ball search and sometimes it throws me into an unwanted multi-ball so like i said that should be getting resolved in code in the future we are now on 0.82 code and this shit still happens there it goes oh my god kong you're starting to piss me off man oh thank you are we gonna go into a two ball multi-ball no not this time around all right thank you i mean dude what's your problem quit blocking my damn ball thank you oh my god this is where i'm gonna get a two ball multi-ball yay No.
    19:53
    Son of a... Could have played it, but I only got one hand. Kong. Why do you hate me? What is this? Just give me the ball.
    20:08
    Give it to me. Thank you. Alright. Sweet. It figured itself out. give me my damn ball give it to me that'll work and i want to say that's my current cons for king kong at least when it comes to a player's perspective and how i feel about the gameplay i know a lot of you have seen my viral video in regards to how i feel about the le model but i still held true that my video was regards to the le itself and not the game the game is super fun if you i mean i even if it's not the assets and the way that you perceive kong to be you're still going to enjoy playing this game and one of the great things about this particular game is that the pro model you're getting all of the shots that the premium le has the wire forms the ramps you're getting all of the real fun You're not missing out on anything except for that gong. I really wish that the pro could have that gong. But I know there's going to be mods out there that will give you semi of that kind of feeling. So you're not going to get the spider. Someone's going to mod that. That's probably the first thing. The gong, someone's going to mod that. You're not going to get the whole moving kong. But like I said, as of right now, it might be a little more trouble than it's worth. And there's a couple of little side details. and I know there's many more that I'm probably missing out on, but the finer little details that I noticed that I want to point out is obviously there's these lights that are on the in lanes that are torches, and the way they have got them coated to kind of flicker and go in and out to make it seem like they're torches, nice little touch. Also, when it comes to the general illumination, Keith has got us a bulb on a post to shine down on that upper left-hand region near the drop targets. because there was nowhere else where he could put a GI ball, more than likely. So he wanted to keep that area lit, so he's got it on a post. Very handy. I really enjoyed that. And it comes to other little things when it comes to Easter eggs. I already spoke to Jerry about this. I'm loving the ad-libbing and the little call-outs and notes to other licenses out there when it comes to, like, James Bond.
    22:38
    I had a whole list of things that they were quoting, and I was like, was that a Breaking Bad comment kind of thing? You know, like, I am the danger. I mean, there's little things here and there that if you catch, that's why I really recommend you play this game to where you can hear the audio because the audio for this game is really, really good. And the gameplay to go along with it, awesome. But that is my current situation and how I feel about King Kong. This is not a review, merely how I think about the game at this current point in time. The goal is that I will be doing other stuff for my patrons when it comes to this content in regards to King Kong. Review will obviously be the last thing I'll probably do for it before this game gets raffled off to my Patreon supporters. But how I feel right now, if I was to keep this game, not the LE obviously, but if I was to get another tier, I might lean towards the Pro, honestly. I know currently premiums are shipping out this week So you're going to start seeing Kongs all over the place By all means get out there, play this game And if you have already, let me know how you feel about it in the comment section down below And even if you haven't played it, I still want to hear from you down below And I will catch you guys on the next one And of course a special thank you to all of my Patreon supporters this content would not be possible without them. If you would like to join the Hardy Party, link will be in the video description down below.