Are we recording? Yes, we are. Look guys, I know I'm a little late to the party on this. Everyone's done a review slashawwards show or something of that nature in regards to what we saw in 2025. And here is my take on it. I'm not going to bore you with like a three-hour long spiel. I don't have an award show or anything. I'm just going to give you the meat of the matter. And that is how did I feel about the games that we saw in 2025. I'm going to get really quick with it. And if you want the extended version, that's available on my Patreon. Didn't really feel anything with this game. It was kind of like having sex with a couple of condoms on. I I felt like, you know, all right. I mean, I can somewhat feel something. I know that I'm doing something that should be enjoyable, but I'm not really getting the full amount of enjoyment from it. So, before I begin my 2025 rapid review, I want to put up the poll that I put up, I don't know, maybe a month ago now. It's been a while. Bear with me here. But I did post a link for everyone to weigh in on where they felt the game should rank from S tier being the best to Dtier being the worst. And we had over 420 participants on there and their gradings for and this is on the scoring of most boats. This is what we got. And in regards to average boats, this is what we got. And honestly, this correlates very well with what I'm about to tell you. Now, firstly, and most importantly, this is obviously just one man's opinion. Everyone's got one. This is mine towards the games of 2025. Now, not all of these games that are on the list are games that I got an extraordinary amount of time on and I will specify that accordingly. I'm pretty sure this isn't any kind of particular order, non-alphabetical or anything. So, don't take offense out there if the manufacturer that I'm listing last is there. I'm just This is the list that I've got I made. Anyways, Dungeon of the Dragons from Stern Pinball is the first game that they released and this is a game that I got to play at Stern Pinball during the media day event. This is, I think, one of Brian Eddy's best shooters. Is it a game that I felt like I needed to get more time on or even own? No, it's not a game for me. So, that's pretty much what I got to say about that.
And that's all I had to say about that.
Definitely kudos to the dragon mech. It's obviously something that shouldn't be overlooked, but with the dragon being able to shoot pinballs at you, uh, that's a very cool aspect in the premium model. And of course, the still to give you the ability of him moving and being there on a pro was also a very nice touch. But other than playing it at like beginning of the year, we're talking at Stern and Pinball the Beach, that's the only time I've actually played that game. So, I'm sure that the code has come a long way and it could be a lot better than since the last time I played it, but that's where we're at with regards to that. Moving on to King Kong Myth of Terror Island. Now, as most of you know, this is a game that I purchased. I purchased the limited edition. This was my first limited edition and more than likely my last limited edition from Stern Pinball on multiple aspects, but one of them being that the art was I don't want to go too harsh on it, but it was a hodgepodge of obviously multiple chefs in the kitchen on this. The art did not match the out exterior of the cabinet very well. And it just the fact that the LE art was pretty much the same as it was the same. You had a mixture of the pro and premium did not make the limited edition feel special. You can make it shiny, doesn't make it different really. So, I did not like that. I felt like this game was obviously rushed when it comes to the art package. Something is wrong there. Something happened. But I think the Ellie back glass was great. That was the best part of the game. But as far as gameplay, that's what really matters here, guys. I was just trying to give you a little bit more insight on my feelings on my purchase kind of thing. When it comes to gameplay, this is a very good shooting game. There's no denying that. I have no arguments against how well this game shot. People thought that I didn't like the game because I ended up selling it kind of thing. And it wasn't that I didn't like it. It's just that I I definitely was feeling down due to the fact that I purchased an LE, but it didn't feel special. It didn't give me the feeling of I've got something that's something special here kind of thing. I just by looking at it, by playing it, I didn't have that feeling of like this was a good purchase. Didn't have that at all. Now, as far as having a good playing a game, yeah, you got that. No doubt. And as far as the latest code, I'm behind. I think the latest code I played on it was 0.87. And uh as far as that, I mean, I definitely see this being as gradually working its way up as being one of Elwin's best games. It's up there more than likely going to be with Jaws and Godzilla. Could be, but it was one of those where I just had no urge to play the game anymore. I was like, h, okay, I think I'm done for the now. I've experienced the shots. I enjoyed what I had at the time, but I was ready to move on to something better, and we'll get to that later in the video. Now, their next game was Star Wars: Fall of the Empire. And this was definitely not a great followup with King Kong in regards to just like something being like monumental. When you have a license like Star Wars and such a wellknown brand, you would think that they would give it their all, put everything into this game, and it's just not what happened. This game was obviously rushed when it comes to design. We know that for a fact from designer John Bour saying himself that he only had what, 10 months to put this game together. And that's different from what other kind of experiences that we've heard from designers, how long it takes them to make a game. So, this was obviously a rushed ordeal for reasons that we're probably just never going to know as far as how well it shoots and everything. I played it a couple of times at Pinball Expo and I was fine with it and I'm like, "Yeah, okay. I'm good. Let's play something else." It was not something that grabbed me to play more kind of thing. Just not a game for me. And I think a lot of people have felt that way about the game as well, how it's approachable or whatever kind of thing. And it was one of those that I think that definitely could have been more, but it wasn't more than likely due to licensing constraints. But I'm just going by what we were given. And their latest title, The Walking Dead Remastered, is obviously a rehash of a game that they released, you know, back in 2014. The Walking Dead has been improved on a lot of different levels. I think the people that have got the game are enjoying it, enjoying how well it shoots. that well the last one shot, but I have not played it myself. So, I really don't have a lot to say about it other than the fact that, you know, it's the new Spike 3 cabinet. And as far as I know, Spike 3 cabinets are still holding very solid, even though they have a whole different type of system. No miter cuts or joints or anything like that. This is just going by the new Spike 3 bracketed cabinet system. They are still holding solid. So, let's talk about the manufacturer in general. Now, that was the four main releases that Stern did. I think over the entire year, every manufacturer, almost every manufacturer brought out their best yet. And I don't feel like Stern did some kind of move or brought out a product that showed them, showed us rather that, hey, look what we can do. This is look how we've stepped up our game. And I do feel that they would argue that Spike 3 and how they've changed that is their step up and improvement. But I currently would disagree on that at least at this current point in time. Maybe we will see what Spike 3 and the involvements and future upcoming titles can do. But as of right now, it's still just that is one thing you got to give Stern. They are consistent on this. And that's been what 2025 was was the consistent flatline of releases and bringing games to us that really I don't know just opened our eyes or got us excited about something. This was a a year that I think was a very flat year for what they brought us. And it's a little diminishing especially when you start comparing it to what other manufacturers brought us. A lot of B level, maybe a hint to B+ games were released by Stern. Moving on to Jersey Jack Pinball. They released their best game to date, Harry Potter. I've got one back here, the arcade edition. I've had it for getting well actually to this day. I've had it a total of one month. I got this right there before Christmas and I've been playing it since Christmas Day. And by all means, I it is definitely a favorite machine of mine now due to the fact of how much you're getting for the price. I' I've gone over a video before talking about this game already. There's not much more to say other than I'm really enjoying the game so far. I'm very happy with my purchase. I find myself playing it every night trying to accomplish a different goal. And it is a challenging fun but fun shooter kind of thing. And it's got a lot in there for the prize. And I got just the regular arcade edition tier. I didn't go for the collector's edition or anything. Although the game looks pretty, I'm perfectly content with my arcade edition. For 10K, it's one of the best bangs for buck of 2025 without a doubt. Now into grade Jersey Jack for the year of 2025. They released their best game to date with what I believe to be one of the best shooters. It's right up there. Elton John is like right up underneath it. But as far as what all is in this game and just the differential and layout and how it shoots, I'm going to give it to Harry Potter for being their best yet. So obviously Jersey Jack definitely stepped it up in the year of 2025 and I'm definitely looking forward to what they're releasing in 2026. Moving on to Barrels of Fun. They released two titles in the year 2025. Early in the year, we got Dune, which was a theme that no one asked for and on its initial release. I played it day one at the factory, and it was a game that I felt I definitely enjoyed how it shot better than Labyrinth, but there were certain things that I wasn't too keen on. And one of those was being that the audio was just off here and there. The video assets were still under approval. It was kind of a sloppy launch. And this is a game that never really got good traction until people got to play it at Pinball Expo. And that was also during that time frame where Jeff from Dirty Pool Pinball came in and redid the whole audio package for Dune. And that for me is what made the game go from it's okay to being really good. This is a a really good game. Definitely not a theme that speaks to me, but Dune for me is a better shooter than what they've put out even after this, which we'll get into just a second. But I do enjoy Dune Pinball very much. And then they brought us Winchester towards the end of the year. Once again, great audio package from Jeff at Dirty Pool Pinball. The layout very unique, some challenging shots, but overall the game for me was a little frustrating to play. and and then that that's all I'm going to say about that. But it wasn't a game for me. I still believe Dune to be the better shooter that they developed so far. But Barrels of Fun in Review, I'm going to say that obviously they have stepped up their game in 2025. They have improved from their first initial year of Labyrinth to bringing out two new games in 2025 and both of them I think are better than Labyrinth. So definitely they have improved in the year of 2025. I just hope they could start pumping out these games a little bit faster. Moving on to Dutch or DPX. They finally started getting their Alicees out the door. A little late to the party, but they finally did start getting them out. And since the game technically was announced in 2024, but it actually started shipping at 25 is why I'm mentioning it now, but I only played it in 2024. But I also played it at Expo. So, I guess I can go ahead and say that my thoughts and feelings on Alice is it's a pretty much basic '9s type of layout. It's nothing that's going to blow you away. It's nothing fantastic or filled with magic. It's just got that nostalgia feel of a good, you know, J-pop style game kind of thing that plays fine. As far as like the aesthetics of it, it's it's something that I like. I know it's not for everybody, but it's a basic game. I mean, nothing special. If you got it, you got you a somewhat of a a rare piece, but it's not something that I would be interested in adding to my collection. So, grading DPX for Dutch is a difficult one because this is technically their first release and Dutch released the game over a decade ago. So, I can't really give them a solid grade or if they've improved over from the previous year, but it's kind of a rough start, honestly, with what we're seeing with 2025 with the speed at which the games were getting released and then the topper issues. So, it's one of those where I'm hoping that on their next release things can improve upon that. But, as far as improving, I can't grade them on that, but as far as what we're seeing right now, it's a little bit bumpy. I'm hoping they can iron those kinks out. Multimorphic. They have released their best game to date. Portal. This was a game that I got to play uh at Texas Pinball Festival and it was something I was involved a little bit on on the release of this game and I was very happy to do so because this is a theme that definitely speaks to me. If I were to get involved in the multimmorphic system, it would be definitely going towards Portal. This game has got so much in it, so much code that I will just never be able to fully explore. And but if I ever do get into Multimorphic, this is definitely the game that I would want to have because of just like I said, the theme speaks to me. The amount of efforts that they put into it is obviously there. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what they bring us here. I mean, if they go according to schedule, should be another month or so, and then we and then we'll get what they're going to bring us next. But I definitely enjoyed Portal, their best game to date. Easy. So, Grady Multimorphic, obviously, they have stepped up their game from 2024 to 2025. I do really would like to see them get their games out faster. Then, the game portal was initially announced in March, and they didn't start shipping until what, uh, August or October of of 2025. That's a pretty big gap right there. So, I would definitely like to see them get the games out a little faster kind of thing. Spooky Pinball with Evil Dead. This was something that I was aware of and got involved in on the release. And I remember telling people, look, this is going to be Spooky Pinball's Godzilla. The the phrase heard around the pinball world was that this was Spooky's Godzilla. And this remains to be pretty much factually true. This was the obviously, bar none, their best game to date. And I think they did an amazing job with this game. And I think what they proved even more with their next title coming up, Beetlejuice, is that they're stepping up their game each time. So, without a doubt, I mean, just a grade going through Spooky Pinball is the fact that yes, they did improve dramatically from their previous years in regards to Evil Dead, and they look to be continuing to do that. So, definitely kudos to Spooky and what they're doing so far. Turner Pinball with Merlin's Arcade. This is their second game, and I'm going to say that I think I enjoyed their first game, Ninja Eclipse, better when it comes to layout. I do like the the finesse flipper aspect on this game. I kind of hope that that's implemented on their future titles and be interesting that they could even implement that into the uh Ninja Cliffs, but I don't think they can because you have to have two flipper buttons. So, I guess that's out of the question. But definitely the flipper, the finesse flipper is a really fun aspect of it. But I think overall the code I liked better on Merlin's Arcade. The layout on Merlin's Arcade was pretty basic. They implemented a lot of nifty little things in there. That repeatable inner loop shot is got a little bit of jank to it. Just a little bit of rattle as it's going around and it's enough to just kill that feeling of it going around. It's like, yeah, you can hit it sometimes and it's smooth, but a lot more times than not from me playing it. There's a little bit of rattle, but it goes around. It just it's not a flowy smooth just yeah kind of thing. And it's a little bit of a a downer for me. But overall, the code audio and everything was much better on Merlin's Arcade. But I think I enjoyed Ninja Eclipse layout better, but the code was better on Merlin's Arcade. Now, when it comes to grading Turner pinball, I think it's definitely a step up in different areas. Like I said, it depends on what you want to completely grade by. I do like what they're doing in regards to Turner Pinball and manufacturing. The simplicity that we're seeing underneath the playfield is a lot of things that I think certain manufacturers may want to look into. But I think that definitely what they are have going for them is the fact that if your game does go down for whatever reason, it's going to be easy to work on. And as far for what I've heard so far, I think their games are holding on pretty solid with very little to no issues. So for me, it's like did Turner Pinball improve over the year 2025? I would say yeah. not a great improvement because certain things went down and just regards of just layout design and but I think everything else looked to improve upon that. I think they've also got to find a sweet spot on like how many of a particular title do they need to release because Ninja Eclipse was only 100 and I think they shot for the moon on Merlin's Arcade and I don't know I don't have a number I honestly don't on how many they have like they sold on that but I'm pretty sure that they're not going to be getting the orders that they are hoping to get on that. So I think they still need to work out finding a sweet spot for how many games that they need to produce. That's going to be a challenge that they're going to have to figure out. Spooky figured out their problem. They finally have found a good sweet spot. So, I think that's something that Chris has got to work on in regards to just meeting the demand or finding that sweet spot of demand for their titles. Hexa Pinball with Space Hunt. I got to play this maybe twice at Pinball Expo. Game aesthetically very pink. Looked to shoot just fine, but I didn't get a lot of plays on it. But I will give them props for what they put together. Very nice looking game. Moving on. Pinball Brothers with Predator. This is a game that I only got one game on because of the long line and I didn't really get enough time to fully explore it. There are certain shots on that game that I still have yet to actually make. So, I can't give it a full-fledged how I feel about the game. But, I will say for the little that I did play, this looks to be Pinball Brothers best game yet. And I know you're saying though it's not a very high bar. Yeah, I got you. But the fact remains is that they are improving. So hopefully with their next title, they continue to go with that trend. Moving on to home pin with the Blues Brothers. This game is just not fun. This is a game that I I typically do not just walk away midame. I will play the three balls through to my best ability, but this is a game where I felt that I just could not drain because it was pretty much open and pretty easy and not fun. This obviously is not a game for me and I could not wait for the game to be over. I played one really long threeball game and then I was done. So that's all we're going to say about Blues Brothers. So CGC did their Medieval Madness remakes. It's one of those things CGC it's kind of hard to really grade on them as well because they're just remaking games that have already been redone that have already been remade in the first place especially with Medieval Madness. They've already remade this. This is the new one with the Merlin edition. But I will say we'll give them kudos for the aesthetics in the game. Look really good with the blue powder coating on there. The new light show underneath the playfield or underneath the glass looks really good as well. So, I will get them an improvement on what they've already improved upon. So, yeah, there you go on that. So, CGC, the ongoing issue with you guys is that you just take a long time to get the games out. But, at least whenever you do get the games out, they're right. And that was the games of 2025. Honestly, like I said, I think almost every manufacturer improved upon themselves for the year of 2025. Only a couple of them, not so much. Stern kind of held a straight flat line in my opinion, but I think almost every other manufacturer stepped up their game and put their best foot forward kind of thing. And I think uh this coming year will be a very interesting year for 2026 for what manufacturers have in store for us. I'm excited. I keep hitting my damn microphone, but I am excited about this year. It's going to be interesting is the uh the key word right there. I can't wait. Some of you may have noticed that I've got a new little sign right here. This is being completely bleached out by the camera. It is not that bleached out in in person like at all. It looks very good in person, but it's USB powered. And I've got a bigger version of this as well. All these are things that are coming into the future for those that are interested in having a little decor in your game room. This is an option for you. And whenever that gets finally released, then I will be sure to let all of you know, but my patrons will know first. And that wraps up my rapid review of 2025 and in regards to what games we got. So, am I right? Am I wrong? Did Stern basically just do a flatline for the entire year of consistent games that were kind of like, yeah, okay. I mean, in your opinion, which manufacturer really stepped up their