Welcome to Pinball Pursuit. I'm Mrs. J. And I'm Dr. C. Today we're going to be going over all things Stranger Things. We're giving you our official review of how we felt about the machine. Yes, so we had this machine in our house at the end of 2025. um it's kind of an iconic machine for us i feel like it was the machine that made us kind of stand up and go oh pinball's kind of cool back when we experienced it uh at the pinball museum or not pinball museum sorry pinball hall of fame yeah in las vegas yeah i remember seeing it that was the first time i mean that was my first real exposure to pinball i feel like and the demogorgon there in the middle just like blew my mind yeah it was so cool and so for us i think it's a little bit of a special machine in that way. We were really excited to get it in the home and we're really excited to review it. Stranger Things was designed by Brian Eddy. Love it. Brian Eddy was the guy that did Attack of Mars, Medieval Badness. Classic machines that everybody loves. He had been away from pinball when Williams closed down and he came back to Stern for this machine and has been designing pinball machines for them ever since. So as usual, our review is going to cover the theme, the look, the sound, the design, and the rules. We're going to give all of them a score, one to five. Five being the best, one being the worst. You'd better be the best if you get a five. One of us is very stingy. You could say that or you could say it's high standards. Okay. I don't know if anything will ever be a five. We'll see. Maybe someday. Maybe someday. So let's go ahead and get started then with the theme. The theme. So I'm a Stranger Things fan. you're a Stranger Things fan. I am definitely a Stranger Things fan. Had high hopes for this machine in that way. You know, the newest season just came out. We're still making our way through it. But we're super excited to watch all of it. Have loved the series. It's been super fun. That being said, I don't know that the theme itself was put into the playfield very well. Okay. Okay, there was a lot going on with the videos in the background, and that's fine, but you know, I mean, if you've been watching these videos, you know how I feel when it comes to the videos. The videos don't hook me. I am not good enough to focus on the video montages that are going on. I'm mostly staring at the playfield because I'm afraid if I look away that something is going to happen and it's going to drain. So that being said, I wish that there were more elements of the show on the playfield. I feel like it's all very bluish, purplish, reddish. We'll get more of that into the look. I'll save that. But I wish that there were things like the woods where, you know. Where they kind of go into. Exactly. I wish the upside down would have been more represented. I wish there would have been the pool where Barb gets taken. Oh, yeah, yeah. And there would have been like maybe the school. I feel like there are a lot of things they could have done to integrate the theme. Better. Instead of just squiggly lines. Yes, exactly. Because it is kind of a lot of just squiggly lines. And color. lots of just color and we'll get more into that the look but i just don't feel like it's very integrated into the play field itself yeah i think when it comes to theme for me i think they do well i wish because this machine came out after season two i think before season three or maybe it has so it only covers seasons one and two and season two i think is the weakest season at least so far we haven't seen season five yet um so i kind of wish that there was more like season three season before i wish they could have updated it with more more of those elements as the as the game went on as the show kept going on i understand that probably wasn't possible wasn't in the budget that's fine um but i do agree with you that there is a little bit lacking with the theme integration yeah however i think i disagree with you a little bit because what they did was they really focused on one thing the dental order yeah right and they wanted to make that up front and center in your face and I think when it comes to the integration that's really good that's really well done yeah um I like that on the premium they tried to integrate the theme with using the telekinesis of 11 right yeah having the balls stick to the back you lose that on the pro and we had the pro model okay in our house yeah right yeah so I think that all things considering I think the theme is done well, but not great. To me, it's good enough. It's that meets expectations, right? If you give something a three, it means it met expectations. It didn't surpass them. It didn't wow you, but it wasn't terrible. So for me, theme gets a three. I think I may have gotten caught up on just the potential that it had. Yes, the dorm, dorm, wow, Demogorgon was really cool, but that's all that really stood out. And I feel like there's so much more opportunity. And the Demogorgon, after you kind of got over that fact, it was like oh well there nothing else I mean it was really cool It is really cool The Demogorgon is sweet But I gave it 2 2 Okay Yep That fair Yep That fine A little bit below but still okay Yep Okay That fair Next up is the look. Take us away on the look. You touched on this a little bit in your theme. Yes. The look is very, just lots of colors and swiggly lines. Yeah. There's some characters in there, in the artwork. I think the cabinet art is done really well. It looks good. I think it looks good. Yeah. Very Stranger Things-esque. Very much so. I think both the pro and the premium back glass look great. When you have clips from the show, I think that looks really good. I think the animation on the screen for the Demogorgon coming out of the wall when the Demogorgon is going to fight it, I think is done really well. That is cool. But the play field is kind of meh. Yep. I keep coming back to there's so much around it that's really cool. but the part that you look at the most yep the part that i look at is meh yep um and that's that those are my thoughts i love it if you the machine we had had the uv kit so we went into the upside down it had all the uv glowing that is so cool looking and i think that's why they went with the squiggly design yeah but that moment is so short that i think they sacrificed what could been a much better looking game for that effect yeah that effect is cool but you don't use it enough yeah to to really make it worth it so for me i'll wait for you to say but fair fair uh again you know i i really touched on it it's you said the same thing it's blue it's purple it's red and to me there were just dots everywhere and i didn't know what all the dots meant or how they played into each other it was just blue red and purple and dots and i did again i like the demogorgon in the middle but i that's that was the look to me i mean it just i feel like they could have done so much more with it that makes me sad yeah um so do you want me to go ahead yeah go ahead sure i gave it a two you gave it a two i gave it a two i gave it a 2.5 okay so i i think it's about there i think again we had the pro i think the look would have been better had we had the premium because the premium has that projector system oh that's right where it like and that really that's what pulls you in so maybe if we had a premium the score would have been higher but based on the pro we give it we give it yeah yeah below average i think that if we'd had the premium i think our scores would be better yeah because i think you would have seen more but as it is we can only rate what we had guys yeah exactly i mean hey uh the sound take us away the sound I did not love the sound. I feel like a lot of it was just like sound effects. And that was it. I love the machines that have iconic songs. And I start singing them throughout the house, whether you like it or not. You bring these pinball machines in and you have to suffer the consequences. It's just what happens. And sound, I think, is a big deal for you. It is. It is a big deal for me. Yeah. And I know that there aren't, other than the theme song, There aren't very many iconic sounds from Stranger Things, but I feel like they could have done things with an 80s type soundtrack. I think they could have done more with that maybe, but I'm trying to think other than the theme song, if there was another iconic song or sound that I can really remember. And I mean, there are definite like Go Go Godzilla. I will be singing that until the day I die. Like there are some iconic songs that I don't get sick of that I think are really fun that fit the machine really well. I can't think of one for this really yep and it was just all sounds you're I mean I'm thinking of like the most iconic moments like when you start Demodogs it was just a bunch of sirens going off yeah um when you start the Demogorgon um it's like the sound of him crashing through and then there's a little bit of a synth heavy thing but you're right there isn't like it's not a main focus and there's a lot of like yeah yeah exactly yeah so I could I could see that so for me the sound isn't super memorable I wouldn't say this necessarily back because I can think of I played it a little more than you did I can think of like operation work would that had a really fun little song that was going on during that mode we had to get to that mode yeah quarters had a really fun song the total isolation the silence and some of the sounds there I think was done really well I don't think I ever got to that wizard probably not probably not I know for a fact so I don't think I'm as harsh I think that and I don't know if they got David Harbour who's the actor that played Hopper to do the call-outs I can't tell if it's him or if it's a sound alike I'll put a note here I'll look that up before he sounds kind of bored with all of his call-outs he's like I don't want to be here yeah it didn't Sound, I don't know, they weren't the best call outs. And they didn't tell you much to do. And for me, I think one thing that other companies that other than Stern, I think do better than Stern are some of their directional call outs. Like do this, do that. And this has a few of them but again they sound kind of I don know he sounds really monotone and just lackluster yeah a little lackluster so he not excited to play for me sounds good too yeah i said 1 oh that's bad i i you wanted way better yes i like the music aspect yeah it's a big part of me that's fair that's fair sorry um okay uh design do you want to go to let me go uh go for it here's the thing on the design of this machine I love the Demogorgon. That part of the machine is the best part of the machine. It is so cool. But this machine is very stop and go, stop and go, stop and go. You get stopped a lot and you don't like get to just go afterwards. You have to stop, try and recover, and then go, and then stop, and then try and recover, and then go. And because everything is so far forward, because the Demogorgon sits so far forward, there's so little space it is a brutal machine this is a very hard machine to play yep um and i felt like i was trying to recover 90 of the time and i would get things under control okay i'm going to shoot this shot and then i would get stopped um because all your modes and everything's they stop you but they don't return you anywhere safe they just return you to the a little playful and things bouncing yeah um i didn't love that i i do like some of the aspects of it i think the ramps felt good to hit when you hit them but like the left ramp if i hit it from the right flipper half the time maybe it was just the machine that we had um it would like go up and kind of like almost catch air hit the back and then bounce back it wouldn't go fluidly through the whole thing yeah um and i just i really struggled with loving the design of this machine i wish that they would have pushed the demogorgon back instead of having things that went behind him just having him as the farthest back thing yeah and maybe redesigning doing more with it yeah i hate how the right orbit goes into a pop pumper nest and then just falls back down where it came it it felt really lackluster to me and again i feel like i was always trying to just recover yeah um i just didn't i don't don't love the design of this machine which is crazy because again that doberg organ is so cool and that part of it is designed so well i love hitting it into his mouth to kill him so satisfying whenever i did that but outside of that i really struggled yeah and i think a lot of what you said is also why i really struggled as being the beginner player here. I mean, you are the expert. I'm the everyday player. I'm a little better than she is. He's definitely better than I am. I feel like I represent the everyday people that are going to step up to a machine. The people that we want to have over to our house, you know, people that come and go that want to just enjoy playing a fun machine. Yeah. And it was hard for me. Like you said, it was a lot of stop and go for you. It was a lot of die and go. Well, and we had people over and I would say that people spent less time on this machine than they spent on almost any other machine you've had in your house. Yeah. Yeah. And we had people over because we just had a baby. Yeah. They would come up they would put like one game in like okay. Okay. Yeah. They love the theme. Yeah. Like that would pull them in. Yeah. It gets really exciting. But. And you see the Demogorgon in them and you're like oh that's really cool. But yeah they couldn't get to it and then they're like okay. Yeah and I feel like you were talking about how they you wish that they would have pushed the Demogorgon back a little. I wish the same thing because I feel like it was right there center in the middle. So you had the Demogorgon and then you had sides. Yeah. Like that was that was your play field. That was. And I feel like maybe they focused everything around that Demogorgon. They did. And it's really cool. They did that really well. But that's all. That's not all. That's a little harsh. But like there's nothing else like extremely notable about it. Yeah. Like I'm just thinking through all of these other machines and just like the different cool aspects and the fun things to hit and I feel like the one cool aspect of this was the demo and then the rest was just kind of they're like we've got this really cool idea and they put all of their all of energy into that and so that's that's why I give my design score the score that I did because like I said I feel like it's sides and Demogorgon a two a two I give the design a two okay I'm the same as we agreed on this I was not too harsh finally no at least you know you've been harsher than me on everything but I on this one I kind of have to agree I don't love how it was designed and last but not least we have the rules dr. C tell me what you think so here's the thing about stranger things I think we see things a lot in this video um it's good it is it is a machine in which the rules are simple right to start a mode you shoot the same shot three times mm-hmm that starts a mode your modes timed you finish it or you don't yeah if you go on to the next one. It's fairly easy to get to the mini wizard mode. It's really hard to get to the like full wizard mode. I never got there. It a very bonus heavy game A lot of your points come from getting your bonus yeah um and there very specific things you have to do to get that bonus to go up so from a like points perspective the modes almost don't matter and they all felt the same to me they do feel very samey yeah my biggest issue with the modes of this game with the chapters as they're called is you had no control over which one you started yeah for all the stopping and starting sometimes you would just start a mode you're like oh it's this one surprise um but as someone who was trying to learn how to play the machine because it wasn't consistent i couldn't like choose which one i was going to do yeah i couldn't get a great feel for how each one worked yeah um so for that i don't i don't i didn't love the multiball is super simple it's easy it's easy to know what to do there denver gorgon pretty simple what to do there then my dogs simple it's simple to get into things it's not necessarily memorable yeah yeah it's kind of my feeling on it it was just very like i said felt very similar all the modes i didn't know which one was going to come up next i didn't feel like i had much control yeah you really don't um other than you're going to get a season one one or a season two one depending on which shot you're trying to get yeah so um some of the modes were pretty cool like what mama says was really creepy i liked when i got into that mode i was like i loved it when i could find barb on the first shot because it's like 40 million points to find barb on the first shot um but i only did like twice um but i just it was good it was nothing right or about yeah it was fine so for me three 2.5 2.5 2.5 just because again i was bored by it I it just it didn't seem like there's much rhyme or reason okay no I just wasn't impressed by it that's that's totally that's totally fine yeah um doing the math doing I'm doing the math let's see if I can do it um so I think what the math right now is saying this is our lowest rated machine oh my goodness is it it is this is our lowest rated machine um I totaled it a 14 and a half which is tied with what Elvira got. Uh-huh. You gave this like a two and a half. Or sorry, ten and a half. I was like, what? Ten and a half. So put that together. Twelve and a half. Twelve and a half. I will correct the score here if I was wrong with my math. We will check his math. What was Metallica? So you didn't review Metallica. I did not, which I feel slighted by. I would have given it a one. I'm sorry. I just I don't like gore and I didn't love the shaky dude being electrocuted all the time didn't love the music not a not clearly not a machine for me so not my brother Cody and I reviewed that we gave it a 16 oh wow fine fine the theme is what drags that down I actually like to play filled in the rules okay there was somebody in the comments that said you guys are saying low score but you loved playing it yeah something like that actually the person who did the rules revision is don't worry ray day i would have made my review consistent sorry ray day bless you ray day um so anyway 12 and a half ouch this is our lowest scored machine i don't think that i would put this at the bottom of my list of machines we rented this last year though i don't think i would either so maybe we need to do some revisions i think my lowest it's probably a Metallica. Metallica, I believe so too. Just because of the theme. Overall rating, yeah. But I would probably put Stranger Things just above Metallica. I like Elvira better than Metallica. I'm sorry, I like Elvira better than Metallica and better than Stranger Things. Yeah, I think so too. And I definitely would put Metallica at the bottom of my list. Yeah, that's not even Yeah. So for you, Stranger Things, Elvira you'd put that. I'd put Elvira, Stranger Things, Metallica. Okay. Okay. That would be my rating. Sorry. I mean, we still liked it. It was still fun to have in the house. The Demogorgon was really cool. The Demogorgon was really cool. It's what sparked our interest in pinball. Yeah. We have to give it credit for that. I don't know that it's going to end up in our home market. It's not going to. Sorry. Sorry, Brian Eddy. This is why we rent machines. Exactly. It's fun to play in the arcade once or twice. But if you're playing it consistently, not my favorite. And I started playing it in League a little bit. and I'm way better at it now because I understand it. See? Bless rentals. Bless it. Well, anyway, that's our review of Stranger Things. Yes. For more reviews, tutorials, all of the above, make sure you're subscribed and stay tuned for more. We have a lot planned for 2026. It's exciting. Until then. Keep flipping. I'd like that on the premium. they really got with Eleven using telekinesis. I like that on the premium. I had a crazy eye skill. I know you did. I'm so sorry. Don't worry about it. Okay, I'm gonna try again. Yeah.