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Is Evil Dead the BEST GAME of 2025?!

RetroRalph·video·13m 38s·analyzed·May 16, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.023

TL;DR

RetroRalph declares Evil Dead the standout 2025 pinball despite initial hesitation, praising theme integration and mode design.

Summary

RetroRalph reviews Spooky Pinball's Evil Dead machine, initially skeptical due to horror theme but convinced by industry buzz. After acquiring a unit through Pinball Star's Rosstown Pinfest allocation, he praises the game's creative design, theme integration, Bruce Campbell callouts, and innovative modes like Boomstick Multiball and Insanity Mode. He describes it as a 'lightning in a bottle' moment for Spooky Pinball and rates it among the best games of 2025, recommending it to anyone able to find one on the secondary market.

Key Claims

  • Evil Dead sold out through all distributors; no way to get it new right now

    high confidence · They're all sold out. Like, they've sold them all the way through to all the distributors. There's no way to get this game if you want it right now.

  • Spooky made 888 units of Evil Dead

    high confidence · I think it's 888 is what they decided to make.

  • Evil Dead has four modes on Evil Dead One version and four modes on Evil Dead Two version

    high confidence · there's four modes on Evil Dead One. And then there's four modes right now on Evil Dead Two.

  • Bruce Campbell provided voice work/callouts for Evil Dead

    high confidence · the call outs from Bruce Campbell, the main actor in the Evil Dead One and Two movies. They're great.

  • Pinball Star is bringing Evil Dead units for Rosstown Pinfest sale

    high confidence · Pinball Star is bringing some of these. They're having them made for Rosstown Pinfest. He's selling them, but he's not sold out yet.

Notable Quotes

  • “This game is really, really good. Holy [__] man.”

    RetroRalph @ ~1:45 — First genuine reaction after playing Evil Dead, capturing his surprised enthusiasm after initial skepticism

  • “There's just something about this game that feels so creative. You can feel all the passion that went into this. You can tell that Bug and the team over at Spooky really love Evil Dead because the theme integration on this on this game is second to none.”

    RetroRalph @ ~18:30 — Core thesis of the review: Evil Dead represents exceptional creative execution and passion from Spooky Pinball

  • “This is like the lightning in a bottle moment for Spooky Pinball cuz I've played other Spooky Pinball machines and they were somewhat forgettable.”

    RetroRalph @ ~19:30 — Explicit statement positioning Evil Dead as a creative breakthrough for Spooky compared to their prior work

  • “I really appreciate the fact that they put really thoughtful call outs in here and they added comedy to it. It's just really good.”

    RetroRalph @ ~19:00 — Highlights callout quality as differentiating factor in modern pinball, where audio guidance is often overlooked

  • “I'm someone that doesn't even like horror, and they have sucked me into this world of Evil Dead.”

    RetroRalph @ ~22:45 — Demonstrates the game's ability to appeal beyond its target horror audience through superior design

  • “It's that good. And I'm someone that doesn't even like horror, and they have sucked me into this world of Evil Dead.”

    RetroRalph @ ~22:45 — Summary of reviewer's transformed perspective on both the game and theme

Entities

Evil DeadgameRetroRalphpersonSpooky PinballcompanyBugpersonBruce CampbellpersonScott ParisipersonPinball StarcompanyRosstown Pinfestevent

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Pre-release industry buzz was overwhelmingly positive; game garnered 'FOMO' status based on peer endorsements before RetroRalph had hands-on experience

    high · I kept hearing rumblings everywhere. This game is really good. Oh my gosh, this game is so awesome... everyone's saying how awesome it is

  • ?

    design_innovation: Bruce Campbell callouts praised as rare example of thoughtful, comedy-integrated voice guidance in modern pinball; positioned as differentiator vs. games lacking quality audio design

    high · I really appreciate the fact that they put really thoughtful call outs in here and they added comedy to it... A lot of the call outs aren't great anymore

  • $

    market_signal: Evil Dead completely sold out through all distributors; no new units available for purchase at MSRP

    high · they're all sold out. Like, they've sold them all the way through to all the distributors. There's no way to get this game if you want it right now

  • ?

    product_concern: Evil Dead positioned as Spooky Pinball's creative and quality breakthrough compared to prior work; described as 'lightning in a bottle' moment with exceptional theme integration

    high · This is like the lightning in a bottle moment for Spooky Pinball cuz I've played other Spooky Pinball machines and they were somewhat forgettable... they created this is like the lightning in a bottle moment

  • $

    market_signal: Evil Dead code still under development post-release; secondary market will likely be primary acquisition channel for new buyers

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:19
[Music] Heat. Heat. So, I got an evil debt. I I can't even believe it myself. This was one of those titles that I was gonna sleep on. I was like, "Yeah, you know, I'm not into horror, whatever, right?" And Spooky makes horror games and they also make, you know, like kind of some family-friendly titles from time to time like Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes, right? So, they have familyfriendly and horror. I just really wasn't interested in this because it just wasn't a theme me in any way. But here's the thing. As this game started to get out into the wild and go to shows, I kept hearing rumblings everywhere. This game is really good. Oh my gosh, this game is so awesome. This is the game to play. Blah blah blah. I'm like, okay, what's going on here? Like, I need to figure this out because if this game is really that good, it belongs here. It belongs here in the garage arcade. Like, it has to be here. So, now I start fishing and I'm like, "Oh, this sold out. Sold out. Sold out." And and granted, they're all sold out. Like, they've sold them all the way through to all the distributors. There's no way to get this game if you want it right now. So, I hit up my buddy Scott Paresi because he always seems to have a little bit of like he he has some buddies out there that can pull some strings. and and he wasn't even pull some strings. He's like, "Look, Pinball Star is bringing some of these. They're having them made for Ground Town Pinfest. He's selling them, but he's not sold out yet. Maybe you can secure one of those." So, I'm like, "Hell yeah." So, I'm going to do it cuz everyone's saying how awesome it is, and I hadn't played it yet. And I'm like, "Why am I getting FOMO? I didn't even know what I didn't even know yet, right? I had no clue. Holy [ __ ] man. This game is really, really good." We're going to go over to this game. We're going to play a little bit. But I'm going to show you a little a couple of the cool features and I'll give you some of my final thoughts. Okay guys, we are in the garage arcade. We're right in front of Evil Dead. We're going to give it a couple of plays. We're going to actually try to get boomstick multiball right off the bat. That's what we're going to do. We're going to hit these shotgun shells and then we're going to hit both of them at the same time and then the basement should open and we should be good to go. So that's what we're going to try to do first. Then I'll show you starting some basic modes. And then if we can do it, we're going to do that insanity mode because that's just too cool. And you're going to see I'm going to hit the captive ball a bunch of times and there's going to be an insanity meter on the left side of the LCD display which you can see. So hopefully this all works out. What could possibly go wrong? You know, I mean I always play perfectly on stream. So it should be Look at that grand champion score. Look at that guys. Observe that. It's so good. took me like a hundred plays to do it. Now, when you start the game, you can choose from Evil Dead one or two, which I think is really cool. And there's different gameplay elements depending on which one you buy or which one you pick. So, it's kind of like two games in one in a way. So, you're going to see movie clips from Evil Dead 2 if you choose that, but we're going to go with Evil Dead one. You ever dance with a dead the skill shot is reminiscent of like T2. This this is just going to be like this scrolling shot. And uh the way the balls come out of here, it kind of loops over. So, you kind of have to accommodate that. I probably won't get the skill shot, but let's try. Damn. Oh [ __ ] I got it. All right. Right off the bat, we got the skill shot. I'm feeling good about this. Okay, so we're going to try to try to load those shotgun shells. Teach you how to shoot. So, let's do that first. I got one. Got the other one. All right. Oh [ __ ] Let's get some ball control going here. It's not good. All right, we opened up the basement.

medium · The code is still developing, so I don't think you're going to see many of them out there. But if you do, if you see one up for sale, I would say you cannot go wrong

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Evil Dead One and Two dual-game structure with theme-appropriate gameplay variants demonstrates sophisticated licensed IP execution

    medium · you can choose from Evil Dead One or Two, which I think is really cool. And there's different gameplay elements depending on which one you buy or which one you pick

    • 4:43
    Here we go. Boom. All right. This is actually a really fun mini playfield. You're going to try to get some shotgun shells here, which I haven't gotten cuz it's that that uh target on the left. Let's see. I got one more chance. If not, I can get some. All right, here we go. Ready? Aim. Aim. You got to listen before you hit the button. [ __ ] them up. Oh, did you hear what he said? Now, now this is what's cool. We have to follow. Oh, shoot. I'm We have to We have to get the shells. I'm dropping I'm dropping balls like crazy. All right, let's go. All right, let's see if I can do it again. Here we go. Got it. Now I get back in the basement. Here we go. Or the cellar. I keep saying the basement. I'm from the East Coast, so we say basement. It's not basement. It's seller. Actually, maybe we do say I don't know what we say, dude. Ah, shoot. All right. Well, that wasn't as exciting as it usually is because I usually do that for a while. So, now we're starting a mode. To start a mode, you hit a couple ramps. We got to do ramp shots to start modes. So, we got one. Now, watch. You do one more. Okay. Now, it's it's blue. So, now if I hit it again, it'll start a mode. And I didn't go. There we go. All right. All right, it won't let us leave is another mode. So there's there's four modes on Evil Dead one. And then there's four modes right now on Evil Dead 2. So this you have to hit the green shots to make your way through the forest. I love I love this little spinner shot right there cuz I love the noise it makes. All right, so we got one there. Can you make up your mind? See if I can get it again. There we go. Uh where' the ball go? There it is. All right. These aren't exactly simple shots to make, but see if I can get it here. There we
    6:38
    go. All right. I don't know what other shots I have left. I think I have one more. Did I get them all? Say, can you make up your mind? No, I'm missing one. Which one am I missing? I think it's the cabin one, maybe. Oh, the ball. The one with the ball lock. That's a tough one. All right, I'm going to try to get that. I can never get it from I have 10 seconds. Ah, I messed up. All right. I only had one more to make, but it was it was close. It was close. Wasn't Wasn't perfect, but it was close. Okay. Our goal right here, right now, is to get the insanity mode and to beat it. We're going to beat it. It's crazy. So, what we have to do is we have to hit the captive ball that's right there. You can see it. That guy right there. We want to hit that a bunch of times. And then there's an insanity meter that you're going to see on the LCD screen. You're not seeing it right now. It's going to be on the lefth hand side. So, be on the lookout for that cuz I hit that captive ball, you're going to see that insanity meter advance. And then once it advances enough, it's going to qualify us for the insanity mode. Okay, we're close. We're like maybe a couple hits away. Okay, so let's see. Look at how close it is. Look, you can see it. Um, see it right now. Damn it. There we go. Shoot ramps to start a mode. Come on. All right, let's do this. I think it's like one more hit. Yeah, it's ready. Okay, the seller door just opened. We just got to get in the cellar door. We're not going to lose a ball. We're just going to get it right in. Boom. Okay, here it
    8:10
    is. All right, you're going to start to see everything on the playfield laugh at me. I don't like it. And you're going to see uh you're going to see little indicators on the LCD as to what we've hit so far and what we haven't hit. Let's try to get Linda. She's that scoot. Nope. Missed it. I missed it. We got the trapoor. That's good. Okay, but we got to get we got to get the dead eye. I don't know if we got it. Did we get her? I think we did. Okay, let's see if we can get Okay, we got another dead eye. All right, cool. So, what do we have left? No, we didn't get that other dead eye. We need to get the right ramp. [ __ ]
    8:48
    Okay, I think we got the other one. We got the right dead eye. This is so fun. It's so crazy. I get so sweaty during this because it's stressful, man. Let's get the right ramp. Nope, didn't get it. Oo, playing very erratically. All right, we got
    9:06
    Linda now. Let's get the right ramp. I can usually backhand this. Let's see. Okay, what's the joke here? Oh, I missed it. Come on. Let's try to get it ready. One, two. Damn it. I get the No [ __ ] All right, I think we got to Do we Ah, we didn't do it, man. We were close. We were close. So, basically, you go through and you got to hit all the mechs and then as you're hitting the mechs, you're silencing them. It's so fun. It's like one of the most fun modes in this entire game. It is so cool. I I It's insane. So, you had to hit the hand, too. And so I probably had like two or three more left. But still, you get a point. You get the point. That's probably one of the most fun modes I think in the entire game. And it it wasn't obvious to me at first. I mean, it does say sanity laughing, but I didn't know what you did with it. And then finally, I started bashing it and realizing, hey, that insanity meter's going up. But very, very cool mode. Hopefully you guys enjoyed that. I know it's one of my personal favorite parts of the [Music] game. There's just something about this game that feels so creative. You can feel all the passion that went into this. You can tell that Bug and the team over at Spooky really love Evil Dead because the theme integration on this on this game is second to none. It is so good. And then the call outs from Bruce Campbell, the main actor in the Evil Dead 1 and two movies. They're great. I don't know who wrote these call outs for him, but they're great. He heckles you a little bit during the game, and it's just he's telling you what to do. And that's one thing that's sort of like missing from modern pinball a little bit. A lot of the call outs aren't great anymore. And call outs guide you through the game. And I feel like if you're guiding someone through the game on the LCD, which a lot of games do, including this one, but you don't have call outs, it's like now you're you're relying on looking at the LCD. And I think that's tough because even though these are things that exist in modern pinball, you don't have a lot of time to look at them. So, I really appreciate the fact that they put really thoughtful call outs in here and they added comedy to it. It's just really good. And some of the shots are amazing. You've got the double barrel shotgun where you hit the shotgun shells and then you can hit them both at the same time. The basement door opens, you go into the basement, you acquire more shotgun shells, and that gets you at the boomstick multiball, which is super fun cuz you're basically loading the shotgun shells and hitting the action button to shoot. Like, it's a really exciting game. The insanity mode is absolutely insane. Like they just did such a good job. The ramp shots are fun. The scoop, everything about it is fun. I just can't I don't know what they did here, but they they they they created this is like the lightning in a bottle moment for spooky pinball cuz I've played other spooky pinball machines and they were somewhat forgettable. Like I didn't really, you know, I didn't I I wasn't like, "Oh my gosh, I have to own this." But this is something different. They did it, man. like they did it. This is so exciting. I almost wish that they were going to make more of them, but yet there's part of me that's like, well, it's really cool to have this limited edition, you know, this collector's edition where they only made so many. I think it's 888 is what they decided to make. So, I don't know, guys. I am over the moon excited about this. It's just good. It's good pinball fun. I I I have nothing but amazing things to say. Everything from the artwork to the music to the the whole package is there. Unfortunately, I don't think you're going to be able to buy this game unless someone's selling it used. And right now, it's brand new and everyone's really loving it. The code is still developing, so I don't think you're going to see many of them out there. But if you do, if you see one up for sale, I would say you cannot go wrong and you should buy this game. Plain and simple. It's that good. And I'm someone that doesn't even like horror, and they have sucked me into this world of Evil Dead. Well, that about wraps up this look at Spooky Pinballs: Evil Dead. If you're one of the lucky ones that got one, you're going to absolutely love this game. And for those of you that are still in the hunt, I hope you find one because this game is well worth your time. If you're looking for more gameplay of Evil Dead, be on the lookout for a live stream on the channel soon. Thanks so much for watching. Let me know what you think of Spooky's Evil Dead in the comments below, and we will see you on the next one. [Music]