Stern Pinball once again brought its Pinball Arcade to San Diego Comic-Con. Imagine a room full of pinball machines, each of which is set for free play. And since it’s located at Marriott hotel next door to the San Diego Convention Center, you don’t even need a badge to get in. This year Stern had two new machines which are sure to pique the interest of children of the 80s and 90s, Transformers and Pokémon, and I got to spend a little time playing them both.
Pokémon features a colorful backbox and table. The backbox features a collection of popular Pokémon at the top and a crisp video display below. The playfield contains several 3D models – Pikachu, who turns to watch the action on the table, Meowth, who drops to the table surface when it’s time to do battle, and a Poke Ball which sits above the gate used to catch Pokémon. The goal is to discover new Pokémon, and then hit the Poke Ball to capture them. But it’s not all just catching here – Giovanni and Team Rocket are here to cause trouble and when it comes time to do battle you’ll need to hit Meowth enough within the time limit to claim victory in the duel. This was a fun pinball machine to play, with a target-rich playfield and plenty of ramps and side lanes. And with a Stern account you can scan your membership card from your phone and keep the Pokémon that you’ve captured and have them available the next time that you play.
While the Transformers table appears more open than Pokémon at first glance, fans of the franchise will love the 3D sculpted Optimus Prime that stands over the playfield, Soundwave’s cassette deck that is used as the ball lock, and the animatronic Megatron who rises from the back of the playfield with cannon at the ready to fire the ball back onto the table. Adding even more to the fan service, the game’s missions are based on episodes of the classic TV series, with clips from the show playing on the back display to introduce each mission. The game has an interesting skillshot mechanic in which you need to launch the ball with just enough speed to have it drop outside of the launch lane early and fall along the line to the single flipper on the upper playfield. To complete the shot, you’ll need to use that flipper to direct the ball to a target on the opposite side of the playfield. The game features a slightly wider paddle spread but adds a pin behind and in between the paddles in the center drop lane. This configuration means you’ll have to adjust your paddle play on Transformers, something that quickly becomes obvious when you’ve just been playing the Pokémon machine before it. Play tended to be pretty fast on this machine, especially once you’ve unlocked the five ball multiball.
While fans of these franchises will certainly be happy with these machines, I can attest that someone with just a passing understanding of their universes and lore can still really enjoy the play delivered by Pokémon and Transformers.