When it comes to Transformers pinball I have a feeling of “Well that was fast” with it. I know it’s about time for a game considering Stern has been doing about 3-4 games a year but it seems like TRON just barely made it’s way out. It wasn’t long ago we caught that nice teaser video featuring some brief snapshots of the Transformer’s playfield, along with the game’s designer, George Gomez tinkering around 
with a transforming toy of some kind. Now we have these pictures which I found through Pinballhead.com from Top Score Gamerooms(click on the image at the right to zoom). I hadn’t heard of this Top Score Gamerooms place before to be honest so I’m not sure how they got a hold of these first but it was probably a direct leak from Stern. The word on the street is that there will be four versions of this game out there, Pro (the standard version), Limited Edition and then separate Autobot and Decepticon Limited Collector’s Edition cabinets. They certainly are taking the concept of catering to collectors tastes to heart but how this game will work out in venues like arcades or bars, that remains to be seen. George Gomez has a great track record of games behind him so that leaves room for optimism. As you can see from these pics, the playfield is split in two for Decepticons(Evil) on the left and Autobots(Good) on the right(much like another up and coming pinball game actually); the ramps aren’t made out of wire but they seem nicely detailed for molded plastic ramps. As expected, no surprises from the display so far but who knows how things will change with the Limited/Collectors editions of the games. Stern seems to hint that someplace out there this weekend will have the game on location test according to a post on their Facebook page so perhaps we’ll know if there is more than meets the eye to this game or not sometime this weekend.
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Higgins
“…but how this game will work out in venues like arcades or bars, that remains to be seen. George Gomez has a great track record of games behind him so that leaves room for optimism.”
Looking over the feature lists (http://www.nypinball.com/showinventory.php?id=3953_org.jpg), there is NO room for optimism. The pro version is missing enough game features that it is clear that operators are not the market for this. Don’t care about the flashier toys, cooler ramps, etc., but the pro is missing one heck of a lot of actual gameplay features*.
I wish Stern all the best catering to a shrinking group of affluent collectors, but this is not the way to grow the pinball hobby.
Jack, if you’re out there? A company making games around $5500 (more or less) that have the same gameplay features* as their flashier LE brothers would bury Stern right now. I have one location ready for such a version of WoZ (I also op in a biker bar. I wouldn’t risk putting WoZ there)
*I think Tron hit a sweet spot in terms of gameplay differences, for what it’s worth.