After months of teasing, the wait is finally over, as Jersey Jack Pinball has launched their latest game to the market, Harry Potter. Based more upon the movies, players become a student at Hogwarts to replay the events of the famous original stories. Let’s see what this game is all about.
Harry Potter – The Trailer
Might as well start with the best way to present all of the details – a trailer. After this, we’ll dig into it further as presented by the company on their website. This is certainly has the highest production values of a pinball trailer that Jersey Jack has ever done:
To quote from the website on the designers of the game:
This game was created by Jersey Jack’s elite team, including Eric Meunier (game design), Joe Katz (rules), and David Thiel (audio). It features music by John Williams and clips from all eight Warner Bros. films.
Harry Potter Under Glass
Starting with the physical cabinet, this uses the same layout as other Jersey Jack Pinball machines, with a 27″ HD display fixed into the backbox and each edition coming with it’s own unique art package.
There are three models: Collectors Edition; Wizard Edition; Arcade Edition. Pricing is $15k / $12k / $10k, respectively. You can also see that the CE and WE versions have toppers, although the CE topper is more articulated with a wizard or witch flying on a broom around a tower, and such.
Basic features:
- 4 flippers
- 3 spinners
- 48 unique ball paths
- 400+ RGB LEDs
Special Features & Differences
Here’s a quick list of the unique items found within the game.
- Interactive Death Eater sculpture
- 3 Entrance 13 Exit Grand Staircase w/ Moving Portraits
- Quidditch upper playfield w/ flipper
- Wand 3-ball Lock w/ Potion Cauldron Passthrough
- A player camera
If you’ve got the cash and you’re a real Potter Fan, then you’ll want to go for the CE model, which has a Golden Snitch shooter rod, MinaLima Gold Foil Apron Decal, Galleon Gold Sparkle Armor, Spell-Form Laser-Cut Action Button Applique, MinaLima Illustrated Gold Foil Radcal art on the sides, MinaLima Metallic Foil Inner Art Blades, and the Hogwarts topper. The Wizard Edition has a Quidditch interactive topper, Cinematic Inner Art Blades, Auror’s Spectrum Color-Shifting Armor, and Radcal art.
Other than that, the playfields appear to use the same layout and design, which is consistent with what JJP has done in the past.
The Gameplay
As mentioned at the top of the post, players become a student of Hogwarts and play through the various events of the seven books/eight movies. It is more focused on the films, but I doubt that any fans will complain about that, since those did follow the books pretty well and had the direct involvement of the author. As you would expect, this involves collecting important items, battling Death Eaters, playing Quidditch (in pinball form), brewing potions, and collecting “horcruxes” as you ultimately work to defeat the evil Voldemort and restore peace to the world.
Of course, how does it play from a standing-at-the-machine perspective? No clue, since I have not had that privilege yet; no one outside of JJP and their direct circles will have yet, but that will change soon. It looks like a fun and rewarding experience, although one thing I would like to see more of is gameplay and software features/rules. The mechanics of it are certainly impressive from that trailer.
Harry Potter Pinball – First Impression Thoughts
I’ve long thought that Harry Potter would be a great IP for bringing attention to pinball, although it seems like it would have been a stronger release back in around the time of the films wrapping up. Fortunately, you don’t have to coincide releases to have a success.
Will this drive play at an arcade? Based on what I see above and online, I would like to think so. I’ve often lamented about how pinball struggles to earn up against other forms of out-of-home entertainment, but the right IP combined with an innovative design can drive earnings (I’ve heard as much from operators who have Godzilla and Cactus Canyon, although the latter was a surprise to hear consistently).
As an operator, I’m hesitant one anyone’s pinball machine at these price levels until I hear otherwise from ops who will grab just about any new pinball that releases. I do imagine that this one could do pretty well in my arcade; there are plenty of HP fans all over the world, but here in Utah where I’m at, it seems to have a slightly higher concentration of them (that is an anecdote, but seems to track well with what I have seen here)/ I’m tempted to sell off two of my existing pins (Star Trek Premium and The Mandalorian Pro) to cover that expense, although I’ve been trying to sell my Mando machine for months and haven’t even had a single bite on it.
I’ll be interested to hear what others think about this, but it’s nice that it’s finally been unveiled. Stay tuned for more pinball goodness here soon, as Pinball Brothers are about to unveil details on their Predator machine…
