Barrels Of Fun Brings Bon Jovi To Pinball

It’s a busy week in arcade and pinball news after a long dry spell for much of July, as we have another new game to discuss thanks to Barrels of Fun (one of the few pinball makers to not include ‘pinball’ in their name). They have just unveiled their latest game, Bon Jovi, based upon the rock musician (and his band) of the same name. This makes BoF’s first music-themed pin, so let’s go livin’ on a prayer with it…

Bon Jovi Takes The Stage

As Barrels of Fun has been keen to do, they design a very detailed game that looks and feels like the “Premium” experience that their competitors create. Granted, everyone goes with different terminology for their models, and BoF only has announced a single model instead of two or three. As BoF tends to do, this is limited to a production run of 700 units, which is higher than their last release of Winchester Mystery House, which was limited to 525. Perhaps as these models have sold out, they’ve been able to gauge their ceiling better.

Bon Jovi by Barrels of Fun

Bon Jovi has an official page here, while they also posted three videos to YouTube with a deeper look. The “reveal” spends most of its time focused on the artist’s history than the game, so we’ll jump to the features video here:

Per the description, here’s a list of those features to look over in case you don’t have time for the video:

Build your own setlist from 17 iconic Bon Jovi songs and create a different concert experience every time you play. Start the show, energize the crowd, complete the setlist, and battle through three massive Encores on the road to the ultimate performance: Legendary.

For the list:

17 iconic Bon Jovi songs
Three Encore mini-wizard modes
The ultimate Legendary wizard mode
A moving Heart target
Backstage Access three-ball lock
Steel Horse three-ball lock
Two interactive magnets
Crowd Surf outlane flipper
Four flippers
Interactive apron sliders
A custom Jon Bon Jovi guitar
Concert lighting and an upgraded audio system

The interactive sliders on the apron is a very nice touch(unusual too), as is the moving heart target. Here’s a deeper dive into the gameplay that further showcases those features above:

Overall it looks like a fun game, but as with other very limited releases, it’s not going to be easy to come across these in the wild (interesting that they mention finding one out there though in the reveal trailer). Per pinballmap.com, there are only six DUNE’s & six Winchesters out there; maybe there are a few more, but a vast majority are in private collections. This is why I don’t jump on news for these “boutique” pins right out of the gate. Yes there are some collector operators out there, but if all you have are a dozen or less, that’s a micro-niche of a niche market.

I really don’t say that to disparage what BoF or any other boutique pinmaker does though – by the looks of this, it would make a great pin on location and if you can get one, there are so few out there that it’s one way to stand out from your competitors. I’ve often found it frustrating to try and compete that way, given that everyone around me gets all the new Sterns.

Anyways, I’m getting off track. What do you think about this game from what they have shown? Is it a buy or a pass for you?