As alot of you guys on here know, I have over 35 great DMD machines in my collection, and have played almost every DMD machine out there in my travels.
I raise this point only to show that I can compare alot of machines, and feel I have a decent grounding in alot of different designs and styles that various pinball manufacturing companies have lovingly put together for one single purpose, enjoyment.
Also, when I play any pinball machine, I play a dozen good games on any machine before I even try to make a call on its gameplay and overall appeal etc.
I also look for positives in machines first n foremost because why bag the hell out of something, rather than look at it in a positive light. Every pinball machine needs to be rated against what it was meant to do, and how it does what it was meant to do.
Example - a music style pinball like AC/DC, you might compare to a Guns n Roses if u even bothered comparing, but the main question you would first ask, is what sort of machine has Stern made, and being an AC/DC theme, how does the gameplay, feel of the game, the audio, the art packages, dot matrix displays, how good a job have they done delivering the AC/DC theme.
** And the answer here, on the Pro AC/DC, they have done a magnificent job. The fun factor, the eye candy, the enjoyment from playing this game is right up there on anything I have ever played, and as good as any of the 35 plus DMD machines I have. Anyone, who plays this game and bags it, is in my opinion, not very experienced in a wide range of pinball machines.
In other industrys, people like food critics, are paid to bag everything, they arent paid to say positive things, they are only paid to bag things. The other side of the coin, is that some professionals, are paid to say mostly positive things, and they usually do, as well as add any neutral or negative thoughts in their write up to show balance.
The only thing, I could find on the AC/DC Pro, that was a bit funny, was taking your hands off one of the flippers to shoot the cannon, but that might be fixed/upgraded to allow for a flipper button shot ? when some software changes are made so u can use the flipper button or the cannon button on the apron.
Make no mistake, at $5950, this Pro is an absolute winner, and is probably the biggest thing to happen in pinball since Pinball 2000 back in 1999. I wouldnt put my name to it, unless it was that dam good. I am not rich, I am scraping up the money to buy this game, and if I have to sell a few games to buy one, after the 2 grand deposit i have paid, I will sell a machine if i have to, and I never ever sell machines, but for this AC/DC Pro, its a must have. And let me tell anyone, who is wondering, and thinking about what the nay-sayers are saying, anyone who doesnt like the AC/DC machine, needs to check their pulse, or go back and play the game with another few pinny players, just to see just how good the audio and overall package is. and as many have now said, the face on the playfield is not ugly or out of place when playing the game, it actually looks and feels very right. Sales numbers will prove what a great trilogy of games the AC/DC models will be.
At a pinball party, complete with a/some AC/DC machines, the naysayers would be very lonely over the other side of the room, looking very shipwrecked by themselves whilst the other 99.99 percent of realistic/positive people were playing n having a blast. If u dont like this game, u need a new hobby instead of pinball.
