X-Men Pro Review - Mini Review N Photos

[Caveoftreasures]

UPDATE !
I emailed Patrick Powers from STERN Pinball a copy of the review on the X Men Pro last night to pass onto game designer John Borg.
This morning, I was surprised to get a reply from John Borg himself which I thought was really nice of John to send me a nice email.
Here is Johns email below >

Hello Brett,
  
Thank you very much for the kind words and review of the X-men pinball. I worked very hard on it and had a little more time on this project.
I like the fast and furious play but I always keep the novice player in mind. I want the people that have no clue what they are doing to have as much fun as the advanced player. A couple shots that will expose something, start a multiball or something unexpected and cool happens.  That is the way to hook a player. On my next project I plan to top this one. Keep an eye out for our new model late winter to early spring.
 
Best regards,
 
John

I am a John Borg fan. He has a passion for pinball and works hard at making us happy. Excellent.

[swinks]

  awesome Brett and great of John to take time out to write.

[GORGAR 1]

Great stuff Brett your review was balanced and two sided great to see, it makes me wanna play one now hopefully one turns up in Victoria soon.

Peter

[Cow Corner]

It would have been great if Borg let the cat out of the bag as to what title he is doing next.

[Cow Corner]

I had to go and play it, I couldn't shell out that sort of $$ without test driving it first. I spent about an hour on it today.
The volume was nice and high so I could hear everything and it sounds great.
I love the artwork on the pf, translite and cab...gameplay..well...WOW...what a pin, from the first game I knew straight away that I had made the right decision.
Had some games on Tron too to give some balance and perspective, didn't bother with TF...I kept wanting to go back to X-men while playing tron and while I still enjoy tron they are chalk and cheese for mine. This game rocks and will sit very very nicely next to IM.
Everything in caveys review is spot on the money, this is a top class game. Stacking modes into multiballs is a blast and this game while tight in some shots has some serious flow and is so much fun.
Rob I knocked your top four spot on the high scores off as well...just got 25 million.
I can't wait to get mine....WOW!
 

[GORGAR 1]

I had to go and play it, I couldn't shell out that sort of $$ without test driving it first. I spent about an hour on it today.
The volume was nice and high so I could hear everything and it sounds great.
I love the artwork on the pf, translite and cab...gameplay..well...WOW...what a pin, from the first game I knew straight away that I had made the right decision.
Had some games on Tron too to give some balance and perspective, didn't bother with TF...I kept wanting to go back to X-men while playing tron and while I still enjoy tron they are chalk and cheese for mine. This game rocks and will sit very very nicely next to IM.
Everything in caveys review is spot on the money, this is a top class game. Stacking modes into multiballs is a blast and this game while tight in some shots has some serious flow and is so much fun.
Rob I knocked your top four spot on the high scores off as well...just got 25 million.
I can't wait to get mine....WOW!
 

Good stuff glad you enjoy it CC as Brett said we are in a good at the moment with stern as there's a game for everybody's taste keep it up stern.

Peter

[Caveoftreasures]

Imagine what Stern will have released by this time in one year. We all need bigger houses and bigger wallets.lol  (and maybe new wives by that time as well as we will all be in the doghouse.lol)  

I am off to timezone right now to play X Men Pro again and am taking my brother to show him how good the machine is. See ya guys later ! 

[Replay]

Rob I knocked your top four spot on the high scores off as well...just got 25 million.
I can't wait to get mine....WOW!
 

I will have to have another go lol, should have had a crack at the ACDC comp machine 

[Cow Corner]

Rob I knocked your top four spot on the high scores off as well...just got 25 million.
I can't wait to get mine....WOW!
 

I will have to have another go lol, should have had a crack at the ACDC comp machine  

I would have stayed on playing for hrs, I enjoy the game that much but had to go and grab the family from the beach.
Where was acdc? There were only 3 pins in the usual pin spot corner.
Otherwise I would have had a go for sure.

[Caveoftreasures]

AC/DC is at the front of the Timezone on the far right side against the wall in a special competition set up area (although the comp stuff they have set up doesnt stick out or look that great). They shld move AC/DC down to the pinny area to be honest. I have reccommended that again !

I told the manager that the top left flipper on TRON wasnt working 2 days ago and they have fixed that. I told him tonight that both the TRON game and the TRANSFORMERS games need both flippers fully rebuilt on both games because you cant get the ball up the top of each machine and the flippers are dead weak. They promised to get them looked at ASAP.

Anyway, i had some more games on all 3 machines tonight incl X Men PRO again and it is definately a great game, my brother loved it as well, and I really enjoyed TRON except the flippers being weak. My brother now wants a TRON and says to hunt for a cheap TRON or TRANSFORMERS or both this next 6 to 12 months. I want to downsize the collection, he wants to build it up to a huge amount.lol  Anyway, all good pins these 3. Seems sort of stupid going out to pay to play pinnies at a arcade when you have 40 machines at home.lol  I felt a bit stupid. My brother laughed and said we have never payed to play a game ever before. He said it felt strange.

Cant wait to see more Sterns out n about.  

[Cow Corner]

I wonder if there will be another X-men code update before xmas?

[Caveoftreasures]

I reckon there probably will be.  Not that i felt the X Men Pro needed it when i played it, it felt very good, but someone somewhere will suggest something technical that the guys at STERN will implement. The LE will probably be the first one to get the code update ofcourse, and the PRO will just get the same for its code if some little things are needed, excl the LE only code bits.

John Borg did say in that email that he had alot more time on X Men than he had on the previous 4 or more games.

Either way, the X Men game is great already. Any extra code will just be gravy I reckon making a great game even greater !

I am wondering, who will get the std black trim on the legs n re-do a custom paint job for legs n lockdown bar n side rails to the same red as the Magneto LE has, or the same blue as the Wolverine LE.  Or even a combo or red n blue like the transformers LE got, or a blue n yellow powdercoat combo etc to match the playfield of the X Men Pro. ?
Its not like u cant put std black legs or siderails back on and redo the lockdown bar back to std black later if u wanted to.
One part of me wants to do a custom job on the metal work, and one side of me wants to keep it stock. Hard call, cause either way it will be great looking.  

[RottyGuy]

I think the red and blue on the LE looks cheap. It's crying out for a deeper shade or a chrome finish.

[Caveoftreasures]

I am looking forward to seeing one of the X Men LE's in person. The X Men Pro looks much better in person than the photos on the internet.
Things look flat on the net, but alot more shiny when at the machine. I was surprised at just how good the cabinet art on the Pro looked. 

Also, having a few days off work, I have been looking at alot of the John Borg designs of the past 15 years and alot of the features he uses on his machines that really work.
I like the placement of his pop bumpers, use of scoops to catch and shoot balls from, use of fast ramp shots with quick ball returns, and the use of spinning disks etc and always a great 3rd flipper placement.

I worked out that I have alot more John Borg designed games than what I knew.
Games like ** Last Action Hero, Tales from the Crypt, Frankenstein, Lost World Jurrassic Park, Twister, and soon X Men Pro.
He also was involved in designing another dozen great games at least.
I can see all the best features of the above ** machines incorporated into X Men. I like his designs. They work very well. Anyone who has played some of the above machines will know just how much fun and how varied the gameplay can be on a Borg design.

Recent Stern offerings like Tron and Ironman were great. A game like Avatar with only 1 x ramp cant be blamed on the designer to my mind, cause budgets/lack of toys etc and time constraints are set by the company, and not the designer. Avatar etc was made during the lean cost cutting times at Stern. Things are looking alot better for Stern these days, and the cost cutting seems to have been knocked on the head. It shows with the end result for the X Men game anyway. Cant wait to see John Borgs next title.

[swinks]

I have played a LE Wolvie and it looks great - doesn't look cheap in my opinion for what it is worth, but am looking forward to playing and checking out a Pro.