Gameplay

Accuracy

Combined ranking

Decade best

Manufacturer best

Stern Pinbal

This is everything I want pinball to be

Bally Williams

great table, feels good. high friction to compensate for high flip strength

Cactus Canyon (& Continued)

beautiful, amazing, if only the rules were finished, but you know what it's still great

A great VPX of one of my favorite tables. Multipliers and multiballs are very rewarding. Ramps are on the less frustrating side of accurate. Translucent gray ramps are better than the opaque stock ones

Awesome table. I played it with the wrong config somehow

Creature from the Black Lagoon

it's beautiful and it's an amazing game. flippers too strong

Stern Electronics

This is where Stern starts working their magic. Fun shots, lots of depth. VPX is physically realistic. Shatzing works!

Hit the drop targets in order for more points

Amazing table, would be a perfect 10 if VPW's playfield were more legible

Beautiful table about getting captured by mermaids

Zipper flippers, ball lock, multiball, "wiggle alley", good art

the ball goes into the backglass! also it's super fun!

I don't even like the band and I love this table. espie points out the grave marker multiball super jackpot doesn't work

one of my favorites. Would be a 10 if the lighting looked better

absolutely wild ramps and loops, beautiful table image

Ward Pemberton

Bally Midway

unique and awesome layout, great music

the crane! You can stack all the modes

what Laser Ball was meant to be. Very responsive rollovers combine with lane select to make shots that feel good that you can plan.

The prototypical Bally, with the main shots being a saucer and inline drops. VPX plays beautifully

Looks great, plays great. espie points out no nudging and creaky spinner

Looks amazing, feels amazing, shots that snake across the table

greatest use of FlexDMD I've ever seen

Simple rules but hard to play well. Popularized by "Five Dollar Volley" at District 82

"skill hole". reasonable light-all-the-numbers mechanic

I swear balls disappeared during 13-ball

Tales of the Arabian Nights

the prettiest VPX and it's for a great game. flips too strong, lamp too frictionful

Escape from the Lost World

escape from the playfield! flippers on the second level of the playfield can get the ball to the door in the back

looks great, plays great, best star wars table

Exploding pool vs. a space wizard. Interesting sequence of things to do, including the lock shot that is very difficult to do on purpose but will happen. Look up the rules, it'll help

not quite the authentic playfield but the ROM-switching option is great!

this rules. this is a retro-styled table with modern rules. everything stacks. all it needs is some sort of callouts because there's no time to look at the display

oh no it's almost enough to make me appreciate PuP

what an incredible original theme

missed it on Silver Ball Century! feels like Flash Gordon + Grand Lizard

fun design with a good sense of progress! Wild ramps that turn out to be shaped like "G" and "R". physics is wack and it plays easy

good table design, excellent VPX physics, Elton John

one flipper, amazing vibe, ball locks

Sequential kickers are back

dinosaurs! volcano multiball!

pretty cool! but nudges don't work and that's a big hit to gameplay

Star Trek: The Next Generation

excellent sound design, tons of easter eggs, hard

An extremely understandable table where you know what your goals are, but the layout won't make them easy

Loosely based on the first Fireball but no spinny wheel. Li'l Devil is the greatest though -- a center save that shouts "Pow!" and "Zap!" and stuff

tbh I had this ranked higher, but needed to make room for forgotten tables

fun ramps and locks

scoring tradeoffs and lit spinners! definitely ranked too high though

Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast

cool table, lots of things to hit, VPX is very well done. pity about the strategy just being UTAD and hope

If you're going to make me play modes, at least the shots are really fun

amazing machine, but flipper strength is unreasonable

combine multiball with lit spinners for big points. Repetitive but satisfying

Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends

lots of chaotic fun. There's a sort of end goal on the Wabac Machine

has one of the greatest callouts in pinball, but really makes you work for it

shooting baskets is fun

they really are! it's the first table with multiball and you can get SIX BALL MULTIBALL

a button makes an alligator eat the ball! appears on Happy Days

The best of Stern. Lots of bonus. A spinner that you supercharge by hitting 5 of 6 drop targets

very well done. brutal, hard to make progress

nostalgia mode! here's your ice cold burger

Exciting multiball with a stop-and-score jackpot. ridonkulous slings

Two stackable mechanisms that multiply drop targets by 10. Lots of depth!

I unironically love this giant pillow bumper between the flippers

lethal weapon 3 but the theme is more fun. extremely long intro sequence but it works in context

skull puppet yells at you and it's great. Upper loop where you go off a jump. Unreasonably nudgeable

fun callouts, fun ramps

I remember this having fun shots and progress

excellent table design, introduction of 3-inch flippers. physics is a bit too springy

This widebody sure puts a lot of things to do on the table

Unique flipper area and a timing-based tradeoff between drop target score and spinner score. I only give it a 9/10 because the VPX is fast, harsh, and has an inaccurate number on the table in one place

How does this exist? Pretty amazing, just be sure to turn off one horrible animation

Stacking of 6 kinds of progress is fun

storing up balls to be kicked out by a solenoid for extra score

sequential kickout holes, scoring can go wild. Tommy plays this table in the movie

Intuition-defying dual flippers and a roulette wheel

Like a modernized Humpty Dumpty

multiball and cool gates

the "doodle bug" mechanism

cool art, cool side lanes

Unconventional flipper position, center loop. VPX counts points too fast

very satisfying rollovers

light table features by making dice combinations

heckin magnets! too bad there's only one chime

good VPX physics, 10x drop target mechanism also used in El Dorado

Light and rip the spinner. VPX implementation is very hard

same as Satin Doll but a better VPX. Fun rollovers and unique layout. somehow the absurdly low friction doesn't feel like it, but it's still slippery

Maybe the most complex EM

high skill cap, there's a reason they kept remaking it

Hit card combos for bonus. I learned the strategy and want to play it again

An absolute classic, but very hard. The best selling table between 1932 and 1992

Atari's bold entry into pinball, a weird ultra-widebody