Video of Stern Pinball's Pokémon on the Line; Pokémon Topper Coming Soon?; Bally World Cup Soccer Comes & Goes; Friday the 13th Pinball
By knapparcade
It's a pinball news bonanza. We sure ended the week with a flurry! First up, we have Pokémon. I was hoping that we would see this today. Stern Pinball shared images of the Pro version of its latest game on the production line this afternoon (video and images below). The first machines out of the factory at Stern were experiencing an issue with balls that are shot into the orbit draining right down the middle. According to a comment by Stern Pinball's George Gomez on a post on the subject in the Stern Army Facebook group the issue has been resolved:
Speaking of Pokémon. We have a rumor about the topper for the game. Word on the street is that Stern's official topper for Pokémon is pretty awesome. According to what I have heard, it is a fish Pokémon creature that looks a lot like the famous topper for Williams' 1992 game Fish Tales. For those of you who aren't familiar with that, imagine the Big Mouth Billy Bass thing from the late 1990s, early 2000s. I personally don't know the names of the Pokémon creatures well enough to know which one the topper might be, but after searching around the one called "Magikarp" looks like it fits the bill.
On the latest episode of the JBS Show Pinball Roundtable on YouTube, Cale Hernandez speculated that the Stern might reveal the Pokémon topper at next week's Texas Pinball Festival. How cool would that be?
This is what Magikarp looks like
Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Download the video instead.
Speaking of the JBS Pinball Roundtable (embedded below), Cale also stated a rumor that American Pinball's next two Bally / Williams Reimagined games after the rumored first one, Cirqus Voltaire, are the aforementioned Fish Tales and Bally's 1994 pinball machine World Cup Soccer. Zen Pinball coincidentally just announced that it has lost the rights to sell its digital version of World Cup Soccer (WCS) pinball. Change of rights for it perhaps? Anyone who wants to own the Zen digital pinball version of WCS, which is awesome BTW - digital pinball naysayers begone lol, must purchase it before April 30th. I currently own and play it on my Steam Deck. https://zenstudios.com/important-pinball-updates-faq/
Images of Zen's World Cup Soccer game
As many of you may have realized by now, today is the spooky day Friday the 13th. As someone with the first name Jason, I am usually made aware of this multiple by others times on days that it happens lol. Marco Pinball shared a throwback video from 2024 of the cool Friday the 13th homebrew pinball machine by the talented Kyle Smet this morning. The pin as well as Kyla's next homebrew game Big Trouble in Little China will be available for the public to play at next week's Texas Pinball Festival. "Happy Friday the 13th! Come play Friday the 13th and Kyle's latest game Big Trouble in Little China at Texas Pinball Festival next weekend! --- If you've ever found yourself nervously glancing over your shoulder on a dark, foggy night, then Friday the 13th Pinball is the homebrew machine that will make your horror-loving heart race. Crafted by the talented Kyle Smet, aka MudFlaps, this custom pinball machine slashed its way into the spotlight at Texas Pinball Festival 2024 for PINDEVCON, bringing the chilling essence of Camp Crystal Lake right to your fingertips" Friday the 13th Homebrew Video
