Hot on the heels of their incredibly cool Pokemon pinball machine, Stern Pinball Inc. already has a new machine queued up for play. Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye is their newest effort, and we got to play a ton of it at IGN Live and at Summer Games Fest. Good news: It’s really fun, and perfectly incorporates the retro ‘80’s version of Transformers, including the Generation 1 cartoon and toys.
The Transformers machine we played was hot off the factory line, and as of now there are very few of them out there, but we got to play both the Premium and the Pro models, which differ in price and features. The Premium has a few more plastic-molded toys and some interactive shots not in the Pro version, and you can see those in our video preview above. Notably though: all machines have original voice talent from the classic series doing newly recorded callouts, plenty of classic clips from the cartoon on the HD monitor, sculpted toys and cool 80s art throughout, and a fantastic, easy-to-understand ruleset and shots.
One thing I love about modern pinball machines is that there are usually two things you can start from coin-up: One is an obvious multiball (though there are others that are well-hidden). In Transformers, this is a shot up the center that loads up Soundwave’s cassette deck belly with pinballs in the Premium mode, only to dump them out when you lock three balls and start the multiball. Easy and rewarding. The other feature I like is an easy entrance into modes (these are basically minigames within the game where you have to fulfill requirements based on lit shots). In Transformers, this is hitting down three drop targets, also at the back of the machine, then hitting a large hole to start a mode; no tiny scoop, no ramps to qualify, none of that. Just bash the back of the game and you will likely get a mode started and a multiball. Cool.
The modes are pretty funny story episodes of the cartoon series as well, where the Transformers act out their made-for-kids drama. One really cool mode I activated had me hitting red or purple flashing shots, but you had to hit only one color and avoid the other, the resulting effect was the Autobots or Decepticons “won” and then that seemed to have persistent effects.
Then there are the more advanced shots and modes. In Transformers there’s an upper right flipper that a lot of shots take you to, including the center spinner shot, which is nice, but also a far left ramp that drops you there. While it’s easy to get to the right flip, there’s not much to do with it at the moment, but I like the amount of chances I got to use it, which is a bit unusual for an upper flip.
Keep in mind that I played pre-release code, and pinball today is updated over months and years with new code, so this is kinda like an early access game, in that you can definitely get a good sense of where it’s going. In a big bank of games, this and Pokemon were definitely my go-tos at IGN Live and I think this machine is another win for Stern, though it doesn’t have anything nearly as cool as Pokemon’s collect-em-all mechanic.
As Transformers rolls out to arcades we should have more opportunities to play it, but definitely watch the video we made above and look for it in the wild soon. You can preorder Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye now, and that usually means we are weeks away from seeing it in public.
Samuel Claiborn is IGN’s managing editor and fixes/breaks ancient arcade and pinball machines in his garage.
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