Terminator 3 Rise of The Machines Pinball

Here's another pinball video that I shot while over at Reciprocal Skateboards in New York City. From 2003 it's Stern Pinball's Terminator 3 Rise of The Machines. This machine was designed by Steve Ritchie who also designed Terminator 2 while he was at Bally/Williams. Just like how The Getaway: High Speed 2 feels like the first game with more stuff, T3 feels a lot like T2 with more stuff. My friend Chris Bucchi did an excellent review of this game and I agree with a lot of what he said in his video. This game was a big departure from Stern in my book. First off they have the RPG backbox toy, which you will most likely never see again from Stern. It's a cool gimmick and works well in the game to score bonus points. The game also has a great metal look and feel to it. Stern's known for cutting costs and they use plastic ramps in place of the old wire and metal ramps. Thankfully they didn't cheapen out and went almost all metal with T3 and it has a great look to it.

I love how the left side with the T-X is set up in blue while Arnold's side on the right is decked out in red for a nice good vs evil vibe. The hardest part with this game is that it doesn't include a peg in the middle of the flippers like T2 and even Spider-Man. Which makes going for the multiball really tough, if you don't nudge the table slightly after lighting the lock it's going to go straight down the middle. I also like it that they got Arnold Schwarzenegger to reprise his roll as The Terminator rather then using a sound-alike that has killed the fun in most other Stern games. You can't play this game without saying, "Shoot here and here". Overall another great early 2000 game from Stern and well worth checking out if you see on in your travels.