Stern Pinball's Game of Thrones (V1.21)

Here's our first look at Stern Pinball's newest title, Game of Thrones! Legendary designer Steve Ritchie returns with another fast action game that he's been known for. This one in the video here at Modern Pinball NYC is the pro model. The Premium and LE have a couple of other added features like a mini playfield on the top left of the machine as well as a miniature Iron Throne toy you can lock the ball in for a multiball mode. Stern originally didn't have the toy Iron Throne included in the pro model, but after some fan comments over on their Facebook page they smartly decided to include the toy over the top left ramp.

Just like the books and the HBO series your quest of the game is to rule the kingdom as one of the houses in the series. At the beginning of the game you can select one of the houses that each have a unique trait that adds to the gameplay. Some will add balls during multiball, others increase bonuses and one will even add the other traits to yours. There's a "Winter is Coming" hurry up mode and my personal favorite mode, "Arya Becomes an Assassin" where each shot you hear her name off somebody she plans to kill, it's a really neat touch. The actress who plays Arya and also The Hound are the hosts of the game with some great voice samples taken from the show as well. "I demand a trial by combat!!"

Sadly it's not all sunshine and rainbows with Game of Thrones. There's one thing that is VERY distracting and that's with the LED lighting. Now while some people have had problems from the beginning with LED's in pinball machines, I haven't. Some folks will complain their too bright and don't look like the original bulbs I like how they look. Also for the operators they last longer, use less power and also don't heat up like an EZ Bake Oven and keep the plastics and blackglass in better shape. The problem with Game of Thrones is that the playfield is a very bright yellow color. So when you get into the multiball mode and you score a jackpot you've got every light going crazy and the yellow of the playfield makes it look extra bright. With games like Star Trek, The Walking Dead, WWE and Kiss the playfield's where darker colors and I think it made the lighting less harsh. I want to see how it is on the Premium and Limited Edition versions since they use a dark blue color.

Other then that the game is shaping up to be a fun one. This 1.21 fixed some bugs with the 1.2 software update but of course, some folks found some scoring glitches like being able to max the spinner into the millions a spin. Like all of Stern's game's we'll keep you updated with any new code updates. Sadly Modern Pinball swapped out their Avengers Limited Edition so I won't be able to get any video of the game's new update they put out this month, but if I ever do see it again I'll be sure to get some impressions on it.