“You know, the older I get, the less I like to sit still. I gotta keep moving. And make hay while the sun is shining when it’s not negative 12 degrees, snowing and raining. Get on the bike and find the King Kong pinball machine from Stern. It’s awesome.

This is another Classic Game Room on the go. Take a look at two different versions of the King Kong: Myth of Terror Island pinball machine today, the Pro version and the Limited Edition.

Do we think I’m going to get a high score? Probably not. It’s an ominous sign when there’s a bunch of vultures circling overhead, waiting for you to crash your bike, and then they’re gonna fly down and pick out your eyeballs and steal your quarters, and then they’re gonna play King Kong: Myth of Terror Island. Because it’s great. It’s approved by vultures. And people. It’s hard to get a sense here for how large that bird actually is. It’s like frickin’ Rodan.

Insert all of my favorite monster movie references here all at once.

So I tend to review the games that I enjoy the most, paying for these. So I am desperately trying to get some high scores, replays, and free balls here. I can’t get enough free balls in my life. I’m all about extra balls and a side of beer.

So I’m playing the Pro version here at Pins Mechanical in Pittsburgh, which is just a terrific joint. You gotta check it out. Loads of pinball machines, three bars, a fire pit, and I’m not sure if it’s always the case, but the arcade games are free. I mean, there’s pros and cons to that, which I’ll explain later, but it’s a great place for the family, and if you just want to go out and grab a beer and play some pinball.

King Kong: Myth of Terror Island pinball machine is pretty funny. It’s got a great sense of humor, good one-liners, the cutscenes are hilarious, and it’s basically King Kong versus dinosaurs versus giant spiders versus biplanes versus everything from the whole Kong lore. So you don’t necessarily have to love King Kong to enjoy this game.

Though if you like Jurassic Park and Godzilla and all that stuff, it’s like a whole bunch of parodies all sort of rolled into one. And the flow of the game is a little different than many of the usual Stern machines because you’re shooting off to the sides a lot in King Kong.

There’s drop targets on the left that are very important, and they’re kind of hidden up there in the top left, and the gong is off to the right, and then you want to shoot the loop-around thing on the far right quite a bit as well. And then that brings the ball back down where you can hit it with that top-right flipper and try to shoot it up to the ramps. There’s a lot of stuff going on. It’s fun.

If you just try to shoot the ball straight down the middle all the time, it’s going to bounce right off that thing in front of you and your game will be over quickly.

That’s when you get eaten by vultures or pterodactyls. Either one is bad.

Now here’s a look at Stern’s Limited Edition King Kong pinball machine. I’m playing this at Velluto’s. I was playing this the same day I reviewed the Pokémon pinball machine. So my games all sucked, but I like the artwork on the limited one better. It’s got art on the inside of the playfield and the LED speakers look really cool on it.

Also it’s got the animatronic spider, which reminds me of Chuck E. Cheese. I can’t believe they removed the animatronic spider from the Pro version. I mean, it’s obviously a cost savings measure since that’s the least expensive of these expensive machines, but the spider adds a lot. The Premium and the Limited Edition have the spider, I think.

I was unable to coordinate and get the Premium in this video, but the Limited Edition multiball is much better because the balls stack up in the train car on the top right there up by King Kong, and then they topple over and spill into the playfield. So that’s a really nice feature.

Also the gong is better on this version. It’s a good-looking game, a lot of fun.

Basically what you do in King Kong Pinball is the same thing you do in pretty much any of these games. Aim for the blinky thing, start missions, complete the missions, and just keep the ball alive, get multiball, rack up as many points as possible, and desperately try to get that extra ball and those replays.

And though this game is somewhat complicated because you’re shooting the balls off to the sides on those tricky shots, it’s a pretty good game for beginners because it’s fairly easy to just keep the ball alive. Unlike John Wick, which is merciless, and even the Pokémon game which shoots the ball right down the middle frequently, the King Kong machine is just playable. It’s a playable game. It’s like Godzilla.

There’s plenty of things to keep pinball professionals busy and it’s also approachable for beginners because it’s just a fun, funny, silly pinball machine.

So even though I don’t think my gameplay was all that great for this video, it rarely is when I’m filming. It’s like the machine knows when the camera is on. The Stern Insider app tells me that my high score, which I did get at Pins a couple months earlier, is 351,357,670. I was not eaten by vultures, but the day is young.

So if you’re looking for some good quick points in this game, you want to get pretty good at shooting the drop targets on the left, like above the spider, where the little flipper is up there. And I’m not exactly sure what the chain of events is, but basically just keep shooting those drop targets until you light the ball lock on the middle ramp. Hit that three times, and then you get your multiball.

This is yet another fun machine from Stern, one of my favorites right now. They’re pretty easy to find, at least in my area.

And the next review I’ll cover a game from a different company, so we’re gonna start mixing it up here with pinball machines. And then there’s some new arcade games on the way here in the 27th year of Classic Game Room, where I’m still waiting for that Classic Game Room pinball machine with the Zzarnamaxxonazoxx multiball, some premium features like it’ll pour a beer for you if you win and then back over you with an El Camino if you lose. Then you get eaten by vultures.

Just another great day of bike riding and some pinball, had a beer, even got to take pictures of birds. See you next time on Classic Game Room. Cheers.”