Pinball has a history that stretches back to France in the 1600s. Over the centuries, the game has certainly evolved, but at the end of the day, the mechanics and gameplay remain largely the same. You hit metal balls around the playfield, bouncing them off of scoring pins and launching them through chutes, in an attempt to reign supreme with the high score. However, leading pinball machine maker Stern is looking to take the game to a new level with its latest title, Marvel’s Venom.
The pinball machine, based on the Marvel comics foe, was announced at San Diego Comic-Con, and it plays quite a bit differently than what the average pinball fan expects. With Venom, which includes all the normal pinball bells and whistles, there’s more of a goal than landing on the high-score list or winning a free game. Instead, it’s a pinball machine with game progression, bosses to beat, a save mechanic, and even unlockable player characters to add more replayability.
The heavy lifting for these features is done by the Stern Pinball app. In it, users can sign up for an Insider Connected account, which can then be synced to modern Stern machines via a QR code scanner in the machine. This allows access to things like game progress saving and unlockable characters. It also tracks your high scores and will help you locate Stern machines nearby in commercial areas, if you don’t have any at home.