This Big Trouble in Little China Homebrew Pinball Machine Looks Pretty Great
Despite the long-standing love affair between pinball manufacturers and licensed IPs, there has somehow never been a game based on Big Trouble in Little China—at least not a physical pinball machine (you can find a virtual table online), and at least not until now. Unfortunately it’s not one you’ll be able to bring home. Kyle Smet of Mudflaps Pinball is known for his elaborate, professionally-done homebrew machines (he did a Friday the 13th homebrew pin that pin fans rave about), and today he released a video detailing his latest machine: a Big Trouble pin that will debut at Pinball Expo in Schaumburg, Illinois, later this month. If you didn’t know it was a homebrew, you’d never be able to tell, as it looks like a full-fledged, officially licensed game by one of the big manufacturers.
The trailer reveals a machine packed with art assets both new and derived from the film. The backglass art by Michael Calandra shows Lo Pan (played by the eternal James Hong) in his final sorcerer form in a nod to the film’s climactic battle, while Brian Allen’s original playfield art is a comic book-style collage of notable scenes and characters. As the trailer reveals, that playfield’s a fully-featured modern pin, with multiple ramps and targets, a couple of magnets, a bash toy, and more, and the game itself has almost 20 different modes, including several missions based on the movie and four multiball modes. The game has original music by Scott Danesi (who designed one of my favorite pins ever, Total Nuclear Annihilation), and there are brand new recorded lines by James Pax, who played Lightning in the movie. And expect to see movie clips on the backglass screen, of course.
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