Keith Elwin has my number! He designs games that I absolutely love to play! His combination of innovative playfields with deep game code is pure perfection for my style of play. I am always trying to get to the end of the game (even in tournaments), and I love how he requires you to hit pretty much everything on the playfield. There are no dead spaces in an Elwin game.
For the past four years Godzilla has been my game! I only play on location, and I have logged 1175 games on Inside Connected. Not 1175 games total. 1175 games of Godzilla!
When Godzilla was released in 2021, I played it a few times and didn’t enjoy it that much. It was fast and mean and my games were short because everything went out the outlanes. The theme was fun because I grew up watching Ultraman and occasional Godzilla movies, but nothing super special for me. The closest Godzilla was a half hour drive so I just kind of ignored it.
Time warp to December 2022. Subpar Alameda re-opens on Park Street and TJ Beyer puts in a Star Wars Pro and Godzilla Pro. Now there is a Godzilla five minutes away. So I give it a chance. And another chance. And another chance.
700 games later and I know every angle and roll on the machine. My games have gone from three minutes to up to 45 minutes! The crossing ramps, the inner loop to main loop to lower loop, the magnet newton ball, the evil lower pop bumper, and important shots from all three flippers! Layer onto that a rule set that lets you choose your own style of playing. Selecting which modes to play in each city, when and which city to move to next, when to play tanks, bridge, and power lines, and especially when to go for destruction jackpots.
Then the Pacific Pinball Museum gets a Godzilla Premium! So five blocks from my house there is a Godzilla!!! 400 games later with a collapsing building and a rotating Mechagodzilla ramp, I have seen Godzilla walk off into the sunset (the end of the game) a bunch of times!
So for four years Godzilla has been the undisputed champion!
But now…
Enter King Kong!!!
I was lucky to be able to play Kong for the first time at Golden State Pinball Festival in 2025. It was the first show that had Kong. And it was a ton of fun. The gong, train car, and moving gorilla were neat toys.
It took a while to figure out that the drop targets were huge in the game, and that you could hit them from both flippers. I played both the pro and the premium and enjoyed both, but spent a good portion of the weekend waiting in line to play the premium. Having to hit the gong to qualify modes on the premium allows more control of when modes are started and fits my play style better. I also like the random action from gong hits and Kong smashing the train car to start the multiball.
The downside of playing the first Kongs in the wild was that the code was very limited. There was only one NYC event coded and no Island locks. It felt like there were gaping holes in the game, and for a player trying to get to the end of the game this was a big disappointment. I left the show with a firm preference for the premium and the hope that the game would be good when the code got finished.
It has now been close to a year and Kong is at .93 code. There is a premium 30 minutes away and a pro 5 minutes away. I have played 225 games of Kong and I love it!
And I think I like the playfield better than Godzilla!!!
All the shots in Kong have a different feel to them.
The center ramp is the right flipper bail out shot and the transfer to the left flipper. It also happens to be the main multiball lock shot, but it doesn’t qualify the lock so it doesn’t help to spam the ramp.
The center spinner is the left flipper bail out shot, but it is also the way to feed the upper left flipper. And that flipper is useful for the drop targets, the cliffs, Lost Temple treasures, and transferring to the upper right flipper. You might have to use the action button to activate the log or let it roll on through back to the left lower flipper.
The right punch back feels like an orbit but then punches the ball back with speed to the right upper flipper. It can also pause the action when you have a NYC event, Island lock, or on the pro the main multiball start. And it is huge for a number of modes and events.
The Biplane ramp is the hardest shot on the playfield and is super satisfying when you hit it. The sounds and animations are great!
The U-turn that crosses from the upper right flipper to the upper left of the playfield is super early on the flipper and always a relief when it goes through. The fact that it is basically invisible (at least to a player of my height and stance) makes it kind of magic when the ball appears on the left!
The gong on the pro is required but mostly forgettable. It can even be a bail out shot. But on the premium it is a blast. It can be a bash toy that creates chaos or a swinging success that makes you smile with relief. But to get anywhere in the game you have to take the risk!
The Pit is way low on the flippers and way dangerous. Strangely the magnet makes it more dangerous on a pro without the spider than on the premium!
The Cave is low on the left flipper and backhand-able with a rolling ball from the right. It’s super important for a number of modes and events, mysteries, treasure hunts, and Deadeyes. It also allows for a lot of control in multiballs.
And my favorite…
The drop targets!!!
You can hit them most reliably from the upper left flipper. They are backhand-able from the lower left flipper.
But the most fun is from the lower right flipper! This is because grazing them from the right flipper allows the ball to continue on past the drop targets, through the left upper spinner. The ball can then end up in four different places. If it just dribbles past the targets it will fall back into the upper left where you can use the mini flipper and/or the log to make more shots in that area. If it squeaks past the spinner and just crests the arc the ball with fall back through the center spinner towards the lower right flipper. With just a little more speed it will rarely fall into the area around Kong himself and might award the 2.42 million Bananas shot. The most satisfying is when you hit the shot clean and it whistles all the way around the back of the game, past Kong, to feed to the upper right flipper! And if you can then combo the Biplane ramp you get rewarded with a sweep combo!
Now all this playfield geometry is great but the thing that makes the playfield spectacular is the rules layered on top. Remember I am always trying to finish the game. So just climbing to the top of the building requires you to not only hit almost every shot on the playfield but also transfer the ball to the appropriate flipper to have a shot at an elusive climb arrow. The variety of modes, NYC events, and multiballs require hitting everything on the playfield. And all the shots feel great!
Now I am going to get geeky. You can then start to think about timing. Do you start a mode with an island lock when you have a NYC event lit? If you do, you can’t gain climb elevation during the Island multiball. How do you get the ball to the left flipper if you want to take the NYC event first? Or can you backhand the punch back?!? Do you prioritize starting a Treasure Hunt so you can double dip and score treasure shots while they are on other lit shots. How can you avoid starting a multiball during Biplane Attack (they automatically end Biplane) because you need to destroy five to complete the panel?
All of these decisions (and many more) mean that there isn’t just one way to play Kong. Much like there isn’t one way to play Godzilla. And I think that is one of the things that I look for in a pinball machine, the ability to play my game.
Both machines have a variety of satisfying shots and the rules require you to use the entire playfield. They have the desired combination of a great layout with great rules. Playing each puts a huge smile on my face.
But does Kong overtake Godzilla for the title of King of Monster Pinball?
For me…
Not yet!
Kong is still at .96 code, so the game isn’t finished. If you read Disgruntled Stern Beta Tester, you might already know of my annoyance with Stern at the slow rate of code updates and long times until 1.0 code. It is possible that when the code is complete Kong will dethrone Godzilla.
But right now there are two problems.
First is 8th Wonder still doesn’t seem to be included! If it isn’t fun to play, then it might keep Kong off the throne.
Second is the T-Rex panel. To get the T-Rex panel you have to defeat both T-Rexes. And this is somewhat difficult to do. Great multiball players, (cough) Keith Elwin, might not feel that it is a challenge, but I probably succeed only 30% of the time. And the idea of having to grind through collecting all the K-I-N-G-K-O-N-G letters again without the skill shot shortcut is deflating. It forces me to change my goal from finishing the game to just getting a high score. The other difficult panel is destroying five biplanes, but there you can just start focusing on nothing but side ramps to grind it out.
In contrast, I find Godzilla’s rules to be flawless.
There is a feeling of constant progress and excitement for me when playing Godzilla. You have to get through at least two cities to travel to Planet X (I always go for all four cities). While doing that you have to get the super jackpot in both the main and Mechagodzilla multiballs so you can progress to power 11 and start King of Monsters!
And all the while you can make huge decisions that can greatly affect your score. What order do you battle through the cities with their associated benefits? Do you try to maximize your Carnage bonuses in every city? Do you go for Imposters? When do you take Destruction Jackpots and how many Destruction Jackpot multipliers can you collect? What allies do you use and when? Do you risk the side loop (for points and the ally at 6 consecutive loops, I do!)?
Like I said, flawless!
So right now Godzilla is still my King of Monster Pinball!
But Kong Kong is knocking at the door!
