First, if you think pinball is dead, it's not. Pinball has found a way to survive. Stern, one of the big manufacturers from back in the pinball heyday, is still around, cranking out a few NEW designs every year. A large chunk of these go to private owners now, but whatever works, right? And believe it or not, there are quite a number of pinball expos and tournaments going on around the country. (Check out Pinball Passion, Special When Lit, and TILT: The Battle to Save Pinball, three geekumentaries on the subject of pinball).
While there is a frustrating lack of pinball expos here in New England, there ARE two big arcades in New Hampshire, one of which is all ABOUT pinball. Even the Manchester, New Hampshire airport has a couple machines. So if you start looking for them, you'll see, pinball is very much still around. At the same time, there is a surge of these video game versions coming out (very cool to look at, but not the same experience of course). So it's definitely still something people have a soft spot for.
Two of the most recent new machines that Stern has produced have been AC/DC and X-Men, obviously two big licenses. What Stern has to look for when making new machines are big niche audiences, because they need that venn overlap of people who like pinball, and people who like certain themes.
Enter Adventure Time. While I like Regular Show just as much, Adventure Time is a smashing success with probably broader appeal (unless you like coffee). Their Facebook page has around 3 million fans. If you think the audience is too young to also be into pinball, I'm not so sure about that. Not if I'm at all representative of the viewership. Oh sure, my kids love it too, but as it turns out... they also love pinball. :) I have a feeling the audience who would appreciate this is plenty big, and Cartoon Network is plenty capable of doing it.
Secondly, the theme lends itself SO well to a pinball treatment! One of my Twitter friends' first comments on the idea was to imagine a big stretched-out Jake as a ramp. With all the ridiculous one-liners, the fantabulous settings and episodes, the characters, and the colorful art design... it begs to be pinball.
So I'm begging, too. It'd be MATH!
1 comment:
Man, I found this when I did a search for Adventure Time pinball, I'd love to see this happen.
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