You'll flip for the Foo Fighters pinball game
by Chaz Kangas
December 11, 2023
Musician-themed pinball machines brought KISS and Dolly Parton into arcades back in the ’70s. By the ’90s, fans of Guns N’ Roses and the Who could get in on the fun, too. In the new millennium, Stern Pinball has cornered the music pinball market with machines starring Elvis Presley (2004), Metallica (2013), the Beatles (2018) and Led Zepplin (2020). Is it any surprise that Stern released a Foo Fighters pinball machine earlier this year?
As Stern Pinball tells us, Foo Fighters were ideal to be added to the bands immortalized in the medium, seeing as the Foos have “such high energy music that’s a perfect complement to the chaotic nature of pinball. Nothing gets your blood pumping and adrenaline flowing more than selecting one of their songs, plunging the ball, and ripping shots in this world under glass.”
Available to play at more than a dozen locations throughout Minnesota right now, the game is much more than just slapping an IP on some flippers and letting it rip. It’s a testament to the Fighters’ entire catalog, with songs from their 1995 debut through today available as listening options before you even launch ball one. There are also references and in-jokes that may not be detected by casual fans and pinballers, but will be a clear wink to all Foo fanatics.
We’re told the time it takes from that first day of developing a pinball game under a license to shipping the final version is on-average about 18 months. In that time, the Foo Fighters’ close collaboration with Stern was reportedly memorable but bittersweet.
“From the jump, they were all in on making this pinball experience be as cool as it could be,” a Stern rep says. “To create a completely new universe under the story of a fictional cartoon series, Foo Fighters Saturday Morning Action Time!, in which the Foos fight aliens and go on a quest to save rock ’n’ roll from the mysterious Alien Overlord and his robot army is beyond entertaining. The entire band offered creative input on the two-years-in-the-making game and are featured all over the incredible hand-drawn artwork. There were originally plans to work even more closely with the band on specific aspects of the game, but when Taylor Hawkins died unexpectedly, they needed time to grieve and gave the blessing and alien marching orders to finish our mission of creating one of the most unique and fun pinball machines in history.”
Stern says the reaction to the game has been huge for both pinball fans and Foo fans alike. They’ve heard directly from the band’s hardcore fans, several of whom purchased an entire Foo Fighters premium machine for their homes as the first pinball game they’ve ever acquired. Stern also heard from pinball enthusiasts who weren’t too familiar with the band become intimately engrossed with their music and have purchased tickets to their current tour solely off the strength of hearing the songs in the game itself.
Foo Fighters will return to Minnesota for their show at Target Field on July 28 with the Pretenders and L7. But in the meantime, there’s plenty of time to learn to fly across the flippers until you can hear their alien-fighting classics in person.
For a chance to win tickets to see Foo Fighters at Target Field on July 28 — two pair of premium seats and cool swag — vote for your favorite songs of the year in the Top 89 of 2023 before the poll closes on Monday, Dec. 18.
