SDCC 2023: Stern Pinball’s ‘Venom’ Tries RPG Elements In A Fun Machine
by Erik Amaya
With all the hustle and bustle one now expects from Comic-Con International: San Diego, Stern Pinball offers a nice respite with a pop-up pinball lounge in the Marriott Marquis and Marina Hotel. Inside, convention-goers can find their latest machine: Venom.
We had the chance to try it. And, we have to say, it is quite fun. But as we learned while demoing the machine, it incorporates some new features that will thrill those who encounter Venom at Comic-Con, out in the wild, or in the home environment.
Stern understands that more and more pinball machines are being bought for home use or display and Venom incorporates the Insider app that allows players to literally save their progress to the cloud, providing the chance to continue their progress whenever they find a Venom machine. This is, in part, to keep the game lively for those who buy one for private use, but it also allows pinball enthusiasts to continually build the skills anywhere in the world.
In terms of Venom, this means both an XP progression system in the game and leaderboards on the Insider app.
The machine itself, though, is fun even in a single-use situation. Players can choose one of four characters to start: Eddie Brock, Flash Thompson, Gwen Stacy, or Peter Parker. The objective is to gain enough XP to fight Venom’s various foes and, eventually, progress to a point when combating key enemy symbiotes like Riot, Grendel, and Knull is possible. In our playthrough, we were able to progress Gwen up to level 4 — we were also able to do the same with Eddie after a few playthoughs — but with the major symbiotes awaiting a level 30 challenge, we expect it will take some skill to take on Knull.
Those who do accomplish the task will unlock one of three new characters: Venomi-zed Captain America, Venom-ized Hulk, or Venom-ized Wolverine.
Take a look at some photos of Venom we captured below:
Anyone interested in playing the game while at Comic-Con can visit Stern’s pinball pop-up lounge in the Marriott Pacific Ballroom through Sunday, July 23rd.
