We Are Merely Players: Rush Enters the Barncade

It's no secret that as part of my makeover of my pinball lineup, I was angling for a Rush Premium in place of Fish Tales, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and The Munsters moving out. A couple of months ago that became a reality when a Rush Premium finally arrived at the Barncade!

Rush was the first machine added to the collection since Godzilla in 2022, and only the second since Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle in November 2019. This pushed the current collection total back up to 12. While the game had a lot of great mods already installed, including the awesome topper, it had mirror blades instead of the Expression Lights, so I've put in an order for the Expression Lighting Kit. I also wanted to install some of the game fixes from Pinside user NinjaCamp, so I placed a good-sized order for the following: 

• Rush TPU Scoop Protector - The Big Money Blue
• Rush 'Exit... Stage Left' Loop Light Replicator
• Rush Scoop Sleeves Set - The Big Money Blue
• Rush Premium/LE Time Machine Ramp Guards - Black
• Rush VUK Protector - The Duck Billed Vukypus - Clear
• Lane Rollover Switch Protectors - Clear
• Rush Inner Loop Assist & Soft Plunge Corrector Clear
• Rush Spinner Exit Adjuster - Clear
• Rush Spinner Shield

I'm gonna have some work to do installing all of that!

Some other mods it came with: Stern shaker motor, light up dice, Time Machine vacuum tubes, Starman lighted shooter rod, and Neil Peart autograph drumsticks. In addition to the NinjaCamp mods, steampunk gear flasher covers, and topper lighting enhancement. I have a few ideas for mods myself, so we'll see if I can make that happen in the future.

So why Rush? Well, Rush is a band I grew up listening to in the early 80s. By the time I discovered them, they already had a pretty good catalog of music built up, and they got a lot of airplay on the local rock-themed radio stations. It would be years later, with the advent of the compact disc, that I would own all of the back catalog, discovering for the first time songs that were never played on the radio. Signals is probably my favorite Rush album, and one of my all-time favorites among all bands. Counterparts was the last release I owned and listened to.

But beyond that sentimental history, when I played the game at the 2022 Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show there was something that hooked me right away. The shots felt buttery smooth and placed intuitively - a much better shooter than The Munsters, and closer to Metallica, in my opinion - and it was just a blast to play. I also loved the steampunk elements in the game, as you might expect based on the theme of my virtual pinball build. I think there's just something very special about this game. I get that people who aren't fans of the band will find the choice of Rush quite puzzling - maybe this was a favor to Ed Robertson of Bare Naked Ladies, who is a huge pinball fan and has been involved in other games produced and is also a big fan of his fellow countrymen in Rush (they are all from Canada).

It would certainly seem like Journey, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, or Motley Crue would be more solid choices from a popularity standpoint. But where Rush excels in a way that those bands don't, as far as a pinball theme, is the band's story-telling aspect, from classical literature to steampunk to futuristic totalitarian societies to science fiction. In other words, drummer Neil Peart's lyrics are eloquent and tell a story. This gives way to imaginative musical interludes, and all of that when combined takes you on an adventure. Not to mention, many of these songs are between 5 and 20 minutes long, meaning for some of the longer playing ones, you are unlikely to hear the entire song during a game unless you are a very good player, as opposed to 3-4 minute commercially-driven songs from other bands.

So far the game has not disappointed. I got Grand Champion on the machine on my 4th game, but the rules are so deep that I still have so much to learn and explore in the game. The shots feel just as great as I remember them to be. I would say that it gets an equal amount of gameplay to my Godzilla, which means other games in the collection don't get played much at all. I like being able to choose the song at the beginning of play, and I change my choice every game to keep things fresh. The ball save is forgiving, and side to side action isn't always certain death thanks to 2 in-lanes on the right side. There are multiple shots to hit from the right flipper. And there's so many things to shoot at! Check this out: 3 drop targets with a ball lock behind them; a shot through the bumpers to the outer orbit (a John Borg staple); 2 scoops; a side ramp; an inner orbit; a scoop/VUK; the Time Machine; the right ramp; 2 standup targets in front of the right ramp; a semi-horseshoe shot under the right ramp that has a spinner; the right entrance to the outer orbit; a sneak-in shot behind the right flipper; and 4 standup targets on the right side. If you count each target as an individual shot, that's 21 different things to aim for and shoot. Wow! And I didn't even mention the ramp diverter...

There are a couple negatives I should point out.

• The first is how one song will abruptly give way to another when entering the Time Machine, which can then give way to another if you hit the Time Machine again and start multiball. I get what the rules designers are going for, but it can still be annoying at times.
• Some of the modes feel impossible to complete, like La Villa Strangiato.
• The song choices for the most part are very good, with most of the band's biggest hits in the game, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the song "Headlong Flight", which I had never heard before. However, there are some glaring omissions from the song choices, including "YYZ" (great tempo for pinball), "Mystic Rhythms" (suits the theme well and is one of my favorite Rush songs), "Cut to the Chase" from Counterparts (very fast-paced with a blistering guitar solo), and "The Analog Kid" and "Digital Man" (great tempo and theme). Furthermore, I'm disappointed that there are references to "The Weapon" in the game, but the song does not make an appearance (note that those last 3 songs are off of Signals, and I mentioned above it's my favorite Rush release, so I may be biased there).
• Another complaint is the sheer amount of things that need to be purchased from aftermarket sellers to get the game playing the way it should and/or to protect the playfield components.
• Finally, there's the artwork featuring caricatures of the band sitting right smack in the middle of the playfield, staring you in the face, and it looks awful. A giant 2112 pentagram with Starman facing it would have been epic.

Currently Rush is sitting at #17 in Pinside's Top 100, just below JJP's Pirates of the Caribbean and just above Avengers Infinity Quest. That's some pretty good company. I think that's a good spot for it, but I expect it to slip. I don't think this is a title people will seek out for theme - as I mentioned above, there are a lot more popular bands than Rush - but I do think people will enjoy playing it because of the way it shoots, and the deep rules will attract some people. I would have liked the Limited Edition with it's killer steampunk artwork on the backglass and cabinet, but due to the price factor, I am happy with the Premium.

Like Godzilla, I'm not going to post the ruleset here, because the rules are far too deep and complicated for this post. Tilt Forums always does a great job so here's the link to the rules on their site. And like Godzilla, I doubt I will see most of the features of this game, but you never know. It's going to take me a long time to learn all of those rules! I will mention that there 6 multiball modes and 3 wizard modes.

That sums up the arrival of Rush Premium. Besides Rush, there is another game that has since entered the Barncade, but I'll leave that for a future post. In the meantime, I'm off to play more Rush. What a rush!