How Many Flippers is the Right Number of Flippers?

In 1947, consciousness changed. That was the year Humpty Dumpty came out. Other pinball machines had existed at this point, but there was something different about this one: it had six fun little nubs that you could control the ball with. We called them flippers.

Since their introduction flippers have been a pinball mainstay. Sure they’ve changed quite a bit and gone through some rough patches (we’re looking at you, lightning flippers), but overall this IS the thing that people think of when they think pinball (OK Fine, after the plunger, but this article isn’t about plungers).

It’s kind of insane to me that the first game to have flippers was also the one with the most of them packed into it. Six frickin’ flippers. Harry Mabs, the creator of Humpty Dumpty, must have just been like, “Hell, let’s go bazonkers on this one!”

Since then, we’ve gone through tons of flipper configurations. Two flippers, three, even a couple with one! But up until now, we haven’t formally decided which number is the best for pinball players. WELL THAT ENDS TODAY.

The answer, is of course, three. But for the purposes of having fun, let’s go through each and what they say about you if they happen to be your favorite.

One Flipper pinball games

Notable games: 9 Sisters, That One Weird Homebrew Game

Notable Fans: Deadflip knew a lot about this

What it says about you: U a Freak.

If one flipper games are your favorite, well, there’s no easy way to say this: You’re a freak among freaks. At this point, you’re probably in a Palantir database and they’re tracking your every move. That’s the bad news.

The good news? You’re probably kinda good at pinball. If you’re seeking out a one flipper game, you’re like a foodie who has tried all the normal stuff and is now moving on to ocean foam and brine dinner or whatever. You’ve played every fan layout and have realized that having two flippers might be redundant.

In all seriousness, there actually have been some cool one flipper games. 9 Sisters is an interesting concept for sure. In pinball, YOU SICKO! Not in whatever freaky deaky way you’re thinking of. My lord. Get a grip.

2 Flipper Pinball Games

Notable Games: Attack From Mars, Medieval Madness, Tons of new games

Notable Fans: Brian Eddy, Me on a good day, Probably your parents

What it says about you: Kinda basic, but who cares?

Ah, the fan layout. Everybody loves to hate on these games in the pinball community, and I really don’t understand it. Fan layouts are easy to shoot, they almost always have a lot of flow, and they’re great games to learn on.

Sure, you’re not getting the variety of a 3 flipper games, but sometimes I don’t want that. 2 flippers means you get to focus on ball control and hitting your shots. It’s the best way for beginners to learn, and it honestly might be the best way for non-beginners to learn too! I come back to two flipper games again and again when I need to get back to the basics: ball control and backhanding shots. Learning both of those skills is a necessity for 2 flipper games and when you learn them, everything changes. Ball times become longer, multiballs have purpose. It’s really the start of graduating to the next level. That happens for the first time, usually, on a 2 flipper game.

The good news is there is no shortage of 2 flipper games to play.

The bad news is also that there is no shortage of 2 flipper games to play. One bar locally has a Pokemon AND a Star Wars FOTE. That’s sometimes tough for me, when I just wanna play something that has a third option for shots. But you know what? I just sniff to myself and carry on like it’s not even a big deal. That’s what a hero I am.

But also, this is a populist layout and that can’t be understated. Mars Attacks and Medieval Madness are classics for a reason. They’re the Die Hard or Terminator of pinball, big action, big laughs, and easy to understand. That rules. I love Brian Eddy for this very reason. But also, sometimes you want something that takes a little more to master. Once you solve the first fan layout, you’ve got a template on solving all of them.

3 Flipper Pinball Games

Notable Games: Godzilla, Jurassic Park, Tron, like every good game ever

Notable Fans: Basically everyone in our DMs when we asked this

What it says about you: You pinball a lot

For the purposes of this article, I’m going to be talking about three flipper layouts that incorporate an upper flipper, not a flipper on an upper playfield (I.E. the premium model of Black Knight Sword of Rage.)

This is the right answer. It really is. You get all the flow of a fan layout, plus usually a gnarly upper flipper loop/ramp/return. Those extra shots matter, especially when you’re looping through shot after shot after shot. Jurassic Park is a great example of this. Man, if I hit the first four of the skill shot sequence (left ramp, right ramp, upper flipper ramp) I feel absolutely incredible. This is how Jacob Misiorowski feels when he blasts 10 straight 103 mile an hour pitches.

There’s the other option on a three flipper game too, the LOOP. My favorite game of all time has a loop (The Shadow), as does the general consensus for best game of all time (Godzilla). There’s a reason. Loops fucking rule. Gimme a nice timed loop on Godzilla forever. Even better? When you’ve got a Getaway tilted way heavy and you’re ripping loops at a million miles an hour. That is absolutely what it feels like to drive the wrong way on an on ramp at 60 miles an hour. These feelings can’t be replicated with any other flipper configuration.

Or think about it this way: When you have a good, in the zone game on a 2 flipper game it feels OK. When you have a good, in the zone game on a 3 flipper game? It’s transcendental.

4 Flipper Pinball Games

Notable games: Addams Family, Jaws (premium), Evil Dead, Winchester Mystery House, Harry Potter, Radical

Notable Fans: Usually feels like smart people or rich guys

What it says about you: You’re smart or rich

Four flipper games are like three flipper games, just not as good.

You’re like, “But dude, what the hell? You’re getting everything that you get with three flippers, PLUS MORE SHOTS?”

And I’m like psh. False. I gotta be real: the fourth flipper really fucks me up. And I feel like it pulls my eyes up the playfield at really inopportune moments. While I absolutely love the vibes and overall design of Winchester, I really don’t feel like that upper left flipper is adding that much to the game, or what it adds, it also subtracks in making many of the shots feel kinda tough and tight.

Maybe this is just me admitting what I’m bad at in pinball, but I have a feeling many people will agree with me. There are dozens of us, dozens!

OK we led with the bad, but let’s talk about the good: FOUR FLIPPER GAMES ARE STACKED. If a game has four flippers, it means that there was a ton of time and care that went into it. Look at the games we listed, they’re all basically the best games from their respective companies. Jaws? Stacked Stern. Winchester? Absolute unit for Barrels. Evil Dead? So stacked it literally got pulled over on the highway from Spooky.

These games try to utilize the entire space of the game. That’s dope and admirable. I wish it just resulted in flow that I like as much as three flipper games. But hey, if you’re in the group that likes it four flipper style: you’re probably smarter and richer than me! So, I mean, keep going.

5 Flipper Pinball Games

Notable Games: Indiana Jones the Pinball Adventure, Final Resistance, IDK man.

Notable Fans: My buddy John

What it says about you: Man, Indiana Jones sure was an adventure, wasn’t it?

EDIT: Indiana Jones does not have 5 flippers, idk what I was smoking when I wrote this at 3 AM, but whatever. I still wanna talk about Indiana Jones so…

Indiana Jones is a great game and I don’t blame you if it’s your favorite. To be honest, I didn’t even remember it had five flippers until I was researching it for this article. That’s a sign of a great game design, if you don’t realize that it has a ton of flippers, that means the ball is doing interesting stuff. That said, there will never be another game like Indiana Jones for a lot of reasons, but not the least of which is that it would take a bazillion dollars to make it. That game rules so hard. My buddy John had one for a long time. I was just thinking about it the other day. It had pinsound and everything. Next to a Shadow and LOTR. Pretty wild. Then he got divorced and now it’s an empty basement. C’est la vie!

6 Flipper Pinball Games

Notable Games: Monster League Hockey, Elektra, Banzai Run, Spirit by Gottlieb, Humpty Dumpty

Notable Fans: Homebrew guys, weird art fans, Pat Lawlor

What it says about you: You like things chaotic

Is it notable that the first flipper game (Humpty Dumpty, 1940-whatever) also had six flippers? Yeah, but c’mon guys. Six is too many. Monster League Hockey gets away with this because it’s technically two three flipper games smushed into each other, that just means double the fun — but the rest on this list are absolute insanity.

I played an Elektra recently that had super balls in it. That was cool. Spirit sucks but has a cool backglass, and I don’t think I’ve seen a humpty dumpty. If you’re a six flipper person, I feel like you either gotta specifically own one of these games, or you’re really just out here to see the world burn. Six flippers? Sure, why the hell not. It’s just two numerals away from being the sign of SATAN. Think about that next time you’re so cavalier about the number of flippers you like, ok? Sheesh.

7 Flipper Pinball Games

Notable Games: Krull, Pinball Circus

Notable Fans: Python Anghelo! That one guy we don’t talk about

What it says about you: Probably into weird sex stuff

There are only two seven flipper games I could find. One is pinball circus, the game that literally buried Python Anghelo (OK, not literally, but he did die trying to get it made). The other is by a pinball designer who went away for a LONG time for some pretty heinous sex crimes. And, I mean, even on his best day Python was a bit of a freak-a-leek (though obviously I’m not comparing Python’s sexuality to Dipshit Who is in Jail For Being a Monster). That being said, if you love these games, I’m assuming you’re a bit of a deviant from the rest of society.

Nobody needs this many flippers. Ever. I’ve never played Krull, but Pinball Circus is a notoriously shitty game where you basically do one thing (get the ball to climb to the top of the, uh, pinball mountain? Clown? IDK.) over and over. There’s no real advantage to having this many, it clutters the game and ends up making each one good for like one or two shots. No spanks.

8 Flipper Pinball Games

Notable Games: Haunted House

Notable Fans: Dudes who love green pinball, My buddy Tom

What it says about you: Could be a ghost?

The only way to get 8 flippers in a game is to do something like Haunted House, which features upper-playfields, lower-playfields, and standard normal playfields. That’s a lot of fields on which to play!

Is Haunted House a good game? I’ve only played it a handful of times. It never really called out to me, I think the ideas in the lower playfield are cool, but it doesn’t really strike me as a ‘fun’ game. And in the end, isn’t that why we play games in the first place? Well, not Eric Stone, where pinball seemingly brings eternal torment to his very being, even though he’s like one of the ten best pinball players in existence. But that’s neither here nor there. Man, this went all over the place, just like a ball on an 8 flippered game.

Zero Flipper Games

Notable Games: Slayer

Notable Fans: Whoever made Slayer and probably demons

What it says about you: REPENT!

I mean what the hell is this thing?

In it’s own category: This Frickin’ Thing

Tanner Petch sent me this. To quote Stern Pinball Enthusiasts on Facebook, “I’d flip it.”