The rumors have been swirling for months, and finally the day has arrived for Jersey Jack Pinball to unveil their fifth game – Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. This is the first of two new games that the company will be unveiling this year (the Yellow Brick Road edition of The Wizard of Oz not counting towards those two), but we’ll have to wait until later in the year for the next one.
For Willy Wonka, this is based upon the 1971 classic version of the movie and not the more recent Tim Burton/Johnny Depp remake. The game has been designed by Pat Lawlor, whose reputation should precede him for game designs, but if you’re new to pinball, he was the main driving force behind The Addams Family, Fun House and many other games. He is the head of game design at Jersey Jack Pinball, and previously designed the original title, Dialed In!. Joe Katz is heading up the software on this one, with John Youssi on the artwork, Jean Paul-De Win on animations and Vikas Deo on sound. For full details, including the rule sets, multiball modes and Wizard Mode functions, hit up This Week In Pinball, who has that info and more media. The game is also on Jersey Jack’s Games page and is available for pre-order.
For Willy Wonka, it will launch with three editions: Standard($7,500), Limited Edition($9,500) and Collectors Edition($12,500), following the pattern that JJP has used since they first launched The Wizard of Oz. This is a standard sized game and not a widebody. It should be noted that JJP has dropped the price on their standard games by $1,000; the pricing has often been a sticking point for people, so I think that will help this move more units into collections and onto locations.
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