AVATAR

The first picture of Stern's next game Avatar has been released, showing the exterior cabinet art and the backglass image.

Stern's new Iron Man

Avatar was the big movie of December 2009 but the game is being released to tie in with impending cinematic release of a special edition featuring an additional eight minutes of footage.

With the game coming out some 9 months after the original movie, there should be plenty of art and movie clips available to use without the usual restrictions imposed when the movie has yet to be shown in movie theatres.

Of course, one of the big selling points of the Avatar movie was its innovative use of 3D and in an attempt to capture this, the backglass will also be made using a 3D technique.

Iron Man backglass
The backglass image

Stern (as Sega) produced a couple of models with optional 3D translites in the 1990s, starting with Star Wars Trilogy and continuing with Jurassic Park - The Lost World.  Because the 3D translites were optional and not exactly cheap, sales were slow and the option was discontinued from X-Files onwards.

This time though, the 3D backglass is standard.

Other features included in the game have also been revealed through the post below by Jody Dankberg on the company's forum.  It describes how the playfield has a single ramp, a transporter ball lock, a motorised target bank, a disrupter magnet and a figure you can shoot the ball at.

In Avatar pinball, you as player are the hero Jake Sully.

Capture the pinball in the transporter link, a case that reveals a Jake figurine, and transform yourself into his Avatar.

Then, after a series of challenges, get past the motorized up/down target bank protecting Colonel Quaritch and fight the Colonel in his AMP Suit, aiming your pinball at him.

As you overtake the Colonel, his AMP Suit crashes to the ground and you save the Na'vi people from total destruction.

Avatar pinball also features a twisting ramp, the magnet for random ball play, and lots of multi-ball action. Avatar pinball has lots of great sound, including speech and sound effects from the movie as well as original voice over by actor Stephen Lang, who plays Colonel Quaritch in the movie.

Production of Avatar begins in mid-August which should see games appearing in distributors or on location around the time of the movie re-release, which takes place on various dates around the world, starting on the 26th of August 2010.

We'll have much more about Stern's new Avatar game, including the first playfield pictures, soon here at Pinball News.

 

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