Crack one open — Stern’s 2016 Pabst Can Crusher is a gloriously offbeat machine, a beer-themed homebrew-turned-production game built around an old-school electromechanical scoring style with reels, even in the modern era. With melon-shaped bumpers, bullseye targets, eight star rollovers, and speech, it’s a deliberately retro, low-tech-feeling design that celebrates cheap beer and simple fun — and notably, all four players share the same four EM score reels, a charming throwback wrinkle.
The strategy is delightfully accessible and built around the bumpers and scoop. The ball save is unusual: it’s active only if you don’t hit any bumpers or rollovers after plunging, so the skill shot should still be blinking. Each of the four left top lanes lights one pop bumper and one rollover for ten points instead of one, and the bullseye centers and the saucer score two hundred when lit versus fifty when not, with the scoop adding ten points for each lit bumper. The winning approach the regulars favor is to light all the bumpers and then hit the scoop, and later to light just three bumpers before repeatedly hitting the scoop to rack up big points — a satisfying little optimization puzzle. The skill shot always grants the rightmost remaining top lane, giving you reliable progress.
Pabst Can Crusher is pure novelty joy, a machine that swims happily against the modern current with its reels, its melon bumpers, and its blue-collar beer theme. It’s approachable enough for anyone yet hides a tidy bumper-and-scoop optimization for the player who wants to chase a high score. Light those melons, work the scoop, and crush a few cans. Sometimes the simplest pleasures, like a cold one and a good bumper game, are the very best.