Holy pinball! Stern’s Batman 66, a 2016 design from chief creative officer George Gomez, is a gleeful love letter to the campy 1966 Adam West television series, right down to the actual show footage that plays across the backbox screen. Everything about it leans into that Day-Glo, “Bam! Pow!” spirit: chrome ramps, a rotating mini-playfield, and a roster of villains lifted straight from the small screen. With a wall of standup targets and an eight-ball multiball, it’s as theatrical as the show that inspired it.

The core loop is a villain hunt. Each rogue has a signature shot — the ramps for Catwoman, the orbits for the Riddler, the center for Joker, the scoop for Penguin — and hitting it enough times lights the Bat Phone to start their mode. Finishing villains across the show’s three seasons qualifies the Minor Villain wizard modes, giving completists a clear ladder to climb. A clever wrinkle: knock out Bookworm and Mr. Freeze and their timers freeze for the rest of your game, a permanent advantage worth chasing early.

Scoring rewards the methodical. Repeatedly tagging the Gordon standup stacks up shot multipliers — 2X, 3X, 4X and higher — while both ramps can be backhanded, a trick that makes battling Catwoman far more manageable. The super skill shot, plunged and caught on the left flipper before nailing any flashing shot, sets up the Bat Phone beautifully. Stylish, funny, and surprisingly deep beneath the camp, Batman 66 is comfort-food pinball with real teeth — same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.