Stern’s Guardians of the Galaxy, designed by John Borg in 2017, bottles the wisecracking, mixtape-fueled energy of Marvel’s ragtag space heroes into one of the most colorful playfields of its era. Borg — a Stern veteran whose catalog runs from Metallica to The Walking Dead — built a fast, scoop-driven table topped by a Groot figure that serves as the game’s beating heart. Shoot Groot to lock balls and start his multiball, then feed balls back into him to ratchet a playfield multiplier from 2X to 3X and beyond; the deep enders chain Groot, Rocket, and shot multipliers together to send scoring into orbit.

The mode structure is refreshingly flexible. You start modes at the right scoop, and the golden rule among players is to always bring a mode into a multiball, doubling up on scoring opportunities. A bank of standup targets feeds you Hadrons — handy charges that spot a missing shot when you tap the action button, a lifeline during tricky modes like Escape Kyln that demand a string of shots in one go. Newcomers can even pick Quill’s Quest before the first plunge to launch straight into a two-ball multiball and learn the table on the fly.

It all funnels toward Save Xandar, the wizard mode lit by clearing every mode and banking the super jackpots in both Groot and Orb multiball. Bright, loud, and endlessly re-playable, Guardians is Borg at his most exuberant — a cosmic jukebox that plays as fun as it looks.