WWF Royal Rumble
Data East, 1994 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.
Open WWF Royal Rumble in the Pinball Genie app →WWF Royal Rumble is a widebody with no toys, which sounds like a complaint until you realise the upper playfield does all the work a toy would. The rules are unusually legible: three wrestler shots, a grid of nine modes you steer between them, and a wizard round at the end.
Three shots, nine wrestlers
The left ramp, center ramp and right orbit are the wrestler shots, three wrestlers each. Collecting all nine lights multiball, and the requirement hardens every time round. First run, any order works. Second run, you clear a whole group of three before moving on. After that it is strictly left ramp, center ramp, right orbit. Each wrestler is also a million in the bonus.
Those same three shots steer the mode grid. The nine modes sit in a three-by-three layout and each wrestler shot owns a column — left ramp, center ramp and right orbit, left to right. Shooting one moves the selection into its column, or up a row if you are already in it. Once a column is played out, its shot stops moving anything.
The extra ball route
Light Extra Ball is one of the nine modes and there is a reliable path to it. Shoot the center ramp until Search For Doink is selected, then take the left ramp — that moves you onto Light EB. The trap is that you now need a lit mode hole, and another center ramp shot would move the selection away. So go up the right lane instead, play the upper playfield, and drain from there: the ball returns to the right inlane, which relights the left mode hole.
The upper playfield is worth visiting
The right lane ends in a kicker that throws the ball upstairs to two small flippers, and there is real money up there even outside modes. The Loop is easy — hold the left flipper up and the return bounces to the right flipper for a free catch — and it pays one million, then two, three, four and five. That fifth shot also raises the multiball jackpot base to twenty million, and twenty-five the next time.
- Drop into the Top Hole for a free MACHO MAN letter, and the Exit swings open with it.
- Clear the upper drop bank and you take a step of bonus multiplier, and again the Exit opens.
- The Exit pays 5M and drops you at the right inlane — but while it is open the Loop is unavailable.
- The bonus multiplier caps at 9x; a repeat completion gives Bonus Hold, and one after that lights an extra ball.
Two jackpots that carry between games
Get Back In The Ring lives at the Left Lane. Rolling down it unlit starts a fifteen-second window; shooting back up the lane inside it pays a jackpot that persists across players and games, ranging from around eleven million to nearly a hundred. Balls leaving the bumpers often roll down that lane and arm it for you.
RIP works off the D-E-A-D drop targets. Each full clear in single-ball, non-mode play spots a letter, and spelling it pays another carry-over jackpot starting north of eleven million. Letters are tracked per player.
The modes
- Pandemonium is a frenzy where target value scales with balls in play: 250K at one ball up to 2M at six. The Top Hole adds a ball. Once the timer dies you cannot add more, but the value never drops back.
- Championship Belt Round is three belts, each won by clearing the upper drops. Each opens at 20M and loses a million a second, and the clock resets to twenty when you get upstairs — so speed is the score.
- Raise The Undertaker pays 2M, then 3M and upward to a 10M ceiling on the D-E-A-D targets, which reset after every hit.
- Banzai is the left ramp four times for 5, 10, 15 and 20 million — or twenty and forty with the 2x Banzai skill shot.
- Macho Madness needs MACHO MAN spelled, then three completions of the upper drops for 15M each and a 20M Loop hurry-up.
- Search For Doink, Sleeper Hold Super Pops, Tag Team Millions and the No Holds Brawl video round complete the nine.
Multiball
Nine wrestlers lights it; the left ramp, right lane, Loop or Top Hole starts it. One wrestler shot at a time is lit for a jackpot from fifteen million, climbing five each time you collect one or clear the upper drops. Let a jackpot timer expire and the game launches another ball rather than punishing you. Collect all nine and the Super lights at the Top Hole from a hundred million, growing while balls keep moving and shrinking if you hold the flippers.
The left ramp is hard enough with one ball, so a common approach is to let one go and hold the other two, one per flipper, for clean shots. And if you lose two balls without collecting a jackpot, any start shot inside fifteen seconds gives you a two-ball restart.
Royal Rumble
Play all nine modes and both start holes flash. Hit either, then all three wrestler shots, and six balls come out. You eliminate wrestlers with twenty bumper hits or a cleared upper drop bank, and the two counters run independently. Eliminate all nine and the wrestler shots light for 30, 40 and 50 million, climbing ten a cycle to a ninety million ceiling. No ball saver, and it ends when one ball is left.
How WWF Royal Rumble plays
Work the WWF card: collect all nine wrestlers, play the nine modes laid out on a grid, and fight up to the six-ball Royal Rumble. Play spills onto an upper deck, and a cabinet TAG button drives every button-mash video round.
The loop
- Hit the three wrestler shots -- left ramp, center ramp, right orbit -- to collect wrestlers; the same three shots slide the mode selection around a grid.
- Start whichever mode is selected at a lit mode hole, then play out its objective before the ball drains.
- Feed the D-E-A-D drops for the Undertaker and RIP jackpots, and clear both T-A-G banks to light the captive ball.
- Ride the right lane up to the upper deck, loop for climbing points, and clear the top drops to step your bonus multiplier.
- Collect all nine wrestlers to light multiball, then finish all nine modes to reach the Royal Rumble.
Reading the lights
- Wrestler Shots (shot arrows) — lit: The three main shots carry three wrestlers each, and a lit arrow is a wrestler you still owe -- nine in all, and each one you bank is worth a million at end of ball. · then: The same three shots drag the mode selection around a three-by-three grid, so choose your mode as you collect. Bank all nine wrestlers to light multiball, and run left-ramp-into-center-into-orbit for a clean ten-million combo along the way.
- Top Rollover Lanes (lanes) — lit: A lit top rollover lane is one you have not completed yet, and clearing all three (or the upper drop bank) is one of the two ways to advance your bonus multiplier. · then: Slide the lit lane onto the ball's path rather than steering the ball, and complete the set to climb the bonus multiplier toward nine. Do it again the same ball for Bonus Hold, and a third time lights an extra ball you collect at the left mode hole. · control: Either flipper button: a tap of either flipper button shifts the lit top rollover lanes one step to the right, so you can line an uncompleted lane up with the ball as it drops from the plunge or spits out of the bumpers (while the ball is rolling down through the top lanes)
- Mode Start Holes (mode) — lit: Both mode holes start lit on every ball and starting the selected mode at either one turns the pair off until you relight it, which the first center-ramp shot does and the right inlane does briefly. · then: Steer the selection with the wrestler shots first, then drop into a lit hole to begin -- pick a bumper round like Sleeper Hold or Pandemonium when the ball keeps finding the nest, or a TAG-button round like No Holds Brawl when it is safely trapped. Finishing every mode is what flashes both holes for the Royal Rumble.
- D-E-A-D Drops (status) — lit: Read the globe lamps over the bank: yellow means Raise The Undertaker is running and each hit climbs in millions, while red means a RIP jackpot or a multiball jackpot is standing there for you. · then: In plain single-ball play each full clear of the bank spots a letter of R-I-P, and spelling it banks a carry-over jackpot that opens north of eleven million. The targets pop straight back up, so it is a pure repeat from the right flipper.
- T-A-G Standups (letters) — lit: Six standups spell T-A-G across two banks, a lit target is one still standing, and neither bank clears until you have finished both and then driven the captive ball. · then: Clearing a whole bank fires a short five-million TAG-button round, and clearing all six lights Collect Tag at the captive ball for ten to twenty million, a Hold Bonus, or a lit feature. Be ready for the rebound -- these standups sling the ball toward the left outlane worse than anything else on the machine.
- Upper Deck (status) — lit: The right lane kicks you upstairs where the Loop pays a climbing one through five million, the top drops step the bonus multiplier and swing the Exit open, and the Top Hole holds the multiball Super and spots MACHO MAN. · then: Loop five times to raise the multiball jackpot base and clear the top drops for a multiplier step, then take the Exit for five million back to the right inlane -- which also relights the left mode hole. Holding the left flipper up rebounds each Loop return to the right flipper so you can catch it clean.
- Multiball Jackpots (shot arrows) — lit: Once all nine wrestlers are in, one wrestler shot at a time lights for a jackpot that opens at fifteen million and climbs five million with every wrestler you bank or every upper-drop clear. · then: Take only the lit jackpot shot -- firing an unlit one just costs you jackpots -- and clear the top drops early to bump the value while the balls are still up top. Collecting all nine lights the hundred-million Super at the Top Hole, which swells as long as you keep the balls busy and bleeds down if you sit on the flippers.
Lane change: the flipper buttons move the lit lane. Either flipper button shifts the lit top rollover lanes one step to the right, so instead of trying to steer the ball you slide an uncompleted lane under it as it drops from the plunge or the bumpers. Completing all three lanes -- or the upper drop bank -- advances your bonus multiplier toward nine, then Bonus Hold, and finally a lit extra ball collected at the left mode hole.
Start scoring
- Ball one — Set the skill-shot award you want with the TAG button before you plunge, then roll the flashing rollover lane for the extra points on top. Ease into the wrestler shots -- the center ramp is the safest and returns to the left inlane -- and pick a low-risk bumper mode like Sleeper Hold when the ball keeps finding the nest. — The Skill Shot Award, Collect The Nine Wrestlers, Sleeper Hold Super Pops
- Building — Collect all nine wrestlers to light multiball while the wrestler shots walk you around the mode grid, and run the button-mash rounds like Chair Bashing when the ball is safely rattling. Clear both T-A-G banks for the captive-ball award, and climb the upper deck to raise the multiball jackpot base before you start it. — Navigate The Mode Grid, Collect Tag, Working The Upper Playfield, Chair Bashing Round
- The big one — Finish all nine modes to flash both mode holes, hit one and then take all three wrestler shots in turn, and the machine spits out six balls for the Royal Rumble. Eliminate all nine wrestlers on the bumpers and upper drops to light the wrestler shots for thirty, forty, then fifty million, climbing to a ninety-million ceiling; the hundred-million Super at the Top Hole is the other top score. — Royal Rumble, Multiball
The TAG Button on WWF Royal Rumble
On the front of the cabinet, standing in for a shooter rod.
There is no rod to pull on this one. A single big TAG button fires the auto-launcher, and Data East then built most of the game's mid-ball video rounds around mashing that same button. Expect to be hammering it while the ball is parked somewhere safe.
- Starting a ball: Fires the auto-launcher — and whichever of the three scrolling awards is showing when you press is the one you keep all ball.
- During the chair-bashing round: Mash it. The first five hits pay 1M each and the rest 500K — but hold a flipper up and every hit collapses to 50K.
- After clearing a T-A-G target bank: A few fast presses inside the three-second window banks the five-million round award.
- On the kickout in No Holds Brawl: Three presses as the ball ejects add a quick five million; the flippers stay dead until it is climbing the scoop.
Goals in WWF Royal Rumble
Every goal below is tracked step-by-step, with shot paths drawn on the playfield map, inside the app.
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Three awards scroll on the display before you launch and you get the one being pointed at when you fire — regardless of which lane the ball goes down. It comes with ten million and lasts the whole ball. Hitting the flashing lane on top of that is worth another ten million, or twenty from the third time onward.
Reward: 10M plus a ball-long award
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Three shots carry three wrestlers each: left ramp, center ramp and right orbit. Collecting all nine is what lights multiball, and the rules tighten every time. First time round any order works; second time you clear a whole group of three before moving on; after that it is strictly left ramp, center ramp, right orbit.
Reward: Lights multiball, 1M each at end of ball
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Nine modes sit in a three-by-three grid, and the wrestler shots move the selection around it. The left column answers to the left ramp, the middle column to the center ramp, the right column to the right orbit. Whichever you shoot drags the selection into that column — and if the selection is already sitting there, it climbs one row instead.
Reward: Choose which mode you play
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Rolling down the unlit Left Lane starts a fifteen-second window. Shoot back up the lane inside it and you take a jackpot that carries over between players and games — anywhere from roughly eleven million to nearly a hundred.
Reward: A carry-over jackpot, 11M to 99M
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A button round that runs at the Left Lane during single-ball play. Hammer the TAG button: the first five hits pay a million each and everything after is half a million. Hold a flipper up and each hit collapses to fifty thousand, so keep your hands off the flippers.
Reward: 1M per hit, then 500K
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Completing either bank of three fires a short button round worth five million. The banks do not reset until you finish both and then hit the captive ball, so progress across them accumulates.
Reward: 5M per bank completion
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Clear all six T-A-G targets and the Collect Tag lamp lights in front of the captive ball. Driving the ball back onto its switch resets the targets and pays an award — ten or twenty million, Hold Bonus, and sometimes a lit extra ball, a lit Special or a ready multiball.
Reward: 10M-20M, Hold Bonus, or a lit feature
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The right lane kicks you upstairs, and there is real value up there in normal play. The Loop pays a million, then two, three, four and five, and that fifth shot also raises the multiball jackpot base to twenty million — twenty-five the next time, and so on.
Reward: 15M from five loops plus a bigger jackpot base
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Spell MACHO MAN and the right lane and Top Hole light to start it. Your job is three separate clears of the upper drop targets, banking fifteen million per clear, after which a twenty million hurry-up arms at the Loop. Take that Loop shot and the round is over, with the Exit swinging open behind it.
Reward: 45M from the belts plus a 20M hurry-up
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Each time you clear the D-E-A-D drop targets in single-ball, non-mode play you spot a letter in R-I-P. Spell it and you take another carry-over jackpot, which opens somewhere north of eleven million. Letters are kept per player.
Reward: A carry-over jackpot from 11M
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Collect the nine wrestlers, then shoot the left ramp, right lane, Loop or Top Hole. One wrestler shot at a time is lit for a jackpot starting at fifteen million and climbing five each time you collect one or clear the top drops. Let a jackpot timer expire and another ball is launched.
Reward: 15M jackpots climbing 5M, 100M Super
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Lose two balls without collecting a single jackpot and the game offers it back. Hit any of the four multiball start shots inside fifteen seconds and you get a two-ball restart — worth knowing about before it slips past you.
Reward: A two-ball restart
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A frenzy where every target is worth more the more balls are in play — 250K with one ball, rising through 350K, 500K and 750K to a million at five balls and two million at six. The Top Hole adds a ball, and the first one also adds five seconds.
Reward: Up to 2M per target
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A button-mash contest against the machine. Fill your energy bar before the computer fills its own and you take nearly eighteen million, plus a pin bonus of up to eleven million that shrinks the longer you take. The Video Bonus skill shot halves the presses you need.
Reward: 17.9M plus a pin bonus up to 11M
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Doink is hiding in one of four shots — either mode hole, the right lane or the Top Hole — chosen at random. Finding him pays twenty-five million, and each of the wrong shots is still worth six.
Reward: 25M for the right shot, 6M for the others
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A bumper round. Fourteen bumper hits pays thirty million, even though the display asks for fifteen. If multiball starts while this is running you are handed the full thirty regardless.
Reward: 30M
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Shoot the D-E-A-D drop targets. The first is two million, then three, and so on up to a ten million ceiling, with the bank resetting after every hit. Sweep two at once and you get credit for both.
Reward: 2M climbing to 10M per target
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Starting the mode pays five million, and every T-A-G standup is worth five million after that. Catch an unlit target on one bank with a shot that then caroms into an unlit one on the opposite bank and you collect a further five million bonus.
Reward: 5M per target plus ricochet bonuses
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Three belts, each won by clearing the upper drop targets. The clock resets to twenty seconds when you get the ball upstairs, and each belt starts at twenty million and sheds a million every second until you finish the bank. Collecting one resets the timer for the next.
Reward: Up to 60M across three belts
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The left ramp four times for five, ten, fifteen and twenty million. Take the 2x Banzai skill shot beforehand and it becomes twenty for the first shot and forty for the second, which is the whole round in two hits.
Reward: 50M, or 60M in two shots with 2x Banzai
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Play all nine modes and both start holes flash. Hit either, then all three wrestler shots, and six balls come out. Eliminate all nine wrestlers by hitting twenty bumpers or clearing the upper drops — the two counters run independently — and all three wrestler shots light for 30, 40 and 50 million, climbing to a ninety million ceiling.
Reward: Six-ball multiball, shots up to 90M
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Completing the rollover lanes or the upper drop targets advances the multiplier to a ceiling of nine. Complete either again on the same ball and you get Bonus Hold instead; once more after that lights an extra ball at the left mode hole, and after that each completion just pays five million.
Reward: Up to 9x, then Bonus Hold, then an extra ball
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Left ramp into center ramp into right orbit pays ten million. It is the three wrestler shots in order, so you are usually halfway through it by accident — worth finishing deliberately.
Reward: 10M
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Light Extra Ball is one of the nine modes, and it has a dependable route. Work the center ramp; once Search For Doink lights, pass over to the right flipper and put one up the left ramp, which slides the selection onto Light EB. Now you need a lit mode hole — and you have to reach it without shooting the center ramp again.
Reward: A lit extra ball at the left mode hole
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