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.

• The Top Hole spots a MACHO MAN letter and opens the Exit.
• Completing the upper drop targets advances the bonus multiplier and opens the Exit.
• 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.

Goals in WWF Royal Rumble

Every goal below is tracked step-by-step, with shot paths drawn on the playfield map, inside the app.

• The Skill Shot Award skillshot · Easy

  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

• Collect The Nine Wrestlers progression · Medium

  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

• Navigate The Mode Grid progression · Medium

  Nine modes sit in a three-by-three grid, and the wrestler shots move the selection around it. Each shot owns a column: left ramp for the left column, center ramp for the middle, right orbit for the right. Shooting one moves the selection into its column, or up a row if you are already in it.

  Reward: Choose which mode you play

• Get Back In The Ring mode · Hard

  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

• Chair Bashing Round mode · Easy

  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

• T-A-G Targets combo · Medium

  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

• Collect Tag secret · Hard

  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

• Working The Upper Playfield strategy · Medium

  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

• Macho Madness mode · Hard

  Spell MACHO MAN and the right lane and Top Hole light to start it. Complete the upper drop targets three times for fifteen million each, then a twenty million hurry-up lights at the Loop. Hitting the Loop ends the round and opens the Exit.

  Reward: 45M from the belts plus a 20M hurry-up

• RIP Jackpot mode · Medium

  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

• Multiball multiball · Medium

  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

• Multiball Restart strategy · Medium

  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

• Pandemonium mode · Medium

  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

• No Holds Brawl mode · Easy

  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

• Search For Doink mode · Medium

  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

• Sleeper Hold Super Pops mode · Easy

  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

• Raise The Undertaker mode · Medium

  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

• Tag Team Millions mode · Medium

  The T-A-G standups are worth five million each with five million just for starting. A ricochet that catches an unlit target on one bank and then an unlit one on the other pays a five million bonus on top.

  Reward: 5M per target plus ricochet bonuses

• Championship Belt Round mode · Hard

  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

• Banzai mode · Medium

  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

• Royal Rumble wizard · Hard

  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

• Bonus Multiplier multiplier · Medium

  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

• The Three-Shot Combo combo · Hard

  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

• The Extra Ball Route strategy · Medium

  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 lit, pass to the right flipper and take the left ramp — that moves the selection onto Light EB. Then find a lit mode hole without touching the center ramp again.

  Reward: A lit extra ball at the left mode hole