Total Nuclear Annihilation
Scott Danesi's synthwave fever dream. Fast, brutal, single-level, perfect.
Total Nuclear Annihilation should not work. It has one level. There is no mode select, no ramp-fed video mode, no licensed film to lean on. You are trying to blow up a reactor, then another reactor, then another, faster each time, until you fail. That is the entire game.
It works because Scott Danesi built it as a musician first. The soundtrack drives the machine — the tempo climbs with the reactor count, the lights lock to the beat, and by reactor four you are playing a rhythm game that happens to involve a steel ball. Spooky Pinball put it out in 2017 and it immediately embarrassed a lot of bigger, more expensive machines.
Why it belongs here
Every other machine in this row is licensed — a film, a show, a franchise. TNA is the one that had to earn attention on design alone, from a small manufacturer in Wisconsin, and did. In a room full of nostalgia it is the machine that is purely about how it plays.
Work log
Scott Danesi's design, brought up to the specification Spooky reserved for the Classic Edition.
- Full shop-out — Stripped, cleaned and rebuilt.
- CE-equivalent upgrade package — Brought up to Classic Edition specification.
- IPS screen upgrade — Better viewing angles than the original panel.
- LED lighting upgrades — Throughout the playfield and cabinet.
- Full topper set — Mushroom cloud, warning beacon and synthwave sunset.
Spooky Pinball
2017. Designed by Scott Danesi.
Single level
No modes. Clear the reactor, repeat, faster.
Free play
Full topper set fitted.
More photos of Total Nuclear Annihilation in the gallery →
Sources & further reading: IPDB — Total Nuclear Annihilation · Pinside game archive
TNA sits in the pinball row with Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters and Rick and Morty. See the row →