# Avengers Pinball is Here and I Don't Care....Yet. **Source:** Cary Hardy **Type:** video **Published:** 2020-09-13 **Duration:** 17m 18s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGaI6YnZKlg --- ## Analysis Carrie Hardy expresses lukewarm interest in Stern's new Avengers pinball machine despite initial hype, citing poor stream presentation, overly complex rules explanations, and boring spectator experience. She emphasizes her preference for playing games before purchasing and criticizes the development team's unprofessional stream conduct and messaging to potential new players in the hobby. ### Key Claims - [MEDIUM] Avengers came out too soon after TMNT; there must be underlying reasons for the quick release — _Opening section discussing timeline of recent Stern releases_ - [HIGH] The first Avengers stream had poor internet quality and convoluted rules explanation — _Direct observation of stream quality and content delivery_ - [HIGH] Carrie fell asleep during both Avengers streams, similar to experience with Stranger Things pinball — _Repeated statement across multiple stream viewings_ - [HIGH] The game rules presentation was too complicated and information-dense for new audiences — _Detailed critique of rules explanation methodology and comparison to TMNT simplicity_ - [HIGH] Jurassic Park pinball was mesmerizing to watch in comparison to Avengers — _Direct comparison of spectator experience between two games_ - [MEDIUM] Development team seemed dismissive of co-op questions and eventually said no co-op despite audience interest — _Observation of team's response pattern to repeated audience questions_ - [HIGH] The development team had off-topic personal conversations during the stream that distracted from product promotion — _Direct criticism of second stream conduct and priorities_ - [HIGH] A sound check where someone said 'fart' gave new audiences a negative first impression of the pinball community — _Specific incident during first stream presentation_ ### Notable Quotes > "I was a little worried that this game was going to make me regret purchasing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" > — **Carrie Hardy**, early > _Establishes her initial concern about Avengers cannibalizing TMNT value_ > "I'm not going to drop six plus grand on something and I haven't even experienced it yet" > — **Carrie Hardy**, early > _Core principle: plays before purchasing, criticizes day-one buyers_ > "something happened guys something happened that I was not expecting while watching this and that was that I fell asleep" > — **Carrie Hardy**, mid > _Key critique: game was not entertaining to watch despite potential to play well_ > "You have got a license that is massive, that is reaching a whole span of possibly millions of different people that are unaware pinball and all that lies in this hobby. You're trying to capture a new audience." > — **Carrie Hardy**, mid > _Explains why stream quality and professionalism matter for market growth_ > "Dumb it down, guys. I mean, like, just give us the basics right now. We just need the basics of how to play a game." > — **Carrie Hardy**, mid > _Core feedback on rules presentation strategy_ > "my initial impression so far with Avengers is that it doesn't interest me. I have all the faith in my current game of TMNT over here. I do not have any regrets as of right now." > — **Carrie Hardy**, late > _Clear statement of current stance: not interested, satisfied with TMNT_ > "The art looks great, of course. I mean it looks like it should be more entertaining but for me it just wasn't. Jurassic Park I was mesmerized and could not stop watching gameplay never bored me a bit" > — **Carrie Hardy**, late > _Acknowledges game's visual appeal while contrasting with other recent releases_ > "I'm legitimately just not interested in this title right now and that's what I have to say about that guys" > — **Carrie Hardy**, conclusion > _Final stance: genuine disinterest, not temporary mood_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Carrie Hardy | person | Pinball content creator and YouTuber; provides critical analysis of recent Stern releases from collector/enthusiast perspective | | Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Avengers and other recent releases discussed | | Keith Elwin | person | Designer of Avengers pinball; credited with recent successful games prior to Avengers | | Avengers | game | New Stern Pinball release featuring Marvel Avengers theme; focus of video critique | | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | game | Previous Stern release owned by Carrie Hardy; used as comparison point for Avengers | | Zombie Yeti | person | Artist credited for Avengers artwork; head of Stern Pinball art department | | Black Knight Sword of Rage | game | Referenced as previous example of misleading promotional footage vs actual gameplay experience | | Stranger Things | game | Referenced as only other game that nearly put Carrie Hardy to sleep while watching | | Jurassic Park | game | Recent Stern release; used as positive contrast example of engaging spectator gameplay | | Marvel | company | IP licensor for Avengers; their Twitch channel hosted one of the reveal streams | ### Topics - **Primary:** Stream quality and presentation, Rules explanation and accessibility for new players, Spectator entertainment vs actual gameplay experience, Professional conduct during product reveals - **Secondary:** Game purchasing decisions and play-before-buy philosophy, Release cadence and timing of Stern titles, Market growth and audience expansion in pinball - **Mentioned:** Comparing recent Stern releases and game design ### Sentiment **Negative** (-0.7) — Carrie Hardy is clearly disappointed and unimpressed by Avengers despite maintaining respectful tone. She expresses lack of interest, boredom during streams, and skepticism about the game's appeal. However, she remains open to changing her mind after actually playing it and acknowledges the artwork looks good. Criticism is directed at stream presentation and rules explanation rather than game design itself. ### Signals - **[event_signal]** Two official Stern/Marvel Avengers reveal streams conducted with mixed execution and audience reception (confidence: high) — First stream on Stern channel, second stream on Marvel's Twitch channel with different hosts and improved but still problematic presentation - **[sentiment_shift]** Significant negative sentiment from prominent content creator (Carrie Hardy) toward Avengers reveal streams and presentation, despite acknowledging game's visual appeal (confidence: high) — Repeated statements of disinterest, fell asleep twice during official streams, no plans to pre-order despite game meeting technical criteria - **[product_concern]** Questions about whether Avengers was released too soon after TMNT, suggesting potential production timeline or licensing deadline pressures (confidence: low) — Carrie speculates 'there must be some underlying reasons why they released it so soon' but provides no concrete evidence - **[design_philosophy]** Avengers game layout and rules may lack spectator entertainment appeal compared to recent Stern releases like Jurassic Park, though actual play experience remains unknown (confidence: medium) — Carrie fell asleep during gameplay streams but acknowledges this could be layout, music, or personal factors; won't judge until actually playing - **[market_signal]** Official Avengers reveal streams criticized for poor quality presentation, overly complex rules explanation, and unprofessional conduct that may alienate new audiences (confidence: high) — First stream had technical quality issues and convoluted rules delivery; second stream had off-topic personal conversations that distracted from product promotion - **[product_strategy]** Avengers lacks co-op multiplayer feature despite audience interest; coding architecture limits this capability (confidence: medium) — Development team confirmed no co-op will be available after initially dismissing repeated audience questions about this feature --- ## Transcript Chances are guys, this is probably going to be my most downvoted video. I've had a few of you out there that have contacted me whether it be actually posting directly on my Facebook page or private message me asking, hey, where's your Avengers take? What's going on there? And I have been pretty damn busy this week. And Avengers came out, and I want to talk about it because whenever it was first announced, I was a little worried that this game was going to make me regret purchasing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and I didn't want that. That was when I saw that it was going to be Avengers, and got zombie yeti artwork as well, with it being a Keith Elwin game, and I've really loved his previous two titles, so I was like, man, I can't believe I purchased TMNT, and then their next game coming out, which seemed a little too soon, honestly. I kind of think that Avengers could have waited a little bit longer but there must be some underlying reasons why they released it so soon but it comes out and I see it and I've already got my first impressions on it my first thoughts on what I saw with Avengers with their trailers and I was excited I was like man this game looks like it's going to be really fun to shoot from what I've seen but I have been mistaken before by this kind of footage guys They put out their little teaser trailers and show you these certain shots and everything to make the game look really good. And I remember whenever I first saw Black Knight Sword of Rage, I was highly impressed and was really wanting that title until I saw it get played. And that kind of made me think twice about it. And I'm kind of up that same ladder when it comes to the Avengers. Now, hear me out. I know there's a great deal of you out there. that think that this game is going to be the game of the year when you haven't even played it yet. I'm one of those that like to play a game before I buy it, so I'm definitely not one of those that have put in my order for a game. I played TMNT, played it, enjoyed it, and put my order in literally five minutes after I left the establishment that I played it at. That's how that goes. I'm not going to drop six plus grand on something and I haven't even experienced it yet. For those of you that do that, okay, that's fine. I'm not doing it. But so when I saw Avengers get streamed the first night, overall the stream was very poor quality. And I say that because it was like the internet was in and out, and this is with me watching it via YouTube after it not even live. So I can't blame it on my internet connection. This is talking about being watched via YouTube at my house after because I was busy. I couldn't watch it live. Otherwise, I would have been in chat chatting with you guys, but I couldn't do it. I was at work. So whenever the – I watched it on YouTube, and I was sitting there just like, all right, watching it. and something happened guys something happened that I was not expecting while watching this and that was that I fell asleep You fell asleep There only one other game that has put me pretty damn close to asleep and that Stranger Things No I don't. I'm not saying that this game is as bad as Stranger Things. That's not what I'm saying. I'm merely saying as of right now From what I've seen The game isn't entertaining enough to watch Or watch other people play It may be a blast to shoot yourself But it's not entertaining to just watch And so when that happened And I was watching the stream Or the YouTube video of it And I was watching it go And I was watching them play it And I was like and just eventually just kind of and i fell asleep and i woke up and i was like how much did i miss and so i like rewinded back and and i didn't want to post my initial thoughts because i was like man maybe i'm just tired i need to give it another chance they're going to be streaming it once again on marvel's channel on twitch i'm going to give this another shot i'm going to watch it then maybe I just had a bad night. I didn't want to jump the gun and get a video together for you guys and say that the game was horrible or whatever without giving it a fair shot. So second stream comes up. Once again, I'm working, so I can't watch it live. So I had to watch it when I got home. And sure enough, once again, guys, I was put to sleep. And the thing is, I wasn't put to sleep so much. The second stream was better. I will give it that. The second stream was definitely better when it came to quality and going over the rules. Because the first stream, when they were going over the rules, it was very convoluted, very difficult to follow. And I really, some of the decisions that were made when it came to that first stream, I thought were not very streamlined. There was a lot better ways to go about doing some of the things that they did, but they did not. To really, because here's my thing. I'm going to go one more swing. You have got a license that is massive, that is reaching a whole span of possibly millions of different people that are unaware. pinball and all that lies in this hobby. You're trying to capture a new audience. Bring them in to this hobby. You are giving off a personality, a persona, to a whole new area of people that don't know who you are. And so when they get word somehow or other on social media that, hey, if you like Marvel and you like the Avengers you might want to check out this pinball machine it's gonna be streaming on this channel and like alright so we check it out and what's the first thing that people hear whenever they go to this be new people to the hobby possibly possibly new people in order to do a sound check say the word fart I thought that was a little like, really? But so that is the first thing that people that are probably unaware of who these people are, what is going on here? The first thing they think about is, okay, the people that are in the pinball hobby or industry or world are ones that are that childish. but aside from that that's just that's just a small little nugget where I was like come on guys really because I want more people in this hobby as well as everybody else does I think more people in this hobby is always gonna be a perk and when you do little things like that it like really but the rules were a mess we already taking in a lot of information by watching a whole new layout and what is going on And as you got these master pinball players going through this game and then you have one of the coders is going oh you can do this and this Oh, the reason why he's able to do that is because he's accomplished this and this. And now he can get this, and that's going to do this. As if we're just taking in and just, mm-hmm, we understand what you're saying. No. Dumb it down, guys. I mean, like, just give us the basics right now. We just need the basics of how to play a game. Well, the game was too complicated, and research showed people didn't follow it. Well, what's complicated? You spin the Wheel of Mayhem to go up the ladder a chance. You go past the Mudhut through the Rainbow Ring to get to the Golden Monkey. you yank his tail and Ed Boon you're in paradise pond yeah all that's gone what are what is the basics that we need in order to understand how to generally play the game i could be all confusing as hell on my tmnt over here talking about it but generalizing it is to basically hey go through your episodes in order to get to the final battle to do that shoot this ramp shoot that ramp it'll say episodes lit go in there accomplish the shots that's just a generalization they don't need all the every little details unless people start asking about certain things but i felt like there was just too much information going out there and none of it was sinking in and you had they almost seem to be like a little bit like i don't want to say angry but like as if they just were upset that people were asking so many times that the game was going to have co-op. And at first they didn't even want to answer. It's like they just were kind of like, ah, just laughed it off. And then eventually, I guess, due to all the people just asking about it, they finally said, no, it's not going to have co-op. Okay. Because then evidently I hear that I'm guessing it's just different. You're not actually playing as the Avengers. You're collecting them and stuff. So once you find out how they've coded the game, then you understand why they could possibly, you know, do without co-op. Although I felt like co-op thrown into a game on the coding would help potential sales, but whatever. So the second stream goes on, and I'm like, all right, I don't know who this person is that's in the corner on the screen, little bitty whatever, evidently he's a friend, and he's playing. And this one went a lot better because, one, there was much more generalization of how to play the game. It was the pro model, but the way he spoke about how to play the game, what your goals are to do, was much more simplistic. And it actually did a lot better for me to pay attention and not get bored or just like I don't know what they're talking about kind of thing and just kind of give up. but once again they lost me whenever they started having their own little personal little chat and started talking about other things that i don't think were pinball related at all or anything to do with the game that they're trying to show to thousands of people hopefully millions but they're trying to show this game and what it can do and why people should buy it but yet they're having a conversation about things that are just between them that i don't i don't know if i was marvel and that was my twitch channel which it was their twitch channel i would have been like i mean come on guys you couldn't have talked up the game a little bit more or something promoted the product that you're showing up on the stream maybe just maybe I gotta say, one of my... ...where it's like, right, make lasagna, and you gotta shoot the shots correctly, but if you screw it up... ...it doesn't matter. There are so many things. Are you part of the Marvel Universe as a chef somehow? You know it funny that you ask that So I fell asleep once again at some point when they were having a long conversation My initial impression so far with Avengers is that it doesn interest me I have all the faith in my current game of TMNT over here. I do not have any regrets as of right now. Until I play the game, I'm not interested. I'm not hyped. I'm not excited. I don't feel like I'm missing out by not purchasing the game or anything right now. Eventually, when it gets out on location, I will definitely play it, and that could completely change my mind. I could completely flip and do a 180 and go, I've really got to get this game, or it could not. The art looks great, of course. I mean it looks like it should be more entertaining but for me it just wasn't Jurassic Park I was mesmerized and could not stop watching gameplay never bored me a bit but maybe it's something to do with the layout or maybe the music's putting me to sleep I don't know what it is but it's kind of a bore fest for me to watch and I've had plenty of video games where they're not interesting to watch but they sure as hell are fun to play So I'm not saying the game is bad. I'm just saying as of right now, I don't have any interest in it. There's going to be more streams. There's going to be more playthroughs and stuff like that eventually coming up. I'll try to give it another shot. Maybe it'll be more entertaining or maybe I'll just be more awake. I don't know. But I have not even felt the necessity. like even if I really wasn't busy at work or anything like that or raising the family and stuff it's like I'm legitimately just not interested in this title right now and that's what I have to say about that guys so I'm trying something new here with the camera and I don't really know how I feel about it. So if you kind of like the way this setup is, then by all means, let me know down in the comments below. I'm going to be trying different things just to see if things look better in my opinion. I want to every once in a while just try something new to see what kind of feedback I get, positive, negative, whatever. But I figured I'd try this out and we'll see how it is. This is a better quality of video than my usual webcam. That's why I'm trying something new here. I really got to get on the ball tomorrow to get some editing done, some projects, including how to install a hardtop. That's coming up on straight down the middle. And then I've got mods that I've installed on Turtles. I've got to get that edited as well. Oh, man. yeah that's what's going on there got a busy week ahead of me guys when it comes to multiple things but i'm gonna be extra busy this coming weekend that's a hint so i want to know what you think about stern's new title avengers is it interest you have you ordered one do you feel the same as me maybe you can explain to me why i'm feeling like it's just not it's not impressing me or i'm just not interested in it i don't know but let me know in the comments down below chances are since i'm not caring about avengers you probably already hit the thumbs down button but by all means if you agree or like what you've seen here then give me the thumbs up and if you haven't already hit the subscribe button until next time guys peace out Outro Music _(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 7592617a-aa14-4e37-b689-43ff20100460*