Heat up
[music] What's up everybody? It's Rob with the Electric Playground. I am just getting back uh to work. Yesterday I was at Stern checking out the new Star Wars Fall of the Empire. Uh great experience. Uh amazing host by Stern. Uh took Dustin and myself in and uh we had a great time checking out the game and hanging out with a bunch of pinball people. Uh as I was thinking about what to do with this, because I took a ton of footage, you're going to see it throughout this video. uh how did I want to break this down and with a little bit of extra time uh Stern puts themsself in a position to get reviewed uh rather than just uh sharing some footage. So I thought it'd be fun to really do a deep dive on this and let you guys know you know what I think when I talk about the game from that perspective and we'll get into Pro Premium [music] and LE as well. Let's go ahead and kick things off uh for the experience. We're going to jump back and forth here between some of me talking and maybe some of the uh video and interviews I did. We're going to try to keep this interesting [music] for you. And uh Dustin, one of our team members at the Electric Playground, came along with [music] me and we did a little uh little chat on the way up there. Um so uh to start off with, we'll just kind of tell you what uh our mindset was uh firsthand on our way up to sea star.
First time for one of these, right?
Yeah, it is.
Uh dude, what are you what are you expecting to see?
Well, I don't know. I've been really like I've got this picture in my head of a Star Wars machine and it's it's kind of blank. [laughter] It's It's a dark colored machine. It's like
do they spray paint Spike 3 in the [laughter] middle of the play field? Is that
So, we're we're going to see this game for the first time. This is different than the last two that we did. Uh D and D and Kong. Uh this one, as most people probably know, there's been no reveal. We're going to walk into the room and we're going to see hopefully more than what you just described.
So, yeah, we were uh super excited to see this. Um feeling honored to be able to see this game with our own eyes [music] uh not seeing any media beforehand, which is a pretty unique opportunity uh in the pinball space. What was different about this particular uh experience with Stern [music] uh than the DND and King Kong experience was we uh started in a conference room. And we got a nice presentation from Seth and George. No video, but we basically got the same exact presentation that the [music] distributors had gotten the day before. Uh, including some nice business information. [music] Um, they shared a couple details on um how they're seeing the market growing, of course, some background on Star Wars and why this is important, as well as some history of the games. They kind of noted uh funny that uh they didn't make a game in the two the 2000s, but they did throughout the '9s and 2010s. Of course, we had the um I think 2015 or 2017 Stern [music] um from uh Steve Ritchie and uh they talked a lot about I I don't know, it was kind of a humbling thing. I mean, they talked about uh some of the mistakes that have been made with Star Wars games in the past or maybe some of the things they wanted to improve on. specifically with their [music] uh last Stern game, they talked about how the theme was like very focused on space and there really wasn't it didn't embrace [music] the entire Star Wars universe. Um and of course, you know, without saying it directly, they acknowledged that there's there's mixed reviews on that game. Um but whenever they went to the drawing board on kind of how to design this game, um they wanted to get in a lot more theming. Um they also talked about the name Fall of the Empire. So, you know, not surprisingly, they had trouble getting this across the desk with with uh Disney. Um, I've had experience working with Disney, and frankly, I'm very surprised that they would let a new name come in. I mean, if you think about uh all the opportunities that, uh, Disney has for new books and new movies. Ultimately, um, if you know, if you've been watching Andor, uh, Disney is is very focused on telling the story of the fall of the Empire. I mean, the the three original movies, episode 4, 5, and 6 were ultimately about the fall of the empire. Uh Stern's argument for it was they wanted to not just have a game that was called Star Wars and, you know, 2025 Star Wars. They wanted a game that had a name. But what we found in seeing the game was that it was this game isn't like a new story line. It's not about, you know, trying to tell a new story. It's just about the story of Star Wars and calling the game Star Wars: Fall of the Empire, which I think ends up working really well. So, we got a little bit of business information, a lot of growth they're seeing in Stern Insider Connected. Um, they're of course continuing to see pinball grow, but they did acknowledge that the uh the market for pinball is still small, especially in the eyes of a Disney and Lucas Arts. [music] And, uh, that's one of the key reasons that it's not going to be available in European markets is the European Disney market. the decision makers there are just not seeing that, you know, it's worth their time because pinball isn't that big in in Europe and and and uh Stern is working to or at least according to this conversation working to grow pinball in that market. Um and of course still trying to pursue getting it there. So there's going to be 777 [music] LE's and they don't know if they're actually going to hold over uh for the European market yet. It's going to be based on kind of the timing. Uh a lot of a lot of talk about Spike 3. Spike 3 is going to be an evolution. Uh you're not going to see uh every aspect that is planned for Spike 3 in this game, but it sounds like uh a lot of it is around technical specs and the ability to improve uh video uh sound. Uh especially there's a lot of new sound uh stuff [music] in this game. Uh bigger screen, 36% bigger screen, which frankly doesn't look like [music] 36% bigger, but I'm sure that it is. Uh but definitely a bigger screen screen. Uh you've got HDMI and uh uh audio out which is a nice feature as well as Bluetooth uh headphone connectivity which is certainly uh far more important to uh most people. But overall um I think we're not seeing any watershed things other than no price increase. So that's a big deal. I think I think I I I personally believe that this launch would have been uh dominated [music] by conversations of price increase if they would have done that. Um, so they did acknowledge that tariffs and different things are are increasing cost, [music] but they're not doing a price increase. So that was that was certainly welcome. And then we got the uh reveal video. Uh, that was cool. You get your minute and a half video that you guys have probably already watched by now if you're watching this video. Um, there is a moment in the video of a new feature. Uh, and that was the most exciting part. There was of course a lot of claps afterwards out of respect, but I think out of a general excitement. We also got the John Williams score as an acknowledgement that the John [music] Williams uh key score is in the game and and it looks amazing. I mean, uh from an I'm getting a a tear of tingles, honestly, from a nostalgic perspective. [music] Um this game uh really hit the mark for me because of the embracement of the Kenner uh outline for the the [music] toys. I mean, uh, they used the Ker packaging on the, uh, Costco home edition, uh, packaging, and they're really embracing it on the the back glass of the game, and I think it looks amazing. Um, they've got the Ellie, the Pro, and the Premium all share that artwork. Uh, but as as far as the wow moment that I'm kind of skipping over, but you guys obviously know about now, is the Force uh, ball save uh, that kicks it through the ball save and into the out lane. Um, and I did end up getting to experience that once. It actually is difficult to pull off. I'm sure I can I can pull it off better, but there's kind of two aspects of it. There's one, there's the ball going out of the left out lane, going across the uh uh the apron at the bottom, and then kicking back over into the shooter lane. And there's another where you can actually get it to kind of like typical um magnet style, like kick around and kickback up. I wasn't able to execute that one, but I did see the ball do that. Going back broader level, um there's some amazing uh just kind of first impressions. The artwork is uh you know, it's not franch uh and you know that's that's a thing now, Franchie level art, but god he he he's earned it, right? Um, the artwork is not though a comic book style and not embracing uh, you know, what typically Stern does with Jeremy Packer (Zombie Yeti) and Zombie Yeti, although Jeremy was involved in a lot of the coloring and uh, dynamic lighting of of this art package. I I think uh, it's it's it's pretty special. Um, and it it looks great across all the packages. I think that the cab art is really nice. I I would have preferred to see maybe a different left and a right cuz you're [music] you know you're paying all this money for Star Wars and you might as well might as well get something different on both sides, but [music] um ultimately I'm pretty sure pros and premiums kind of do that in general. Anyway, uh they did not use foil on the LE uh because they said the coloring just didn't come out right when they used foil because I think the foil actually creates a dark [music] tone in the artwork and I just didn't like how that looked. But the translite looks amazing. Um, there was certainly some rumblings amongst uh people saying like, "Oh, I wish the premium was the pro or the I'm sorry, the premium was the LE because the LE back glass is just Hoth." But it looks great with the uh blue uh side rails. Um I [music] I don't like what they did with the side rails with the uh laser cut um for the AT-AT and the sticker. It might be a foil sticker, but the bottom line is like I think that the the cab uh armor should embrace the brand. [music] Um not an AT-AT in a sticker. Uh the there's a a pop bumper, a very interestingly placed set of pop bumpers on the left and the right, and I think they could have put the Rebel Alliance and the Empire logo on there. So, it definitely that's kind of got me uh leaning toward a premium a little bit. great sculpts, um, fan layout, but a very, very approachable game. I think my biggest takeaway on this was like how approachable this experience is. And there were some questions early on on like, hey, it's a Borg title. Is it going to be difficult? Um, and they said in the in the early presentation, it was a lot more approachable. And that ended up turning out [music] to be very true. Uh, for a couple specific reasons. Um, you know, you one one thing we ended up comparing this to was, uh, they had they had all the Stern games out in the lobby. Uh, you could pretty much play, you know, [music] most, you know, Sterns and, uh, looking at the playfields, like the most comparable one was Venom, which is a little, uh, little risky to, to throw out there, um, as far as a comparison. But what is so different about this in Venom or what's the same about this in Venom is that the fan is pretty far back. Like it's not as close up. [music] Um but what's different about it is how approachable it is. Like Venom is uh is a big setup game obviously, right? That was part of the core design. Um but this game has um three of the lanes have three lights in the insert [music] uh area or the the lane going into whatever whatever it is. Uh some of them are dashes, some of them are circles. [music] Uh but each one is like very clear like, "Hey, I got to hit this three times to make something happen." One of them is uh a little bit more complex. It's the Death Star. Uh Davey was on our show. Uh we were on the show a couple days ago and he said, "Please no more Death Stars." Well, guess what, Dave? We got another Death Star. Um but that one's cool because you've got multiple hit or one hit to unlock it and then uh to to to open the lock and then you lock it and then again and again. So, it's about six hits, but that one's real straightforward. You've got a virtual lock on the left, [music] which is three little green uh dashes or inserts, and then you've got the Sarlac pit, which is multiple hits as well. And all those are related to multiballs. [music] Um, so that's that's super approachable and you you can really get it going. Um, lot of color. Uh, we've got on the Ellie, we've got the expression lighting included. On the premium, we've got the option for expression lighting. And on the Pro, we have no option for expression lighting. Um, one of the key takeaways for me is the lack of uh concessions that a pro owner is going to make. So, uh, we have we have extreme examples of concessions in games like Jaws and uh, Foo Fighters, which is a lack complete uh, lack of an upper play field. Major mechanical component [music] uh, cost savings or loss depending on how you want to look at it. Um, in the case of this game, you're missing probably three or four sculpts, [music] which are obviously not effective in going to affect your experience on the pro. [music] Um, arguably some interestingly questionable sculpts in the head of Darth Vader and the head of a Stormtrooper uh that I I personally, you know, didn't like. But then you do have a missing TIE fighter sculpt that is amazing. Uh but getting into the mechanics, I mean um the major feature is you're missing the force save uh in the pro. Uh I guess there's some kind of uh variation of that kind of uh Foo Fightersesque where you can still execute it, but uh you are missing that. Uh but overall like you're going to get everything else which is kind of reminiscent of um what they decided to do on Harry Potter, which [music] I think is good. And um that that really brings into question, you know, what you're going for whenever you're making um that decision. Uh getting back into the experience, uh uh George early was claiming the sound was over the top, and it certainly seemed like it was. I mean, it's hard to know for sure without bringing it into your own environment, but the claim was that the the the speakers are better in all of them. Uh the amplifier is stronger in Spike 3. There's tweet a tweeter in the LE that doesn't exist in prior, but it sounded great. Uh, the audio is a mix of licensed John Williams stuff and original music. I didn't I think I heard one track that I never heard of before, but it it seemed like it was high quality. But, um, you've got a great light show for sure. There was a a Darth Vader mode where it went all red. There was the Sarlac where it was all orange. All that looked great. I wouldn't say that um [music] the lighting is all of a sudden JJP level lighting. Uh I did notice that there were a couple uh I don't know. I I mean I can't really they didn't talk about like whether every every light was RGB now. [music] Um, there's some interesting lighting of the the windows, I think, in the uh the Millennium Falcon or some major ship. That's pretty cool. Like this ambient kind of uh lighting of the center playfield that wasn't RGB, [music] but frankly shouldn't be. Uh the speaker lights look great. Sometimes I'm like, h the LE is not pushing me on the speaker lights, but as Den Dustin [music] me mentioned to me on the way home, I was like, the speaker lights on this thing look amazing. Um, it may be actually the um relationship of the speakers sizing now to the screen and it kind of creates this panel. Uh, the sculpt on the Millennium Falcon is excellent. It's right up the middle. Uh, there's a pretty cool shot up the middle with a rising and lowering [music] uh larger ramp than say the one in uh Rush, but a pretty similar concept, and that's the hyperspace jump. Uh, I mentioned the pop bumpers that I really liked. uh some questionable plastics hanging above the slings, but those didn't bother me um too much. Uh there is a a sculpt of uh job of the hut that is illuminated like a kids nightlight uh from underneath that I think was a bit questionable uh choice aesthetically. Also, the Sarlac pit, which is the ball that spins around and oh my god, it spins for a really long time. frankly too long in my opinion. Um, but uh that's an interesting mechanic, but the issue is is just a piece of sculpted clear plastic. Like I think that's a big opportunity [music] for mod makers is to replace or augment the visual of going down the sarlac pit. The the challenge is is that that sculpted piece of plastic is is inclusive of the ramp [music] going up to it. So it's it would be majorly time inensive [music] to replace, I believe, as well as to just create in general. The other toy is the AT-AT, which is really cool. Um, I think that they did a great job in the uh reveal video where they're capturing that scene uh where the metal uh strap wraps around and the AT-AT falls to the ground. And of course, they're capturing that in the game. I think my my biggest issue with that particular piece is that, you know, it's very small. The interactivity is cool. Um, that is uh something that's lacking in the Pro is the movement uh of that, but it's just not a big wow moment. I think what they maybe need to do is incorporate that uh more into the video screen. Uh maybe I need to be paying more attention to that. Uh but it's a nice little mech, but it's not um a major thing that I did notice while playing the game. It was more something that I noticed whenever they called it out in the preview video. Uh, so a nice little gimmick, but at the end of the day, it's not interacting with the ball and it's not adding a ton to the gameplay. So, so if you're a Star Wars super fan and you want to show piece [music] for Star Wars and the universe of Star Wars and you want to experience the things you love about Star Wars [music] in a pinball environment, I mean, I think this game will deliver. I can't see how it wouldn't long term. Uh, they've been making the other Star Wars game for like 10 years. They're going to make this one for 10 years. They're going to put a lot into it. John Borg has a lot of passion for it. He's like a kid in the candy store talking about that [music] force save feature. Um so I think um if you want to experience John's vision for the game, you need to pick out pick up the premium at the [music] very least. Um but this game will deliver uh for a Star Wars fan. I cannot see how it would not. [music] So let's get into my choice uh for this game. uh because I do want it. I don't know my timing of the game. Of course, I'll probably [music] consider playing the game. I'm picking up it on the secondary just because it's like, you know, we got a lot of machines moving through here. I do want a game for my house, but I am [music] on a list for a potter. I don't know what where that would go exactly, but like let's just assume that the potter [music] is not coming or it's not coming into my house and I need to fill this spot in my living room uh where I want to have a showpiece cuz I've had games. I don't know. I'm that guy. like I've had uh my Labowski there, I've had Medieval Madness there, whatever. Doesn't matter. But there something is going there cuz I don't have any games there. And I I'm deciding whether or not to put this game in my living room. Therefore, the choice between a premium and LE is key because I want to love this game. I want I want it to be a showpiece. [music] So, the LE of course like 13,000 versus what 9500 like that's a big jump. You're getting uh a unique art package. You're getting expression lighting, but I I'm not pointing at anything else that I like really am excited about. Um but of course there's always that thing I was like, "Hey, that I don't have that version on the premium. Uh I love the art package on it. Um I would I don't typically or I haven't yet personally uh powder coated a game, but this one I definitely would. That would be an interesting choice. I would want to [music] make it super special. I would consider chrome on it because I think it would look amazing. [music] Um, if I got the LE, I do not like what's going on with the armor on the LE from [music] that particular element with the uh AT-AT. I'd probably get past it. I like the color, but [music] I'm a little bothered by that, especially if it's in my living room. Like, I do not want armor with like a sticker on it. Um, I I'll have to look at it one more time, but that definitely was a bit of a turnoff. So then I've got to make the choice of like am [music] I going to change the armor on an LE which I think is a poor decision from a resale perspective. Um but that would be tough for me. So that so that's got me leaning towards a premium [music] a premium with chrome or whatever powder coating. Uh keep an eye on the mod market and maybe replace some of those uh sculpts [music] to make those better. Uh, but I'm definitely um because of the price difference, unless I can pick up a LE for [music] 10 105 later on the down the road if I had the patience. I'm currently in the premium camp. I think it's a [music] a great package. Um, and it would be something that I would be excited to own as an owner who's like in the mod track where it's like, yeah, I'll put in the expression lighting. I'll put in some side art. [music] Um, I'll upgrade a couple things. Um, and uh, yeah, man. And I I I I love what you guys are doing, Stern. I mean, I I hope that you guys feel like this has been an honest [music] review. Um I I Carrie asked me, you know, wasn't poking me for information, but was like, "Hey, what's your one out of 10?" And I told him a solid eight. [music] Um I think that we'll see if that solid eight maintains based on [music] a couple of things with gameplay and me getting into it. But uh we're always asking for more, but there was no price increase here. And we are getting more in a couple categories. No major mech, but I [music] think that maybe that's okay because I think that the force save thing is innovative and I love to see them innovative. And one last thing, Davey, my partner on it for the lock is going to take a look at some of the footage that I recorded. So, he's going to be in your shoes looking at the game, not in person, but [music] across the internet, and let's see what he thinks about this game, and ultimately where those thoughts line up with your [music] thoughts in seeing the game for the first time. Hey guys, Davey from Stumble Pinball here. Um, Rob and I thought it might be a cool idea to [music] get my reactions on the new Star Wars game by Stern. Um, he sent me the video and we're just going to do some live reactions on it now. Uh, let's get into it. [music] Maybe the Okay, Death Star there. Millennium Falcon there. Not sure what this is yet. Looking at the new Stern 3 setup here. So, wider screen, new speakers. So, that does mean that the um the existing sort of speaker [music] light systems that people have got aren't going to work on this new Spike 3 system. Uh [music] they've they got tweeters and probably a mid-range there. So, uh not combined into the one speaker. Um not sure I like the look of that [music] uh with the double uh speaker lights there. Got a view of the side art now. [music] So, this is obviously on the LE. I mean, that's awesome. I like it. Got a bit of a view of the video. there. It's obviously doing the the text crawl [music] in typical Star Wars fashion. Back glass looks nice. It kind of looks smaller than usual. Possibly it is because of the screen size. Not really [music] keen on the Stormtrooper helmet and the Darth Vader helmet. I think that's a bit I mean everything else is like sort of in scale [music] for a for a Starship battle. The helmets there just make no sense. That's a bit weird. Uh okay, there's the Jabber. Uh yeah. Why is Jabber glowing? I don't know. Java doesn't glow. That's weird. Okay, we got an out who's moving there. That's cool. [music] He's obviously run on a serve or something. It's pulling him down by the legs. Yeah, happy with that. That looks great. Not keen on the glowing jabber. That's lame. What's he doing? Just like stuck in the middle of nowhere as well. Really not keen on those figures. Let's take a look at the Okay, so we got a fair fair bit of uh Star [music] Wars footage at back there. That looks like uh footage from A New Hope, which is interesting considering that um the game's [music] Fall of the Empire, which was sort of supposed to be focusing on, I guess, new [music] content post post Return of the Jedi. In some ways, that's a bit weird because they've sort of already covered this ground with earlier games. Uh [music] likewise with the Death Star, right? Like the Death Star is in the exact same position as it was on the previous game. We're not covering new ground here. That flashing jabber just irritates me, man. What is that doing? [music] Hang on. So, is that new? That's new call outs by sense of things. C3PO call outs.
It's imperative that we
Okay, that's [laughter] that's not great. That doesn't sound like C3PO, man. I used to have a like uh readalong record when I was growing up that you sort of played and it had it had actors doing the voices of the characters as well. It sounds like that. Okay, let's have [music] a look at the art here. I mean, that's pretty awesome. Possibly not as iconic as like the [music] Empire Strikes Back image that we all know and love, but kind of cool. Kind of cool. Okay, so there's Java. Glowing Java. Look, they should have just uplit it or something. Put [music] some lighting around him. Um, mood lighting. Why did they have to light him up? Okay, single pop bumper in the middle playfield. That's interesting. Okay, pop bumper on the right hand [music] side, too. So, we've got Pop Bumpers in weird places on this game. That's really interesting. [music] Nice to see them keeping that format. I quite like the randomness and the chaos of a Pop Pumper midplay field. Millennium Falcon looks good. That's a good sculpt. I don't know whether it's the lighting, but it looks like the lightsabers are lit up there. Okay, so looks like [music] we've got the same art on both left and right hand side of the cabinets on the Premium. That is a big miss, man. That is something that people were well pissed off about. Um, when it came to [music] King Kong, they should not have done that. I'm not seeing [music] a major mech here that's going to make this a must have game. I mean, the art's really [music] nice. Those back glasses are lovely. Okay, so we got a cup like diner by the sounds of things. [music] Uh, that's locked by a drop target with salacious crumb on it. Um, and [music] the drop target pops up and down again. So again, it's a feature obviously, but it's not like a heavy duty mech, is it? [music] Okay, so that's cool. So it's a variation on the on the dead flip basically. Um, which was also a very cool and fun feature. Um, and [music] they've incorporated a magnet into it as well. I mean, look, that sounds that sounds cool and that is that is a unique [music] thing that's never been done before. So yeah, hats off to them. I'm not seeing a lot of new content on that video screen. Mostly it's just original trilogy clips, but it looks like they [music] didn't use a lot of the animation team, which is disappointing from my perspective. So on the Pro, they've saved one coil and one servo uh by removing those features. Wow. [laughter]
The Pro doesn't have the magnet.
Pro does not have the magnet.
No Jedi.
Triple. Wow.
You do have a ball save on the Pro though,
right? When you're doing it,
you got a ball save. Yeah. every other game ever invented [music]
in the last 20 years.
They have.
Okay, guys, just rounding up. Um, I think the art is good. Um, I'd heard rumors that it was exceptional before this. I probably wouldn't go that far. Um, I think it's nice. [music] I think it conveys the theme well. Um, but it doesn't like I mean if you sort of compare it to games like Evil [music] Dead for instance, which a lot of people are doing, I don't think it's on that level um of art in terms of the cabinet. Um, the playfield looks fine as well. I know that [music] the people who did the work on this haven't done playfield art before. Uh, it was mentioned that it could be a little bit sparse. I agree with that. I think there's some nice elements to it like uh it could be some like UV going on there with the lightsabers. [music] I'm not sure. It's hard to tell on the video. Uh, I think the game is missing a large mech. I think that's one of its biggest issues. Um, it will probably be fun to shoot. Uh, it's kind of in some ways giving me Led Zeppelin vibes just in terms [music] of its sparseness. Um, I think the Lightup Jabber is bad. Uh, I'm not keen on the [music] uh, Darth Vader and uh, Stormtrooper heads. I think the Pro is incredibly stripped down by the sounds of things, especially considering what they've [music] pulled out of that. Um, you know, they're not even expensive uh components to begin with that they've removed. Um, I think the the Death Star lock is something that has essentially been done before, just a slight variation of it's even in the same place as their last game. Um, [music] and the video assets look lacking to me as well, considering that they've just pulled stuff from the first three movies. Not the best, I've got to say. Um, I'm hoping it plays well. Cheers. Okay, bye. [music]