Foo Fighters and The Godfather - I Played Them...

Cary Hardy·video·10m 59s·analyzed·Mar 17, 2023

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.024

TL;DR

Foo Fighters Pro/Premium praised; Godfather criticized for gameplay confusion and repetitive middle shots.

Summary

Cary Hardy provides hands-on impressions of Foo Fighters (Pro and Premium) and The Godfather after early access play sessions. Foo Fighters impresses with fast flow, satisfying repeatable shots, and good sound design, with the Premium's dead post being a notable feature; Hardy purchased a Premium unit. The Godfather, while visually beautiful per Jersey Jack's standard, disappoints Hardy with repetitive middle-lane shooting, low volume callouts, confusing ramp positioning, confusing ball diverters (29 paths), and lack of 'one more game' appeal—Hardy recommends playing before buying but personally remains uninterested.

Key Claims

Foo Fighters Pro doesn't feel barren or stripped-down compared to other Pro models
high confidence · Direct first-hand experience; speaker played multiple games on Pro
The dead post on Foo Fighters Premium is a cool, engaging feature that Pro players will miss
high confidence · Direct observation during play; speaker found it delightful enough to mention giggling
The Godfather has 29 different ball paths via ball diverters
high confidence · Speaker explicitly states this as a known feature, likely from official specs or Jersey Jack communication
Foo Fighters Premium drew significantly more sustained play and repeat games than The Godfather
medium confidence · Observation of behavior at the play session; speaker notes Godfather players didn't exhibit 'one more game' urge like Foo Fighters did
Jack Danger's Foo Fighters design shows influence from Keith Elwin
medium confidence · Phrase stated by someone at the play session; speaker agrees it's not negative
The Godfather's upper flipper mechanic is positioned in a way that causes easy middle drains if forgotten
high confidence · Direct gameplay experience; speaker drained 5 of 6 balls this way, blames design layout
The Godfather's callout volume is too low to reliably guide shot selection
high confidence · Direct gameplay experience; speaker couldn't hear callouts clearly enough to navigate the game
Foo Fighters Pro has an upper flipper repeatable loop shot that is very satisfying
high confidence · Direct gameplay experience; speaker played multiple times and enjoyed it each time

Notable Quotes

“Every time I hit that repeatable shot, I could not help but tell myself out loud, man, I love that.”
Cary Hardy@ 0:52 — Illustrates the satisfying loop shot mechanics on Foo Fighters; high praise for feel
“For those of you getting the pro model, I don't think you're going to have any issues when it comes to feeling like you're really missing out.”
Cary Hardy@ 1:53 — Validates Pro model value proposition; suggests Pro isn't a gutted experience
“I found myself giggling every time I remembered to lift up my left flipper so the ball could bounce back into play. That's just so cool.”
Cary Hardy@ 2:16 — Praises the dead post feature on Premium; strong emotional engagement indicator
“The game is beautiful... but sadly that is the only thing that really excited me.”
Cary Hardy@ 3:02 — Critical assessment of Godfather; acknowledges visual appeal but criticizes gameplay engagement
“There's only so many times that you can shoot up the middle before it starts to not feel as fun.”
Cary Hardy@ 3:37 — Points to repetitive gameplay problem with Godfather's ruleset/flow
“I paid for my premium after I got finished enjoying it knowing that I wanted to experience more of it.”
Cary Hardy@ 8:55 — Direct purchase decision; strong confidence in Premium value despite early stage

Entities

Cary Hardyperson Jack Dangerperson Keith Elwinperson Foo Fightersgame The GodfathergameStern PinballcompanyJersey Jack Pinballcompany

Signals

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community_signal: Foo Fighters Premium generated sustained multi-player engagement with repeat plays; Godfather showed lower replay urge across the play session group
medium · Foo Fighters was constantly in use with four-player games; Godfather players didn't exhibit 'one more game' behavior; most people played 2-3 games on each machine
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design_philosophy: The Godfather suffers from poor ruleset design: 29 ball paths create confusion, middle lane is lit most often (encouraging repetitive play), upper flipper positioning causes unintuitive drains, low callout volume prevents player guidance
high · Speaker drained 5 of 6 balls via same middle drain; repeatedly shot middle because it was lit; couldn't hear callouts; complained about ramp positioning confusion
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gameplay_signal: Foo Fighters features satisfying, repeatable upper flipper loop shot that invites repeated engagement; speaker found it delightful across multiple plays
high · Speaker states enjoyment of loop shot with each play; notes upper flipper repeatable mechanic as a standout feature; explicitly loved the sensation
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rumor_hype: Foo Fighters generating sustained hype and engagement momentum; The Godfather failing to convert visual beauty into player engagement or repeat play
medium · Foo Fighters drawing continuous play with multiple players; Godfather not generating 'just one more game' impulse; speaker predicts continued Foo Fighters interest at Texas Pinball Festival
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community_signal: Jack Danger's design shows stylistic influence from Keith Elwin in Foo Fighters; this is perceived positively as a quality association rather than derivative concern

Topics

Foo Fighters gameplay impressions and mechanicsprimaryThe Godfather gameplay criticisms and design issuesprimaryPro vs Premium tier differentiation and valuesecondaryCommunity reception and play session observationssecondaryBall path design and player navigationsecondaryAudio design and callout claritysecondaryDesigner influence and stylistic comparisonsmentioned

Sentiment

mixed(0.65)— Highly positive toward Foo Fighters (both Pro and Premium) with genuine enthusiasm and purchase commitment. Negative toward The Godfather despite acknowledging visual beauty—disappointed by gameplay feel, repetitiveness, and player engagement. Overall positive tone about pinball experience and industry, but lukewarm to critical on specific title execution.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.033

I got early access to Foo Fighters Pro, Foo Fighters Premium, and even The Godfather. Not only will I be giving you my thoughts, but also the thoughts expressed around the people around me. Let's get started. Let's start with Foo Fighters Pro Edition. The game is fast, it has great flow, and a really unique layout. but I really also enjoyed that kickback target that actually does assist by launching the ball up that ramp more often than not in my case. The repeatable loop shot for the upper flipper, I don't know if that will ever get old. It might, but not in my case so far for the games that I did play. Every time I hit that repeatable shot, I could not help but tell myself out loud, man, I love that. The music was great, but I am a Foo Fighters fan, but I also found that all the sounds in general, sound effects, call-outs, they all sounded good. There was nothing annoying. I wasn't irritated by anything that actually sounded really good. Now, I did find myself already skipping past the video segments on the screen because I've already seen them before, and I don't know if it's so much that I don't like the segments or anything. It's just that I was excited and wanted to get back to shooting and experiencing the gameplay. Now, I'm not a great player, but there are definitely parts of this game that I do need to improve upon, and especially hitting that right ramp. For whatever particular reason, I'm finding that right ramp a little difficult to find on my flipper. Lots of people were hitting it just fine, but for me, I don't know. I just could not seem to nail it. For those of you getting the pro model, I don't think you're going to have any issues when it comes to feeling like you're really missing out. I mean, a lot of pros can feel so stripped down that they just are barren. This game did not feel barren. Although, I did feel like I was really missing out on the dead post that I found to be really cool on the premium. I mean, that thing is damn sweet, and I found myself giggling every time I remembered to lift up my left flipper so the ball could bounce back into play. That's just so cool. I feel like that's definitely something for you pro users you're going to miss out on. Now let's slow this hype train down just a little bit, and let's talk about The Godfather. The game is just as I anticipated It beautiful okay I knew the Jersey jack was going to create a game and it just look pretty they have a history of proving that to me that every game they put out it definitely does visually catch my eye it's beautiful everyone there commented on how beautiful this game looks but sadly that is the only thing that really excited me now look i appreciate all the features that they have thrown into this game but i did find myself shooting up the middle quite a bit and that's because that tends to be the thing that is lit most often which kind of makes you want to shoot for it the thing is you do that long enough you kind of feel like you're playing another game and i don't know about a lot of you out there that have played stargate there's only so many times that you can shoot up the middle before it starts to not feel as fun so i would be listening for call outs i'm like okay i need to listen for call outs so this game can tell me where else i need to go because the volume was a little bit low on this game so that was probably a little bit of a downside also is that I could not hear probably a lot of key points or things that are going on within the game but there are call outs that were telling me hey shoot the left ramp and then I'm looking and I see that there is not a left ramp the left ramp is there but it's in the up position so I wouldn't be shooting the left ramp I would be shooting a particular lane so that's what I did and evidently that was correct because my ball went up there and it registered as being that's what I was supposed to do a little bit confusing there or odd but I made it work and I wasn't overwhelmed with multi balls like I was with guns and roses at least on the particular house that I chose to play as whether it be Zac Stark or Lannister wait that's a different game all i know is that i did not feel like i was always playing or being in a multiball and so that was a plus for me now the other families i guess depending on their shots or the family in general i did see that they tended to be in multiball more often than me or it could have been that i was shooting up the middle a lot i don't know that's the thing guys is that i only had about maybe two to three games max so take that for what it is now it is cool that there are 29 different ball paths with all the ball diverters and everything and stuff like that that is cool but that also a little bit of a kick to the groin when you trying to learn the game and there one shot in particular that if you do not use your upper flipper that ball is going to go straight down the damn middle and i'll put on the screen right here whenever you aim for a shot and the ball diverts to that particular lane and if you forget that the upper flipper is there which evidently i'm horrible at doing for this game then it's going to go straight down the middle out of i'd say the six balls that i had in my entirety of playing this game five of them were lost by going straight down the damn middle i just could not remember that that upper flipper was right there for that particular shot and it just went right by it every damn time the thing is i would definitely be reminded that that upper flipper is there whenever i'm trying to shoot up the middle because that damn flipper will block your shot everyone else there i'm willing to bet that they also had maybe two or three games that's what i tended to see is that people would play a game two or three multiple of it for four player games or whatever but it wasn't a moment that any of us had just one more game feeling I didn't feel it and I think a lot of people there did not get that urge of just one more game like you would expect when playing an exciting new pinball machine. Now Foo Fighters Premium on the other hand was getting that. That game was constantly going with multiple people playing four player games. So Foo Fighters Premium was definitely getting much more attention than Godfather. And most of the people that were playing Foo Fighters were not fans of the band. They literally only knew maybe one or two songs. So there was not a bias there, like there might be with me. One of the phrases that was said was that they could tell that Jack Danger obviously was influenced by Keith Elwin, which, that's not a bad thing. I think any potential designer would love to have their name associated with Keith Elwin. And of course, yes, if you play Foo Fighters, I'm pretty sure you're going to feel a hint of Keith Elwin within this design going by his previous games. So chances are, if you find Keith Elwin games enjoyable, you like the way they play, then more than likely you're going to enjoy Foo Fighters. So the Foo Fighters Premium. All the good stuff I said about the Pro can also go on to the Premium. but you just adding more cool things to it with the dead post that comes up which i sorry you guys are not going to have that on the pro and the upper play field that going to be up there giving you additional shots but like i state i think that you're not going to really miss that on the pro version very much because i found the pro a little bit easier to shoot because the upper play field seemed to kind of occlude the lower portion of the game which i guess kind of hindered me the ability to anticipate my loop shots that may be just me but the pro shot just as fun as the premium it's just the premium is going to have additional little things in there that make the game better the game but not the price the game was very fun to shoot so fun to shoot in fact i paid for my premium after i got finished enjoying it knowing that I wanted to experience more of it that I believe it's going to be great in my collection so my premium is paid for ready to go and it should be here in a couple of weeks but before I get my own personal game I definitely will be able to enjoy this game coming up next week at Texas Pinball Festival so overall if you watch the Foo Fighters streams or any other kind gameplay and you thought to yourself man this game looks pretty fun or you just kind of felt excited and wanted to play it i'm willing to bet that you're going to enjoy this game for you guys interested in godfather i highly recommend that you play it before taking that plunge and throwing all that money down like that now granted i only put a couple of games on godfather i need more time on it so do not take this to the bank saying that the game is bad or anything like that it's just that as of right now godfather does not interest me the theme itself does not grab me i knew that already as it was and so far the gameplay and experience within underneath the glass does not grab me either but like i said it wasn't just me that played a couple of games and felt like they got their experience i'm pretty sure it was everybody else there i mean it could be just a coincidence that Foo Fighters got more plays or Jersey Jack in fact gave us an offer that we can refuse. you