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First Look: Pokemon Pinball Machine

Flip n Out Pinball·video·16m 45s·analyzed·Feb 14, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Joel Ingleberth analyzes Pokemon Pinball's approachable layout, official assets, and tier-specific features in first-look video.

Summary

Joel Ingleberth provides a detailed first-look analysis of the newly announced Pokemon Pinball machine, examining the official trailer and promotional images to break down layout, features, and tier differences. He highlights the game's accessible design with six main shots, approval of original Pokemon (151) focus and official art assets, and the innovative Pikachu animatronic and Team Rocket balloon toys. Ingleberth expresses enthusiasm about Tanya Kleiss's code work on Insider Connect integration and anticipates streaming the game within weeks once Pro units arrive.

Key Claims

  • Pokemon Pinball features exactly six main shots on the playfield (left orbit, left ramp, center pop bumper with battle arena, Psyduck scoop, right ramp, right orbit)

    high confidence · Joel systematically breaks down each shot and counts them explicitly: 'One, two, three, four, five, six. So, six main shots.'

  • The Pikachu animatronic toy and arena magnet are exclusive to Premium and LE versions, not available on Pro

    high confidence · Joel references the feature matrix showing 'Pikachu animatronic toy reacts to playfield action with movement. So that's only on the premium and Ellie' and 'Area magnet arena magnet provides kinetic action. So that's only on the premium and LE.'

  • The Squirtle whirlpool mechanism (with spinning ball action) is exclusive to Premium and LE versions

    high confidence · Joel states: 'Squirtle whirlpool bull for spinning ball action will qualify the squirrel squirtle whirlpool... That's only on the premium Minnelli. That's this whirlpool down here.'

  • All 750 Limited Edition Pokemon Pinball units are already sold out

    high confidence · Joel states: 'Unfortunately, all the Ellies are sold. They're all gone.'

  • Tanya Kleiss worked on Pokemon Pinball code after previously working on Insider Connect and Foo

    high confidence · Joel says: 'Tanyo has done nothing but work on Insider Connect the last few years. Between Foo and this, this is what he was working on.'

Notable Quotes

  • “I love that it's assets that were provided. Um, you know, as much as I love the artists at Stern, the idea of them like drawing all new art or or making it their own. I there's no way. I I love that this is Pokemon and I also love that they're sticking with 151.”

    Joel Ingleberth @ ~1:20 — Clarifies his appreciation for official Pokemon art assets over Stern's custom interpretation, validates the 151-Pokemon focus decision

  • “The fact that you're hitting targets um, instead of posts is always exciting for me because normally I'm real good at finding posts.”

    Joel Ingleberth @ ~1:50 — Personal gameplay preference insight: targets create challenge differentiation from post-heavy designs

  • “I'm excited about the accessibility or the approachability of this game. This is a game that I think my kids are going to be able to play, my wife might enjoy. Like and then if there's depth here in the code and uniqueness of how you work your way through the game, I think it's going to keep pinball enthusiasts entertained for sure.”

    Joel Ingleberth @ ~5:50 — Core design philosophy validation: accessible layout bridges casual family play and competitive depth

  • “I I selfishly I love Jack Danger designs. I love I have an X-Men behind me. I love really dynamic, crazy layouts, but the fact that this is a simple, approachable layout. Um, really comes down to the code and and what, you know, how we dive into this code and uh what all we can we can see with depth.”

    Joel Ingleberth @ ~9:15 — Acknowledges departure from complex Jack Danger layouts (like X-Men), trusts code depth to compensate for mechanical simplicity

  • “I also see these berry targets. I heard when you go to capture a Pokemon, you can lure them in with the berries. So, I love that.”

    Joel Ingleberth @ ~13:30 — Details mechanic for Pokemon capture sequence using berry targets as lure mechanism

  • “I just saw that a lot of combo inserts. So, combo, combo, combo, combo with this type of flow. Uh I think that's going to add a lot to the game.”

    Joel Ingleberth @ ~13:20 — Identifies combo-building structure throughout playfield as core code strategy for engagement

Entities

Joel IngleberthpersonPokemon PinballproductStern PinballcompanyJack DangerpersonGeorge GomezpersonTanya KleisspersonTom GraphpersonFlip n Out PinballorganizationInsider Connectproduct

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Flip n Out Pinball (Joel Ingleberth) planning to stream Pokemon Pinball within weeks once Pro units arrive for early access play-through

    high · Joel states: 'So hopefully we'll we'll get one here to stream um sooner than later... hopefully in the next few weeks we'll stream this and dive into the code'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Pokemon Pinball deliberately designed with accessible, approachable six-shot layout bridging casual family play and competitive depth, departing from Jack Danger's typical complex dynamic layouts

    high · Joel notes: 'I I selfishly I love Jack Danger designs... but the fact that this is a simple, approachable layout. Um, really comes down to the code and and what... how we dive into this code'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Pokemon provided official art assets and animation clips from original show to Stern rather than having Stern artists reinterpret the theme

    high · Joel states: 'I love that it's assets that were provided. Um, you know, as much as I love the artists at Stern, the idea of them like drawing all new art or or making it their own. I there's no way.'

  • $

    market_signal: All 750 Limited Edition Pokemon Pinball units sold out immediately following announcement

    high · Joel states: 'Unfortunately, all the Ellies are sold. They're all gone.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Tanya Kleiss (code programmer) transitioned from Insider Connect system development to lead Pokemon Pinball programming after Foo project

    high · Joel states: 'Tanyo has done nothing but work on Insider Connect the last few years. Between Foo and this, this is what he was working on.'

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:01
Hey everybody, my name is Joel Ingleberth and this is the Flipping Out YouTube channel. Um, we're going to try something new. We're going to try to do kind of a first impressions kind of reaction type situation. Uh, Pokemon Pinball was dropped a hour ago. Um, so I just went and grabbed some food real quick. Sat down. I've seen the official trailer. Normally they have another video like a longer one. Um, that one I I can't find that one yet. So I'm just I've watched the trailer, but let's watch it again. And I just want to share with you like what I'm normally looking at, what stands out to me, what doesn't stand out. Um, and then we can go through some of the pictures and just talk through my initial impressions of the game. Uh, in all honesty, I'm I'm really excited for this game. Pokemon came out when I was in fifth grade. It's definitely a theme that I love. Um, and I beat Pokemon Red on Game Boy. One of the first games that I like fully beat and um, it's it's a game I'm excited to play with my kids. I know my kids are going to enjoy it as well. So, let's go ahead and dive in. Um, hop online here and we'll start with the trailer. Um, here we go. So, right off the bat, the art, it's very clear to me that they I mean, Pokemon was in full control of this art package. I love that it's it's assets that were provided. Um, you know, as much as I love the artists at Stern, the idea of them like drawing all new art or or making it their own. I there's no way. I I love that this is Pokemon and I also love that they're sticking with 151. That's the Pokemon I grew up with. So, that's the main Pokemon that that they're showing on this on this game. If I look at this layout, I mean, um, normally we're going to go through the images of the layout from the top down for sure, but just right off the bat, um, I see this pop bumper right here, right here in the middle. The fact that that's showing, I know on the Pro, if you hit that pop bumper, that's what's going to cause a lot of action back here in this in this battle arena. Um, and then a lot of standups. So, the fact that you're hitting targets um, instead of posts is always exciting for me because normally I'm real good at finding posts. Um, but yeah, left orbit, uh, left ramp, which is a cool 180 ramp. This is also a jump ramp. You can kind of see that right here in the middle. So, if this doesn't fully make it up, it's okay. It'll trickle back down, but it's kind of a ramp to get all the way around there. And then I know this this funnel, this scoop down here is only on the premium and LE. And this is also a little bit of shot of this the Psyduck um target. There's going to be a point where when you go to catch a Pokemon, this flap right here, this kind of ramp lifts up and then you're going to hit it under it. And then where it ends up kicking out is right over here, which is just like Alvivra.
Spike 3
product
X-Men Pinballproduct
Foo Pinballproduct
Jaredperson
  • ?

    announcement: Pokemon Pinball officially revealed by Stern with full feature matrix, artwork, and promotional images released

    high · Joel states 'Pokemon Pinball was dropped a hour ago' and has watched official trailer with promotional images showing all three tiers

  • ?

    product_strategy: Clear feature tiering with Pikachu animatronic, arena magnet, and Squirtle whirlpool exclusive to Premium/LE; static Pikachu and simpler Pokeball catch mechanism on Pro

    high · Joel systematically reviews feature matrix: 'Pikachu animatronic toy reacts... only on premium and Ellie' and 'Area magnet... only on premium and LE' vs Pro's 'static toy with recorded speech'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: First-look content creator expressing high confidence in game quality based on layout analysis, toy implementation feedback from media day attendees, and code programmer credentials

    high · Tom Graph's positive media day feedback on balloon toy: 'the implementation of this mech is incredible' combined with Joel's systematic feature validation

  • ?

    technology_signal: Pokemon Pinball showcasing Spike 3 expression lights and speaker lighting features as key hardware differentiators across all tiers

    high · Joel notes: 'Spike three. Uh we got all the um the expression lights here... speaker lights and the expression lights with Spike 3. You can put those on all all the games.'

    • 2:30
    Yeah. Once again, just great art, you know. 150. This is 151. I know every one of these Pokemon. This is the Pokemon I grew up with. U I think it's fantastic choice. I love purple. I like turtles. I like turtles. I love purple. So, seeing purple powder I love purple. So, seeing purple powder coating is awesome. I was not expecting purple. When I think of Pokemon, I think reds and I think yellows, but the yellow up here with the Pikachu art package, the purple really accents it well. And then spike three. Spike three. Uh we got all the um the expression lights here which are going to be a lot of fun. So that kind of gave us a little look like real close look of the battle. You can see it spells battle. B- A TLE E. Um so you we're going to be hitting uh hitting around up here. Later on you're going to see when the Meowth Team Rocket balloon is up, there's a shot right here right up the middle that's going to feed over to the right. Um man, that Pokeball is just right there in your face. Very obvious, very on brand. Insider Connect. They're going to do a lot with Insider Connect. There's no denying that. And this idea of of building up your Pokédex or catching a bunch of Pokemon. I'm really curious to see what all they're going to do with that. Not to mention Tanya's on code. Tanyo has done nothing but work on Insider Connect the last few years. Between Foo and this, this is what he was working on. So, I'm really excited to see what he brings into this. And then for you that don't know, that's the Master Ball. That's the Master Ball. That's an iconic thing that you're looking for in the original game. Uh, Master Ball means uh the it will capture the Pokemon. They can't escape. Uh, so that is a shooter knob and the fact that it comes with a shooter knob as an Ellie. Very cool.
    4:01
    All right. So, that showed right there. That was that shot right up the middle. So, I'm assuming you're going to spell battle or you're going to hit enough shots right up the middle to get the Meowth or the Team Rocket Balloon to come down. And then when it comes down, we got a bash toy right here. Boom. And man, there's a lot of movement on that. That's a full 3D sculpt, which is very cool. a lot of movement on that. So, it's not just like a like a little flap. I mean, it it's moving all around. Um, my buddy Tom Graph with Triple Drain, he went to the media day and he said, "Ah, the implementation of this mech is incredible." Nice smooth ramp on the right. Pikachu's head moves. So, it's a lot like Homer Simpson from Stern Pinball, uh, where he's where I think I heard there's 80 lines of code. So, we're going to see a lot of Pikachu moving. There we go. The Pokeball. it moves back and forth. So when you go to capture, uh, that's what's going on. And then this is where the flap is up. So when the flap is up, this ball is going to go in and it's going to gobble that up just like that. So looks like a cool scoop. I'm curious if uh I'm assuming you can backhand that scoop on a on a premium and le. But I don't know. I'm curious if you'll be able to backhand that left ramp um all the way on a pro, which you'll have to use to capture the ball. And once again, art aspects straight And once again, art aspects straight from the original show. It looks like they got clips from the animation as well. This is interesting. This this mech, this diverter mech here, I think the ball's just going to drop straight down normally, but there's going to be instances where on the premium le where this goes down and then it becomes a little whirlpool down here in certain modes.
    5:37
    Here we go. Another shot of that where it fed all the way to the right. Right orbit. Right orbit with a spinner looks really nice. Uh once again, just looking at just our overall options here. You know, left orbit looks easy to hit. Left ramp, big old area in the middle with a bash toy that's going to come down. This captive ball is used to capture Pokemon. So, we got a captive ball, a nice right ramp here, and then a right orbit. So, nothing. One, two, three, four, five, six. So, six main shots. There are some games that have like eight or nine main shots. And when you have something like that, things get really cluttered. And um I'm just I'm excited about the accessibility or the approachability of this game. This is a game that I think my kids are going to be able to play, my wife might enjoy. Like and then if there's depth here in the code and uniqueness of how you work your way through the game, I think it's going to keep pinball enthusiasts entertained for sure.
    6:32
    There we go. Look at that. That's a clip straight from the original show. And I I love that. I love that. But I was worried, honestly. I was worried that it was just going to be a lot of 2D animation, you know, zoom in, zoom out. No, they got clips from the show.
    6:50
    All right. So, that was the pro that they're showing off, but normally I always watch the trailer. Really, what I'm looking for in the trailer is ball paths. After that, obviously, I go to Stern Pinball. I go to their main website. Look at these three art packages. Honestly, I'm a fan of purple. I understand yellow. I was not expecting purple, but I do think that looks good and the fact they're showing off Eevee. Eevee is a uh it's they're it's a very powerful Pokemon and so or a very popular Pokemon. So, that's exciting to see that they're accentuating that. Unfortunately, all the Ellies are sold. They're all gone. Um but if you got in on one, I I'd love to see the mirrored back glass in person. Uh what is exciting though is the speaker lights and the expression lights with Spike 3. You can put those on all all the games. So, this type of lighting um situation is going to look good on all three games. I am curious what type of powder coat would look good. I mean, that red is bold. Probably a blue, probably something like that. Or maybe people may even go yellow. But I always come to start pinball and the first thing I do is I scroll down and I look at the feature matrix because I want to know what the differences are between the different machines. So, the Ellie always has all the all the things we're used to seeing, which is, you know, there's only 750 games, assigned, autograph, numbered, full um mirrored back glass. Um what is this? Custom color side decals. So, unique decals, expression lighting comes standard, speaker lighting comes standard, upgraded audio system, anti-reflective glass, which I love. I love the anti-reflect. We got shaker motors included, and then custom powder coating. But if we look down here at the arrows. So this one Pikachu animatronic toy reacts to playfield action with movement. So that's only on the premium and Ellie. So it'll just be a static toy. I love that. I'm glad he's not a flat plastic. I'm glad he's just I'm glad the toy is in the game. Uh Pikachu static toy with recorded speech. That's only on the pro. Then interactive meow balloon toy. Swoop sound premium LE Pro. It's all included. Area magnet arena magnet provides kinetic action. So that's the magnet under that battle area. That's only on the premium and LE. Then we have the caft ball is on both town themed scoop select starts rival battles and other features. That's the scoop on the right. I'm curious how hard that shot is. Same as Guardians of the Galaxy or Metallica when you put a Godzilla when you put a scoop that far on the right. I'm curious how hard that shot is. So we'll have to wait and see on that one. Complete battle targets to advance the game and start Team Rocket Multiball. So that's good. If it's just targets right up the middle, that's something that most novice are going to be able to fall into and then get Meowth to come down and you can bash that. Um, RGB illuminated static Pokeball includes po ball stop post on left ramp. So that's the pro only. So I always pull up the the images here. So this is the pro. So where does this ball stop? I don't know. This is the pro. So they're saying on left. Oh, right here. Right over here. So do you see right there? If you can see it with my cursor, that is where the uppost is. So, it looks like there's going to be an up post there. So, to catch a Pokeball or catch a Pokemon, you're going to hit the left ramp. It's going to come down here and then that post will come up and it'll hold the ball right there with a light show to show that you're catching the ball. You compare that to the LE or the Premium. There's a whole flap here and the ball goes down there in the scoop and then it ends up getting kicked out here on the Psyduck. So, there's no up post there. So, that's the difference there. Um, what else do we have? Uh, yep. RGB illuminated static Pokeball. That's the up one. The animatronic Pokeball. That's on the premium and LE. That's what moves. Left ramp feeds the squirrel. Squirtle whirlpool bull for spinning ball action will qualify the squirrel squirtle whirlpool. Holy cow. Changes. I like turtles. I like turtles. Charges up water energy. So that's only Charges up water energy. So that's only on the premium Minnelli. That's this whirlpool down here. So, it looks like we have a gate here that the ball will just drop right down just like it does on the pro. See where I mean it's the same shape. It drops right down. I bet it's the same ramp and then they just add this to the end. That would be No, it's different with the Yeah. So, it's just going to drop right down and then there will be times when that'll flip down and then it'll go through the whirlpool when you're doing Squirtle. So, Squirtle, it looks like Squirtle is the left ramp. So, Bulbasaur's left orbit. Squirtle's left ramp. I say left orbit, that's a lie. Bulbasaur. This actually goes up and around and it's a ramp. It goes all the way over here. And I love that. That's the same shot as Stranger Things, same shot as Bond. I love a far left shot that feeds all the way around and will feed the right uh orbit. And that's on on all versions of the game. Um, Psyduck sneak in ball scoop. So that's under the Squirtle ramp versus the side Psyduck standup target. You can't see it on the pro, but because this mech is in here. Apparently, there's just a target over here. So, I'll be curious what happens when you hit that if it'll make a noise or something like that. Uh, right ramp encircles uh Pikachu toy. Yeah. So, that's over there on the right. Two flippers, two pop bumpers. Everything else is all in the game. Uh, yeah. So, really, they didn't change a ton. If I'm looking at the LE, this isn't moving. That mech isn't moving. under the under this mech is the scoop to the Psyduck spit out and there's a magnet under here and a whirlpool. But the core aspects of the game, it's not like there was an entire playfield left out or anything like that. The core aspects of the game are all present. Um, but yeah, if I look at some of these pictures here, I mean, I'm excited. I selfishly I love Jack Danger designs. I love I have an X-Men behind me. I love really dynamic, crazy layouts, but the fact that this is a simple, approachable layout. Um, really comes down to the code and and what, you know, how we dive into this code and uh what all we can we can see with depth. But I'm I I've heard from people that this game, if we look at these ramps, you know, a nice smooth left ramp is going to go all the way around. This is a nice cool figure eight, but even if it doesn't make it all the way up, it can trickle back down. Uh bunch of stuff to hit in the middle, a captive ball, so that ball will come back at you. And then a nice smooth I know Gomez tweaked this ramp. Nice smooth ramp on the right. And then a far right orbit shot that's going to feed back in here in the pops. I mean that looks like a fun just smooth fun game. And I So I I have I bet the flow on this is going to be really nice. These are standup targets over here. I was curious if those were drops. Those are just standups. It looks like we have two other targets over here. And then we have that scoop. So I'll be very curious to see what that scoop does. Plunge looks to be pretty simple. Just a plunge straight back into the orbit. uh or short short plunge. And then we got a uh a um spinner over here. So yeah, we got different regions here. Grass region is the far left shot, then water far left ramp, electricity is the right ramp, fire is the right orbit, and then we got the battle in the middle. If we zoom in more, let's see if I can break something here. All right, zoom in more. What do we got? We got Mewtwo and Mew right here in the middle. So it says Pokemon Master. So that looks like Charizard. That looks like Mewtwo. And then this is one of the newer ones. I don't know that Pokemon, but I'm a 151 only. [laughter] Um, but yeah, we got I just don't know. Oh, there's a map here. There's a map here in the middle. So, water. What I've heard is the way that that that you play these is I think it's three shots. Three shots to uh um um one of the main shots will start a mode. So, I'm curious if there's like two lights here in the Bulbasaur insert and then we have an arrow back here. So, how exactly you know? I don't I don't know yet. Um, but man, I overall, I mean, I'm I'm really excited. I'm really excited just to play this. I There's nothing crazy here. I don't have a ton of like what's going to happen? Where's this ball go? You know, it's just it looks like this is going to be very approachable. And the fact that they pulled assets and they pulled clips and everything straight from the show that I grew up and love is awesome. Um, so yeah, I assume pros are going to be made first. So hopefully we'll we'll get one here to stream um sooner than later. Um, so yeah, feel free to like and subscribe if you don't already and come check it out when Jared and I stream this. Uh, it'll be on a Wednesday night, so hopefully in the next few weeks we'll stream this and dive into the code here. But, um, just my initial impressions. This is what I do. watch the trailer, see where the ball pass go, and then I just sit here and I scrutinize the top down shots to try to figure out um exactly kind of how the code works, what's going on. I'm seeing a lot of combo inserts. I just saw that a lot of combo inserts. So, combo, combo, combo, combo with this type of flow. Uh I think that's going to add a lot to the game. I also see these berry targets. I heard when you go to capture a Pokemon, you can lure them in with the berries. So, I love that. I'm seeing a lot of targets around the playfield. And then this this says battle, train, mystery, and extra ball. So, battle and train. I'm curious. This will be some other form of starting some sort of mini mode or something um associated with this. But um yeah, I don't know. Nothing nothing really more to go off of until we see a live stream. And um yeah, I'm looking forward to that whenever that video is posted. Otherwise, like and subscribe to the channel. We'll be streaming this here really really soon. And uh if you enjoyed this video at all, uh let it leave a comment. Let me know. Is this was this good or is it just me rambling for 15 minutes and uh so just let me know. But I enjoyed making this. This was this is a reveal day for me. It's always an exciting day uh whenever a new pinball machine comes out and uh I can't wait to stream it. So uh yeah, thanks for clicking on the video and talk to you again soon. Bye.