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Willy Wonka Pinball Machine Review (Jersey Jack Pinball, 2019)

Straight Down the Middle·video·36m 32s·analyzed·Jan 6, 2021
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.038

TL;DR

SDTM reviews underrated JJP Willy Wonka (2019) as excellent Pat Lawlor design with strong layout and code despite artwork/toy limitations.

Summary

Straight Down the Middle reviews Jersey Jack Pinball's Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (2019), a Pat Lawlor design that hosts Zach Sharp and Greg Bone consider underrated. The review covers layout, rules, and gives detailed ratings across artwork, shots/layout, rules, toys/innovation, music/callouts, animation, and theme, with generally positive scores (A-minus to B range) despite criticisms about artwork compared to Jeremy Packer's standard and limited toy variety.

Key Claims

  • Willy Wonka is an underrated pinball machine that doesn't get a lot of love and gets a lot of hate

    high confidence · Greg Bone and Zach Sharp opening discussion: 'this game doesn't get a lot of love greg no gets a lot of hate'

  • Pat Lawlor designed Willy Wonka at Jersey Jack Pinball with Joe Castle on code and John Yalsey on artwork

    high confidence · Zach Sharp states 'Pat Lawlor coding uh the whole team over there but joe castle cats and then um john yalsey on artwork'

  • Willy Wonka has a unique layout that doesn't look like other games

    high confidence · Greg Bone: 'i know that looks like oh the hell this is just a repeat does does Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (Standard Edition) lay out exactly look like anything nope that is the most unique layout and it works it works well'

  • The ruleset features sophisticated stacking mechanics with color-coordinated shots and multipliers

    high confidence · Extended discussion about stacking modes with color coordination: 'you can stack all those and all those are coordinating to different shots on the play field like loops'

  • Zach Sharp sold his previous Willy Wonka machine because he played it more than every Jersey Jack Pinball he's owned combined

    high confidence · 'i sold mine because i played it more than every Jersey Jack Pinball that i've owned combined'

  • The game has only four or five normal modes, limiting variety when stacking everything

    medium confidence · Greg Bone criticism: 'there's just not enough modes there's not enough everything especially when you are stacking everything the moments are few and far between'

  • Designer Pat Lawlor and coder Joe Castle might have been on different pages regarding game difficulty

    medium confidence · Greg Bone: 'it felt like the coder and the designer might have been on different pages because Pat Lawlor it's a drain monster Pat Lawlor's like this is a location eating quarters'

  • Jeremy Packer is established as the gold standard for pinball artwork

Notable Quotes

  • “this game doesn't get a lot of love greg no gets a lot of hate everybody loves pirates eric man you're pirates i love you too eric but this game holds its own it's a sleeper it's a sleeper hit”

    Greg Bone and Zach Minney@ 2:30 — Sets up thesis of the review: Willy Wonka is underrated and overlooked compared to Pirates of the Caribbean

  • “Pat Lawlor one of lawlor's best games at Jersey Jack Pinball he's done very well dialed in was a great shooting very much a great shooting game i love it we're at the same thing we're a-minuses it's there's not much better it's great flow it's smooth smooth shots”

    Greg Bone@ 16:03 — High praise for Lawlor's layout design compared to his other JJP work

  • “i do not need it and it's reminiscent of like and stuff too that's why i hate but this game has enough i'm like you like i toyed with throwing it down quite a bit more”

    Greg Bone@ 19:04 — Criticism of pop bumper punishment philosophy echoing older Lawlor designs like Whirlwind

  • “i'm going to give an A to anybody that gives me a captive ball greg that i want to hit oh i love you bravo i gotta go captive ball that i love because it means something it does mean something it holds a lot of value”

    Zach Sharp and Greg Bone@ 26:11 — Appreciation for the captive ball mechanic as a meaningful design feature

  • “there is a genius to that code set there is no there is that's what i'm saying nobody's done that type of code no it's so unique there's a genius there and i love that”

    Zach Sharp@ 24:17 — High praise for Joe Castle's unique code architecture and stacking system

Entities

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (Standard Edition)gamePat LawlorpersonJersey Jack PinballcompanyGreg BonepersonZach SharppersonJoe CastlepersonJohn YalseypersonJean-Paul de Winperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Game requires extended ownership/play to fully understand and appreciate; operator/location casual players miss sophisticated mechanics

    high · Hosts agree: 'you have to own this game to be able to get to those moments and get into those full experiences' and 'when you go drop a few quarters at an arcade those people never experienced that game'

  • ?

    community_signal: Community lacks understanding/appreciation of Willy Wonka's sophisticated ruleset and stacking mechanics

    high · Greg Bone: 'this rule set no they don't which is is they're that's just stupid that they can't understand and grasp' and 'people don't understand this rule set no they don't'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Limited toy variety beyond gobstopper mechanism; lacks mechanical innovation expected for premium Jersey Jack machine

    high · Hosts rate toys/innovation as B-plus; Zach Sharp notes: 'there's not a lot no i mean toy wise you get oompa loompa with the camera but that doesn't do it and i don't even like the looks of it now' and 'but it's not enough'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Insufficient variety in normal modes (only 4-5 modes) limiting engagement during extended play, especially when stacking features

    high · Greg Bone: 'there's just not enough modes there's not enough everything especially when you are stacking everything the moments are few and far between with those because it's just like how many times am i in slugworth now that i've got that built up'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Artwork by John Yalsey not pushing boundaries compared to gold standard Jeremy Packer; hosts grade it as B/B-minus when comparing to contemporary artist standards

Topics

Game Artwork and AestheticsprimaryPlayfield Layout and Shot DesignprimaryRuleset Complexity and Code DesignprimaryPat Lawlor's Design PhilosophyprimaryComparison to Other Jersey Jack GamessecondaryMechanical Toys and InnovationsecondaryMusic, Callouts, and Audio DesignsecondaryAnimation and Display Qualitysecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.78)— Hosts express appreciation for Willy Wonka's layout, code, and playability despite criticisms of artwork compared to industry standards and limited toy variety. They rate the game highly (A-minus to B range) and express personal attachment to the machine. Criticism is constructive rather than dismissive.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

all right let's kick this [ __ ] you should open your mouth a little wider when you speak the snazberries taste like snazberries [Music] little surprises around every corner but nothing dangerous i'm a trifle deaf in this here speak a little louder next time [Music] stop don't come back there it goes so you get nothing you lose good day sir hey greg come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination pure imagination [Music] welcome to straight down the middle we're here to review a game this is greg i am zach backing better than ever baby what are we reviewing willy wonka avengers after we start with the pure imagination jack pinball machine uh released back in 2019 i believe underrated just jack pinball underrated check out our top 10 most underrated pinball machines video uh an underrated pinball machine designed by pat lawler yes pat lawler coding uh by the whole team over there but joe castle cats and then um john yalcy on artwork yeah john yelsey good and our boy for animation jp to win photos and the team totally over there god i love that guy love that guy to win we're gonna review this game this game doesn't get a lot of love greg no gets a lot of hate everybody loves pirates eric man you're pirates i love you too eric but this game holds its own it's a sleeper it's a sleeper hit why don't we kick it over to um to you going over the overview or me we'll give you an overview on the layout and the rules of this game and then we will come back to rate it zach minnie here again with straight down the middle of pinball show the pinball network and flipping out pinball i'm here to give you guys an overview of the layout and the rules of willy wonka pinball by jersey jack pinball coming in three different trim levels a standard edition the limited edition and the god i wish i could afford the collector's edition uh this is a fantastic pinball machine that is unique in many many ways loaded jam-packed and just so much fun to play so come along on the journey as i show you in-depth willy wonka pinball we will go left or right on the playfield to show you all of the features but down on the bottom as you guys see it's that typical pat lawler layout where you have two inlanes two inlanes to the left one in lane to the right and then your two typical outlanes you do have a kickback right here that also lights a special in the inlanes you collect candy with the candy cane as well as build towards that factory with that inner left in lane so in this particular model there's a lot of after market modifications so things like the piping the factory the top hat back here as you'll see they don't come from the factory like that they can always be added later but this is my particular model so i like modifications left or right we have a lane that goes right up in here and it has a target i don't know if you see a target right in the back there and it also has a magnet right here whenever you hit that ball up there the magnet will stop it for a brief second so that you can take this upper flipper and hit it to the spinner shot once we're going up here there's a pathway that goes through pop bumpers as an orbit very tricky shot but very satisfying once you do hit it one of the main features of this game is the gob stopper when you hit this the gobstopper spins and there's a hidden platform down here that uncovers a gobble hole that you can hit it into to lock balls working our way up the play field here's one of your main ramps we're going to call this the left ramp or the the gobstopper ramp hitting the left ramp will send it in either two locations typically back to your left flipper or it has a diverter under this mechanism that will drop it down to that in lane that we talked about where that magnet is the magnet will hold it for a brief second and then you can shoot that shot so once you hit that left orbit it will either divert it down to the play field for a clean upper flipper shot or it's going to put it back down safely to your left flipper there's a captive bowl right in here there's another ball so when you hit that the force transfers that energy to another ball which then goes up and hits a target up there this is important for collecting uh the kids so that you can start that multiball somewhat tricky to see from the video but there is a lot going on up here a lot of shots up here as well as an additional upper right flipper upper right flipper can hit up the i don't know if you can see it that's a wonkavader ramp that goes up back behind all of that and then joins onto your uh your typical left ramp uh wire form and ramp area here again then that can be diverted down onto the playfield or back to your left flipper two paths then follow right here under the wonka vision the left path is going to be your mic tv shot it's going to loop back around to the back of the game come into the pops and it's going to end up in the playfield area the right path is going to do a mini loop around and it's going to fall into a saucer or a scoop area right here a lot of times whenever you're starting the individual modes like the welcome to the factory inventing room etc you're going to do that by starting it right there now again tricky to see but there is an augustus gloop spinner that's right there that you can access and hit off of that upper left flipper again it's going to go around and it's going to come back through your pop area as we're working our way back around the play field there are three stand up targets here that spell out gum g and that's for violet beau regards collecting her and in certain modes they're going to want you to hit the gum targets that's what they're referring to there's also a right ramp here we call this the wonka bar the chocolate ram factory ramp is what it's called now this factory is an additional mod that i put there otherwise there's nothing there and you can hit it right at the right ramp it loops back around and safely back down to your right flipper it's a very wide open shot but don't underestimate it because that is a very difficult shot to hit their factory targets as well stand up targets here the buck kicks the ball back out into the shooter lane that you uh you hit in that gobstopper there hole comes out you hit it in there it's gonna shoot it back up into the shooter lane rather than shooting it back out at you like on many typical games all right now we're going mobile i'm going to teach you guys really quickly the object of this game you guys see down here that there are five golden tickets the object of this game is to obtain all of these golden tickets and to get to pure imagination each ticket can be obtained through a certain path let's go over those paths now one of the paths to get one of these golden tickets is to complete all of these are awards up here super spinner collect bonus two times wonka bars that's my favorite because you hit the spinner for uh to really rack up those points slugworth multiball super x 2x these are your multipliers super x 3x playfield 4x playfield 5x and then your typical modes golden egg room fizzy lifting drink room inventing room and welcome to the factory now the golden egg room that is where you're going to collect for rook assault in the fizzy lifting drink room that's where you're going to collect our boy charlie as you'll see right here there's indicators that goes one through two hundred every time you hit a ramp combination there are a lot of ways to get those wonka bars but you'll get a wonka bar you collect those wonka bars and this is basically your visual indicator as to how many you have collected as you're collecting bars you're going to increase the bonus at the end as well as lighting the computer for computer awards up top biggest toy in the game there is the gobstopper again hit the gobstopper it opens up you can lock a ball within that hole i don't know if you can see the hole right now but um you lock a ball there you lock three balls and you will start uh you will start gobstopper multiball if you get i believe five jackpots in gobstopper multiball then you will receive your golden ticket sounds easy it is not there are different areas on the playfield you guys already heard me talk about veruca how you how you collect her fizzy lifty drink room how you collect charlie down here but there are other areas the gum targets is violet mike tv is the back path there the spinner shot right here that's augustus glue so whenever you're hitting those you hit those enough you will qualify that particular kid or that particular character once that character is qualified you will see a blinking light here it says collect kid you hit that to collect the kid but once you collect the kid then it's basically let's say it's stored right here so then you're going to store it right here the kit is stored now you can start after you collect one child you sounds really horrible at this point but uh once you qualify one child you can start that multiball but you're only going to get a small two-ball multiball jackpots aren't going to be as large but if you try to stack get as many kids as you can maybe even all the kids and then you hit it up there to start that multiball that's where your points are going to come in now here's the trick you've got to collect enough of the jackpots during that kid multiball in order to get the golden ticket now if you guys see right in the back there there's the wonkavator so through throughout tasks in the game you're going to uh light the lock for the super locks and that's the wonk evader once you hit them through the orbit when they're qualified it will divert the ball back jump up that buck and we'll store them there once you get three one of the coolest moments in the game will occur as well as wonka vader multiball during wonka vader multiball if you complete wonka mater wonka vader multiball if you complete it i never have you will receive another golden ticket there's one golden ticket in here that's just hidden it's a secret and those are your five golden tickets other things you're doing throughout this game right here you'll see the one two three four five as you're hitting ramps and combos these are going to progress but wait too long before hitting another combo and you're gonna go back down so you need to keep that ball alive to get it to that question mark once the question mark lights again for only a short period of time you hit this captive ball to receive essentially a mystery award now those mystery awards are very valuable they've got they've got a lot of stuff in them including multiballs etc one of the cool things about this game is once you get through one uh golden ticket you receive one golden ticket you can start oompa loompa multiball or mini wizard mode you get two you go to the office and i'm not even giving away how cool that mini wizard mode is and so on and so forth and that my friends is willy wonka and the chocolate factory pinball machine by jersey jack pinball would you just look at it the wait is over a revolution in led lighting for your pinball is finally here fully customizable full spectrum lighting from PinStadium Lights order yours now at kingstadium.com chrome it brass it black nicolette candy chrome it powder coated the possibilities are endless at pinballplating.com your pinball machine deserves the best at comet pinball you'll find the best variety of led products with the best quality leds and most importantly at the best price your collection is begging for an upgrade order yours now at cometpinball.com check out pin graphics for the latest and greatest in pinball enhancements power blades blade skins pin blades and even more visit pin graphics.com now to see what's available for your pinball machine well greg this game this game gets pooh-poohed sometimes because of the artwork let's kick it off to artwork you're pretty high on i don't think the artwork's that bad you're an a-minus yeah i mean the captain that looks good yeah the layout of that play field i think it's a beautiful game like lighting we are rating the la version yes the george jack la version we weight our grades so as you guys can see on the screen here these are the weights for our particular categories here uh so for 10 on art you're saying a minus you like it i like it it's not bad it's pretty color scheme's good they stay true to the characters it's a very good rendering of those characters colorful yeah does it like you know it means they're better yeah but this is really solid i don't mind everybody cramped on like the cabinet art i know i love the cabinet artists right there what else do you want it's clean it's clean it is a clean pin not overly cluttered not overly done yeah good job sir i'm going to be just a good old bee i think it's solid i don't think there's anything wrong i can take that i don't think there's anything i respected the cleanliness of it and the again it's one of those odd things i think that can be hard to pull off it's like you know you can cry on film but to do comedy on film that takes it takes really take some some chops yeah uh this is going to sound sacrilegious uh John Yousi is one of the most pronounced artists in all of pennsylvania history i like him but this is 2020 i'm gonna up it a little bit when i'm looking at art package i kind of compare everything to a zombie yeti that's the gold standard oh and i say three i said what would zombie yeti do with this and i think he would do something different that's why i'm at a b it's just it's not pushing it's not pushing the game forward i struggled with a little bit but like i said i rationalized it it's b for beautiful i'm still good with it in the collection just a solid b i think it's pretty in a collection damn what about shots and layout this is pat lawler one of lawler's best games at jjp he's done very well dialed in was a great shooting very much willy wonka's a great shooting game i love it we're at the same thing we're a-minuses it's there's not much better it's great flow it's smooth smooth shots i love this layout wonka vader or not the wonka vader but the wonka vision is a tough shot to shoot it's difficult it's not easy but it feels so good but it feels because as soon as it moves that off that flipper grade you know if it's in there or not you do it so it's like a home run yeah you know if it's in there 100 i like that um not to interrupt you but i like when we see all these newer games come out and people say oh i can tell that that looks like guardians or no that looks like that i know that looks like oh the hell this is just a repeat does does willy wonka lay out exactly look like anything nope that is the most unique layout and it works it works well and i love the magnet hold off the flipper i love that during that and you hit that because it sets up a shot that you need it sets one of the greatest spinner shots in pinball it is fantastic i love that inner orbit spinner rip oh and especially if you got uh wonka bars at two-time wonka bars and you hit that spinner it is it is a lights me up commonly laid out gaming you would think that that right ramp oh it's a mean one it'd be easy but it's not it's kind of it's kind of it's open but it's not mean yeah that left ramp you can backhand it over like cat created something that is a bit of an odd anomaly of like a game that that that seems on the surface that it should be easy because it's a jjp it plays a little softer a little floatier the ramps that he created everything's smooth there's a little clunk here and there but it's so brutal oh yeah with speed there's some speed it's an odd thing for a floaty slope scenic right it is it's just an odd thing when you're playing the feeling of that upper flipper ramp that literally oh yeah oh i love that feeling and it kicks it out and you know yeah pop pop you know what dialed in may technically be a better layout yes i prefer this layout over dialed in but you know just love the feeling like you know the like moments in shots you know feel good shots this game it has feel-good shots that when you make them and you hit them you're you're just always like you feel like you're on fire if you can hit it through the pops to that little flipper upper ramp and then back to a ramp and then oh oh yeah and believe it or not this isn't this is more of a toy that got stopper but it is a shock and that shot feels good the shot does fit it feels solid that's a weird little bend to give you that that reaction but it does feel good the only reason i'm not at an a or an a plus is because design wise out of the pops pat always does that where whirlwind he's punishing you it's just wrong when you get that game is hard now i don't need out of the pop [ __ ] right now i do not need it and it it it's reminiscent of like aerosmith and stuff too that's why i hate aerosmith but this game has enough i'm like you like i toyed with throwing it down quite a bit more i did too that was that but i'm like there's way too many great jobs it's one of those things that when you've got a good ball going and it happens so you're like [ __ ] this game i'm done with this yeah but everything in between is so good that you it just you can't get it's just it's a one more game one more game one i sold mine because i played it more than every jjp that i've owned combined oh i played that it's a hell out of this game and guess what i want a collector's edition i yeah i don't blame you that's ultimately why i got rid of the lx i'm like this is one of my favorite games i've got to get a couple let's play this i played the [ __ ] out of that game god a minus the game's great rules now you're you're in the b category or b plus well i'm b-plus and i'll tell you what he's wrong i'll tell you what happened and i'm going to apologize to joe i'm going to give joe a lot of accolades i'm going to give him a lot of praise but then i'll tell you why that i went down with this because it took a long time for this to happen um i don't think people understand this this rule set no they don't which is is they're that's just stupid that they can't understand and grasp but you know it's a weird thing because you played the hell out of it and i still know all the like you didn't really understand about the stacking and about how that you're achieving the three different colors you get the we'll call it red i guess red purple and was it yellow on there i can't remember sorry i can't remember but you can stack all those and all those are coordinating to different shots on the play field like loops and then you've got the the wonka star trek similar yes yellows yellow is a hurry up you've got the light yes but what you can do is you can stack everything your captive ball counts towards it you can stack everything or you can well let me let me go back i guess can we get that here's the problem no it's nothing it's the explanation so if i hit my cap the ball and get my cap the ball set up then i'll start one of the captive ball uh places on the snake trail by shooting the wonka vision well what i want to do is i want to hit my loops i want to get all my loops done i want my wonka what is that the wonka walk vision no the tv no not the tv what's the loop or the uh the ramp right ramp oh a factory factory factory ramp so sorry hit your factory rep i want to get all that built up so that i can stack all of those when i hit the wall commission because i can do that once i get all so then i can stack one of my modes with maybe 4x play field multiplier from hitting my purple loops and it's all color code name color coordinated it is so it's easy it's all displayed on the screen it's all displayed on the screen so it's super easy to understand and when you find that out and you're trying to stack all that stuff and you're wanting to get everything rolling at the same time maybe slugworth multiball going at the same time did a mode go all those different things from your captain balls and everything else that that code is phenomenal it's actually one of my favorite codes ever i've told you in your favorite code when i made you play one for months you agreed this is one of those games it's rare to have a game like this that when you blow this game up and you're blowing it up it lets you know it doesn't it almost feels like he's about to start on fire yes because that's yeah that's like fireworks rolling feels so good blowing it up because you got like you said yes three or four things stacked and they're all going yes oh man and like you said then you're going into other multi-balls by that time you might start kid multiball you might be going into your gobstopper are you going to start kidding multiple with two kids no you want to stack and build your kids get five of them going or risk reward because if you if you drain yes then you spoiled it and it's sort of risk reward with with what i said about shooting your wonky vision yeah you can start a mode by starting your factory ramps or shooting those those captive balls you can go ahead and shoot that wonka vision and start something or you can hold off and try to get all three of those gauges up and shoot it so it's another great risk reward for me the rules and the code are in a here is my failure right there's just not enough modes there's not enough everything especially when you are stacking everything the moments are few and far between with those because it's just like how many times am i in slugworth now that i've got that built up and you've only got like four or five modes there in your normal roads from factory ramp there's just not enough variety not enough of the yeah okay i need more of those i know that makes it more difficult but i want more variety because after you play that game so much welcome to the factory again there we go exactly i'm here again with the golden egg why so that's my only complaint the reason it's like that is because there's so much other things you can do slower is not part of those modes you can get slug worth going you can get wonky no but i don't know but that's what i'm telling you if your kids go no that's what i said if you're wanting to do all those individually that's fine but you're stacking them to blow them up you're running three of those things at a time you're already knocking three off yeah so i mean that's like four stacks and oh that's like the ultimate feeling oh it feels good but i want i'd love to see somebody do those three of those ultimate stacks in the game hell i don't know i want more phenomenal because and i've said it before well i've said it since day one there is a genius to that code set there is no there is that's what i'm saying nobody's done that type of code no it's so unique there's a genius there and i love that there are moments there too there are the wonkatonia yes oh it could piss me off playing with the uh him singing in the background going dark it being eerie that may be one and i am not a fan of that movie that may be one of the best moments in pinball uh it's good very much or even no in the same game wonka vader multiball it's here we go yeah and then you get the shaker it builds up and then here they come that's what i'm saying like i don't want to harp on joe because i i was probably unfair for that but like i said that's what worked in on me from the game the moments are there but your normal play and it takes a little while to code get up to that stuff though the oompa loompa candy and you got all the colors but oh but listen do you not agree though that it takes a quite a bit of playing for you to really open that game up too so when you go drop a few quarters in it at an arcade those people never experienced that game you have to own this game to be able to get to those moments and get into those full experiences perfect that's another why my grade level yeah because it felt like the coder and the designer might have been on different pages because pat lawler it's a drain monster pat lawler's like this is in a location eating quarters he's at old school mentality yeah Joe Katz it's like i really want people to this to breathe really yes options i want to give people options here and it's kind of it's kind of a it's like opening a bottle of red wine and you need to let it air a little bit maybe a little aeration in there you need to let that breathe a little bit before you really enjoy that wine that's what this pen does versus just going straight into a [ __ ] harsh you know a chardonnay or something just like ah this is not an easy always easy to understand game no it's not it took me a minute to grasp people say the same about hob and they're just wrong hobbits very easy still it's super easy there's five things to do this one's similar but it's a little bit more tricky i'm going to give an a to anybody that gives me a captive ball greg that i want to hit oh i love you bravo i gotta go captain ball that i love because it means something it does mean something it holds a lot of value i'm talking right now i'm gonna buy this game it holds a lot of value i need to go buy this game it's phenomenal toys and innovation we're both into beasts i'm gonna be plus you're gonna be what happened what is it really there that's solid oh yeah physical ball a lot i like the wonka vader physical magnets i like matte plus they're different little magnets innovative little magnets and little lights yeah little pinhole lights um there's not a lot no i mean toy wise you get oompa loompa with the camera but that doesn't do it and i don't even like the looks of it now wonka vision's cool seven inch screen in the back there's a screen it's a screen yep but it does not you get the diverter it does not affect my gameplay not a lot of toys the gobstopper is the main toy and it's a good toy it's a good one it's a good job and it was innovative it's different it is a different movement on that that gobble hole is it is a great toy it is but it's not enough no it's not enough but the game doesn't need it don't let that hinder you the goal doesn't need that stuff no it's one of my favorites yes but it's category b plus and a b music and call outs people rip this too you didn't rip it you're at a solid b plus yeah do you like it yeah people say i don't like the old the old man oh i liked it i didn't i thought it added to it it makes sense to me it feels good to me i like that i do too i didn't mind at all i'm in an a minus i like the callouts it more bottles down it comes to the theme people are like well it lacks assets i always call [ __ ] because i'm like i don't know what more you need it includes every significant call out from that film that you want and it's the actual asset yeah it's not a voice act yeah it is every single one that you want from that and you were able to create moments off of those assets that you had which is what matters sure i would have it's a musical willy wonka is i would have loved more of the actual assets of the the lyrical music you know um uh i want it now yeah sure yeah but i could have taken more but to me it's not a miss like you don't miss them hearing gene wilder saying pure imagination okay yeah but at least he sings warm kotonia yeah and it was still fun [Music] so you and the music's good it's good that's not bad well people people don't like the sound it's it was a new sound designer he worked on casinos they're like it's a slot machine i should have never said he worked on slot machines no no one would have ever i liked the tones kind of a homicide old pins chocolate candy factory yeah it's a factory they're factory sound exactly displaying animation you're to be plus yeah sorry i mean i think jp did for what he had to work with i think it was marvelous creating that factory and there's a lot of little workings and a lot of stuff going on but i want something more visually impactful on that screen and i don't think that it's visually impactful okay i'm gonna name minus i would have i would have been in to be with you if i didn't get movie clips i just i love that we get the assets from there and i think they're nice how they come up and they're they look vintage they make sense to me oh very beautiful i like that it's jp to win i have a hard time with his level of extra expertise and skill to rate anything besides an a but i will admit yeah this is my least favorite jp to win piece yeah it's just this i mean what he had to work with like i said it was a lot but he had to work with a lot with pirates and he pulled pirates off yeah he did fantastic i don't i don't like the rendering and his his idea of the oompa loompas in this yeah they don't do much for me no it's okay um yeah but it's still it's more important work than most of the industry i agree theme now here's where you don't like this thing careful it's a good pinball theme but you just you're a b it works like it's not it's it's a theme because it is such an iconic film that i'm fine with it's not like dialed in or something stupid or even honestly the ugliness of walking dead and everything i don't want in there but it's um i would just fit my revengers which one do you like your comments like theme or the actual pen avengers no the theme just the thing oh i'd go with them avengers iron man i would kind of like that i'd go with that stuff but but man this like if i'm actually comparing pens like this this one would win over almost all of them but wizard of oz theme was just steaming no wizard of oz you're a classic boss square survivor okay all right easily i'm in a plus because it is a grail theme for me it's one of my favorite films of all time i think it has some of the the wittiest humor uh in in all of film it's a sadistic movie in a way i love that it's edgy i love that it's dark uh but it's a children's film yeah i love everything about it i it holds up to the test of time yeah it's still one of the greatest films ever made and it's gene wilder's masterpiece and my i can do with that he doesn't have to share the screen with anybody because he doesn't need to you don't need richard pryor he doesn't need any uh metaphors no he doesn't need any of these people um probably is his best performance and it's so dark his performance is so understated oh i'm in love with it so willy wonka is one of my favorites ever so it's it's a top 10 theme ever for me it's good sorry keep going man enjoyability oh we're both hey you're an a minus i'm in an a yeah this game doesn't get old playing i get more angry at this game than i get playing most this is a walking dead type of anger because of those pops i've cough and dropped the willy wonka i had i believe it i believe did it a couple times i believe it when you are just so mad because that game that game takes a [ __ ] investment to play because you load everything up everything is right there and then you get a cheap [ __ ] drain from the pups that's what i'm saying i want to tip it over yeah but they're impressed there needs to be a fix god it's to blow it up too the the scourge wise you can just blow it up it's right there yeah it's right and you know when you're gonna blow it up yes you know god it makes me so angry yeah maybe i shouldn't buy this game again it brings out the worst to me it really does it's one of the most frustrating games i've ever i'm hitting glass oh have you ever rocked one i'll admit when i get really mad at the game you [ __ ] i rock the tune i'll put it up on two legs i'm like god i hate you no my my wife says it sounds like because i i i get vulgar dude and i say things that like that willy wonka would blush out that even on our show there's no way over here so chelsea's like sounds like you got [ __ ] tourette's down there everybody's playing it because it does like yeah because it lasts like and i don't know what happens it's just i have to get it out or i can't step back up to the pin and play another ball so i have to release i remember now it's all coming back that pin put me in bad moves yeah it will it really went out yeah literally i walked away man stomping up the stairs like it's like it's like a football game i don't care what we eat for dinner okay exactly exactly prepare yourself prepare yourself it's true it is very true it's so trite just now remember it's sitting over there and i'm like i hate you i've never had a pen make me that mad and you know the reason i sold it i do remember the reason i saw number one i thought this is a grail i wanted collectors i can't i want the me i want it all but another reason i think it pissed me off one night so bad that i turned it off and i just vowed to myself i'll never do it again you tell me you're like i'm done i don't and then i get sad when it leaves i don't really miss i miss pirates but not yeah to the level i do this i miss wonka i do miss wonka even the anger with it i miss her for any of you guys that true this is no [ __ ] if you've not given this pen a chance and you continue to [ __ ] on it you're doing yourself such a disservice this is a greatness type of pain you have to put some money into it though if you're gonna play it on location like we said it takes a little bit to open it up so give it and you want to say you want to hear it this this game we're certified this is a really really good game um yeah i'm going to name a minus cumulatively speaking this is an a pen for me i love where it lands on my on my rating scale you're the b plus this is solid i think the theme hurts theme that's what killed mine a lot he means a lot it's ten percent it's a great playing game one of my favorite games ever honestly man i want to go play some willy wonka until then check out our other videos for straight down the middle thanks for the continued support uh and all the messages you guys send any donations to paypal is it um i think it's sdtmsdt uh pinball gmail.com you can do that go give us a review at your favorite review catcher uh but all the we're we're to the point grey we've been in this years we're kind of established right we love the family that we've created with you guys um hearing from you yeah so we always like the the ups and downs just let us know how it's going um keep communicating with us we really appreciate that love talking to you guys uh and as you guys will see over the next couple months in the year or so we're we're morphing this this brand uh and this channel into something that is not going to just be pinball and it's going to include a lot of fun things yeah and things that you and i are pretty mad about yeah so we're kind of opening ourselves up more to you but it's still going to be the same uh [ __ ] and fun and you know just a blast between me and my best friend greg and he loves me touching him too don't you all right until next time guys thanks again love you go check out chuck work stream on straight down the middle uh carrie hardy's videos on straight down the middle uh in my podcast that greg appears on called the pinball show i do [ __ ] love pinball man it's fun god i love him [Music]

medium confidence · Greg Bone: 'i say three i said what would Jeremy Packer do with this and i think he would do something different that's why i'm at a b'

“it's a drain monster Pat Lawlor's like this is a location eating quarters he's at old school mentality yeah joe cats it's like i really want people to this to breathe really yes options i want to give people options”

Greg Bone@ 25:33 — Identifies tension between designer (Lawlor - difficulty) and coder (Castle - accessibility)

  • “you need to let it air a little bit maybe a little aeration there you need to let that breathe a little bit before you really enjoy that wine that's what this pen does versus just going straight into a harsh you know a chardonnay or something”

    Greg Bone@ 25:47 — Metaphor explaining why Willy Wonka requires extended play to unlock its complexity

  • “i sold mine because i played it more than every Jersey Jack Pinball that i've owned combined oh i played that it's a hell out of this game and guess what i want a collector's edition”

    Zach Sharp@ 19:32 — Personal testimony to the game's replayability and desire to upgrade to LE

  • “this rule set no they don't which is is they're that's just stupid that they can't understand and grasp but you know it's a weird thing because you played the hell out of it”

    Greg Bone@ 20:12 — Commentary on community misunderstanding of Willy Wonka's ruleset complexity

  • “when you find that out and you're trying to stack all that stuff and you're wanting to get everything rolling at the same time maybe slugworth multiball going at the same time that code is phenomenal it's actually one of my favorite codes ever”

    Greg Bone@ 21:45 — Declares Willy Wonka's ruleset one of his favorite codes in all of pinball

  • Jeremy Packer
    person
    Straight Down the Middleorganization
    Flip N Out Pinballcompany
    Pirates of the Caribbeangame
    Dialed Ingame
    Iron Mangame
    Walking Deadgame
    Jurassic Parkgame
    Hobbitgame
    Avengersgame
    PIN Stadiumcompany

    high · Greg Bone: 'when i'm looking at art package i kind of compare everything to a Jeremy Packer that's the gold standard oh and i say three i said what would Jeremy Packer do with this and i think he would do something different that's why i'm at a b'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Pat Lawlor design philosophy emphasizes punishing pop bumper outcomes and drain difficulty, contrasting with modern accessibility trends in pinball design

    medium · Greg Bone: 'Pat Lawlor's like this is a location eating quarters he's at old school mentality' and references drain difficulty in Whirlwind design

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Tension between designer Pat Lawlor's difficulty/drain monster approach (old school location mentality) and coder Joe Castle's accessibility/options philosophy (letting the game breathe)

    high · Greg Bone explicitly states: 'it felt like the coder and the designer might have been on different pages because Pat Lawlor it's a drain monster Pat Lawlor's like this is a location eating quarters he's at old school mentality yeah joe cats it's like i really want people to this to breathe really yes options'

  • $

    market_signal: Willy Wonka positioned as underrated/underappreciated in market despite strong design quality, with negative perception potentially linked to artwork and toy complaints

    high · Opening thesis: 'this game doesn't get a lot of love greg no gets a lot of hate everybody loves pirates eric man you're pirates i love you too eric but this game holds its own it's a sleeper'

  • ?

    community_signal: Joe Castle's code represents a unique architectural approach not previously seen in pinball, prioritizing player options and stackability

    high · Zach Sharp: 'there is a genius to that code set there is no there is that's what i'm saying nobody's done that type of code no it's so unique'

  • ?

    product_concern: Pop bumper punishment mechanic (inherited from Lawlor's earlier designs like Whirlwind) frustrating and potentially game-breaking for player momentum

    medium · Greg Bone criticizes out-of-pop-bumper harshness as a design remnant; notes it occurs during good ball runs and deflates player enthusiasm

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Zach Sharp's appreciation for Willy Wonka grew significantly through extended play, leading to sale of previous JJP machine and desire to repurchase LE version

    high · 'i sold mine because i played it more than every Jersey Jack Pinball that i've owned combined' and 'i ultimately why i got rid of the lx i'm like this is one of my favorite games i'm going to get a couple'