Hey everybody, it's [music] Gary and Ed from the Wild Dog Arcade. Today we're at the Stern headquarters. We're getting a look at
Pokemon.
Yes. Can't wait to get our [music] hands on this game. Looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. So yeah, what I've seen so far, what Gary's seen so far, it's been [music] pretty pretty awesome. So stay tuned. Pokemon, one of the [music] biggest and most successful franchises on the planet. And finally, just in time for its 30th anniversary, a real Pokemon [music] pinball machine is being released by Stern Pinball. Gary and I had a chance to take an early look at this game, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. Speaking for myself, I was a huge Pokemon fan when the television series and first movie came out. So, it was an amazing opportunity to revisit and unlock all of the nostalgia while connecting with other pinball and Pokémon [music] fans. In the days ahead, we plan to release a video showing Jack Danger, George Gomez, and many others from the Stern team, discussing the main elements and features of this new pen. But for now, we will first show you gameplay [music] of the pro and premium versions of Pokemon. And as a follow-up, we will give you [music] our thoughts on these machines.
All right,
Pokemon Premium. Pokemon Premium. The uh skill shots a little harder than I think it is. I'm used to having skill shots a little softer, but yeah. Um so far, this part here is going to be reminiscent of Junkyard.
Yeah, the upper arena.
Oh, you can actually go through it. I didn't see that before. All right. [snorts] Uh we've got quite a bit of stuff. You got your Mewtwo or sorry, Meowith balloon. Um although Mewtwo is in the middle of the playfield with Mew hanging out. So I'm really happy that that's there. Um Pikachu is there to cheer you on as you go through the ramps. And you'll notice there's also a captured ball here. But uh some targets to hit in order to train. Oh, almost got it up that round. And as you're collecting those things up there where the red rocket shot is with the Meowith um balloon, uh you're eventually going to be able to collect a character. Looks like Squirtle uh just popped up on the screen. All right, let's see what we can do for this round. Am I still shy? I move in the light. I notice there's no ball suits going on here.
No.
So that's probably early in the code.
Well, they probably trying to turn them off today.
Oh.
Oh, there we go. We got the balloon hit there.
Another bash toy moment.
Really similar to a junkyard with the uh wrecking ball.
Yeah.
Okay. Got some action happen there.
All right. And now we should probably get
Oh, yeah. Now go inside. Okay. Let's see what I can do here.
Up the middle. There we go.
There's your multiball.
Multiball, baby.
So, this is easy uh easiest to get multiball in the game. Designed for casual players. You
me with it a bunch.
Oh, ball's still there for the vaulted ball. Nice. All right.
Jackfly. Nice. By bashing the the Meowith toy, I was able to get the jackpot. Get the
jackpot on the right.
Yep. Oh, okay. So, there we go. Got that.
Oh, and I got a credit. It's super jackpot. What's this do? I I I just used the action button.
Action button gave you an
Oh, okay. Ah, almost had that.
That's an orbit, but not right.
Yes, little bit of a later shot, earlier shot than I was thinking here. Let's see what I can do as the ball comes back over. We got a pump bumper pop bumper over there. I just realized this game has one.
Yeah, it's got a pop bumper cluster up in the little upper left area.
Uh-huh. Ah, I got it that time. Nice. Got it on the run. Best way to do that. A it's okay. Jack, you don't know Jack.
Don't know Jack.
Oh, hey, that got in there where Psyduck's at. I [clears throat] didn't know that was there also.
I think that
Ah, okay. Okay, I hit through the middle again. Not [music] sure what that does. Oh, that was close. All right, keep going.
Okay,
purple shot. Okay, let's see if I can hit. Oh, Psyduck sneak in. That just happened. Whoopsies.
So, if you want to get into the action, you might want to short plunge on this game.
Yeah,
I'm going to try to
That would create dead bounce.
Yeah. Oh, see I got to learn. I got to learn
cuz I want to put it on the right so you can hit that shot.
There we go. There we go.
Now you can hit that left.
Oh, it went out. A, that's okay. The capture ball is not too bad. I like that there's three instead of just like one or two in there. In fact, isn't there more than one in there? There's like four in there.
That's interesting.
Oh, yeah. There's a series of them.
Wow. Okay.
Yeah, there there's a series of captured balls at the top. So
interesting. So I guess the harder you hit that,
the more it triggers.
Yeah. Okay.
Because there are opticals um in there. Yeah. So it can detect like each sequence of of knock.
Yeah. I just saw a bunch hit there. Looks like I got to hit more of the purple shots in order to maybe qualify this whole multiball. Uh oh, I have this qualified. Shoot. Hold on. See if I can backhand it.
I'm way too steep. Oh. Oh, it was open. It was way. That's why. So, you can back in that when the ramp when the flap is open. So, that ramp lifts up and down.
Uh-huh.
The town scoop
Okay. Shoot the town scoop.
Just go to the right side.
There we go. [snorts]
Mystery award 25.
Welcome to the forest where Beedrill Buzz and Leon work.
All right. Oh,
you know what I could do? I could put my mic up there when you play.
No, we're fine.
Oh, okay. You have something else to do.
This does.
Oh, okay.
It's right by the speaker.
Oh, okay. Okay.
So, we're getting some audio.
I just like the other ones cuz you can potentially get some better audio.
Yeah. Okay. I dead bounced that. That worked out.
Well, by default, by default, what I get to right there.
Yep.
Focus.
All right, here we go. Let's see if I can do anything.
Yes,
like Ed did here.
Yeah, pretty good.
I was able to do pretty good on this. So, I'm I'm liking what I'm seeing so far. Um, my fear isn't as bad as it once was at this moment.
Yeah.
You know, hearing that there's a lot more Pokémon also happening.
Yeah. 150ome Pokemon plus more coming.
Yeah.
So, that that's good. That means there's going to be like code on a lot of stuff,
right? Yeah. So, but the biggest fear that we had is that this is going to be too much
too stripped down, too easy. Um, just very much focused on mostly kids. I don't really feel that way right at the moment. It's definitely geared towards kids. I won't lie.
Yeah. So, that that leaked photo didn't actually do the artwork justice at all. It looks looks a lot better in person.
Mhm.
Um and it plays it plays pretty good. The shots are tighter than like a junkyard style shot. So, it's not going to shoot quite as easy as
Right. Sorry. I was concentrating on it. It's not going to shoot quite as easy. Whoa. Hello. Hello. Hello.
Yeah, there's a lot of uh narrow type shots here and there.
But the the best part also is you you're going to feel a lot more satisfied.
And the one of the things that uh Oh, it made it.
Oh, it made it.
Barely. One of the things that is tricky about pinball is the ability to get others to really enjoy it and admire pinball. And my hope is that when a game like this is on location, it's going to have it's going to be able to a stand the test of time and b um even if there's some parts not quite working, it'll still be a lot of fun and enjoyable for kids. Another
another replay. Um, the other thing that also is invaluable is knowing that there's a lot more than what John Youssi on the machine itself. Cuz yeah, the art is all about the 150 original generation one Pokémon. But because of what we've heard and what they're planning on doing, um, it's definitely going to open a lot more within this game, which is good.
Shots are shots are not impossibly tight. That's good.
Yeah.
So, I'm doing a pretty good job of hitting the orbits and things. See if I can hit some Meowtha here up here.
All right. Now, I should be able to get this multiball.
I don't mind the junkyard aspect. I've always liked junkyard. If anything, it's probably one of my favorite easy pins. Uh that's still a lot more enjoyable to play these days. The multiball is really fun in this, isn't it?
Yeah.
There you go. Still, you got ball still.
Yeah, that's what I wasn't too worried about cuz I have a uh I have a ball save ready for me there.
Oh, okay.
And some green flashing action button.
Uhhuh. All right, getting some super jackpots lit. Trying to shoot the center lane in order to get the super jackpot. Oh, let's see. What does that do? That did add a ball. Nicely done there, Gary. A classic uh strategy for a lot of string games is uh you're down a few balls on multiball. Well,
if you got a mystery available and had a ball in in multiball night, so I waited and waited until I was about to lose my second to last ball.
Yoh. Okay, let's see if I can get There we go. Nice.
Yeah, that the what's funny is I as I was showing clips earlier when they were doing the the beginning of for the presentation for this game, I'm like, "Oh yeah, I forgot there's a Meowith balloon that the Red Rocket team in the first generation uh you know, first season of the show, they would ride around in all the time." So, it's it's great to have that in this game. I like that. makes a suitable replacement for the junkyard cone.
Yeah, it does actually. It's a lot different, isn't it?
Yeah. Oh,
okay.
I'm sure it's also able to uh stand up a lot more, you know, abuse. Exactly. [snorts]
All right.
Well, it's interactive as opposed to the junkyard balls. You sort of like always in the way. Yeah.
You had to get it moving so you could hit the shot.
This one actually moves in and out way, which is nice.
Right. Exactly.
Okay. Okay. So, I'm going I've got some training stuff lit. I'm going to see if I can hit that.
Hit the poke ball.
Okay.
It's lit.
Oh, it is. Okay. Hold on. Let me see if I can
That's nudge.
Thanks.
Oh, what do I do now? Oh, Pikachu versus Raichu. Okay. Yellow arrows. Sweet.
Of course, you got to shoot the yellow arrow.
Of course. I mean, it's yellow. It's Pikachu. It's Raichu.
Oh my gosh. There we go. Got one. That was a nice satisfying shot there. Oops. I bumped the camera on accident. I think it's still okay. It's right.
Oh, that was close.
Okay, good. Thank you. I'm doing pretty good on this mode so far. I just realized I'm going to cheat myself by saying that out loud.
Yeah,
but that's all right cuz I want Gary to also play.
I have a pretty long
Okay, good. Yeah, you did. Nice. Ah, okay. Good. Super jackpot. Okay, good. Able to do Oh, battle ball. All right. That's your ball. Yeah. Anytime the action button is splashing in most during games during a multiball, it's it's an
Yeah, I do like the fact of how the balls are returning to the flippers. Um
the the ramps made it back down the hat trails.
Yeah, exactly. Like there's a good easy way for the ball to return. Uh even if you miss a shot, it's easily recoverable versus say Winchester.
Yeah. You know,
I mean, that's what you get with the same layout is pretty predictable ball return,
right? Yeah.
This thing it's going to be interesting to like figure out. All right. Now, how do I collect Pokemon? How do I uh train [music] them up,
evolve them? So,
exactly.
This is our first time playing it, so we're not 100% on all of that mechanic.
Okay. So, I just filled up my training bar. It looks like I'm going to try to hit that train.
Yep. going to try to get to the uh ramp. Oh, I got a mystery word, though. Five Pokeballs. Ooh, that sounds cool. Can I catch five Pokemon with those five Pokéballs?
I guess that's what you got to do is once you you have to have the Pokéball in order to catch a Pokemon.
Uh-huh. Oh, I just got Squirtle.
Squirtled. [laughter]
Nice. So, we're part of that little dance there. We're going to do Squirtles. Oh, ball save. Maybe I saw this flag. Oh, no. This was above that. That's right. Okay.
Yeah, that's not the ball save.
Ah, I got it started at least. Squirrel squad total. [laughter]
Another mode.
Okay.
All right.
Did they say that they have
They do. It'll be in the other room.
Yeah. So, we'll be able to get good video of those.
Okay.
All right. [clears throat] Thank you. So, we got to wrap it up now.
All right. So, first play through so far. Um, it it plays better than it the the leaked images look. So,
yeah. I mean, never ever rely fully on just photos, even if it's an official thing. And like with any game, you got to play it first in order to kind of get a feel
and a desire of what you want to understand.
All right. I will let it drain.
Yep.
All right.
The wrap-up screen.
Wrap-up screen.
Yeah. Okay.
Just let the game finish. Yep.
So, yeah. First play through of Pokemon Pinball. It's a premium edition. So, what do you think so far?
Um, yeah. I mean, it's it's fun. It's it's if you're an expert player, you're going to enjoy it right away in terms of like the shots. You're going to gather that and make sure you keep going with it. But knowing that there's a lot of features and you're also got a grand champion on here.
Is that me, by the way?
Yeah. I just I want to put
Wild Doug.
Yeah. [laughter]
Um, knowing that they have other features coming in, it's going to be a lot of fun. So, I'm looking forward to it. All right. All right,
there's a quick fan. Woo!
All right, here we go.
Got the skill shot.
Skill shot.
[laughter]
already lowered too.
Yeah. Stand on this side. Do what? Stand on this side of me. No, you can stand on this side of me. I got to aim so it'll pick you up. Okay. There we are.
Pokemon to scan Pokemon. have to move the lights around.
Yeah.
Oh, I made it.
Yeah, barely.
There we go. Got All right, we got pigeon. Got a lice a lock.
I call it a pig. Todd.
Well done, Gary.
Cool. Now, okay, so it looks like it got to go in one of those ramps.
There we go. Got the shot. Proceeded to
bounce up and out. Yeah. The Squirtle has saved.
But you got a Pokemon card. I got a sign. You got five of 182. All right. And now you can do this down for me. [laughter] We need to punch it. But first, the pop bumpers.
So, no magnets on the pros. That's what I've noticed so far.
Yep. The uh Pikachu doesn't move and uh the Pokeball doesn't animate either,
right? I noticed I have the King Kong light spotlights in the swing.
Oh yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
A little bit of a later shot than I wanted.
Almost. Oh,
I think the hardest thing is trying to get the timing down with the the ramps because it's not quite where you think it is.
There we go. All right.
All right.
So, let's see. So, you can do the skill shot or if you I think if you hold the left flicker, it'll go all the way through. Yep.
Interesting.
Yeah. So, if you don't want to do that particular thing, you can uh you can
Okay. Oh, you got Pikachu versus Raichu now.
All right.
Pikachu jackpots big brother
or Pikachu's big brother is Raichu. I don't know.
It looks like he's a brother.
I'm wondering if this game actually favors dead.
Yeah.
Does every game favor dead? [laughter]
No. Okay. No.
All right.
Nice.
Let's get that three ball going. Get some action in.
Yeah.
One, two, three.
Yeah.
Get on it. Come on.
Pikachu wins.
Pikachu wins.
Yeah, kids.
Oh, I messed up the puns there.
You didn't even just move the table. Your whole leg went in the air and everything. to catch the Pokemon.
Now you got to now you got to hit the Pokéball.
Okay.
Nope. I had it back in there before,
right? But that wasn't that wasn't the ramp.
No, it wasn't.
The ramp was up. So, yeah.
All right. Well, I got this lit, too. So, I'm going to try to hit that now. You did not collect that Pokemon. Of
course not.
Pokemon discovered.
Shoot the town scoop to collect a mystery award.
There we go. Finally.
Got it. All right. All right. We got the right again is on.
Yeah.
That brain, dude. That's exactly what that's there for. I somehow went back around. I don't know why.
For a second, I thought it glitched and stopped or something.
I didn't intend to do that. I just missed plunge.
Do what?
I just missed plunge. Oh. Oh, I just realized Pikachu's cheeks are glowing
in the playfield.
Oh,
yeah. At least I don't I don't know if it's during this mode that you got and that's why I haven't seen Oh, team rocket multiple. I haven't seen this one yet.
All right, let's see what happens. All right. Side duck side duck in.
This game will be good. This game will be good for muscle memory.
Yeah. Yeah. Nicely done. You got both ramps at the same time that that last hit. Nicely done. 10 balls coach ball forest.
You want to you want to on this one now?
Let me finish my game.
Okay.
I'm learning.
That's why I wanted That's okay.
148. All right.
All right.
Here we are. Now we've gotten a chance to play some Pokemon pinball. We're going to go through some of our thoughts with that.
Yeah.
So, Ed, what was your first impression?
Well, wow. Um, I was really really afraid that this game is going to be way too easy and thus not fun. [laughter]
Um, because at the point where we're at in our pinball career, so to speak, um, we're a little more advanced players, that sort of thing. I didn't realize how much of a wave of nostalgia really kind of washed over me when I played this game because I haven't watched Pokemon in so long. That being said, with that being all established, um I felt the shots were very um intuitive and and satisfying. I felt the modes uh at so far at this point feel complete. And finally, um the main features of the games um I would say overall with the Pro [music] and the Premium, there's a lot to offer the players regardless. Um, and we'll talk a bit more about what's in the pro and what's in the premium.
But I [music] think with what the the game has to offer, I'm feeling happy so far and I definitely want to play it more [music] and more.
Uh, my first impressions. So, so my first impressions when I came into this is you there was that leaked photo that we saw the shots and that didn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling. I'm like, "Oh man, this it looks a lot like, you know, other games that we've seen and stuff like that." Um, the bad photo in that that screenshot didn't really actually do the game justice. It looks a lot better in person as far as the quality of the art. You know, I don't know whether that was a prototype or not. It looks a whole lot better. And as Ed [music] said that shots on this game are really intuitive. I think a novice player is going to be able to step up to this game and and hit shots and feel some feel pretty satisfied with doing stuff. The shots layout is very very intuitive. it. You're going to be able to hit stuff after you develop a game with a little bit of muscle memory. So, I think I think a novice player is going to really enjoy this. The the multiball that you can get, which hitting the bash toy in the middle, what's the name of that character?
Um, Meowith.
Meowith. Yeah.
Uh, that one is an easy to hit shot. So, you can get an average player will be able to get a multiball going really good and play with this. Now, that being said, I'm actually interested in the mechanics of the game where capture a Pokemon, evolve it, bat, and battle with battle with them. So, I think it's going to lend itself to a lot of things. Um, you know, first impression is a tournament player might go, "Oh, that's going to be an easy game." But I think this one's going to be differentiated by the code.
Yeah, exactly. Um, it also something else that I realized too was I think the big thing about the bachelor that worried me the most is is it kind of a brainless sort of thing that you kind of go into this habit with junkyard cuz with junkyard, you know, obviously there was some limitations back then. You're just more or less just batting it up there with no no nothing really there.
Yeah. The junkyard ball is in the way a lot of times when you're trying to because it's just swinging around doing stuff. But then as you're starting to hit all those targets that are around the Meowith balloon, you're you're realizing, oh, this does this and I can do that and now this starts this mode and so on.
Yeah. Yeah. And I I think that the bat bash toy was actually very purposely used. It was actually, you know, cuz it came down when it needed to bash it and it moved out of the way when you didn't want it. So given that it's interactive with the game
made it a more engaging mech because it's not there when you it doesn't need to be there.
Yeah. So, that was kind of my worry is that there was just going to be this bash toy that's just always in the way of doing stuff.
Yeah. I mean, and if also the other thing I had in mind, too, is that let's say you're not hitting those shots on [music] the ramps or you're just jumping into the game for the first time, you don't know really what you're doing, it's a good bet that you're going to at least [music] do something and be able to do something just by shooting the middle and sort of bashing that thing um to oblivion if you need to and still have a good time with it.
Um so, that's important.
Yeah. going on that same thing. I I definitely think it's going to be a very uh engaging game, especially if you're poke Pokemon Pokemon fan. Yeah, Ed was into Pokemon in his younger years. I was never into that. So, I'm [music] not that familiar with the lore of Pokemon,
but I know a lot of people who played Pokémon Go and play other games, so I've like gleaned a bit of what the universe is about. And I think it's going to make for a great in deep pinball game. You know, they said they had what 151 Pokemon or something.
Well, well, the [music] first generation had 150 and then Stern had revealed that there's a bit more Pokemon that will be in this game as well. Um, the number that was tossed out that we saw on the machine was 181, but who knows what else they're going to be.
Yeah, they said there's more to come. So, so you're going to be able to collect a lot more. Now, that being said, they also said you're they're just a collection. They're not carryover things,
right? You can't trade them.
They won't be carrying over from game to [music] game,
right? Or that, too. [clears throat] Exactly. It's it's preliminary code. Uh so what with some of the stuff [music] we saw today has not been officially approved and released to the public yet. Uh as far as the games will not maybe we'll have this asset [music] or if Pokemon does, you know, say no, you can't do it this way. You need to do it a different way. They'll have to change it.
Yeah, they did talk about also that that that Nintendo in general is very very stringent about what is going to be in the machine.
That segus into the IP. They were very very tight on the control. All of the artwork is official artwork from Pokemon they put in this game and they they looked over apparently like every [music] pixel they were looking down and deep for like what is the the line width of the outline around that
and this foot is too close to this head so you can't put those two characters together real quick. Yeah, they were very very particular about the artwork on this. So the the uh video and audio assets are coming from the original series. All series
uh it was like 10 to 24.
Yeah, it's going to focus more on like 10 to 23 or 24. So they're not going to be doing some of the original art because at some point they apparently went higher definition. So they wanted to use assets from that era, not not the too early assets because apparently also some Pokemon lore, some of the original stuff became not canon anymore either. So
yeah, they had mentioned that season 1 and season two, some of those things don't occur in
the canon universe,
right? Exactly.
It is its own thing.
It's its own own self-contained universe of Pokemon.
Yeah. So it is not integrated into the greater Pokemon universe. So
that's fine. I mean, you're there to have fun and it is kind of a unique thing, this pinball machine really. So, um, but yeah, I think, um, what what were some of the things you like the most about this game, Gary?
Um, I think a lot of the shots connect really well. There's a lot of flow when you hit the ramps, they feed down to flippers, and then you can get orbits, and you can get a lot of combo stuff going,
right?
So, it's kind of the opposite style of game to like a King Kong or a Winchester Mystery House. It's like this is it's more of definitely more of flow players [music] game style and that you know granted it's a two flipper setup. So it's going [music] to have to be done that way. Uh which you know there's absolutely nothing wrong with that especially when you're trying to get new people that are not familiar with pinball [music] because the Pokemon fan base may not be pinball players. This is their going to be their introduction to Pokemon. That is the most important thing to mention is because when we were walked in here and they did the slideshow, they showed us how much money [music] this franchise makes per year for how much it represents.
It's a huge
It's bigger with all the they were showing all the ones on the bottom,
Star Wars and a whole bunch of others fandom money universes combined, right?
It's bigger than them all like combined. So
that is a huge order to fill because you are not only needing to fulfill making sure that the game is accessible to the younger audience which is what Pokémon is more or less about the demographics of it
but also [music] uh introduce new players to the Pokemon universe as well as pinball and pinball in general. Exactly. Come in, experience modern pinball. Does this isn't this isn't that old beat up em you saw at the local [music] bar in your small town in the 1970s.
So, what I'm leading up to is [music] yes, this is not a typical game, but keep in mind that there are reasons behind it. And also, treat it as if it's a be movie.
Yeah, it's you know what I mean?
You know, I'd like to categorize that a little bit. It's it's [music] an easy game as in it's not going to be that difficult to learn and [music] understand the shots, right? Easy to approach,
hard to master. Yeah.
Because there's going to be a lot of deep rules in this [music] game.
Yeah. And this is where the whole Insider Connected is going to help out. You you get achievements [music] and things like that, but it's also and also the modern computers that run these games [music] can do a whole lot more. So, it's going to it's going to be neat to see where and how much more it codes. This date game is definitely going to hinge on the code.
Yeah, definitely. I I I think also given the fact that, you know, we know that the playfield isn't like, I don't know, say uh Winchester Mystery House or DND or whatever, that doesn't mean that the game is going to be boring. It just means that it's a different way to play the game
as well as the theming that goes with it. So,
yeah. I mean, if you love a lot of the '90s classic two flipper fan layout games, you know, obviously Junkyard, Cactus Canyon, you know, a whole bunch of them come to mind, you're going to step up to it and intuitively be able to hit your shots.
They're not Cactus Canyon wide, but they're not Houdini tight. So, they're kind of somewhere in the middle. So, I didn't find any of the shots to be terribly utterly difficult,
right? So, which is good for a lot of players. Exactly. So you'll and an experienced player will be able to get really deep into this code.
Yeah. I I just I kind of wish that there it wasn't I mean haters are going to hate. I get it.
But it is kind of sad to see that you know just if you do give the game a chance and if you do keep those things in mind and you treat it as if it's a be movie, a popcorn movie, like you got Jaws. Everyone loves Jaws. So the same sort of thing is happening with Pokémon except it's in a different uh generational thing. Some of us grew up liking the show and watching it and they even have kids now and now they get to, you know, share this love and experience it with their kids.
What is Pokemon about?
Well, there are 150 and my [music] kids know all of them. They know all the names. They know everything about them.
This is a theme that most people will see and [music] recognize whether you grew up in Pokémon or not, like I didn't, but Ed did. you're going to recognize this IP and you'll probably have a basic understanding of what the universe is thanks to the movies that came out, right? And the movie, you know, the TV shows, the TV shows, your kid, their kids watching them, you're you're going to understand the IP. So,
many many many Pokémon games have come and gone in the past 25 years as well.
Different different generations of gamers have experienced that.
Exactly.
So, it's good. [music] So, the artwork, I mean, we did touch on the art. The artwork is very much tightly controlled artwork by Pokemon themselves.
Yeah, I it would have been kind of cool to say if it was like a graphic artist sort of like reinterpretation of things like like look at King Kong. It wouldn't have worked if they hadn't have done the rework of the character and they had that freedom and ability to do so,
right? Um but
but if you're a fan of Pokemon, you'll see your favorite Pokemon stuff. So
So it's good. I mean, the cabinets, the cabinets all look good, but they look very on theme for the Pokemon and stuff. So,
yeah. I mean, you like everyone else, you're going to have your favorite amongst others. What's funny is again, I feel like the pro art on the on the playfield and on the cabinet art looks better than the premium, but
I am also very partial to Mewtwo.
Yeah. Yeah. Mewtwo.
Mewtwo is featured on the pro cabinet and back glass artwork. which is kind of cool. So, speaking of the differences between the Pro, Premium, and LE,
the Pro and Premium look really similar. There's not a lot of you. There's not obvious things that are taken out. So, you'll see in the back right part of the playfield, there's Pikachu. In the premium and less, it interacts with the game and and moves around like that. Um, the Pokeball, which is another, you know, enigmatic thing, interacts with the game as well in the premium and LE, but it does it doesn't do anything in the pros,
but they're still there. It's not like they're gone.
So, visually, you won't notice that. And then I think it's the um that little hideout area where the duck hide sneak in is missing from the Pro.
Okay.
So, that is not there. Awesome.
That's a bummer. I like that shot.
Yeah, there's I think there's a shot, but it doesn't do the kick out in some subway. It doesn't like capture it and pop it out somewhere else. So,
it's underneath the play field is where the differences are.
Yeah, I do miss the magnet, honestly.
Oh, yeah. And then there's the magnet.
I I I want the magnet. I wish that the magnet was on the pro because I do like um the added uh challenge and the added randomness to it.
So, what Ann's talking about is in the middle of the playfield, the upper back. It's where the junkyard was in Junkyard. It's the arena up there. And there is a in the premium and le there's a magnet that will
swing the ball around and do things to it. The pro doesn't have that magnet. So you lose some of that additional chaos. So
yeah. So
yeah. So the question becomes, okay, so as I play the pro and premium more and more, like do I really miss the magnet more than the other one? Cuz I can't recall what else is missing out of the pro versus the premium.
Yeah, it was basically those four things. the interactive Pikachu, the magnet, uh the interactive Pokeball, and then the physical mech stuff for the Psyduck sneak. That's really the big differences in in playfield gameplay cuz the Psyduck will be able to do like locks and stuff whereas some virtual lock stuff in pros. Pretty typical differences.
I if if we're missing anything out, I'm going to add it to a sub like a little subtitle on the bottom and say, "Oh, we should have mentioned this." So,
there you go.
All right. So, here's how the pop bumpers work. The right orbit has an up post that can stop the ball in order for it to drop into the pops, or it can let it pass and do a full orbit. [music] The manual plunge normally drops it into the pops for the skill shot, but if you hold the left flipper down when you plunge, it will go around the orbit. Now, I thought I thought this was a nice touch for this machine, and as such, I didn't really feel like the game play slowed down too much because [music] of the pop bumpers. Um but yeah, I think um from from what from how I felt before I walked in versus how I am feeling now about it, I feel way better.
Yeah, I I wish I wish that photo hadn't have leaked that biased. I think a lot of opinions on people if you look at the internet there's a lot of haters and there's some and then there are people that are like I love it. It's Pokemon period doesn't matter. me. I just was a little worried about like how much similarity it would play to Junkyard and how easy Junkyard was. This is not going to be shotwise. It's not going to be the most difficult shooter,
but you still have to learn the rules, unlock the modes, collect the Pokemon you, you know, and battles.
Yeah, there there's varying amounts of uh how much time do you want to spend on it? How much better do you want to be at pinball? And that will allow you to
[music]
uh continue the the the journey and the challenge. And my feeling is that there's enough that that they have
Yeah.
that they'll be able to give us
and they can keep adding to it. That's the one nice thing about the whole modern pinball ecosystem is they can add updates in code unlike old games where the operator would have to get a ROM and then it was mostly just like we found a bug. You know, we didn't really add new assets. We tweaked a few little things, but games just in the '9s just weren't as deep as today's games can be. And with the new Spike 3 system with a much more powerful computer bounty, they can do a lot more,
right?
Which [music] is nice. So,
yeah. Yeah, definitely.
But all in all, I think um overall o overall I think our impressions of the game are good are good. You know, we're pleased with the way it came out.
I also heard rumblings that, you know, that oh, you didn't it's you know, it's not ready yet. The assets aren't ready yet. Well, big deal. You got a little watermark that says assets um pending. Big deal.
Yeah.
I don't think that's a huge deal. So,
if that's the only thing that that came of it and that's what people are going to complain about, that's silly.
Yeah, it's silly because that's that'll get that'll get released and, you know, license so there won't be an issue with that.
Right. Right. Um, but overall, it's great to see that Stern's adventuring into different territories in terms of those things because I can only imagine what the challenges are um when working with a company like Nintendo or any any other company for that matter that really want to keep their assets and their and their properties in the the correct ways and so forth, which makes sense. It's your It's your beloved baby. I get it.
Yeah. It's like one of the largest IPs. So, they they're going to be very tight on the control.
So, in a sense, they might have I don't know if Stern's necessarily come out of their comfort zone, per se, uh to create this and that and then that's the result of it or if they have other things in mind where they're going to continue to grab other other IPs and other things to try to get more and more people into pivol. That's what I'm curious about in the future. But all in all, I think it was it was a good experience with the game. It exceeded my expectations [music]
and that's the best kind, right?
All right, that's it. Thanks for watching this video. I hope you like what we do. And if you do, like this [music] video, and then subscribe and click that notification bell. That way, you get notified when we go live [music] with Pinball or we have a new video upload.
And please drop some comments as well. We'd love to hear what your thoughts are on this game, what you want to see out of Pokemon, and anything that's on your mind. So, hope to hear from you and uh hope to see you when we go live again.
All right. Thanks. Bye
bye.