Welcome to Pinball Pursuit. I'm Mrs. J. And I'm Dr. C. And today we're going to be kind of going over the new reveal, which is Star Wars Fall of the Empire by Stern. Correct. So this game, a couple of details on it. It was designed by John Borg, who has designed a few games. Quite a few. TMNT, he did Metallica, which we have in the house right now. We do. He's done quite a bit of games. Prolific designer. And the code was by Raymond Davidson, also known as Ray Day. Ray Day. This is his first non-music pen. So we'll see if he can tell a story. Oh, okay. Because music fans don't really have stores. Foo Fighters does. Foo Fighters does. That's true. Foo Fighters has actually a really fun store. Yeah. Anywho. So yeah. We're going to be going over that. We're going to be going over Spike 3. All the different things. I have some questions. Yeah. One thing to note about this release, which was really exciting for us, even though we couldn't do it. We got invited by Stern to go see this game live. And I'm the problem. It's me. We couldn't go. Too close to a baby coming. So we hope to, or Dr. C hopes to, you know, go to the next one. We'll see where me and the baby are at that point. Yeah. So in case you didn't know, we're four weeks away. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how I can be trusted with a child. Same. We're not old enough for this. No. This is baby number one. Baby number one for us. So. Buckle up. But we're excited. We're super excited. We couldn't go because of that. but you know Zach Sharp let us know that we're on the list for the next one already very exciting so I hope it's Pokemon I know I know that would be a dream it is a dream theme for you it's a dream theme for me yeah well let's talk about this theme what is your relationship to Star Wars my relationship with Star Wars I feel like is a very casual relationship okay I've seen them all at least once okay I remember probably like maybe five ten years ago my parents from Santa got us all of the original Star Wars movies on Blu-ray. 4, 5, 6? Yes, correct. See, this is how casual I am. And we all watched them as a family. Did I stay awake through all of them? Can't make any guarantees. She's the worst, guys. It's a gift and a curse. I fall asleep literally anywhere and you turn on a movie, you make me cozy, you make me comfy. I'm out. It's the worst. I have to poke. So, my relationship does not run very deep. We were watching Mandalorian at one point, which I consider to be Star Wars-esque. Yeah, very much so. We didn't finish it, though. We got through season two, and it kind of felt like it was a good stopping point. Yeah, and we just didn't pick it. And we didn't pick a book of love effect because it didn't come out great. So that's my relationship with Star Wars. How, where are you? Well. He's a little more deep into it than I am. I love Star Wars. I've always loved Star Wars. I remember when they were re-released in theaters in the early 90s I was a kid I was probably I think that was like 94, 95 so I would have been 10 or 11 and I remember going with my dad to the theater and seeing them again it was incredible I remember when Phantom Menace came out and standing in line for a midnight showing of the Phantom Menace so excited I would probably still to this day put The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite film of all time. Oh, great. You are way more hardcore than I knew. I've read some of the books. Basically, I've read the original Thrawn trilogy for those that are ultra Star Wars fans. They're fantastic. They're so good. I am in the camp of I really don't like the sequel trilogy. Okay. The newer ones. Oh my gosh. So like the newer ones starting with like Jar Jar Binks or the new ones starting with Rey and BB-8? That one. Okay, thank you. I think, okay, the prequels are not great films. But they're good. Yes, Jar Jar's annoying and there's too much of him in episode one. But I think that they get a bad rap. Okay. I think they're way better than they have been, their legacy is. If you're going to watch Star Wars for the first time, you should watch The Machete Order. What does that mean? The Machete Order is where you watch episode four. Episode 5. And you get that classic spoiler alert for who hasn't seen Star Wars. I am your father's mom. That's still in the OG. OG. Okay. And then you go back and you watch episodes 1, 2, and 3 to find out, oh my gosh, how did you become that? And then you end with episode 6. Oh, interesting. It's the perfect... So you mix the two kind of eras. So basically you treat episodes 1, 2, and 3 as a flashback in between episodes 5 and 6. Oh interesting Great way to watch it Very cathartic Makes it even better Maybe we should do that sometime It very fun Okay Um so I like Star Wars I think like is downplaying it a little Um, love it. I love Star Wars. So that is kind of where we're at with the theme itself. Yeah. Um, let's talk about Star Wars Pinball. Star Wars Pinball has quite a history. Um, from what I remember, don't need to love my head. There was the Data East Star Wars machine. There was a Sega Star Wars machine. There was the Phantom Menace Star Wars machine. There was the Star Wars 2017 machine by Stern. Okay, so that's the one that I know. That's the only one that I think you've... See, that's the... I'm learning a lot. Because I just knew of that Stern one, which, spoiler, I don't love, and Mandalorian. Yep, and Mandalorian. And I knew about those two, and I was like, don't we have enough? I had no idea there were three did you say three others? there's four other ones so I've played all of them oh I did not know this yes I've played all of them so the first one, the Data East one I actually played for the first time at the Flipper Room, shout out to Mike he had it set up when I was there last and I played in the last league there when I was traveling in California I played with Mike on his group for match play, and we played the Data East Star. I got second. Is that the oldest one? That's the oldest one. And when do you think that that was put into production? Early 90s. Okay, okay, she's old. Early 90s. Yeah, and it has my favorite really bad call-out of, like, a C-3PO sound-alike. Then it goes, shoot the Death Star! Oh my gosh! And it's not on point? And it's not great. You can tell it's someone trying to sound like C-3PO. Yeah. Shoot the Death Star! Their best impression. Yeah. Do a C-3PO. And then I've played the Sega one. My friend, Susan, shout out to Susan, her friend, who I used to visit quite a bit, had a pinball machine in my basement. Oh. And it was the Sega Star Wars. Okay. So I played that one. Was that like back in the day? Back in the day. This was a back in the day thing, before I even met you. Oh, weird. I don't know. And then the Phantom Menace, which is Pinball 2000, where it had the hologram that projects onto the... It's weird. We played the attack... Revenge from Mars. We played a hologram. Yeah, so they made two of them. Revenge from Mars and Phantom Menace is the other one. So is Jar Jar in there? Yes, he is. I don't know why I'm obsessed. I'm like, ooh, he makes an appearance. He makes an appearance. He is in that one. It's not great. Oh, okay. It's okay. I played that one at the Pacific Pinball Museum, which we have a tour on the video on the channel oh nice so i played that there uh and then obviously we've played the Mandalorian and the 2017 Star Wars yeah so yeah we had a spoiler alert yeah i don't love the 2017 Star Wars one here's the thing again me being not the hugest Star Wars fan but still appreciating Star Wars you know i walked up to it and i was like oh Star Wars and i looked into it and i was like oh boring like there's like nothing in the play field there And then I played it, and I was like, no, I judged this book correctly by its cover. It's not my favorite. It's not my favorite. I agree with you. Thank you. There's like a TIE fighter on a spring and like a little Death Star in the corner. Yeah. That's it. That's it. It doesn't feel very Star Wars-y. No. And so then when I heard they were making another one, I was like, another one? And that's when I thought that there were one or two. So. I like Mando. Mando gets bad rap sometimes, I think. We haven't played it enough to really, I think, have a solid opinion on it. Yeah. We'll probably get it in the house and do a tutorial on it later. I'll give it an honest opinion then. I've only played it a few times. So, but this new one. Let's talk about it. What is your first impression after seeing... Because you've watched a couple of the videos. Yeah. Okay, tell me your first impressions. There's a lot more to it. I would not walk up to this and think, mmm, boring. Sorry, let me pull up my notes. But there are a lot of things in there. There's a lot of things in there. I made a small list of things. thing is I love all the sound effects. They have like Vader breathing. They have Chewie. They have the lightsaber when it goes through the spinner. Thank you. I like that on ball one, it does the like episode four crawl. And then on ball two, apparently it's the second film's crawl. Oh, that's fun. And ball three is the turn of the Jedi. Yeah. I think that's cool. I mean, the sound effects and the sound effect when you start. It just looks so much more exciting. There's so much more to do. I would walk up to that machine and I would be like, okay, I want to play this. I want to play this. I love all the little things. I mean, I think they took a lot of feedback from the first one. I bet they did. And they're like, oh, it's empty. Okay, let's put everything in here. Let's put a Death Star. Let's put Darth Vader head. Let's put a Death Star. Let's put a Stormtrooper. Let's put a Millennium Falcon. Let's put Jabba the Hutt. Let's put an AT-AT. And that's the thing that is so disappointing about the first one. There are so many things. It's not like you have to dig to figure out what to put in there. No, give so many opportunities. So many opportunities. So I think it looks really cool The sculpts look amazing I think the Lightning Falcon my favorite Ooh And it has the hyperspeed jump where it has the ramp on the premium and limited edition that goes up and then you shoot it through the backbox. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Looks super cool. Like, such a cool shot. And there's a multiball associated with it. Yeah. A lot of people were complaining about there being another Death Star, because there's a Death Star in, like, the old Data East one. There's one in the Sea Britchies 2017 one. But this one's cool, guys. it opens up and it locks balls. And isn't the Death Star in like every movie? Not in some sense. Okay, so almost every movie. I feel like the Death Star is a large focal point. Yeah, exactly. So I'm not mad about that. And I love that it's a ball lock. Yeah, it's cool. And you get it on the Pro too, not just the Premium. Oh, that's exciting. So love that. It's really cool looking. The Jabba the Hutt I could do without. I kind of wish it was like, they had a bunch of ships and then just Jabba. I kind of wish it would have had his sand crawler thing above. Oh, really? Because I think I'm like, too many ships. Let's throw in a character. Like, where's Chewie, you know? Yeah. Exactly. But see, I'm not big into ships and cars and things. I want to see people. I will have to do a picture. I'll maybe put a picture here. I build a lot of Lego. Like, all of my Lego is helmets and ships. I should have put them behind us, but yeah. I love building all the ships. I have a TIE Fighter, a Slave I, a X-Wing. I can't tell what I have right now. I'm hoping to get the Lightning Poggle. Not the giant one, but there's a smaller one. Oh, yeah, that giant one is. I don't know where you'd put it. I don't know where you'd put it either. There's no way we could do it. So, yeah, I think the play field looks really cool. The code so far looks really cool. Like, there's some cool multiballs in it. It looks like they've really been like, okay, we've got to put a lot more video assets in here. You gotta make sure this feels like a story and not just a weird... Again, they're taking a lot of feedback, I think, from the original. Yeah. I think they're trying to redeem themselves on this one. I think so, too. Just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this. And totally redeem yourself! Ha ha! Ha ha! All right, so let's get into the art package. Yeah. Pro Premium LE. you have to choose which one you're going with. Based on art alone. Of course it's the Ellie. Like, they know what they're doing, okay? Yeah, yeah. The Ellie's got the cool snow scene on the sides. Battle of Hoth. I think that one's really cool. They're going through them and I'm like, okay, that's nice, that's nice. And then I was like, ooh. It is very different. I like that. It's a different color scheme. Yeah. It's got the blue powder coating armor. So that would be my vote. based on the art on the sides alone. I love that that has the cool Darth Vader on the side of it, like in Hoth base. But for me, it's the premium. I think the premium has a cool sort of package. It has the bounty hunters on it. It's just very core Empire Strikes Back, which Battle of Hoth is too. But I think that one, a lot of people are saying that one should have been the other because they like it better. Oh, interesting. Yeah. I'll have to go back and take a look again. I just remember that one stood out most to me. Which is fine. And... If I had to guess, that was what I would have to guess. I wouldn't be mad. I mean, I'm sure that they'll have these things in the premium, but I really need where the AT-AT falls down. Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, everything that's in the premium, gameplay-wise, is going to be in the LE. You like it with the AT-AT? Yes, I thought that was so cool and so fun. And, I mean, clearly... It's a simple thing. Yeah, they like it too, because it was very prominent in the promotional video. I like how it goes around the ramp, kind of above it, in a circle, and then it falls down, just like the tow cables. Yep. Very well done. Very well done, Stern. And I don't think it would do that in the Pro. It doesn't. It just stands there. A couple of other changes in the Pro versus Premium. The hyperspace jump doesn't go up and down. Oh, it just stays up. It stays up. But, you know, it's not the worst. It's not the worst. You lose some of the sculpts, like the heads. I think Jabba's not in the Pro. Aw. Which might make you happy, but makes me sad. I mean, I don't love the job. But the saddest thing is the pros don't have the magnetic ball save. The Force Jedi ball save. Yeah. See, I think it looks really cool. You know, it makes it look like it's going down there and then just... And then like flips off again. But here's my thing. I think the shield ball save on Dungeons & Dragons also looks really cool, but I can't do it. I mean, if I played it like five times, yes. Do I need to practice more? Yes. But I can't do it. And so I'm afraid that it's going to be too hard for me. You're going to be getting it too late? Yes. But it looks really cool. It looks like it's kind of a pro move. Because not on the pro. But because people were saying that they only got it like 30% of the time. Oh, wow. Some of the influencers that I was watching. So it looks like they need to practice too. They also need to practice. And they did not have a lot of time. They had like an hour. Which we would have had too if we'd been there. I know. I'm very sad. It's okay. It's alright. I really have a baby. Yeah, that's fair. The other big thing with this game is they announced that this is the first Spike 3 game Thank you for addressing that because I watched the promotional video and they talking about Spike three like it so cool and stuff And I like but what is it Please tell me everything yeah so I mean we we still beginners in this we been doing this hobby for Since January well pinball channel since January. Oh, I'm renting. Yeah, it was for your birthday last year It was around the gosh October. Yeah, so It's it's interesting that that they keep saying Spike 3, and if you're a beginner, if you're new to this hobby, you wouldn't know what that is. So Spike 2, it's their operating system. It's not just their operating system, though. It's also the hardware. It's the board, the circuits and processor and all that stuff. So now they have a new board and circuits and everything. They can support more lighting. They can support more audiovisual stuff. Okay. They can support the bigger screen. A bigger screen? The screen on this one is now bigger. It is 18 inches as opposed to 15 or 12. It's 36% bigger. There we go. A few inches bigger. And they now have, at least on the higher end models, they have speakers and tweeters in the backbox. So just better sound, deeper sound and everything. I think it looks really cool. I'm really happy that they made it bigger screen without it just filling the whole backbox. no no shade at jersey jack but it's not my favorite i like the trans lights i like the artwork that's so prominent that even when the machine's off you get to see and i don't feel like i need a giant screen because i'm not watching it you know yeah you're playing the game exactly and we all know that i don't love the video model i'm there to play the game i mean it's fun to see things pop up um but it's not something that i need to be giant big screen tv because i'm not really paying attention to it. Yeah, I know they have the artwork. So I love that they made a bigger screen without as happy if I sing. Yeah. Yeah. Another big thing with Spike 3 is additional audio support. They have better speakers, richer sound, and Bluetooth. So you can connect your Bluetooth headphones. What? Yeah. So I don't have to listen to you play Metallica? No, you don't have to listen to me. Thank you, sir. You're not loved. No, I don't love Metallica. And sometimes, even if I do love the sound of a machine, I mean, we have one machine for six weeks. Yep. Sometimes the audio gets a little old as a bystander. I feel like I don't feel that way when I'm playing it, but I am... We take turns. Yeah, basically. We don't do whatever the ball because... Because Cameron's goes way longer. So I spend a lot of time hanging out, listening to whatever's going on, and so it would be nice just to be like, hop in some headphones, what do you say? Yep. Yep. Hop on. Yeah, it's going to be cool. So super exciting for that. And then I think the only other thing with Spike 3 is that it's not done. They're going to continue to iterate. Yep. Progressively make the game kind of cool, which I think is cool. Yeah. It has a lot of capabilities to do that. Love that. It's exciting. So back to the game. One of the things that I saw a lot of people talk about is that this is an approachable game. It's a little bit of an easier layout. It only has two flippers. It doesn't have three or four. Yeah. It's a game that People can pick up And feel successful Right away But still has some Depth of code At least initially They're still Developing the code Yeah For people who want To play a little bit But it's Yeah I think it's Approachable And some cool features That like we said May be a little more Advanced for me Like that of all save But I love the idea Of approachable machines What's that? These iconic scenes Yeah Exactly I mean and that's how We're going to get new players In In ball In ball Is these really fun iconic themes like jurassic park like star wars i mean i think of our own home arcade you know that's why we even started this channel because that's what we hope to build out some day you want to have an arcade exactly and i feel like the most popular and most you know the one that i'm most excited to play was yeah just when everyone was like oh my gosh this is so cool yeah and i feel like star wars would be the exact same way i know multiple people in my life right now that would just see it and be like oh i want to play that um not so much with the one that we have not the one that we have but the one the star wars that's out there currently you know yeah so i'm just really excited i think it's got a lot of potential we'll see we'll play it someday we'll get it soon we're you know i'm excited to have a baby um we're very excited i wish this reveal would have been different timings like you got yeah but uh it's okay we'll we'll get on the next one oh wait next one yeah dream thing uh so that's it from us guys we really appreciate all the support we get so many net cards people we love those um and we've really grown with that to 800 almost 800 subscriber we want to wait from 800 since january yeah kind of crazy and this is just a hobby thing for us. This is just something that we picked up because we were renting and these are the tutorials and reviews that we wish we had. Yeah, so we're so excited and we're excited to see when this goes in the future. So continue to build with us and until next time. Keep flipping!