Spooky Pinball Keeps Getting Better

Cary Hardy·video·21m 58s·analyzed·Dec 11, 2023

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Spooky Pinball executes dual-theme strategy well but Hardy questions 'boutique' branding and ramp durability.

Summary

Cary Hardy critiques Spooky Pinball's branding while praising their latest releases—Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Looney Tunes—which share the same playfield layout but target different demographics with distinct themes, mechanics, and rules. He commends Spooky's attention to theme immersion, asset quality, and player feedback, but expresses concern about the durability of powder-coated ramps under impact conditions.

Key Claims

Spooky Pinball is no longer a boutique manufacturer—they are a full pinball manufacturer with facility upgrades, employee count, themes, and game output exceeding American Pinball and Barrels of Fun
medium confidence · Hardy's opening argument that Spooky should 'man up' and stop using 'boutique' branding
Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Looney Tunes share the same playfield layout but were developed by two entirely separate teams with no collaboration on mechanics, inserts, rules, code, and animations
high confidence · Hardy states: 'they had two different teams working on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Looney Tunes, and with no collaboration. So the playfield is much more different when it comes to the mechanics and even the insert location. The rules, code, and animations are done by two different teams.'
Powder-coated ramps are more susceptible to chipping and degradation under ball impact compared to wireforms, which is why many manufacturers avoid powder-coating ramps despite the aesthetic benefits
high confidence · Hardy's detailed explanation of powder coat durability: 'powder coat is not good at being impacted... once you find a weak spot somewhere and the ball gets a good nice impact on an edge or flat surface, then you're going to get a chip'
Spooky Pinball's strategy of reusing the same layout for two different themes with opposite genre targeting (horror vs. cartoon) is intentional and defensible as a way to serve two demographics simultaneously
high confidence · Hardy's 'two birds with one stone' analysis: 'if this game would have had some sort of similarities to like their previous game... they would be hearing it from the riffraff... so why not... We'll completely just reuse the same layout for a different theme'
In Hardy's community poll (500+ votes), Looney Tunes leads Texas Chain Saw Massacre by double when asked which game viewers would prefer if cost were not a factor
high confidence · Hardy states: 'I put up a poll on my community page... Currently over 500 votes, and Looney Tunes takes the lead by double.'

Notable Quotes

“Spooky Pinball, how long are you going to keep up this charade? How long are you going to be basically lying to your customers?... Your slogan is 'We put the boo in boutique.' But you're not boutique anymore. You are a pinball manufacturer.”
Cary Hardy@ 1:11 — Directly challenges Spooky's branding and market positioning as 'boutique' manufacturer
“They didn't have to make a diverter feed into a meat grinder to divert a ball into a subway, but they did. They didn't have to make a sliding door that opens and closes to keep the ball out... They even paid tribute to one of my favorite games, The Shadow, by implementing the sanctum effect when it comes to the magnet on the playfield.”
Cary Hardy@ 11:49 — Highlights Spooky's commitment to theme-specific mechanics and design depth, including nods to pinball history
“I have watched Spooky Pinball improve every year, and I'm liking what I'm seeing right now... I have never owned one of their games. Yet. But these games have me more excited than any other game that they have put out to date.”
Cary Hardy@ 14:51 — Strong endorsement of Spooky's trajectory despite never owning one of their machines
“powder coat is not good at being impacted. So once you find a weak spot somewhere and the ball gets a good nice impact on an edge or flat surface, then you're going to get a chip, and that chip has now made the weak spot even weaker.”
Cary Hardy@ 19:59 — Technical concern about durability of powder-coated ramps on TCM/Looney Tunes
“I think every manufacturer, boutique or not, should get a hold of Straight Down the Middle for these featurettes... I think they could help sell games because they give us customers out there, enthusiasts, a lot of information.”
Cary Hardy — Endorsement of production/marketing content strategy; recommendation for other manufacturers

Entities

Spooky PinballcompanyCary HardypersonTexas Chain Saw MassacregameLooney Tunesgame American Pinballcompany Barrels of Funcompany Jersey Jack Pinballcompany

Signals

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community_signal: Spooky Pinball provides detailed Q&A sessions and collaborates with content creators (Straight Down the Middle) for production featurettes, enabling informed customer decision-making
high · Hardy recommends all manufacturers use similar content strategy: 'I think every manufacturer, boutique or not, should get a hold of Straight Down the Middle for these featurettes'
?
competitive_signal: Spooky Pinball now operates at scale and capacity exceeding other 'boutique' manufacturers (American Pinball, Barrels of Fun) and approaching major manufacturers in output volume
medium · Hardy's assessment: 'you're a manufacturer more so than American Pinball and Barrels of Fun. Hell, with the amount of sales and the lacking themes on the last couple of games, I almost want to lean towards Jersey Jack Pinball being boutique at this point.'
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design_philosophy: Spooky Pinball commits to theme-specific mechanical implementations (meat grinder, sliding doors, character spinners) rather than generic or virtual locks, including homages to classic games like The Shadow
high · Hardy: 'They didn't have to make a diverter feed into a meat grinder... They even paid tribute to one of my favorite games, The Shadow, by implementing the sanctum effect'
?
design_philosophy: Spooky Pinball intentionally deploys same-layout/different-theme strategy to serve multiple demographics simultaneously and avoid layout similarity criticism
high · Hardy's analysis: 'We'll completely just reuse the same layout for a different theme so that knocks out right there people complaining about it looks similar to another game... give them the ability to knock out two very well-known themes with a very interesting layout'

Topics

Manufacturer branding and market positioningprimaryShared playfield layout strategy for multiple themesprimaryTheme immersion and asset quality in game designprimaryPowder-coated ramp durability and maintenance concernsprimarySpooky Pinball's year-over-year product quality improvementsecondaryContent creation and marketing strategy (Straight Down the Middle featurettes)secondaryDemographic targeting through theme selectionsecondaryPinball history and design tributesmentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.75)— Hardy is highly critical of Spooky's 'boutique' branding but extremely positive about TCM and Looney Tunes game quality, design, and mechanics. His criticism is directed at corporate messaging, not product. The powder coat durability concern is expressed cautiously and not negatively. Overall tone is enthusiastic about these specific releases while maintaining constructive critique.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.066

I Thought I heard something You gotta be kidding me. I heard something out there. Son of a bitch! I thought I heard something. What's up guys and welcome back to my channel where I talk and do everything pinball and a special thank you to the over 8,800 of you down there that have hit the subscribe button. The question I have for you spooky pinball is how long are you going to keep up this charade? How long are you going to be basically lying to your customers? I mean let's just be real here. Your slogan is spooky pinball. We put the boo in boutique. But you're not boutique anymore. You are a pinball manufacturer. With the amount of upgrades that you put onto your facility, with the amount of employees that you have, the kind of themes that you're putting together, the amount of games that you're pushing out your door, you're a manufacturer more so than american pinball and barrels of fun hell with the amount of sales and the lacking themes on the last couple of games i almost want to lean towards jersey jack being boutique at this point so spooky man up you're not boutique anymore you're a manufacturer You're playing with the big boys now. So with that out of the way, let's talk about Spooky Pinball's latest releases. What did the truck hit? Now, I'm not going to be going through every aspect of these games because I'm the last one probably putting out any content in regards to it. So you've seen it on the featurettes from straight down the middle, which if you have not seen those videos, I will put links in the video description down below. They give you all kinds of amazing footage of what the game looks like, as well as any kind of feedback from the whole team there at Spooky in regards to making and creating this particular theme. Themes, plural. So, I think every manufacturer, boutique or not, should get a hold of Straight Down the Middle for these featurettes. I do believe they help sell games because they give us customers out there, enthusiasts, a lot of information and gives us an idea of how the game plays and stuff like that. So, Stern Pinball, I honestly think you should reach out to Straight Down the Middle for your upcoming titles. I think they could help. hint when malefic planets are in retrograde and saturn's malefic okay their malefic is increased i hope she dies first then you also had the hour-long q a session with spooky luke and bug so i will put a link in the video description down there if you would like to get even more information and answers to questions that you may have now when it comes to questions i had a lot of questions as well because i've never seen the texas chainsaw massacre i know go ahead and say what like i've resolved that since then i was like you know what i need a better understanding of this theme so let me watch the movie so i have seen it since then i even watched it was recording my reaction so i will be dropping those little snippets here and there throughout this video hold up let's rewind this back because the look on this man's face is the same the same look that would be on my face too hold up yeah all right every guy sees this uh if you know you know but the funny look like i said someone looking like this comes up to me yep that would be my face too just like mm-hmm so spooky has once again turned out two different themes with the same layout One theme is aiming towards one genre and the other theme is aiming towards the opposite direction And we saw this with Halloween and Ultraman But something that has been pointed out and I glad to hear is that they had two different teams working on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Looney Tunes, and with no collaboration. So the playfield is much more different when it comes to the mechs and even the insert location. The rules, code, animations are done by two different teams. Kick him out of the van! Here's your knife back, dude. Thanks for letting me cut myself. I don't know if this is a horror movie or a comedy because... And people question, like, why are they doing this? It doesn't make any sense. And why not? I mean, reusing a particular layout isn't exactly uncommon. Especially when you have a new game get released by any manufacturer, and then you have the individuals that start trying to pinpoint out how the new theme or new game has a very similar layout to another game. educated guess these first two that are going off on their own are probably going to be the first people to die i i don't know if this is going to be one of those movies where you're watching them just make dumb decision after dumb decision i don't know we'll see i mean god forbid that a ramp is placed in a somewhat same orientation in place as another game people just lose their fucking minds so when people ask why they're doing this i simply ask why not i mean if this game would have had some sort of similarities to like their previous game like alice cooper then they would be hearing it from the riffraff out there that hey this looks a lot like alice cooper i mean so why not go ahead and just you know what screw it we'll completely just reuse the same layout for a different theme so that knocks out right there that people complaining about it looks similar to another game because it is similar to another game it's the same freaking layout and we're gonna do two different themes one's gonna go this direction to access this demographic and the other theme is gonna go this direction to access that demographic what is the old saying two birds in one bush or two hands in the what is it oh my god what are you what are you doing dude first of all why did he just like take off and start running towards this room full of, like, animal skulls and everything. What? And then he trips. Oh, watch your step. It's a doozy. Two birds with one stone? I think that's the saying right there. So two birds with one stone, one layout, two different machines. Why not? Because it gives them the ability to knock out two very well-known themes with a very interesting layout, may I say. She just walks into the lion's den as well. What is the deal with everybody tripping and falling? You gotta look down every once in a while. What the hell? First of all, themes. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I only knew of the movie, but never watched it before. And after seeing it, this game looks scarier than the movie. You would think that TCM was a bloody movie, when in fact, it is quite tame when compared to what other horror movies I have seen at least. That is impressive. he must take very good care of his chainsaw that thing just started right up i have never experienced a chainsaw that is that damn good at starting up i mean something that i think we can all agree on is that spooky pinball listens to the public uh getting the feedback and they know what a majority of pinball enthusiasts want in a pinball machine. We want a good theme, we want assets in this theme, and we want theme immersion into this game, and we also want mechs. That's just that's just how it is. That's what we want. So if they're able to nail four of those in one machine then chances are majority of pinball enthusiasts are going to enjoy it And from the looks of it It looks like they may have done it with two different licenses at one time Jesus I swear it If this guy walks into this house too. Go ahead, walk in. Fucking trip and fall. Keep looking down. Oh, he's not looking down. He's going to trip. Oh, okay, good. Well, I'll tell you what, old Leatherface does a pretty good job of cleaning up after himself. Did you hear the scream? That's exactly what my scream would be more than likely if I was in the same position as that. they didn't have to make a diverter feed into a meat grinder to divert a ball into a subway but they did they didn't have to make a sliding door that opens and closes to keep the ball out they could have easily just made a drop down target right there but they didn't they even paid tribute to one of my favorite games the shadow by implementing the sanctum effect when it comes to the magnet on the play field that launches a ball up they could have easily made it a virtual ball lock system but i'm guessing they said fuck that because that entire back panel of these games is the multiball lock system and that's what was sent out to a few of us content creators and everything the portion that I received is actually what the balls launch out of that gets basically moved from one direction and they get fed this way if you watch the video in the feature it then you'll know what part this is oh oh okay all right that that is a little bit of a jump on me I was a a little surprised on that i was not expecting that but a part of my surprise here on this is i'm still amazed at how well that chainsaw starts up that is very impressive the aesthetics on this game look great i appreciate them even more after watching the movie and the little extra that they did on the side rails is well appreciated yeah that would be a good sign to why are you running back downstairs oh my god It just jumped out of the way. Alright. Yeah. I mean, I'd probably do the same. Now, when it comes to layout, I'm liking what I'm seeing. The layout is obtuse. We have four flippers with a variety of shots and certain shots that will set up other shots and other flippers so you can make other shots. I mean, we haven't seen a lot of gameplay yet, but we are told that it shouldn't be too far away. Oh my god, ever since Cary got his package from Spooky, he's just praising everything that they have now. No, it's just that I'm praising what I've been shown, and I'm liking what I'm seeing. I have watched Spooky improve every year, and I'm liking what I'm seeing right now. Uh-oh, he's going to lose track of you. You better start screaming. Yep, there you go. There you go. I have never owned one of their games. Yet. But these games have me more excited than any other game that they have put out to date. But I do have one concern on both of these games. But we'll go over that in a minute. Oh, what is she going to see? Ooh, something smells good. Let's move on to Looney Tunes. I'll tell you right now, this is my favorite of the two games. If I were to get a spooky game, Looney Tunes looks like it would be the one. Now, once again, they have brought full assets for our enjoyment. When it comes to grabbing people by their nostalgia, this is my childhood. These are the cartoons I grew up watching. Well, the other Saturday morning cartoons were awesome too. With Looney Tunes, they have given the same layout, but implemented other items in place that you saw on TCM. Instead of the meat grinder, you have a rocket. Instead of Leatherface, you have Taz. Both Taz and Leatherface spin around, so it makes sense. What you got? He's, he's, he's got, what? he's got a broom he got a broom sweep the leg sweep the leg man just smack her with a broom instead of the deep freezer on the right you have wily coyote blowing up tnt this game is going to kill on location because you're definitely reaching and feeling out that nostalgia bone and since it's cartoon and the bright colors that they have going on, it's going to be reaching for the younger audience as well. They don't even know much about Looney Tunes at this point in time. And I'm also a big fan of the color orange, so Looney Tunes definitely hits me when it comes to color as well. Oh, clumsy me. I just can't kill the way I used to. now i put up a poll on my community page let me see where we're at on this i asked the question if you are gifted so money is not a factor which one would you prefer looney tunes or texas chainsaw massacre currently over 500 votes and looney tunes takes the lead by double 67 versus 33 oh man she's loose she's loose through a window again two windows in one movie very impressive there lady very impressive you need to run she was there all night and those pants are definitely not as wide as they used to be so i think spooky pinball is doing pretty good so far they have reached out to two demographics and given them full assets for a theme that they're gonna love with an interesting layout i guess now we just need to wait and see how they shoot so we have two beautiful games that are giving us a lot of things that manufacturers are neglecting to give us in their new games so what is it that i have to be concerned about he had time to move no dude get back in the truck you better get back in the truck look how fast that guy was like nope if you look at the games you will notice that not only are the wire forms powder coated but the ramps are too and this looks great for now i mean there's a couple of reasons why manufacturers and even like restorers like myself don't powder coat ramps and one of them is cost I mean, it's not that much more expensive to powder coat when you're already bringing things in, but that's why a lot of manufacturers don't do it because that's an extra thing that needs to be powder coated, and they don't do a lot of powder coating inside of the games. Anyways, but one of the reasons why a lot of us do not do these two ramps is because there's a higher chance of impact. And powder coating does very well when it comes to the ball rolling across it like you do on your wire forms, and that's it. But powder coat is not good at being impacted. so once you find a weak spot somewhere and the ball gets a good nice impact on an edge or flat surface then you're going to get a chip and that chip has now made the weak spot even weaker and over time more and more of the powder coating will fall off and then it does not look pretty anymore Now, granted, I'm not saying it's going to happen on this game. I'm sure they've done plenty of testing and all that stuff and junk, so we should be good. It's a concern on my end, but we will see how it holds up over time. Was that it? Okay. So I guess I have watched the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So that, I guess, gives me a better understanding of what is going on within this pinball machine now. Because I'm sure that they did a lot more playtesting on these games than American Pinball did with their Galactic Tank Force. Okay, so... does the movie hold up today no no if i mean back in 74 i bet this was probably pretty scary i mean there i could see how it would be a cult classic maybe or something but watching it now for the first time i i find it more comedic than a horror um but that's just me i I found it more funny than anything else