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The Uncanny X-Men Pinball Tutorial (Flip N Out Pinball, 2024)

Flip n Out Pinball·video·21m 24s·analyzed·Oct 17, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Comprehensive tutorial of Stern X-Men LE pinball covering layout, shots, modes, and multiballs on early 0.84 code.

Summary

Joel Engelberth from Flip n Out Pinball provides an in-depth tutorial of Stern's Uncanny X-Men Limited Edition pinball machine, designed by Jack Danger. The video demonstrates the game's distinctive offset flipper layout, the Danger Room mini-playfield, various shot sequences, and early-stage game modes (0.84 code). Engelberth emphasizes the quality of the shooting experience while acknowledging that code development is ongoing and will likely add more features.

Key Claims

  • This is Jack Danger's most recent game and features an offset flipper layout to accommodate the Danger Room feature

    high confidence · Joel describes the game's core design feature and attributes it to Jack Danger as the designer

  • The game is running 0.84 code, which is very early in development, with substantial additions and features planned

    high confidence · Joel explicitly states '0.84 code so this is very early on in the code there's clearly going to be a lot that they're going to add or develop'

  • The X-Jet shot is unique and fast, comparable in design philosophy to the Katana ramp in Deadpool

    high confidence · Joel describes the shot's characteristics and provides a direct comparison to another known Stern pinball design

  • The Kitty Pride shot utilizes an open underfield mechanic that cleverly represents the character's wall-walking ability

    high confidence · Joel explains the mechanical design and thematic connection: 'Kitty Pride can walk through walls. That's her ability'

  • Premium and LE versions include a sentinel hand/finger mechanism that can break wire forms when the associated insert is lit

    high confidence · Joel demonstrates the feature: 'on the premium and LE, right here and right here, The wire form will break so if the insert on the certain sentinel hand is red and you hit that shot the handle come down'

  • The game contains multiple unimplemented features as of 0.84 code, including additional inserts and expanded Beast Lab perks

    high confidence · Joel notes: 'There's perks that come with that. Some of that is implemented, but not all of it, I know they're going to do more in that area' and 'There's two inserts up here that currently do nothing'

  • The game includes a magnet in the Sentinel Head toy that allows ball manipulation when bash count is met

    high confidence · Joel states: 'Yes, there is a magnet in the game. Once you bash him enough times, you're going to break his chin.'

  • Extra ball is currently lit after beating two modes at the start of the game

Notable Quotes

  • “This game has all the bells and whistles. It's a beautiful, absolutely beautiful game, and honestly, I'm loving the way it shoots. It really is a fun shooting pin.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 0:34 — Establishes overall positive sentiment toward the game's design and playability despite early code stage

  • “The layout is kind of nuts. The main set of flippers is offset. Everything is shifted to the right, and that made room over here for the danger room.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 0:50 — Explains the core design innovation that differentiates X-Men from standard pinball layouts

  • “It's such a cool shot. It's so fast. It's such a very unique shot. Nothing like that. The closest thing to that would be like the katana ramp I think in deadpool but it's an awesome awesome shot.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 2:32 — Highlights appreciation for the X-Jet shot design as a standout mechanical feature

  • “Kitty Pride can walk through walls. That's her ability. So there's the Kitty Pride like sneak through shot.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 3:05 — Demonstrates how mechanical design reflects character abilities, exemplifying thematic integration

  • “0.84 code so this is very early on in the code there's clearly going to be a lot that they're going to add or develop or grow in this rule set.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 1:04 — Sets expectations that the game is in active development with significant features pending

  • “The one thing that isn't going to change are the shots and I am having an absolute blast with the shots and really really enjoy playing this game.”

Entities

Joel EngelberthpersonJack DangerpersonStern PinballcompanyThe Uncanny X-MengameZackpersonFlip n Out PinballorganizationDanger RoomproductDeadpoolgameColt Flippin' Outorganization

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Content creator providing early-stage tutorial documentation for incomplete game code

    high · Joel produces comprehensive tutorial acknowledging code will change and encouraging viewers to be patient: 'Just be patient. The code is going to continue to get better'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Offset flipper layout creating unique playfield asymmetry to accommodate mini-playfield (Danger Room)

    high · Joel explains: 'The layout is kind of nuts. The main set of flippers is offset. Everything is shifted to the right, and that made room over here for the danger room'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Thematic integration of X-Men character abilities into mechanical design (Kitty Pride walk-through, Sentinel finger diverter, Bishop action button)

    high · Multiple examples of mechanics reflecting character lore: 'Kitty Pride can walk through walls. That's her ability. So there's the Kitty Pride like sneak through shot'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Positive assessment of shot design consistency, speed, and routing execution

    high · Joel states: 'honestly, I'm loving the way it shoots. It really is a fun shooting pin' and praises specific shots like X-Jet and downtown loop for consistency

  • ?

    product_strategy: X-Men LE running 0.84 code with multiple unimplemented features and incomplete rule set development

    high · Joel explicitly states '0.84 code so this is very early on in the code' and identifies multiple unfinished systems (Future mode incomplete, Beast Lab perks not fully implemented, unused inserts)

Topics

Game layout and design innovationprimaryShot sequences and mechanical featuresprimaryGame modes and multiball mechanicsprimaryEarly code development and pending featuresprimaryThematic integration (X-Men character abilities reflected in mechanics)secondaryPro vs. Premium vs. LE feature differentiationsecondaryPlayfield density and ball routing complexitysecondaryComparison to other Stern pinball titlesmentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.85)— Joel expresses strong appreciation for the game's shooting mechanics, design innovation (offset flippers, Danger Room), and thematic integration. He acknowledges early code stage and pending features without criticism, framing them as natural for development. Recommends the game to potential buyers and encourages patience with code updates. No negative sentiments expressed.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.064

0:00
Hello my name is Joel Engelberth and this is the Flippin' Out YouTube channel. Thanks for clicking on the video. Really appreciate that. My brother and I, we actually stream every Wednesday night live on this channel. If you click the live tab in the top you can see all of our past streams. Otherwise you can see plenty of the other videos. I make some tutorial videos as well as, yeah there's plenty of content here so thanks for clicking. This game was, I'm borrowing this from Zack and the Colt Flippin' Out. Super grateful to do that. cool to do that. This is Stern's Uncanny X-Men LE, the limited edition. This is Jack Danger's most recent game. This game has all the bells and whistles. It's a beautiful, absolutely beautiful game, and honestly, I'm loving the way it shoots. It really is a fun shooting pin. Normally when I start these tutorials, I like to go through shots and layout, and as you can see, the layout is kind of nuts. The main set of flippers is offset. Everything is shifted to the right, and that made room over here for the danger room so let's actually start in the danger room the point of the danger room from the x-men world is that's where they train that's where they get more powerful so the goal as of right now this is 0.84 code so this is very early on in the code there's clearly going to be a lot that they're going to add or develop or grow in this in this rule set um but hopefully if you're watching this way later uh some of the basics that i go over will still be relevant today. So the Danger Room, it's meant to level up and these inserts right here, you start at green and you're going to level up the play field that way. You're also going to see on the display, I'll show it later, where you're going to look for this. But when you're in the Danger Room, there's a target here, there's actually a target over here, there's the pop bumper here, target there, big old opto spinner there, and then the ramp to get out. So a lot to do with the mini flipper and it is a ton of fun. There's also a little target right here and that is the hold bonus target you're not going to ever hit that purposely that that's going to come from either a hard drain and somehow mistakenly hit that shot um but it's kind of cool when it happens because it's definitely something you never aim for um yeah it's cool shot so this is kind of its own little world over here so let's let's ignore that and look at the rest of the play field starting on the far left we have the the x jet shot and how that shot works is from the right flipper you're going to go this way it turns goes across the play field feeds up this ramp and that's how it feeds into the um the danger room what i will tell you is if you happen to hit that shot do not hold the left flipper up because if this ball comes slow and this left flipper is up you can hit it and train um but it is such a cool shot it's so fast it's such a very unique shot um nothing like that i the closest thing to that would be like the katana ramp i think in deadpool but it's an awesome awesome shot there's a little target right here we're going to talk about those stand-up targets. Then we have the Kitty Pride shot up here, which you can't shoot, but it happens. And what I mean by that is if a ball is right here, you would think it would just be stuck, but no, it's actually open under this play field and the ball will sneak out, which is cool because Kitty Pride can walk through walls. That's her ability. So there's the Kitty Pride like sneak through shot, which is that shot over there, which is actually really neat. And then you have the far left shot, the downtown shot, the way this shot works from the right flipper, the ball goes up here. It spins around, goes across this, then up this little mini ramp to feed this right wire form to feed the right flipper. And that is a shot you can loop. One of the skill shots is actually hitting that specific shot five times in a row. It is awesome. It is such a cool shot. The speed and consistency of how that ball loops around is incredible. It's honestly my favorite shot. in the game. Then you have the left ramp. The left ramp, you're going to hit that. It's going to turn around this way and then feed the left flipper. One thing you're going to see on the premium and LE is there's a hand right here and there's a finger right here. So take notes of the hand, the red inserts, right? Then it was on and there's another hand over here. If that red insert is on, if you hit that shot, if that ball's ever coming over this wire form, the finger will come up, stop the ball, and then flick it back. So it'll actually send the ball back at you and that won't count as a shot. So it's the sentinel fighting back, which is really neat. This is the Beast Lab. This is a Newton ball, but you're actually hitting a target down here, which hits the Newton ball up there. And this is a very target. So depending on how hard you hit that, it'll give you more or less of a hit in the Beast Lab. There's perks that come with that. Some of that is implemented, but not all of it, I know they're going to do more in that area. On the pro, it's just going to be like a little leaper target. Then we have the sentinel head. To the left of the sentinel head, if you hit to the left, which you can hit from either flipper, you can't really do it from a cradle from the left flipper, but you can hit it from the right flipper all day long. But basically, it's going to loop around this way and then feed up on this right wire form. Now, once again, you have the sentinel hand. And so on the premium and LE, right here and right here, The wire form will break so if the insert on the certain sentinel hand is red and you hit that shot the handle come down It break that wire form causing the ball to actually come down pretty fast at your flipper So you got to be aware you got to be prepared for that Then if you go to the right of the sentinel head this actually feeds behind and feeds like that So honestly, the two most consistent shots in the game, in my opinion, if you can get used to it, is from the right flipper to hit this left ramp. And then from the left flipper, hit to the right, and you are back to the start. So that's a combo you can actually do over and over again. lots of squiggles i know but bear with me then we have um there's another stand-up target here and then right here is the far right ramp there's a diverter here so this ramp is either going to go this way or most of the time it squiggles back and goes this way so that's on the far right side of the play field um and then there's also an x mansion target right here i think all that does right now is light your outlane ball save way over here um and then you have the gambit pop bumper which is evil if you hit that three times uh the next time you hit it your next shot i think is 2x uh it's it's well placed it actually makes things very fun um and then you have your outlane which also happens to be um uh the where you shoot your like the ball is actually shot which is kind of crazy um yeah and that's about it oh and then then the bishop um pop bumper over here if you hit that a bunch that'll give you a power up that you can use bishop so i will try to explain that and then you have a sling here but there's no sling over here so the ball actually just goes this way which is pretty neat um so really it's just a crazy layout it really is just a crazy layout is really the only way to describe it but um but yeah we're gonna have fun with this so let me do my best to explain what is going on in the game so step one if you look there are three lights flashing at you. Those are your skill shots. So my favorite skill shot to hit is the red one because the way that it feeds your right flipper, you can hit it again and again and again. Another thing to take note of is at the very, very top of the LCD. So way up there, it says 33, 2, and 2. So what that means is I need 30 spins from right over here. I need three targets, two ramps, and two pops. And that's how I would level up my danger room. So all the way at the top of the LCD is where you know what to do when you're in the danger room. Then right above me, there's the X-Men symbol. Right now it's gray. This is trying to help tell you how many shots you have to hit before you start a mode. So the further you get in the game, it'll fill out different sections of that X-Men symbol. But right now it's just one shot. One white shot and then one blue shot and you're in. Look at all the white shots. So let's say I hit a white shot. Now my X-Men symbol above me is solid red and all my shots are blue. That means if I hit a blue shot, I will start a mode. So let's hit any blue shot. It's going to stop the ball. If you look at my modes, the modes in the corners are easier than the modes in the middle. So I'm going to go ahead and try this mode. So let's select that. So this is Juggernaut. The Juggernaut mode is all about comboing more than one shot together. So right now you're going to see that all red shots are lit.

medium confidence · Joel demonstrates: 'if you can beat two modes, extra ball is lit over here on the right'

Joel Engelberth@ 20:36 — Expresses confidence that the core mechanical/shooting design will remain stable despite code changes

  • “There's so many wire forms in this game. It's actually hard to throw the ball around.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 18:19 — Observation about playfield density and shot routing complexity

  • “Just be patient. The code is going to continue to get better.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 20:34 — Direct advice to potential buyers regarding early code stage and future improvements

    • X-Jet shotproduct
    Sentinel Headproduct
    Beast Labproduct
    Cerebro Multiballproduct
    To Me My X-Menproduct
    Future modeproduct
    Bishopproduct
    Toad modeproduct
    Save the City Multiballproduct
  • ?

    product_strategy: Premium and LE variants include exclusive mechanical features (sentinel hand/finger diverter, Beast Lab vari-target) not present on Pro model

    high · Joel notes: 'on the premium and LE is there's a hand right here and there's a finger right here' and 'On the pro, it's just going to be like a little leaper target'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Multiple game systems identified as incomplete or placeholder in early code (Future mode minimal, Save the City no progress indicator, unused inserts)

    high · Joel identifies specific incomplete features: 'The Future is lit. This is something I know they're going to develop more in the game' and 'There's two inserts up here that currently do nothing'

    • 8:22
    So let's go ahead and hit a red shot. There is one red shot. and then let's hit another red shot and let's hit one more red shot now the fact that i combo those together i just blew through the mode but you gotta combo them together because juggernaut's all about momentum um so that's beating one mode so to get back into a mode same thing i have to hit a white shot now if you notice i almost did it just with my throwing this is how you would get into the danger room do you see how the lcd screened it knows now changed it knows now i'm in a danger room. So that's me hitting two targets. That would be me hitting my spinner. Let me hit the pop bumper. So I got my two pops. So then I would have to hit the Cerebro. Now by doing that, I actually qualified enough shots to get into another mode. In this mode, this is the Wolverine mode, you're going to see yellow shots and one blue shot. If you hit the blue shot, it actually does more damage than the yellow shots. Yellow shots still progress your overall thing. So the one blue shot's right over here. I missed it entirely, so I hit a yellow shot. The blue shot changed, though. So let's actually hit the blue shot. There we go. If you look directly above me, you'll see there's 35 seconds, but then there's also a gauge. That shows you how much more of the mode you have. So you're trying to fill that out, and that kind of tells you your progress. So I'm one shot away from beating the mode.
    9:47
    I actually went up that kitty lane. There you go. So I just beat the mode. So that's two modes down. Obviously, throwing the ball around, it's a lot easier to beat modes. As of right now, if you can beat two modes, extra ball is lit over here on the right. So the best way to hit the right is any of the wire forms that feed the right. There you go. So that's how you get your extra ball. Another thing you're going to see is this sensor right here is now lit, which is saying the future is lit. This is something I know they're going to develop more in the game, but you have to hit a Cerebro shot to progress into the future. The Cerebro shots are this shot, you can see that insert, that shot, or that shot. Those are the Cerebro shots to get to the future. So let's go ahead and miss all three. There we go. So this is going to take me into the future. When you're in the future, they're clearly going to develop this more, but the idea of the future is it a terrible place you don want to stay in it So you want to hit a certain number of white shots which will qualify you to exit the future If you miss a bunch of shots eventually sentinels will come and they drop down and sentinels take multiple shots to beat to get through them. If you look now, all the way at the top of the LCD, it says blue, it says return to the past. That means if I hit a cerebro shot, I can return to the past. For some reason, I want to stay in the future, I can hit my action button and now look way over there it says remain in the future now look at these inserts those are lit so for me to defeat that sentinel right there i have to hit those three shots so there's one there's a miss there's a miss there's two and there's a miss come on three so that's me beating one sentinel so you can stay in this mode and keep battling sentinels now i have blue shots over here for that sentinel but as of right now in the code there's really no reason to do that so i'm going to hit my action button to return to the past and i'm going to hit a three row shot to get myself back into the past where it's safe and sound this will take me back to the past so now that i'm in the past i'm in the same thing hit a certain number of white shots you hit enough white shots that's how you're going to get into a mode um but maybe let's take this opportunity to talk about multi-balls. Let me go ahead and get into the mode.
    12:06
    So let me hit the sentinel head. Let's pop him up. You can see him up there. The way the sentinel head works is you have to bash him a handful of times. Yes, there is a magnet in the game. Once you bash him enough times, you're going to break his chin. His chin comes off, which you can see on there. And then now if you hit him, especially if you hit him in the mouth, that ball will come rocketing back at you there it is which is pretty cool so let's um let's go ahead and hit get into a mode let me get into the danger room and then get out of it there we go cerebro initializing let's talk about that a little bit um let me go ahead and do a mode this is a cool mode so i got a few things going right now um a few shots away from starting multi ball with the sentinel head if you look the hand over here is freaking out which means that it would do the finger trick let's actually do this hand which is freaking out there you see how it broke the wire form that's pretty cool well now that insert which was red is now blue so if I hit that same insert again it actually does damage to Cerebro and you can see that directly above me how that meter is filled up so basically you have to hit a red shot first and And then after you hit a red shot, it turns blue, and then hit the blue shot again, and that's how you actually do damage. So things are on fire, you're putting the fire out, and then you have to hit it. So you have to do that basically three times.
    13:33
    I don't want to lose that ball yet. And there we go. Nothing like that ball save by just grabbing the ball. There's another mode done.
    13:45
    Let's actually talk about Cerebro Multiball. There are stand-ups on the playfield, and if you hit five of them, it'll say Cerebro's lit. You can actually hit the same one five times. See now, Cerebro, Cerebro, and Cerebro is lit. So let me hit any of those, and what you're going to see there is one more till To Me My X-Men. So let's actually show that multi-ball off. So five stand-ups, Cerebro ready, I hit a Cerebro shot, and boom. This is To Me My X-Men. so the way to me my x-men works is you're going to see pretty much every main shot is lit and it's going to be lit red and you just have to hit a bunch of them once you've hit enough of them though you're going to see on the left ramp it's going to turn blue it's actually very similar to how um the uh sentinel multiball is at the moment so my guess is that they will flush these out a little more but this is me just hitting red shots there we go and then now if you look this left ramp is blue so let me hit that let me try to hit that there we go and that's a super jackpot so that's really what you want to do right now while you're in the mode um let me go ahead and drop this so let's get back out of it um let me get into another mode so white shot If you look right above me, do you see how it's the pie the pieces of the x-men symbol are coming around? So let me hit another white shot and now I just have to hit any blue shot and that will get me into the the mode I
    15:27
    Alright I'm in a mode Let's try This one This shot what you're gonna see is every shot will give you progress in the mode But in a perfect world you're gonna shoot for the green shot, which is Toad. Toad's jumping around the playfield.
    15:46
    One thing that's happened is I've hit my pop bumper here enough that I've actually lit Bishop. So my my action button right now is flashing red and I missed Toad. So Toad is now there. So let me get Toad in a cool spot to show this So the action button is kind of like the boom button in Deadpool except for you have to push and hold it So if I want to get towed right here what I'm going to do is I'm going to push and hold. It's going to start here on the left, and then it's going to go. So look at the far left insert. It's going to go blue, and I'm going to work my way across the screen until the blue lands on the thing you want to hit. And I actually was a little behind. So you can aim it, which is cool. So let me hit Bishop enough. to qualify him again. So he's qualified again. So let me see if I can get this green shot.
    16:33
    Nope, I was too early. So it's definitely a, you're going to want to cradle up. There we go. That got through. I think I got, yeah, I got through two modes. So you can also see here, I have four solid inserts. So now I got to go back to the past, or I got to go to the future to progress further in the game. so that's um that's cerebro multi-ball that's um i've actually shown a lot i can show the b slab here when you hit this thing enough i gotta actually really chuck it at it there we go that's giving me progress towards the b slab or you may not be able to do that well in um you can also drain to get out of the future so why not oh okay ball safe psych um let me do let me try to hit a few shots and then once i've done that enough i should be able to go back into the past so it's reverse shot and i'm back so i'm kind of flying through the game because obviously i'm throwing the ball um let's go ahead and do the sentinel multi-ball let me hit him a little more 25 so i probably just need one or two more hits there we go now i'm in Sentinel multi-ball. You'll see the Sentinel targets are the ones flashing white now. And it's a similar thing. You want to hit those and that's how you beat Sentinels.
    18:07
    Come on. Give me a ball. Thank you. Can't hit what I want to hit. There's so many wire forms in this game It's actually hard to throw the ball around.
    18:27
    Oh, that's right. We want to hit the red shots, but I think the Sentinel guys will actually get in the way.
    18:40
    There we go. Just hitting more shots. Look at that shot. And then once you hit enough of those, the big bad comes out, and you're going to start bashing on him.
    19:00
    Let me just keep hitting him. There we go. Super jackpot. So that's kind of that multi-ball, which is a lot of fun.
    19:12
    And I think that's mostly it. There is one more, and I just lit it. If you look right here, this insert saved the city and the fact that that insert is now flashing yellow, that means I've hit enough of the main shots to qualify that. As of right now in the code, the save the city multiball, there's nothing that really tells you your progress, how far you are. But when you see that insert lit and when you see the one flashing yellow, that means as soon as you hit that insert, you're in save the city multiball. which save the city multiball is all about hitting hitting the main shots on the playfield and working your way through um yeah working your way through so another multiball to help you through the game but i think that's about it it's a fun game i really enjoy the way it shoots i actually am really enjoying the modes um the modes are fun relatively easy to understand what What I will tell you, though, is it's just early in the code. 0.84, it's early in the code. But hopefully that describes a little bit of how to get into all three multiballs, how to accomplish some of the modes, how to get in and out of the future. But I have no doubt. I mean, there's inserts here. There's two inserts up here that currently do nothing. And there's just a lot more on the play field that I know they're going to flesh out more. So if you're in on an X-Men, I think you're going to have a lot of fun with this game. Just be patient. The code is going to continue to get better. But um the one thing that isn't going to change are the shots and I am having an absolute blast with the shots and really Really really enjoy playing this game. So if you're looking to buy one reach out to Zach and flipping out I know he'll treat you right. Otherwise, um, go play one wherever you can and yeah, once again, thanks for clicking on the video
    21:06
    Bye.