This Game Has Divided Us!

Cary Hardy·video·8m 34s·held·Oct 8, 2024

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.017

TL;DR

Alice's Wonderland divides community over art; trailer poorly executed but sales strong.

Summary

Cary Hardy reviews the newly revealed Alice's Adventures in Wonderland pinball machine by Deep Root Pinball (DPX), which has divided the community primarily over its artwork. While Hardy personally enjoys the aesthetic, he acknowledges the polarizing reception and criticizes the official trailer for poor production quality, bland voice acting, and failure to demonstrate actual gameplay mechanics. Despite trailer reception concerns, the game is reportedly selling well in its initial release window.

Key Claims

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has divided the pinball community more than any previous machine, particularly over artwork
high confidence · Cary Hardy, direct statement about community reaction
The official reveal trailer for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland had poor production quality, bland voice acting, and low-quality call outs
high confidence · Cary Hardy, video editing professional analyzing trailer technical issues
Despite trailer criticism, the game is selling relatively well, particularly in the US and UK markets
medium confidence · Cary Hardy, reporting early sales data with caveat that full numbers not yet available
Deep Root Pinball (DPX) is targeting production of approximately 500 units
high confidence · Cary Hardy, describing game's limited production target
The trailer fails to communicate how the game actually shoots or where shots lead
high confidence · Cary Hardy, specific technical criticism of trailer's gameplay demonstration

Notable Quotes

“I am pretty damn sure that they were aware this game was going to be polarizing.”
Cary Hardy@ 1:16 — Indicates game design was intentionally niche/controversial
“I think that but it even funny that there actually a meme that DPX themselves thought was pretty funny”
Cary Hardy@ 2:00 — Shows DPX acknowledges and leans into community polarization about artwork
“If I would have seen this in advance, I would have recommended that it not be shown to the public”
Cary Hardy@ 2:55 — Strong professional criticism of trailer quality from experienced content creator
“You don't get how the game shoots you don't see where the shots lead to where the ramps start and end”
Cary Hardy@ 3:57 — Core complaint about trailer failing its primary purpose
“The game looks really pretty, but I still don't know how it shoots.”
Cary Hardy@ 6:56 — Summarizes the disconnect between visual appeal and lack of gameplay information
“Pinball is very similar to sex, where basically it's different strokes for different folks”
Cary Hardy@ 7:54 — Defends subjective nature of game art preferences and community divisions

Entities

Cary HardypersonDeep Root Pinball (DPX)companyDPXMelvinpersonAlice's Adventures in Wonderlandgame Pinball Expoevent Pinsideorganization

Signals

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announcement: Full official reveal of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland pinball machine after months of teases
high · After months of teases we have finally gotten the full reveal of alice's adventures in wonderland
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sentiment_shift: Alice's game has created the most significant community division observed, particularly around artwork aesthetic
high · I think that but it even funny that there actually a meme that DPX themselves thought was pretty funny...this game has divided us but I think there one thing
?
product_concern: Official trailer criticized for poor production quality, bad voice acting, inadequate gameplay demonstration, and low-quality call outs
high · The trailer for this game was bad...I assumed it was going to be amateur to an extent, but not to this level...that only made things worse
$
market_signal: Game is selling relatively well in initial release window, particularly in US and UK markets, though full numbers not yet available
medium · the trailer doesn't seem to have bothered many people i mean at least when it comes to sales because as of right now the game is selling very well particularly in the u.s now the united kingdom
?
content_signal: DPX selected Cary Hardy for early access and has invited him for exclusive livestream with company representative to demonstrate gameplay and address community concerns
high · I was one of the few that was selected to be a part of this game's release...I will be hosting a stream this coming Wednesday with DPXMelvin

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.026

0:00

Let's see here trailer made it look worse what you missed the bland voice acting. Oh, I'm really good man I got to go in there and look Now you can make me want to see if my headphones will work and we can watch it again You guys got me all worried now

0:27

Okay now in 4k what's up guys and welcome back to the channel where i talk and do everything pinball so if that sounds interesting to you then hit the subscribe button down below look after months of teases we have finally gotten the full reveal of alice's adventures in wonderland and i was one of the few that was selected to be a part of this game's release. When I was brought into the circle on this game, I was told that they wanted me to speak my mind. I'm not being restricted on what I can say or anything like that. They want me to tell you if I do or do not like the game. So that's what I'm going to do. I am pretty damn sure that they were aware this game was going to be polarizing. obviously targeted not towards the masses but towards a select few hopefully maybe 500 that could potentially have this game in their home now i say polarizing but i want to say this is probably the most divided i have seen the community when it comes to a pinball machine particularly on the art some people love it i happen to be one of those people and then you have others that are really shaming it calling it like slutty or just bad or awful all different types of words that they could use for this and I I think that but it even funny that there actually a meme that DPX themselves thought was pretty funny and I show you that right here Now by all means this game has divided us but I think there one thing that we can pretty much mostly agree on and that is that the trailer for this game was bad. So there's no sugarcoating you guys. I mean, I didn't know what the trailer was going to be like. I knew that it was going to be probably, you know, really rough cut, or it wasn't going to be, you know, Jersey Jack pinball quality $100,000 thing. I assumed it was going to be amateur to an extent, but not to this level. I mean, if I would have seen this in advance, I would have recommended that it not be shown to the public okay so i got to experience it for the first time with all of you out there but the first time i watched it i didn't have audio going but the second time i did and that only made things worse so this game's trailer does it no favors i don't think it does it any good at all there was no watching this trailer and it would increase FOMO or interests or faith in what this game has to offer. I don't want to keep beating a dead horse here, but I do want to mention the things that I do like and that I don't like about it. The animations. Okay, look, I know this is going to be a dividing thing on the animations, but I honestly like the way the animations look. everything else is pretty much bad well the music i do like the music i don't want to shame on that the music i like but the thing is with this trailer you don't get how the game shoots you don't see where the shots lead to where the ramps start and end you don't get that the call outs that you hear are very low and mostly bad and i some of the even the little video scenes that were cut cut in there there one in particular that was like one second long that didn really show anything or have a meaning to it I was like what was the purpose of that shot and a lot of these things most of you are probably not even going to notice okay but coming from myself who does video editing there's certain things that I'm definitely picking up on where I'm like that could have been better that not the most ideal shot for this kind of thing so with that being said yeah they should not have shown this trailer and thing is they're well aware of it it's one of those where it is what it is the trailer's out there it may not be the best it isn't the best but it's there and they're moving on kind of thing but the thing is the trailer doesn't seem to have bothered many people i mean at least when it comes to sales because as of right now the game is selling very well particularly in the u.s now the united kingdom area and stuff like that those numbers won't be fully out until possibly sometime tomorrow but what we're getting right now evidently the game is selling relatively well will it be a clean sellout within 24 hours i don't know probably not i mean for dpx's sake i do hope so but I don't I don't know at this point in time it's like I said you're getting a lot of us that are looking at this and saying no but you got to think they only need 500 but back to the trailer on this the point of a trailer is to give you a really good idea about the game how it shoots what all is going to be involved with assets and stuff like that you're not going to get an idea of code but you definitely want to get a feel of when you hit this particular shot where does it go and what does the ball do when you make it stuff like that and after this trailer was done you don't have any more knowledge about the game honestly you have an idea of how bad the call outs are at this point in time uh but that pretty much about it i mean and i can help but to like you know read some of the comments here on Pinside And you had this comment that says that I backpedaling now And I'm like, where do you see that?