Episode 813: "Kaneda's Candid Take on JJP"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·25m 58s·analyzed·Jun 20, 2023

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Kaneda rates Jersey Jack Pinball a C for declining creativity, poor themes, and ignoring community feedback despite premium pricing.

Summary

Kaneda delivers a scathing critique of Jersey Jack Pinball's recent direction, assigning the company a C grade despite acknowledging their beautiful aesthetics and historical innovations. He argues JJP has lost its way through poor theme selection, oversimplified multiball-heavy gameplay, removal of mechanical features, excessive pricing ($15K for Godfather vs $6.5K for Wizard of Oz), and apparent indifference to community feedback. Kaneda contends that recent releases (Toy Story 4, Godfather) are commercial and creative flops, blaming Mark Ritchie's design philosophy and Jack Guarnieri's market research for a decline from JJP's golden era.

Key Claims

Jersey Jack Pinball has not solved flipper mushiness until their most recent game, despite a decade of complaints.
high confidence · Kaneda, directly stated as a persistent technical issue spanning ~7 games
Toy Story 4 and Godfather are flops with instantly dried-up demand; new Limited Edition units are available and unwanted.
medium confidence · Kaneda's observation of secondary market, not independently verified but presented as current market fact
Since Pirates of the Caribbean (2017), Jersey Jack has not engineered an impressive mechanical feature in any game.
medium confidence · Kaneda's subjective design assessment across multiple titles
Mark Ritchie's games (Dialed In!, Willy Wonka, Toy Story 4) failed to deliver expected results and lacked personality.
medium confidence · Kaneda's critique of Ritchie's design direction and creative output
Guns N' Roses playfields had defects that persisted into Collector's Editions despite JJP claiming to fix them.
high confidence · Kaneda references widespread playfield degradation issues and JJP's failed quality control promise
Spooky Pinball secured Rick and Morty license while Jersey Jack could not, despite Abbas family backing.
high confidence · Direct competitive licensing comparison; stated as factual observation about licensing outcomes
Elton John is rumored to be JJP's next theme after questionable Toy Story and Godfather selections.
low confidence · Kaneda states 'if the rumor is correct' — unverified hearsay about upcoming machine
Guns N' Roses and Pirates of the Caribbean received no final code update, leaving games incomplete.
high confidence · Kaneda cites specific lack of finalization and wizard mode completion after 20+ months

Notable Quotes

“I'm giving Jersey Jack Pinball based on everything and I'm going to give you the criteria that I came up with this score. I give this company a C rating, just a C rating. It's mediocre to me and it hurts me to say that.”
Kaneda @ ~15:00 — Core thesis of the episode; establishes the overall critical frame
“The beauty of Jersey Jack machines is skin deep because when you get into the gameplay and you actually start learning to flip the game, Jersey Jack games just don't feel as good as Stern machines.”
Kaneda @ ~25:00 — Summarizes the core gameplay complaint: aesthetics vs. playability tradeoff
“Since Pirates of the Caribbean, when was the last time Jersey Jack Pinball engineered a mechanism in a game that was really impressive? There was nothing in Guns N' Roses... There was nothing in Toy Story. There was nothing in The Godfather.”
Kaneda @ ~45:00 — Specific mechanical innovation critique spanning 6+ years
“You can do that. You can charge this much and then take stuff out. It's supposed to go the other way around.”
Kaneda @ ~40:00 — Core pricing complaint: feature removal paired with price doubling
“I think they're setting their designers and everybody up for failure on day one of selecting a bad theme. And now if the rumor is correct that it is Elton John, that means three very questionable themes in a row.”
Kaneda @ ~80:00 — Implies consecutive theme failures and hints at unannounced Elton John title
“This company needs to start listening to its consumers but they act like they don't even care. Like Keith doesn't care. Like he's just going to code the game the way he wants to code it.”
Kaneda @ ~65:00 — Directly criticizes Keith (assumed: Keith Elwin or lead code designer) for ignoring feedback
“If you're going to make a game based on a theme, get everything you need to do it right or don't do it at all.”
Kaneda @ ~55:00 — Design philosophy: half-measures on theming are worse than no theme

Entities

Jersey Jack Pinballcompany Kanedaperson Jack Guarnieriperson Mark RitchiepersonEric MinierpersonWizard of Oz Emerald City EditiongameGodfathergame

Signals

~
sentiment_shift: Significant negative sentiment shift toward Jersey Jack Pinball; Kaneda positions himself as former believer now disappointed, implying broader community disillusionment with brand trajectory
high · I so sad to see where JJP has gone recently because this was the company I believed the most in' and 'overall feel deflated. I don't feel excited anymore about Jersey Jack'
?
product_concern: Flipper mushiness issue persists across ~7 games over decade; playfield degradation in Guns N' Roses and Willy Wonka; quality control failures
high · The flippers have been mushy for almost a decade, a problem which they haven't really solved until now' and 'The playfields fell apart. The playfields were falling apart on Willy Wonka'
?
product_concern: Recent games (Toy Story 4, Godfather) feature removed mechanical elements, increased reliance on LCD screens, and simplified gameplay despite 100% price increase
high · They removed a lot of the mechanical magic in their games, and then they almost doubled the price of the machines' and 'You could pull any theme over the Godfather and it would still work'
$
market_signal: Toy Story 4 and Godfather LEs showing weak secondary market demand; machines available new in box unwanted
medium · The demand for them both dried up instantly. Instantly. You can go get either machine now, new in box, in Limited Edition trim, and nobody really wants any of those LEs right now'
?
design_philosophy: JJP code designers (Eric Minier, Keith) consistently favor multiball-heavy rulesets despite repeated community feedback against this design pattern

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.078

0:00

You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers? I want the truth! You can't handle the truth. Oh shit, I'd like to ask for a recess. You can't handle the truth. I think we've covered this, haven't we? I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to. You can't handle the truth. Are we clear, Colonel? You can't handle the truth. Sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up. Welcome everybody to day two of Kaneda's candid take on the pinball industry. Today we've got Jersey Jack Pinball and I've been thinking a lot about this show and how I want to talk about JJP and I'm going to do a reverse of what I did yesterday in which I analyzed Stern Pinball and I gave them an A grade on what they've done in the pinball industry because I do think Stern does almost everything pretty damn good if you look at their success in pinball. Now where do I grade Jersey Jack Pinball? I'm giving JerseyJackPinball this grade based on where I see this company right now in 2023. Remember JerseyJackPinball has been around since 2011 and 12 years since the inception of this company. Do we feel like this company is making the best games they've ever made? Do we feel like their current offering at these prices is everything they've learned Av 1966 za��aters mieli optionala for support out faço' online They showed us how beautiful a pinball machine could be. They innovated a lot of things that other manufacturers have copied since then. But it is 12 years later. And I'm looking down at these games and I'm looking at what this company used to give us for $6500 in Wizard of Oz Emerald City Edition. And now I'm looking at a $15,000 Godfather in which I barely see any toys in the game. I'm going to give Jersey Jack Pinball based on everything and I'm going to give you the criteria that I came up with this score. I give this company a C rating, just a C Rating. It's mediocre to me and it hurts me to say that that Jersey Jack Pinball is delivering what I consider to be a product now that is not living up to anybody's expectations of where we thought Jersey Jack Pinball would be this many years later in the pinball industry. I will summarize this company by saying I don't think they're listening to the feedback. I don't think they do much market research. I don't think they hear us. I don't think they care that much when I see them still working with places like Miracle Playfields. And I think it's time that Jersey Jack Pinball hits the reset button and gets back to what this company was founded on, this passion to bring modern day games that were like the The next iteration of what Bally Williams put out into the world. That is what Jack Guarnari said he was going to do. When Jack Guarnari showed the world The WizardOfOz, he said to everybody, this is going to be my worst game ever. They're going to keep getting better and better and better. And if you put The WizardOfOz and you bookend this company and put it next to TheGodfather, it's absolutely embarrassing that TheGodfather is almost $9,000 more in CE trim than The WizardOfOz. I'm going to walk through now why I'm giving Jersey Jack a C rating. First and foremost, without a doubt, this company makes the most beautiful pinball machines maybe of all time. There's no denying the fact when you stand over a Jersey Jack machine, it just looks a few levels above a Stern machine. The quality of materials, the lights, the sound, the display, everything, the scopes, everything in a JJP game just feels another level of polish over what you get in a Stern machine. I would even say they make Stern machines look really cheap. But unfortunately, when it comes to pinball, it's not just about appearance. It's not just about vanity. And unfortunately, when it comes to gameplay, the beauty of jersey The JerseyJackMachines is skin deep because when you get into the gameplay and you actually start flipping the game, JerseyJackGames just don't feel as good as Stern Machines. The flippers have been mushy for almost a decade, a problem which they haven't really solved until now, right? How many games have they made? Like seven games and they finally figured out how to make the flippers feel good. You ever play a JerseyJack game after like a hundred plays? It's like you're playing pinball underwater. It's very sluggish and mushy. I'm happy they finally found a solution to that, but my gosh, should it take a decade to figure out how to get a pinball flipper to feel right? And so over a decade, Jack got our expectations up that we would see a never-ending cadence of games getting better and better and better. And unfortunately, it just hasn't come to fruition. and the last two games they've come out with, right? These are the games that are supposed to be everything they know to date. You would think their last two games would be some of their best product ever. And unfortunately, both Toy Story 4 and The Godfather are now turning out to be flops for the company. They are flops for the company. The demand for them both dried up instantly. Instantly. You can go get either machine now, new in box, in L.A. Trim, and nobody really wants any of those LEs right now. And as a company, it really disappoints me because if I look down at these last two machines, Jersey Jack used to put so much into their games. Now what did they do? They removed so much from the games. They removed a lot of the mechanical magic in their games, and then they almost doubled the price of their machines You can do that You can charge this much money and then take stuff out It supposed to go the other way around Think about it Since Pirates of the Caribbean let me ask a very simple question Since Pirates of the Caribbean when was the last time Jersey Jack Pinball engineered a mechanism in a game that was really impressive There was nothing in Guns and Roses from a mechanical standpoint that was impressive There was nothing in The story for there was nothing in freaking the godfather or that's in the godfather that is that Impressive and yet this is now the most expensive pinball has ever cost since pinball has been around and I just don't see the creativity You know when Jersey Jack brought this company to market you could see the creativity the passion he had for pinball It oozed out of that game The Jersey Jack was on a mission on a mission to show Stern pinball what he could do and he put Everything and the kitchen sink into the Wizard of Oz now look it's not the best shooting game But there's a reason why Wizard of Oz has sold so well over the years It really was unlike anything we had ever seen before and and really the only other time we got that was like the upper Playfield and pirates we never saw something that cool before in pinball and then Guns and Roses We never saw a music pin with a light show that transported us to a concert. But every other game dialed in Willy Wonka, Toy Story 4, the three games from Pat Lawler. Pat Lawler was supposed to be the hero of this company. When Jack Winari signed up with Pat Lawler, he was expecting big, major things from Pat. And now that the dust has settled, now that we're in 2023, it is fair to say that Pat Lawler never delivered the goods. Token Habi Buttock, consecutive stretÉ que integrating to back and that's not why you signed up pat lawler who used to be the world's number one pinball designer but he never had it out of the park The other reason why I'm giving Jersey Jack a C and I'm going to go down more reasons why on this candid episode, they pick arguably some of the weirdest themes for pinball. Let's think about the theme selection for Jersey Jack Pinball and remember that the primary target for pinball purchases are men 40 to 60 years old. Okay, think about that for a minute. Now look, the first game was Wizard of Oz and the reason why that sold well, It's not that men want Wizard of Oz Pinball. Again, it was such an innovative pinball machine for the time. So that's why Wizard ofOz just blew everybody away because we had never seen anything like that. Okay, then you go on to The Hobbit. Not a bad theme selection. I would argue The Hobbit is still JerseyJack Pinball's best coded game to date. The callouts are awesome. The gameplay is very mediocre. It's like chopping wood. It's not a very exciting pin to shoot. And nobody could have known, Jack didn't know this, And now, next in Hot 100 stats and bonuses. And the Dudes. Don't give him a license theme. Do people forget Pat Lawler's big games were License Games, Adam's Family and Twilight Zone. So Jack Guarneri greenlighting Dialed In, that was Jack's mistake. He should have found a way to give Pat Lawler a license theme to put everything into the game because Dialed In is packed but it's also a very emotionally sterile game. There's not a lot of personality in it. ***The Lo USD Barack ああ

10:35

і Question backlog I love pinball but it's just really hard to fall in love with their games because none of their games really check every single box. None of them. There's always a major compromise or Achilles heel with a Jersey Jack game and so dialed in, right? Loaded with toys, great shooter and it's boring. It's got no personality. Like playing that game is sterile. And then we go from dialed in to Pirates of the Caribbean, right? A really weird game because when it got launched, everybody wanted one. Even though they didn't have the assets from the movie that we wanted, it was that Eric Minier inaugural game with the triple spinning disc and the upper playfield pirate ship. We'd never seen stuff so cool before. And then they ended up yanking out the triple spinning disc and the treasure chest got yanked out that opened and closed. And then all of a sudden it took like nine months to get the game on the line. And by the time the game was on the line, they over streamed the game every single week and then nobody wanted it. Sonny Lanier, The game was released in 2005 for an entire year and it was easy to get. And then the only time people wanted the game is when they realized they couldn't have it. Well that's not a good marketing strategy and so they only made a thousand Pirates of the Caribbean games. And then they moved on to Willy Wonka, right? Willy Wonka is a really weird game, another really weird game. Again men 40 to 60 is Willy Wonka what they want I would argue no not really but it could have been an amazingly epic theme for pinball if they recreated the magic of the movie in pinball format but they absolutely did not The theme does not translate The movie itself is a musical in which each kid goes into a different section of the freakin' chocolate factory and they didn't bring any of that to life in the right way. They didn't have any synchronization of the videos with the voices and the singing, none of it is in there if you love the movie and that's the thing about Jersey Jack. It's like, if you're going to make a game based on a theme, get everything you need to do it right or don't do it at all. And then following up Willy Wonka, we got arguably the smartest launch, the best launch in the history of pinball, Guns N Frickin' Roses. and Guns N' Roses hit the target audience bullseye. Men 40 to 60, they love GNR. And this game blew everybody away. It was the greatest launch video of all time. A beautiful woman playing pinball, welcome to the jungle, and they sold out instantly of those 500 CEs. And it was gorgeous and the LE was gorgeous and everybody felt like they were going to win with Guns N' Roses. And then what happened? The playfields fell apart. The playfields were falling apart on Willy Wonka. And what did Jersey Jack do? Did they kick Mirko to the curb? No. They said, we're going to fix the problem before we make the collector's editions. And then what happened? They didn't fix the problem. The collector's editions still have the issues. And now you have to spend more of your own money to fix the problem to get a replacement playfield. And it was so sad because Guns N' Roses should have been the ultimate victory lap for Jersey Jack Pinball, for Eric Minear. And then what happened? The whole conversation became about the crappy playfields and they didn't have a real answer for it. And then the other thing happened was this. The more time people spent on Guns N' Roses, what happened? Everyone realized the gameplay was once again ultra multi ball heavy and it is and I've played GNR a lot and for those people who like to use their skill in the world of pinball, it's not that fun because you feel like you're always just flailing away at never ending multi balls. The most important thing is to know how many times as a community do we have to tell Jersey Jack Pinball to dial down the multiballs. Bring us multiball as an achievement in the game itself but don't always have multiballs going. And this is the thing, here we go again, it's happening again in Godfather and my point is this, this company needs to start listening to its consumers but they act like they don't even care. Like Keith doesn't care. Like he's just going to code the game the way he wants to code it. Eric Minier is going to keep making his games all about stacking multiballs and at what point are they going to listen to people? This is not what most people want. And I understand there is a small subculture within pinball who like this approach. My friend Derek is listening to this right now and he's so upset because he likes the way Jersey Jack Pinball codes their games and has all the layered multiball approach and if you just study the ruleset then it becomes enjoyable and I'm just here to tell you, no. This is not the approach to make successful pinball experiences for the majority of people out there that love pinball and they've got to find a way to create a balance. It's always one or the other. Like I think they tried to balance it out with Toy Story but they just made it too freaking easy and now nobody wants to own it because you can see the whole game in a few hours. But I don't get why it's so hard for Jersey Jack. The answers are staring them right in the face. Having been in pinball for this many years, it shouldn't be so hard for Jersey Jack Pinball to get it right. And they just launched two games that got it all absolutely wrong. You gotta pick the right theme. Why is that so hard? It is Jack Guarnari picking these themes. And lately it feels like Jack is just making games for himself. The only market research he's doing is in an Italian delicatessen somewhere in New Jersey. But there is no way you can do market research and land on The Godfather. There is no way you can do market research and make Toy Story 4. And I think they're setting their designers and everybody up for failure on day one of selecting a bad theme. And now if the rumor is correct that it is Elton John, that means three very questionable themes in a row. And for a company that only makes one game every 18 months, how can they afford to get it wrong three times in a row? And this is my overall feeling at Jersey Jack. It just feels like they're going through the motions, but they're not building things they're super giddy and excited about. And it feels like because they've got a billionaire backer, nobody's actual time of the week. How could you go out and get something better? How is it that Spooky Pinball with no billionaire backer could secure Rick and Morty but Jersey Jack Pinball couldn't? Remember, Spooky Pinball got Rick and Morty as a license when the Abbas family was already in control of Jersey Jack Pinball. And the reason why is Jersey Jack is paying attention to all the wrong themes. You know and look we all want the matrix are we gonna get it next probably not we all want top gun Are we gonna get it not even sure it's available, you know now this whole Harry Potter rumor That's not really gonna happen anytime soon But after a decade of Jersey Jack pinball being in this marketplace and me looking at them right now. I just overall feel Deflated I don't feel excited anymore about Jersey Jack and the other thing is like the way they treat their own We are on motivational townsbuh of Pinball Bad English Tangledimentobone Country andtheA The single final code update for GNR after 20 months nothing nada Same thing with Pirates of the Caribbean Why can they just finalize it give the owners their final wizard mode and move on It's when you do stuff like this. It starts to erode away Everybody's confidence in your company because it shows them It's just symbolic that you don't really care to finish the job at the end of day of the week, we started off with some news from Goder's Besc , lancer expandingиз exacerbating does the ương용폰은 한국文 붙여준 모�оре 라잇 오� Ariana 아니고 tay오잉 action 오케이uchi walker felt 저기 파워라롱 김카롓 중심케아 November 이후주대하다시지 새벽에 포함하고 waar교 дев 하지만 뽑 버원이 �szto secretary 메세 AE게 아까케 쿠카 마위쓰상 관련해 that part was progressive Zen in an early quatre retched Venture by Franchise from Lucas Collinllow at Main Street. Unofficial одно Millennium RS mission Administration, April 28,9135922b4tktg impartєarpropончekofp yourself, and volume. ENOLF5, sven LLC atBottlespelerLive.com, sargantntOuskeGlue customers atBeltCicker.com enolff.com megus Out of the issues we're seeing now with these modern JJP games, this is on Pat Lawler. He wanted to simplify these games, make them more operator friendly, and in doing so, he removed all of the creativity and passion that made Jersey Jack Pinball famous for people. And now they're trying to find their own way back. And these last two games have been somewhat dead on arrival. They're immediately forgettable. Everyone's immediately losing money on a $12,000 purchase. It's not good. A year from now, I hope I'm giving this company a much higher rating. A year from now, I hope this company has come out with two stellar themes that they creatively bring to life and knock it out of the park. A year from now, I hope Eric Minior makes a game that he's passionate about. When you hear the guy, you can tell he didn't really grow up loving the Godfather. He just got handed an assignment.