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GOOAAALLL! WCS '94

BlahCade Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 20m·analyzed·Oct 31, 2022
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Blockade reviews The Pinball Wizard negatively, then praises Zen's World Cup Soccer '94 conversion.

Summary

Blockade Pinball Podcast hosts Chris Freebus and Jared Morgan discuss two games: The Pinball Wizard (a mobile/Steam/Switch title by Frosty Pop) which they criticize for poor ball control and unsatisfying physics, and World Cup Soccer '94 (Zen Studios conversion of the Bally table) which they praise as a high-quality digital recreation with proper licensing and graphics.

Key Claims

  • The Pinball Wizard has unsatisfying controls and imprecise physics that make the game frustrating to play

    high confidence · Jared and Chris extensively demonstrate gameplay issues including weak flipper shots, uncontrollable ball behavior, and unavoidable enemy hits

  • World Cup Soccer '94 is worth the $10 price tag and improves on Farsight's previous conversion

    high confidence · Jared states 'honestly, in a word, it's worth it' and 'even if I had to buy this outright, I would, because it's a really really nice conversion'

  • The Pinball Wizard forces players to use a secondary ball-shooting mechanic (A button) to avoid dying from uncontrollable physics

    high confidence · Jared explains that in later levels, using the A button to shoot secondary projectiles becomes the only safe way to play rather than traditional flipper control

  • World Cup Soccer '94 features all FIFA livery, branding, and trademarks from the 1994 era

    high confidence · Jared states 'it features all FIFA livery, branding, and trademarks of that time, which is why it commands the $10 price tag'

  • The Pinball Wizard is available on mobile, Switch, Steam, and Apple Arcade

    high confidence · Chris and Jared confirm availability across these platforms; Jared notes it's not on Epic Games store

Notable Quotes

  • “Unsatisfying is how I would describe them, which in a pinball game is not what you want to hear.”

    Jared @ ~25:00 — Core criticism summarizing The Pinball Wizard's primary design flaw

  • “You should never lose control of the ball—in this case, the wizard—to a point where you have no control over the behavior of it. That's where it just drives me nuts.”

    Jared @ ~30:00 — Articulates fundamental game design principle violated by The Pinball Wizard

  • “When you make a player that frustrated for doing something that they had not much control over, like, it's not even like when you win the game, you should have a pin post up.”

    Jared @ ~45:00 — Describes frustration at losing a boss fight due to unclear game mechanics

  • “Control and accuracy. That is the thing that makes one of these games.”

    Jared @ ~50:00 — Core principle distinguishing good games (Rolls of the Realm) from The Pinball Wizard

  • “Honestly though, even if I had to buy this outright, I would, because it's a really really nice conversion.”

    Jared @ ~62:00 — Strong endorsement of World Cup Soccer '94 as a quality digital pinball conversion

  • “There is not a spot-res texture anywhere. It just looks really nice.”

    Jared @ ~70:00 — Praise for Zen Studios' consistent high-resolution graphics in World Cup Soccer '94

Entities

Chris FreebuspersonJared MorganpersonThe Pinball WizardgameFrosty PopcompanyWorld Cup Soccer '94gameZen StudioscompanyBallycompanyBlockade Pinball PodcastorganizationRolls of the RealmgameFarsightcompanyApple Arcadeproduct

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Blockade Pinball soliciting game developer feedback via Discord member request, demonstrating community-driven content curation and openness to developer response

    medium · Chris states: 'if the developers are watching this and they've got feedback for us, we'd love to hear it. If we've got stuff wrong... tell us'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: World Cup Soccer '94 positioned as premium digital pinball conversion at $10 price point with full FIFA licensing, improving on Farsight's previous version and justifying price through graphical quality and official branding

    high · Jared states licensing explains $10 price tag and that Zen's version 'improves on what Farsight did'; praise for high-resolution graphics and FIFA livery

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Contrast between game design philosophies: The Pinball Wizard prioritizes aesthetic continuity over control/precision, while Rolls of the Realm and Zen's conversions demonstrate that control and accuracy are essential for player satisfaction in pinball-adjacent games

    high · Jared: 'Control and accuracy. That is the thing that makes one of these games' after comparing The Pinball Wizard to Rolls of the Realm

  • ?

    product_strategy: The Pinball Wizard released across multiple platforms (mobile, Switch, Steam, Apple Arcade) suggesting mobile-first casual game design that may not translate well to controller-based play

    medium · Hosts note game likely designed for short mobile play sessions rather than extended console/Steam gameplay; physics feel identical across platforms

  • ?

    product_concern: The Pinball Wizard exhibits fundamental game design flaws: imprecise physics, weak flipper control, uncontrollable ball behavior, and unavoidable enemy hits that create player frustration and force reliance on secondary mechanics (A button attacks) rather than traditional pinball gameplay

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.241

0:00
blockade pinball podcast this is the blockade pinball podcast i'm your host chris freebus aka shut your trap joining me as always halfway across the world it's jared morgan hello everybody how's it all going it's going great uh so we we had a little bit of a layover gap here that's right because schedules are hard schedules are hard um ideally we would have uh recorded right after uh the last pinball show um but hey you know things happen that's right i do appreciate everyone's asking if we're okay. Because we didn't record a show, we're not okay.
0:56
Clearly, we must be dead. Yeah, I know that happens with channels that have been like, they're every week, and they always launch at the same time every week, and then all of a sudden, they're mysteriously gone. Everybody's like, oh my God, did they get pulled?
1:11
Yeah, exactly. No one's told us to go away yet. Yeah, no such luck. Even if they did, we wouldn't listen.
1:17
we just make a show for me and jared yeah that's right yeah we just do it for ourselves that kind of thing uh anything uh interesting going on in your neck of the woods there well this week will be the last week you see this background oh really um yeah because my house is getting fully painted next week um i'm gonna be going with a nice dulex lexicon half which is sort of like a little bit of an off-gray white um throughout the house and uh yeah it should be By the next episode, we should have a very different view in here. Let's say goodbye to the blue wall, everybody. I'm disappointed that nobody's gone in there and done bad things with my blue screen. Well, I mean, you could always just go to chroma key green, and then that would be obvious what you want done. Yeah, because why not paint a room completely for a podcast so I can go full green screen? You know people do. oh yeah i've seen their rooms like there's some oh you know rooms where they do vr playthroughs and the guy stands there in front of the the screenplay in the background yeah all green it's like wow that's some commitment right there can you imagine walking into that room you'd just be like wow my eyes geez oh it'd be so like oh geez need sunglasses to enter this room you know that's really green if we had the subscriber base that was uh making youtube pay us, I would probably do it.
Striker
game

high · Jared's extended gameplay demonstration showing repeated loss of control, inability to escape enemy attacks, and boss fight frustration; Chris and Jared's repeated criticism of 'unsatisfying' controls

  • ?

    technology_signal: The Pinball Wizard's attempt to maintain aesthetic (wizard character walking animation) forces compromises in physics precision and ball control that undermine core gameplay satisfaction

    high · Jared explains: 'the actual wizard ball is walking. And for it to animate properly and behave correctly, they've had to make some sacrifices in the way that's represented in the physics'

    • 2:43
    I probably would as well. And I'd probably be using much better streaming gear than I am at the moment. Oh, well, that's a given, yes. Yeah, we'd be using all sorts of amazing tech, which means that maybe, finally, I'd be able to hear the audio in all the playthroughs that we play.
    3:01
    Although, probably not. Probably not. We're going to have to hire a professional at some point to do that kind of stuff, yeah. We could be paying thousands of dollars and still not have that. you know but yeah it's going that's it that's the difference i i think uh when you finally see me and jared with um uh gamer chairs yeah that's what that are like specific i forget what the main company is that we always you know you always see the the gamers playing with it's like that's when you know we finally gotten sponsored yes right yep but honestly those gaming chairs are horrible to sit in i don't know how the gamers sit in them i i had one once i know and you don't I don't anymore. They're horrible. Yeah. Do not want. Yep. So, sorry. No brand affiliation for me. I'll be sticking with my nice ergonomic chair for my back.
    3:53
    Because I'm getting old, right? Yeah. When you get old, you know, things start to break. I tried replacing this chair last year. Yeah. Because it's old and it doesn't have the cush anymore. And I went to the store. I sat in a whole bunch of chairs. Didn't care for any of them. and then I also didn't cover the price. And so then I ordered one off of Amazon. Yeah, folks, don't order a chair that you've never sat in. No, never do that. Because I built it, and I sat in it, and I just went, ew, this is not good at all, and did not want and returned it, and yep.
    4:31
    The thing is with chairs, and I think we've said this before, is they are like your connection with the ground. when you're sitting. Yes. So all your weight is on your butt, so you've got to make sure your chair supports that. Yeah. So yeah, like shoes, buy the best that you can afford when it comes to chairs.
    4:58
    I was just going to say buy the most comfortable that you can afford. Yeah, best equals comfortable. Oh, okay. Yeah.
    5:06
    So what are we doing today? Well, as you may have noticed by the title page there, we're going to talk about World Cup Soccer 94. Oh, it feels good to actually be able to call it World Cup Soccer and not Championship Soccer or whatever that was. World Challenge. World Champion. Yeah, World Champion Soccer, I think was what it was there. Yeah, World Champion Soccer. Back in TPA days. So we're going to be talking about it. We're going to be doing also a playthrough of that. but before we get around to that we had a different request and that was for us to check out a game called the Pinball Wizard yes this request came through our Discord one of our fully paid up Blackade members can you be fully paid up? it's really easy right? you just come along you're fully paid you're welcome Yeah, so one of those members came in and said, hey, there's this game out. It looks interesting.
    6:08
    Why don't you see if you can get the developer to give you some keys and do a playthrough of it. So that's what we did.
    6:17
    We actually, Frosty Pop is the studio. Yeah. So we were provided keys for the Steam version. Now, interestingly enough, I finally stepped into the modern world. I got rid of my old phone, which was an iPhone 7 Plus, and now I've doubled the generation and am in a 14 Plus.
    6:39
    Jeez. That would be a world of difference. It's not an incredibly giant world of difference. Well, it is Apple. Yeah. It's not going to be that different. The size is virtually the same. I mean, there's a little more screen real estate, but the physical size of the phone is identical. The screen is obviously brighter. a little bit nicer. I haven't messed with the camera yet. I literally have used it all of two days.
    7:06
    So I'm not familiar with all the ins and outs of there. But because of that, Apple provided me with Apple Arcade for three months free. And, hey, lo and behold, the Pinball Wizard is also an Apple Arcade game. So if you're already subscribing to the Apple Arcade, just give a search for the Pinball Wizard, and you can download and play. Have a go. I shouldn't say for free, but as part of your subscription. Yeah. So I just wanted to say that it is available in both those form factors. I don't believe it's on the Epic Games store. It's not on Epic Games, but it is on Switch. Oh, interesting. Yeah, they've released it on Switch as well, apparently. Okay. So let's have a look at it, eh? Yeah, we'll take a look at that. Actually, I'm going to flip you over to Jared while I get my gear set up here. yeah so the design the developer of this game is frosty pop um and uh they like we mentioned have been pushing this game out to a number of different platforms um it's on mobile as chris mentioned it's on switch steam um and i'm not sure about consoles there may actually be some support on consoles too. So they are trying to make this game widely available on all platforms. So it's it reminds me and you'll see this. Yeah once it loads. Once it loads.
    8:40
    It's it's got a quite a nice aesthetic to it. Like the art style is very cartoon like. And, yeah, it looks quite nice. So this is the main landing page here. You've got a number of things down the left, so we might go through what those are first. Sure. I mean, basically, Tower is just running through the actual gameplay, daily dungeons, just a daily challenge. I haven't unlocked any of your dungeon skills. You're going to have different skill options that are available to you. There's power-ups. I haven't really played much through this game yet I'm just going to show you what I'm not going to bother with the very first level because that's exceedingly boring I'm going to show you what the second level here is So you've got a little guy that is the pinball wizard and he acts as your pinball and then it's just basically about hitting slime blocks because they are hiding a key that unlocks your door in the background.
    9:59
    You can build up some of your power-ups, which is the green energy bar. And you can build up health, which is obviously the heart switches. It's funny. It's the heart bucket, but it's actually collecting those little diamonds.
    10:16
    Yeah. Well, the diamonds are your, I guess, sort of, in a way, XP. They work towards your XP, because as you can see, this is sort of like a dungeon crawler. It uses a dungeon crawler aesthetic, and it's obviously definitely RPG-like in the way it works. So, the whole idea behind the game is you're climbing up a dungeon, a tower, basically.
    10:45
    Can I get the key? Yeah, now you got the key and now it starts counting down. You'll see in the top right, there's a timer counting down. So you can either continue to flip around, try and get all the things you unlocked, or at the end of the timer, you'll just go to the next level anyhow. So there's no real penalty. and I will say that in the later levels that mechanic actually helps you in that if you're surrounded by enemies and you've got the key and you've qualified the key all you need to do is just sit there and wait for the timer to unlock so you don't die because you can get the key qualify yourself for the next level and still die before you get out of the dungeon which is one of the bad parts of the game it's unfortunately not the only bad part no so we'll try and show you this now I can start sharing basically so that you can kind of start keeping an eyeball the physics on this are not precise no it's not that it's floaty it's that I really feel like you don't really have a lot of control that's the frustrating thing it's sort of I think the reason why is because of the fact that the actual wizard ball is walking.
    12:09
    And for it to animate properly and behave correctly, they've had to make some sacrifices in the way that's represented in the physics to keep that aesthetic. I'll just show you right now. I need to get to that upper playfield, right? So you think it'd be a simple flip. So I go and I go... I don't make it. No. so this is where the the power-ups come to play and then then that happens right yeah great so I'm gonna aim myself into there there I go I got up there so here's oh no I went back down hey back down so what you'll need to do now is use the b button to dash up so like that and then up you go but somehow I didn't get into the door oh yeah we go back down But I'm going to build up your energy again, so you can do that So it's just like the on-the-fly shooting. I feel like all I'm ever doing is just
    13:10
    Going side to side. It's like I'm on it's like I'm on a seesaw. Yeah, it's like your flippers a week and it really Like that's that's problem one with the game, and I'm sure Like when I was thinking about this aspect of the game and going okay Yeah, I have to stop myself from thinking this is pinball because it's it's not pinball it uses a pinball aesthetic but it's it's not really pinball in the fact that if it was real pinball you could do a lot more precision with aiming and stuff like that and you really can't now this is the other frustrating part with this game so when those blob things see you and they lock eyes on you that's when they turn into red blobs and they they will kill you or they'll take off your life points but the problem is that if your weak shot flipper gets it up near them and they see you then what happens is they turn red and they attack you and there's no way you can escape so well i've got killed a number of times in this game by just being in the proximity of these blobs and they see you and you just sort of, you can't escape because your balls just got up to the apex of it coming back down again, and you can't do anything. Like, now, basically. See that? Like, there was no way you could escape that. And I think, I'm trying to think, okay, again, I had to, like, switch off my, well, this is pinball, like, you know, the pinball rolls, and that's what the pinball does. is it a case that you maybe need to use the B button again to like zoom out of the way and change where you go in the game?
    14:53
    But again, I'm going, it just feels unsatisfying. I remember getting to that point and getting done by those blocks and actually feeling really angry because it's like I have no choice in the matter about what's going on here. I'm getting dead like that. See you're there you you sort of Seen you and your ball is up there. You have no escape. It just feels really frustrating as a gameplay mechanic for me which is annoying because it shouldn't be like that now, I don't know if the levels Shapes get changed much, but a lot of these early levels is just circles and that's where I say I just do like feel like I'm Yeah. Going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth in a circle.
    15:42
    They do. Here's where we're trying to get up a ramp, and look at that. I went up the ramp, and I blasted right past the doorway. Yeah, so there's no vacuum where the door is. You've got to, like... And the thing is, there's no variability in that B, that dash move. No. You can't half-power it. Am I supposed to soft-shot it, or what's the deal? Yeah. I don't know. So the mechanic of aiming that thing is really frustrating as well. Because you have the little spinning reticle going around you, and you've got to pre-empt without any sort of aiming dot reticle or anything where you're going to end up in the playfield. Now, there's other games that solve that by actually putting a puzzle-bottle-style aiming pathway so you know that where you're going to shoot is where you're going to get it. I mean, Zombie Rollers does it. And see, that's frustrating. You hit something, you flew straight over the flippers, and you had no control over that. That shouldn't happen. Like, you should never lose control of the ball, in this case, the wizard, to a point where you have no control over the behavior of it. Like, it's just a bad mechanic.
    16:53
    And there you go. Off you go again. Not only did you get damage... Okay, so look at this. How am I supposed to get to that door? What's the shot to get to the door? you have got to go around to the left and roll into it, I think. I don't think you can actually... I don't think you can direct shot it. Yeah. No. Oh, no, you got in. So here's another one that's different in shape. It's still sort of round, but it's got, like, the lower and upper playfield. Yeah. Now, this level is a pain because you've got to get... You've got to dash past these enemies to get up there. And see that? Look at that. You just lost nearly all your life because you were in the vicinity of those blobs. And you had no control over the matter. So, I died a lot on this one.
    17:43
    There you go, and you're dead. Because you rolled into one because you had no control over it. You know, arguably, except if you use the B button to dash away from it. But it's like, it seems... I think that is the mechanic that the designers want you to use here. They want you to essentially use B a bit like tilt, and they want you to zoom away, but it's not at all intuitive. It's not something that, in the heat of gameplay, you gravitate to do. So let's see what a daily dungeon looks like.
    18:18
    It looks a lot like pretty much every other one. And the thing that obviously I can't hear, but you can all hear watching the video, is the music. Very repetitive. The music is exactly the same no matter where you are.
    18:33
    And that gets a bit Tyson after a while. And there you go. Look at that. Take a nice chunk of life off there. And now that one you're likely killed. So, all right. So you got a gem. And, yeah, things like, you know, flicking back like you're doing there.
    18:51
    It's possible that then you get stuck in a loop like that. So, I'd say if I was to summarize the controls in this, I would give it a one-word review and say unsatisfying is how I would describe them, which in a pinball game is not what you want to hear. So, what I'm then going to... Oh, hey, look, there's another area over here. Yeah, there's another room over here. This is a good example of different designs. But once you're in the actual play field, it's the same play field. Look, it's a circle again. Yep. Well, because you're in a tower. So you climb up a tower, so... Yeah, but again, that's that repetitive factor. Yeah. I guess that's just the design aesthetic in this particular case. Like, you're in a tower, you're going up. But I get what you're saying. Like, I guess there's not much they can do about that as a problem to solve. And then you're back down here again, and you can actually shoot up between those slippers if you can get angle on it. or dash up between them if you want to take a shortcut up there and now what you got now is that a power up so see how you got the um the ball dash function Oh something just lowered Yeah yeah Nope Uh okay so now you got the dash function so if you can get up to the top and then get over to the other side of the playfield So what is that? Uh, okay, so trap up.
    20:22
    So you can see if you can trap. Now, press A, and now aim the thing at an enemy. So now you've got a secondary pinball that comes out. Now, here, it's not a permanent power-up, so... And now you've got to try and get over there again.
    20:41
    So, here we go. Oh, really? So, trap up again, and try and get... See, this is like you're rattling around, you don't have any control. And this is particularly bad, like when you're down this area. now see that that mechanic with that um ball that you can shoot out and aim that spoiler alert that just becomes how you play the game from now on because because what happens is to avoid any um enemies and any damage from random attacks from enemies because you have no control over the ball all you're doing now is just using the a button to launch a ball and shooting the enemy so you You just shoot the bomb, and you're just basically using that pinball to do all the work for you now. Look, that's how I played it from this point onwards. Because there's a level in there that essentially demands that you play it like that. And until you work it out, it's very frustrating.
    21:45
    So you get up into the later levels, and that's literally all you're doing. To stay safe and not die randomly, that's all you do. You just use the A button and that extra ball, and it's grossly unsatisfying.
    21:59
    I mean, there's a risk reward. You could actually roll around the play field and use the dash button to plow out the enemies, but it's too risky because you have no control over the ball after you've launched around and you're rattling around the play field. So the only way you can really safely play the game is with the A button. Yeah. And it's just, it's not at all enjoyable to play. I do think it makes for a better mobile game than, obviously, a sit-down-with-a-controller-and-play game. Price on Steam is $7.99. Seems a bit steep for what the game is, but...
    22:39
    I think, like, $7.99, you know... I mean, if it was double that, then no. but for $7.99 that's not a lot to pay and you might find some satisfaction in the game somehow I certainly didn't but maybe if you can get it for half price then yeah, okay if it's $3.50, sure if it's $3.50, yeah, it's worth a shot you get some enjoyment out of it but like I said, if you've got Apple Arcade try it out there Yeah, if you've got that power, give it a go. Give it a go.
    23:22
    I think the other problem is that we're having played... Rolls of the Realm. Rolls of the Realm Vol. 2, yeah. Now that's... That's much more satisfying. Way more satisfying. I went on to that after playing this going, surely, what is wrong here? And as soon as I picked up Rolls of the Realm Reunion, it clicked to me as saying control and accuracy that is the thing that makes one of these games and that's not what the pinball wizard has even if the physics are what they are if you have control over your aim that makes a world of difference you can adjust mentally to the physics but when you can't get a control good control over the ball either um that's where it just drive me it drives me nuts and i mean to me it reminded me of you know playing snowball um yeah even snowball had better control than this now the other thing that you because you're not up to the level that i am in the game because i i slog through using that a button to destroy the enemies all the way up to the the first boss now what the first boss does is it swallows the ball and swallows this orb thing, and that's the thing that you've got to hit to destroy the boss. Now, you've got to do this multiple times. So the only safe way to do it is to use the A button, aim, shoot the thing, and wait for it to reset, because it constantly tops up your mana bar so you can do those special moves during these levels. So all you're doing is you're trapping up, you're shooting and repeating. I'd like to say about 45 times to destroy this boss using this method of play. And if you don't, you've got lightning bolts that randomly appear on the play field that zap you. So it's almost telling you, no, don't risk going around the play field. Don't actually play pinball. Just use the A button to shoot a secondary pinball around. It's like, okay. Anyhow, so I finally defeated this boss, slogged through, got to the end and I got the orb and you had to shoot into the orb and then shoot this sort of plinth I presume it wasn't clear in the game what you had to do I presume it was you had to shoot the plinth after you collected the ball so I shot, I made a shot for the ball up there missed the plinth, straight down the middle, game ended had to do the entire thing again I nearly threw the controller through the screen. And I just went, nope, that's it. Can't play this anymore. No.
    26:14
    That's where they lost me. Yeah. So that's a bad sign. When you make a player that frustrated for doing something that they had not much control over,
    26:26
    like, it's not even like a, like, when you win the game, you should have a pin. Like, you know, a post that pops up. during the flippers that prevents you from losing your ball after you complete the goal you shouldn't be cheaped out it's not like you get another chance it's like your health bar and your game's over it's like yeah so they lost me there yeah and that that's why it's like two out of five for me for this game like it's got promise but not at not as it currently stands it's i just know that I played, you saw what I played too, I got up to that eighth level and just kind of went, eh, I've got other things I'll play. It just didn't, it didn't grab me by that point that early. And I felt like I knew it was going to frustrate me already.
    27:18
    And it just made me not want to continue anymore. Yep. So, I don't know. Like I said, because it's on my phone, maybe I'll hammer it through a little bit more.
    27:31
    It'd be interesting to see if the gameplay experience feels different on the phone. I mean, interestingly enough, you do have to hold your phone in landscape to play. Okay. So it's not portrait mode there. That makes sense because it is a landscape orientation. Yeah. So, I mean, it looks identical. Physics play identical. Everything feels identical. I mean, but I think, you know, doing a dungeon and then putting the fun away, doing something else, hey, you've got a minute, quick minute, do a dungeon, quick minute, you know what I mean? So doing it piecemeal like that, you're less likely to get that, you know, long-term player frustration. and yeah i feel like it's more designed for that than like i said to i'm gonna sit down and i'm gonna hammer this thing for a while it doesn't feel like that kind of game at all no it's gonna feel frustrating if you play it like that yeah so yeah you're right maybe it's designed to be casual it's designed to yeah i've just got five minutes let's go and play this let's do a dungeon maybe do the daily challenge and then put your phone away. Maybe. But that doesn't take away from the control issues in the game and the overall gameplay experience that you get in the game. And look,
    28:53
    if the developers are watching this and they've got feedback for us, we'd love to hear it. If we've got stuff wrong, if you've got the game and you've downloaded it and played it and you're having a different experience than us, tell us if we're right or wrong on this because maybe we're just doing it wrong maybe we don't get maybe the developer is wanting us to do here with the game so all right that being said we're gonna uh switch gears here we're gonna go on to the uh the main event which would be world cup soccer um yeah that's right this one unfortunately you get to see me do some setup here because i can't do it without the screen being active all right so i'm gonna come over here we're gonna go bye bye to that logo and we're going to go hello to this logo just like that just like that and then i gotta also change a little bit where my game capture is coming from here we go so while you're doing this i'll talk through some there we go here i'll feature you so you can do exactly that so world cup um 90 world cup soccer 94 it is the um based on the the belly table um and it is quite surprisingly, well, not if you see the price, but it features all FIFA, livery, branding, and trademarks of that time, which is why it commands the $10 price tag or the 100 ticket type price tag. Do the currency conversion in your own region, but it's about $10 for me in Australia. Probably about $8 something. No, it's $10 here. Yeah. Because it's $100.
    30:38
    $100 tickets is $10. It's $10. And, you know, like, honestly, in a word, it's worth it. You know, obviously, Chris and I got keys for this game.
    30:54
    Or we had leftover tickets from the last time that Zen gave us the ticket dump, so we were able to purchase this without charge. honestly though even if I had to buy this outright I would because it's a it's a really really nice um conversion it improves on what Farsight did with their conversion of the game number one obviously it's got all the branding in it um and um it plays really well um so yeah without well some some further I'm like waiting for it to show up here why is it not showing up oh i know why hold on i gotta do one other apparently my game capture went to epic launcher and not pinball effects uh the wrong screen there we go that would be the difference hey there it is look at that here it is well hey while we're uh while we're just sitting here waiting for it to play why don't we take a closer look at this table yeah goodness gracious it looks gorgeous oh such a good looking recreation i'm just saying and and we keep on mentioning this it's just because zen uses high res graphics everywhere there is not a spot res texture anywhere no it just looks really nice um yeah i mean you can clearly just see everything uh it's crisp there's no um there's no sign of anything low texture those plastics which you know belly has lots of the clear plastics they do love the clear they are gorgeous looking they're not just they're not milky um they've actually got that reflection um yeah that shine that moves around and stuff so yeah i'm saying that coin just go over to the left where the coin toss is. There's a little coin that's a graphical extra. What does it say? PFX. PFX, right. Okay.
    32:55
    So, yeah, graphical extras. You've got the coin flip there. You've got Striker right there. You've got the Whirlwind going over. I think that's a Whirlwind. Yeah, something like that. Going over the soccer ball. There's nothing back there. Down at the bottom of the table, you've got the actual World Cup trophy. And then you've got some boots. Some boots. now there is the goalie in graphical enhancements has a little swishy motion on it so it's got like little like shadowing going on it it's not there in the normal version but it's like literally that's the only difference alright now so go ahead and start playing if you like oh I see the swishy motion there yeah the little swishy motion that's literally it take it off it's not there anymore no swishies yeah no swishies so the interesting thing is that I'm kind of a little bit surprised to be honest about the graphical extras in this Striker does surprisingly little in this like I would expect that if they got the permission to use Striker that he'd be jumping all over the table like Indiana Jones and going over to the goal area and hovering over the goal and stuff like that. All he does is stay in that one spot. It's quite static. I don't mind that.
    34:22
    Well, it's... See, I'm of the opinion, I like graphical extras that bring a little bit of life to the table, but I don't want them necessarily distracting on the table. Yeah. So, in the case of Indiana Jones where we noticed his whip crack is what makes the drop targets drop, and that delays.
    34:44
    That's something that should never happen. I'm going to, hold on, I'm going to pause right there. So I'm trying to launch the ball right now. Zen, please.
    34:54
    There are different spring tensions on your plungers. This thing, the difference between shooting the back of the coin toss and the front of the coin toss is so minuscule. A couple of millimeters, yeah. It is very...
    35:10
    It does need to be Twilight Zone loose. It needs to... But it needs to be looser than a regular tight spring. And I mention that right now just because there are other tables where that spring tension is important. Very important, yeah. For what you're playing.
    35:30
    Yeah. So you do need varying strengths there. Because it is quite hard to get the skill chops in there. it needs to have quite a loose spring to the game.
    35:42
    So, I mean, from a visual extras perspective, they could have done something else with goalie. I think, like, that's... Maybe not because it's an interactive element, but it just feels like maybe the goalie... You want an actual goalie? Yeah, why not? Have an actual goalie moving backwards and forwards. Like, instead of that thing, have a goalie dashing backwards and forwards left and right across the goal that's something you could do I'm going to try and hit that middle the other thing that frustrates me here is that, and this is on all Belly Williams games that have a skill shot you don't get the top down view of the plunger guide in any of these games and it's actually important Like, you can, particularly if the physics are consistent, which is one thing that is right out of the gate here, that the plunge of physics are consistent.
    36:44
    Once you find the sweet spot, you can always get the skill shot given a certain thing you need to shoot. But you can't get an accurate gauge of where that is. You have to use a carpet and dots on the carpet and things like that. And it varies based on what view you're looking at as to where the dots are on the carpet. So just give us the view, rather than switching to the front of the cabinet in skill shot mode, actually give us a view of the plunge lane, so that we can actually see the plunge being pulled back, see where the tip is in relation to the guide, and then make accurate plunging decisions based on that. That's what I want.
    37:21
    Try using the Magna Save at some point. Yeah, I'm going to if I can remember to, before I blow. Because I have questions about the Magna Save. It's been a long time since I've played an actual World Cup soccer. Yeah. I don't know what the strength of the magnet is. The strength of the magnet will take the ball away from a center drain and snap it to the left flipper. That's what it's designed to do. Is there any delay with the magnet activating? No. It's instantaneous. When you hit that button, it turns on immediately. Okay.
    37:57
    Which is not the case in this game. That's what I was going to say. Sometimes it seems instantaneous. Other times it seems delayed. So I'm going to get us to a point where... Up the ramp. If I do a bad shot up the lift ramp or something like that. Yeah, we'll see what happens. Or even there. Get a little center reaction going. Well, I want a ball hurtling.
    38:20
    You want some... Okay, here we go. Yeah, that's about right. That's pretty powerful. Now, would it normally do that little... Yes. It does. Yeah, it does. It doesn't lock the ball. It doesn't snap the ball to the target, which is why you have to flip it down. Okay. It needs to settle. It's a little bit like the Magna Save on Theater of Magic, where the ball sort of has a bit of a wobble to it as it stabilizes. So that is normal. The reason being is that the magnet isn't protruding through the playfield, so it doesn't have the correct contact with the ball. So it's essentially like, think of it like the Twilight Zone magnets. Well, you know how Dr. Dude, when it first came, it was just like, it felt like the playfield was all of a sudden ice.
    39:07
    Yes. You know, and like, it could pull from anywhere. It not only pulled, but it had a slingshot effect where that ball just like, ricocheted around. Yeah. Sometimes it's still ricocheting when the magnet stopped.
    39:22
    Yeah, true. but the thing with Dr. Dude is that its magnet protrudes through the playfield. So it's actually got the metal contact for the magnet that sticks through the playfield. Whereas this one is a sub-playfield magnet, very much like, think of the magnet behavior on the power field in Pilot Zone, and you can see the similarities in behavior in this. Now, what I found is if you want to go do the TV mode, you can do a late shot from the the into the left slingshot and it will most times go into the the tv award pole so if you leave it towards the the bottom of the flipper do a flip over to it it will often go in which is very useful when you in final draw mode Now relighting the Magnus save is on the right side I think it's the orange target near the right-hand side, which, if you think about it, is... Yeah, that's right. Right there. Where that orange ball is. That's right, yeah. But, you know, the funny thing is that... And this is obviously not a critique on Zams, it's a critique on the location of that target in the game. So you're going for the bang to save target, it's danger because it's right near the out lane. It's risky as anything to get that shot.
    40:47
    And then what will normally happen is, well there you go, nice shot on the final draw. I love the sound in this game.
    40:54
    I will often let it sit in the plunger lane and just do that drum loop over and over again. Love it.
    41:01
    They really, like the feel and energy of the music in this game is just part of the reason why I love it so much. Like it's just got a really good aesthetic to it. Oh nice shot in goal. Now you've got to shoot the ramps obviously to relight, or you can shoot the free kick saucer up the top there and that'll also give you a relight. I think all four of the switches will give you a relight as well, so if you shoot all the stars, you'll relight the jackpot that way as well. So there's a number of different ways you can get the jackpot. And the other thing to think about too is don't forget about your free tickets on the ramp, because tickets will get you through the cities, and when you get all the cities unlocked, that's when you get essentially the wizard mode. Okay, now watch this. Should it do that?
    41:56
    What, kick out and then drop? Yes, because it kicks out right between the flipper and the metal, basically going right at the crux of the flipper there, instead of bouncing it over to the right flipper. So that's another question I have. Shouldn't it go dead pass over to the right?
    42:15
    I think, yeah, I don't think it should actually do what it does there. It should actually have some contact on the flipper. Normally these games are designed to put the ball back onto the flipper again. so you can take a shot. Yeah. So, yeah. That would have been a good time to use Magnuson. Wouldn't have? Yeah, that would have really done a test. Now, the other interesting thing to try is that when the ball is beneath the playfield, beneath the foot this, you can still pull it up sometimes. You can still do that, and that's not correct. So that's when the magnet is overpowered. I think the MagnaSave deactivates when you go down an outline. So if it hits a switch going down the outline, you can't use it. So even if you press the button, it won't work. Some of you might be wondering how is MagnaSave activated.
    43:16
    Zen has this keyed in like they do with all of their own originals and MagnaSave, and that it is on the launch button of your controller. Yes. We're going to go on a little rant here in a moment, a little bit later, about that. But just so you know, that's how it's actually functioning. They have not mapped us a second set of flipper buttons like the actual machine does.
    43:43
    That's right. There are pros and cons to that. For me, the pro is that your finger's normally sitting on that button anyhow. So it makes it easier to manage, which it sort of takes away from the intent of the buttons like that when you're playing the game. There's actually a risk-reward quotient in there when you're going for a magnet save or using a secondary button, because often you have to take the finger off the pinball, off the flipper button to do it. Whereas in this case, you've got basically contact with all three control surfaces in the game. So the risk is slightly diminished in digital. I mean, it's not a big deal, but it's like something to note Because if this for example if that button control was on a shoulder button
    44:36
    You would have to either be holding your controller in a really awkward way. Have you ever tried to play a Game that requires you to use all shoulder buttons at the same time. It feels really weird on certainly on an Xbox controller, maybe not so much on a PlayStation controller, but
    44:52
    No, that's the thing with why I play with the PlayStation controller, because I don't hold my controller to have all fingers on both the shoulder and trigger buttons. Whereas if I play with an Xbox controller or a Switch Pro controller, I feel like all my fingers are there on all buttons, and I feel like I'm gripping the controller more than... I like a nice loose feel.
    45:19
    This is where, obviously, playing with a pin-sim controller, Is better. Is much better. You know, which you have. Which I do have. Yeah, which isn't connected most of the time. Well, I haven't connected it yet to this because I use it for cabinet mode.
    45:40
    Oh, yeah. As there hasn't really been, you know, obviously the bare introduction of cabinet mode has been put into play with PenFX. and it's not really worth getting set up at this stage because it's not really working that well and you know everyone knows it's not working well but it's there just to have minimum functionality the other thing that's different in this as well and I don't know whether it's in enhanced or standard is the colour of the rail leading from the striker's hideout to the right shall we find out yeah so that should be gold Where? The railing. The habit rail.
    46:24
    You mean... Yeah, it shouldn't be crying. That up there? Yeah, that is not... That whole habit rail is gold? Yeah, it's got a gold tinge to it. On the ones I've played, it has. Anyhow. I'm pretty sure. There's actually one over in a place that I do it. I distinctly remember that it's got a different tinge to that. I should watch... There's a YouTuber, Kerry Hardy, who has recently built up his World Cup, and he goes all out with his full customization.
    47:00
    So I'd be very curious. I'll have to look up his video and see what he's done with that Pave Trail. Yeah. Maybe my experience with it is different. perhaps someone's, you know, re-powder, not powder-coated, re-chromed it, and put a different anodizing thing over the top, but I'm pretty sure it's not chrome. I could be wrong. I mean, it would be a... I think I'm actually wrong, because it would be a pretty big oversight for them not to texture it right when it's such a big object in the game. It also seems like something that would be an extra cost for Bally, and I don't see them having done that. Well, they did on Indiana Jones. Well, but Indiana Jones was a whole different story, and that's Williams, too. Well, I mean, I get it. Belly Williams, same company. Exactly.
    47:45
    Well, they weren't always. There was a certain time period when they weren't. They weren't, but in that era, they were.
    47:52
    So, I don't know. That's something minor. But, I don't know. I think, shall we go into the whole point about making the save area and where everything sits? Um, good shot.
    48:09
    Now, should we talk about button mappings? Button mappings. So here's my request, uh, to Zen. And then I've had this request in for a very long time, basically ever since I built, before I built my Pinsim, because I built my Pinsim with two flipper buttons on each side. I actually put in a third button that is my Y button so that I could activate, uh, Zen original power-ups Right there at my fingertip rather than having to
    48:40
    Reach up to the top. Yeah But here's the thing Even pinball arcade has see there goes Wow just goes Not that way Bumps up. I'm even pinball arcade allowed us to do two sets of flipper buttons There are tables that require two sets of flipper buttons that have not been put into Zen yet. Yes. But they're maybe on the way. I think most famously you have a table like the Shadow where you need to be able to alternate the diverter lanes. Yeah, the furbis. That's right. On both left and right side. That's right. A machine like Black Knight has MagnaSave on left and right in lanes, And so it's not just triggering both of them at the same time. You actually are choosing which lane to light. And Johnny Mnemonic is the same thing. Like, it has the buttons left and right. What happens if you were... Another good example is Demolition Man, where it has triggers on the actual big control things that stick up from the cabinet. If you play that way, yeah. Which you should, because you get a million points per combo extra if you do. so yeah it's worth the money if you use triggers and you should on that game so you would have to have triggers no but if you had two secondary buttons you could have the trigger buttons as flips and you could also have the cabinet buttons as flips so you could get around that way point being it seems kind of silly that Zen has yet to allow us to do that? Do you have a second set of flipper buttons? Even just right now the choice is you can either use the triggers to flip or you can use the shoulder buttons to flip. Yeah. But why not just already have it mapped?
    50:42
    Even better yet, how about just letting us plain map the controller wherever the heck we want? Yeah. You know, if I want to plunge using a trigger button, let me. Yeah, exactly. I don't understand what the thinking there is.
    51:02
    Because, fine, set the game up like you have it right now, where it's going to use the base set of button functions.
    51:11
    That way, you know, if you're putting out an arcade one-up cab that only has a single set of buttons, yeah, it still works that way.
    51:21
    But give us that option. Let us tweak it. The other reason why this is kind of coming up with this particular table, as was pointed out to me, right below the plunger there's a button that's an extra ball plunger. Yes, it's a buy-in button.
    51:37
    Yeah, it's for buy-in at the end of the game if you want to do buy-in. Right, which obviously then doesn't need the buy-in function. Buy-in is available on most of the late model Bally Williams. Because I know Roadshow had the buy-in. Yep, all of them do. It's a way to get maximum dollars from the player. But here's the thing. In-game, it actually has a purpose. Now, this is a purpose that I was not aware of. Nor was I. I think 99.9% of players out there, unless you're a tournament player, don't know about it. I looked it up on Pinball Arcade, and there was no mention made of this. But basically, when you're doing multiball, and I don't know if it's when you're doing only wizard multiball, multi-ball, or if it's any multi-ball, if you get down to your last ball, I think it is, you can push that extra ball and it'll launch another ball. Yep. It'll take you back from death. Yeah, take you back from death. You get a one-shot at it, though. It's only one stick at it. But obviously there is absolutely no possible way to activate that here. The other issue is when you are doing the wizard mode, you have to physically launch the multi-balls.
    52:52
    Yes, you do. Well, what if you were saving that Magna Save? But now you have to launch your ball. You push that, you're going to both activate Magna Save and launch your ball at the same time. Well, that's true, yeah. So, you know, there's where you're kind of crippling yourself with the dual functionality. Yeah, you really need that extra set of push buttons that are assignable. the primary flipper buttons and secondary flipper buttons, and then the ability to flip those, at a minimum, like, at the first iteration of this, you would basically flip it so your primary buttons are either on the triggers or the shoulder buttons, and that's your first iteration of this, like, transitioning over to it, and then subsequent iterations are, well, let me just remap every button anywhere, and, like, have, you know, hit the left and right flipper buttons on the left, the right side of the controller, if I want yeah if it's one sort of crazy person um but yeah give me that choice let me do a ridiculous controller mapping scheme also for people who are building cabinets let them have the option of assigning whatever button they want wherever so their interface um is flexible and allows them to customize it to their needs you could even have in most cases you could have a global setting pull your clicker buttons and then on a per game basis change the mappings to suit a particular game and its specific requirements based on your input that also room also have it that way and then while we're at it uh how about that uh keeping the ROM state staring at it but you know well that'd be nice i don't know i mean yes i would that's always a yes for me like yeah please Let me retain my vault letters in Savecracker so I can get vault multiple. Because I don't know a way of getting it at the moment. I've never been able to get it, and I play the game a lot.
    54:45
    But yes, you're right, that too. But, you know, let's just start with the control scheme. Also, remember too, and this is probably something a lot of people don't think about, but for people who have certain accessibility needs, the ability to remap controllers is actually an accessibility requirement.
    55:06
    And while there is some flexibility at the moment, like limited flexibility about where you map and the fact that you can use either shoulder button to map, some people who perhaps have arthritis or have other sort of... Let's just call it, if you have a single-handed knee, you're screwed.
    55:24
    Yeah, you can't play. Yeah. So, you know, if you wanted to, you could actually have left and right flippers on just one side of the controller scheme. You know, and it's actually... Like, when you think about it, the more you think about it, the more Zen needs to address this as an issue both for player satisfaction generally, but also for accessibility in the game. I'm going to play Pro Mode.
    55:52
    Yep. I actually found promo to be pretty good on this, actually. Like, it felt more natural to me, strangely enough. Curious. I'm going to shoot the TV award and see how it launches in promo. Yeah. Okay. It can shoot the TV award. The thing about this game is it actually works better if it plays fast.
    56:17
    I loaded up Bimble Arcade's version. Floaty McFloat. Oh my goodness, this is floaty, and it plays dreadfully slow. Yeah, like almost EM slow. It's ridiculous. Oh, yeah, I remember that.
    56:36
    Let's see if you can get it in there. I think in pro mode, you have to aim for the red targets on the left ramp, and that will get you a ricochet into the TV mode, because it's a bit hard to shoot in the right flicker if you're trying to aim for it for some reason. Nearly got it. We'll get there.
    56:54
    Yeah, it's got a really good... Like, the promo in this, I actually quite enjoyed. Like, I got a reasonable score in the promo, I think, during the beta for it. I actually got... During the press preview for this, I think I got, like, a 3 billion score on it, which was pretty good. I don't think that's in the leaderboards, though, because they're segmented when we're in press preview, which is a shame, because it was valid, and nothing's really changed. between then and now. This is feeling very much like what an arcade is, where it's just house balling. Yeah, this is how it plays. Absolutely how it plays in the place that has it on the floor.
    57:36
    You're flat out getting a billion score on the one in the arcade that has it. So, yeah, it's quite accurate from that perspective. There we go. Let's see how it exacts. Let's see how it ejects.
    57:55
    That's how I expect it to. That's better. It should be wild, and it should absolutely go to the right. Yes, so you can immediately, because apparently there's a trick here. If you can hit three goals in three seconds, you get an even bigger score. Oh, you do? Apparently.
    58:13
    So if you go basically up, down, bang, bang, bang, you get bonus points. So you're going to need that eject to go to the right flipper so you can immediately shoot the goal.
    58:24
    So it's three seconds from the point it ejects. Yes. No. Well, I mean, because it's on the countdown timer, right? Yeah, right. But that countdown timer pauses while it's... Oh, yeah, I understand what you mean. So at the point at which the game starts counting down, that's when the opportunity to get the extra points is... Yes. Yeah, quick goals. Right. There you go. I didn't know that.
    58:46
    So... See, this is the good thing about this game. There's lots of little hidden tweaks to it. One thing I did notice, though, and it's one of the things you get pretty much instantly when you shoot a ramp is the ascending... Ah... And as it goes around, it's a really cool sound effect. But sometimes that doesn't trigger.
    59:06
    There's certain times when you don't get that, and I think that's an effect that triggers most of the time. So... And also that gate on the right is floppy as anything. It shouldn't be that mobile. Like, have a look at the gate on the left ramp. It's pretty stable. But at one point, that gate was wiggling around, like, really violently. Which one? The right one? The right one. Oh, no, they stabilised it.
    59:35
    Yeah, it should be, like, swing, swing, and that's it. It shouldn't have that much, like, momentum going like that. Also, I think they've patched it since it was first released, but the gate was constantly swinging. It was just going backwards and forwards with the vibration of the table, which was also wrong. So I think they must have done some tuning to the gate, which is good.
    60:01
    So there, you get big, and then you get steady mill. It a very satisfying table to shoot It really is Yeah Even though it can feel like a one table the ball is wild enough that it doesn ever feel like you only shooting one shot
    60:21
    No, no. That left orbit is not easy to hit. The ramps are not necessarily easy to hit. That's right.
    60:30
    You've got to be pretty precise in the ramps, because if you don't do it with a nice clean shot, you'll come straight back down at you, and they're dangerous. they're lined up in quite an awkward position.
    60:41
    So, yeah. There's risk in this game for sure, which is why you play pinball at the end of the day. I think initially when I first seen this table, I wasn't thrilled with it because it feels like it has that pinch point between the ball and the ramp, so it's almost like it's a figure eight. Yeah. Have they fixed up the tuning in Pro where you shoot the left ramp and it sometimes hard rejects back down. No, no, we'll find out. Yeah, try that. This is only in pro mode I noticed this, where the gate is. So when we had the press preview, you couldn't, in pro mode, you couldn't shoot by the ramp. It would reject the ball. Yep. They made it slippery enough that the ball can go now. Yeah. That was like a, it was definitely a surprise moment. Whoa, it hit a brick wall and literally came straight back down at you at speed. Well, I mean, technically we did, but... I think that was, what was he doing, quite a good shot up there. Alright, I'm gonna continue to let this just, uh... I'm just gonna do a final draw. I'm just gonna say I'm gonna let it eject and see what happens.
    61:50
    Alright. You don't need that third ball anyhow. No. Third ball. In the bin. In the bin. Don't need it. So... he's...
    62:07
    Oh! Accidentally... Sit down, sit down. I don't know what the purple glickers are in regular... In the regular, like, non-enhanced mode. Ew! They shouldn't be purple. No, they shouldn't, should they? That looks really strange. Yeah, they definitely shouldn't be purple. I don't know where this purple's come from, so that's a buzz. It doesn't match anything. There's nothing on the playfield that should be like that. Well, hold on.
    62:41
    No, it's a different color purple. I was going to say there is purple on the table, but it's a different color purple. No, it shouldn't be like that. They should be green. That's the color that they are normally. I'm pretty sure. Because everything else in that lower half of the playfield is green. so that's why they're toned in green with the play tool in fact all the ones I've played on have been green bats so that's just the standard so maybe they switched it around I tried activating the magnet and nothing happened no bueno because it went down the out lane and when it goes down the out lane you can't use it no the magnets showed that it was activating oh ok but I don't know do we have any other thoughts on this one? not really I think we've done it all set up piece let's put it to you this way worth the $10 yes and that's not just because we're free like it's actually really really nice recreation I would easily pay 10 credits for this i.e. $10 a game no problems at all I've spent way more on this game than that over the years and this is a like, really fun way of playing it.
    63:58
    It's a very playable, solid table. Yeah. It does make you want to play over and over again. Yeah, it's got that comeback factor for sure on it. The only thing I can say is it makes me really want Super League.
    64:14
    Yeah, where is Super League? Because this... See, the difference between this and Super League, Super League you're playing for goals and trying to actually defeat the other team.
    64:26
    Here, goal is just what you do in order to lighten things. You know what I mean? That's right. It's not actual. The amount of goals you hit doesn't matter in terms of if you're beating the other team or not until the wizard mode. That's right. And until, well, until the naughty ball we used to jack for. But you're right. It doesn't play as big a role as the Super League football goal mechanic does. Super League football is like the NBA fast break of Zen tables. Like, you score points. You're actually playing soccer on that table. Yeah. And that's what makes it so awesome. And the other thing with Super League is that... Oh, goodness. Lucky you got the ball safe.
    65:15
    We obviously haven't seen it since Pinball Facts 2. in that time obviously the graphics have been enhanced the physics have been enhanced and that table is a lead ball table oh it is very much a lead ball table and so i would love to experience playing it with these new physics and have the better visuals oh it'd be a totally different game oh it'd be just incredible so yeah come on zen where's super league you you paid the money for FIFA. I know Super League's not FIFA, if I'm not mistaken. It's not, I don't think. But they also don't need to use the teams. They could just do what they eventually did, which was just have Xan. Just do that. No licensing at all required. At all. Exit out of this whole Magilla.
    66:07
    Hold on, let me get back into things here. Give me control, give me control. My mouse button. There it is. Give it to me. There we go.
    66:18
    What I was going to say, yeah, Super League, you just have the Zen team, and the teams you play against are all just generic.
    66:28
    Germany, it's Italy. It's not like they're not saying that you're playing Real Madrid or anything. No, no. They're just countries. Yeah. Which is very much the case in World Cup Soccer 94 as well. Yeah. Yeah, it's a very easy way of getting around the problem. So you get around that. The one thing that they absolutely, 100% for sure, would need to fix with Super League.
    66:53
    So Super League has various Zen staff members on the screen. Oh, yeah. Or on the play field, of which I'd say three-quarters of them no longer work for Zen.
    67:09
    So it would be nice to, I mean, like Mel's not even on the table. yeah that's right you know update the roster update that roster please yeah it would be fun to see to do that but I think it would be I don't know I like World Cup soccer a lot but every time I play Super League it's a blast yeah it is it's a great table I miss it quite a lot actually until you started reminding me about it oh yeah that goal mechanic in it It's so satisfying up that upper play field. Like having all the moving, like this is a, that's a really good example where moving cardboard targets make a lot of sense up the top of the play field. Yes. And it's definitely a table that probably you could not do in real life because of the amount of cardboard cutout targets. I was going to say the amount of cardboard targets is the issue, that upper, tell you what, folks, I'm making this, I'm making an executive call right now, Jared. Next episode, we're playing Super League.
    68:10
    Okay. Yeah, yeah. We're going to play Super League so that we can really get into it and talk about it. Because, God, I just love it. It's so good.
    68:18
    But, yeah, physically, there is some engineering that would have to go on to make it a real table. Table. Just because the upper play field is where all the cardboard cutouts are. That being said, the rest of the table... Is very vanilla pinball. Yeah. it very easily could be translated into real pinball um yeah but the other thing is is that machine is designed for long play i mean oh yeah long play it's a marathon table it's a table that i can sit down for 45 minutes and play um pretty much the length of a match yeah like it's designed to almost feel like a football match when you're playing it which so and again since we're going to play it uh i won't go too in depth we'll point it out when we're actually playing it there's a couple of points where after you score or like halftime, it's just like, can we be done yet? Can we please just get back into playing? The halftime celebration stuff gets old after a while. Yeah, some missteps. So it would be lovely if XANA also revisited the code on that. Yeah, they did a Mars on it. Give us a Mars pass on it. So anyway, we'll see what comes of that. I don't know.
    69:33
    I'd like it a lot. That'd be a great game to get back into again. Before we go, let's talk tv real quick oh yeah okay um have you been want did you watch rings of power uh no okay folks rings of power don't sleep on it it's pretty dang good um okay it's uh you know lord of the rings second age um it's obviously not as quick as the movies um i know that there's some tolkien heads that are losing their minds over alterations or whatever having never read Tolkien other than The Hobbit and I didn't enjoy that.
    70:12
    It plays perfectly fine. I'm not bogged down by all the, hey, elves have to have long hair and elves can't be of color and all this other crap that people are losing their brains over. Oh, who cares about that? That's just noise. Yeah, but in terms of story I found it really enjoyable.
    70:27
    How about House of Dragon? Were you watching that? I don't have any interest in watching anything to do with Game of Thrones at all. Ah, okay. well no just not it's not the franchise for me i've been watching other things okay i was just gonna say superb acting just yeah brilliant acting in it um and then the last show that i'm going to mention which is currently uh airing right now is andor which is oh yes great you're watching oh yes i'm watching that really really really really really good it should make for a really interesting binge watch once it's done. Here's the thing. It's obviously prequel to Rogue One. I didn't care for Rogue One. Like, I know a lot of people were like, oh, what's the best Star Wars movie beyond Empire? And I was like, well, yeah, the last 45 minutes are good, but I couldn't have cared less about almost any of the characters. Yeah, all the insurgency and stuff like that at the beginning made it a bit of a slow march, didn't it? Yeah. And so here's the thing, though. Having now watching Andor and now caring about Andor and knowing who he is, I think it's going to completely change how I view that film. I'm not going to re-watch it until it's done so that I can get that perspective. This is the great thing about these sort of splinter things that are coming out on TV. They're filling in some of the backstory that you just don't have time to fill in in a movie.
    71:54
    And it gives you that richness of the universe that gets filled in. And, you know, I'm not usually a prequel guy.
    72:03
    Because to me, prequels, you already know the ending. So the suspense of whether a character is going to survive or not is spoiled for me. Yeah, that's not the case in Andor, though. The storytelling in this is really good. It is. It's well-paced. And it's doing really nice dovetails. And it's telling us a different part of this story, which is we didn't know how he got to where he was in Rogue One. And so we're doing that. I don't know. It's just, I don't know what it is about this prequel that's hitting me in all the right ways. I think, and again, I know you don't care about House of the Dragon, but House of the Dragon is doing it right in terms of it's going 137 years before the events of Game of Thrones. So, again, I don't know the fate of any of these characters. None of these characters are going to be in Game of Thrones. They're not alive by that time. So that play is much better for me. yeah and that's a really good point isn't it like when you're doing prequels sitting it a generation behind is actually almost better because you don't have the baggage you can actually really like make the story unique and not have to so much look at the canon that um it already exists yeah so that's good other things that are going on tv wise i i gave up on the new doctor who after about three quarters of the way through season one. It just never grabbed me. It was the writing. It was the way it was filmed. The look. Just nothing grabbed me. So I gave up on it. Well, I guess they just had their final episode with this doctor and did the regeneration. So I was like, what the hell? I don't care. I'll watch the regeneration.
    73:47
    Crap, now I have to watch. All right, okay. Because of where the regeneration is going. So I'll just say this. the showrunner um uh moffett uh i forget what his name his first name is but last name is moffett um he's the one that brought doctor who back into the forefront with uh christopher eccleston was the first guy all right okay tenant and then matt smith um and then he left i think midway through a wife i don't know if he did the capaldi series or not um he might have left by that point. And then he had nothing to do with this Jodie Whittaker series. But he's coming back.
    74:34
    And seeing who they regenerated or what that is and knowing that he's responsible, that's where I'm like, okay, I've got to get back into it. This could actually be starting to get good again. Yeah, so I'm going to slog through the remaining two seasons of her run just to see it. And then I just decided... Did you ever watch Fargo? Not the movie, but the TV show. No, I don't think so. No, I don't think I did.
    75:02
    Fargo is a brilliant TV show. Every bit as good as the movie, if not better. Now, Joel and Ethan Cohn did the movie. They have next to nothing to do with the TV show. Yes, their name is slapped on as executive producers, but I guarantee you they didn't do squat on this. This show is the baby of Noah Hawley. Noah Hawley also did the TV show Legion which is an offshoot of X-Men which is also just a bug nuts bonkers brilliant TV show but so I decided I'm going to re-watch, I'm re-watching Fargo but I'm going to watch it in chronological order ah so a little bit like the way you watch Star Wars movies yes so what that means is I'm watching season 4 first and then I'll watch season 2 and then I'll watch season one and then I'll watch season three.
    75:56
    What? That's crazy. Well, because season four takes place in 1950. Season two takes place in the 70s, I believe. Season one takes place in the 90s. And season three, I think, takes place either in the late 90s or the early 2000s. I'm not sure which.
    76:24
    It's not that the shows are necessarily, they don't lock in and relate to each other, except for seasons one and two have a through line.
    76:33
    Okay. But there are references to events of prior seasons in the shows. And that's what I'm trying to kind of like see if there's any deep, deep thread going on there.
    76:49
    Okay. interesting yeah what i've been watching recently i've just started up on um the new season of central park uh the anime series is is i'm getting through that at the moment which is really fun um the there's a new amazon prime series called the i knew this would happen i forget the name of it it's uh it the premise is really good on it though. It is sort of like I think a little bit like Ready Player One kind of. Is this the thing with Chloe Grace Moretz? Yeah, I think so. It's set in London and a Midwest US state and it's like a 70 years in the future thing premise.
    77:43
    Really captivating story. I'm hooked as heck. with it already. Okay. And I'm watching it episode by episode, so it's unfolding week by week.
    77:56
    Highly recommended. Get on it, or wait until you can binge it at the end. But honestly, it's almost good that it's been playing out episode by episode, because it really keeps you hanging. Like, the suspense in this is actually quite good to actually experience, not have it like one after the other. So, get on it now if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber. last thing I'm going to mention TV wise just because I only discovered it this past summer the beginning of summer Gangs of London their second season is about to start midway through November Gangs of London is created by Gareth I can't remember his last name anyway it's the guy that did the raid the two raid movies he's a fantastic director insane on action. Gangs of London. Remember that movie Snatch?
    78:53
    Yes. Okay. Imagine Snatch, but deadly serious. Oh, right. Okay. It's brutal. It is, because there's Pikeys, and there's your classical London gangster, and it's modern times, but it's all the various kinds of gangsters that are very much London-based that I know of from movies. I've never been to London. I don't know anything about the gang culture. But it just reminded me a lot of if it was Snatch without the humor, which might sound like a miserable time, but I'm telling you this.
    79:38
    Gareth, he's an amazing director, an amazing storyteller, and don't sleep on this series. Right. There you go. get on it lots of things to watch lots of things alright well we're going to call it a day here like I said next time it's not bad yeah next time it wasn't that long or so no not that long I know not what we've been currently doing no next time like I said I'm calling it we're playing Super League so if you're into that we're going to play that whether we have Jared's favorite things to talk about the stuff and things we'll have to see but until then ta ta bye everyone Amen.