STERN TMNT PINBALL GAMEPLAY REVEAL!

TL;DR

Stern TMNT pinball reveal showcases 4-turtle selectable gameplay, multiball, episodes, and innovative co-op/team mechanics.

Summary

Key Claims

• The game has been in development for over a year

  high confidence · John Borg: 'We started on the game quite a little while over a year ago'

• The spinning pizza uses a DC gear motor and is reversible

  high confidence · John Borg describing pizza mechanic: 'it's using a DC gear motor and it's reversible so the action is just crazy on it'

• Each of four turtles has four different perks and six bonuses total

  high confidence · Dwight Sullivan: 'Each turtle has four different perks and then six different bonuses or perks'

• The Elite version has 8 balls; the standard version has 6 balls

  high confidence · Dwight Sullivan: 'Elite has eight balls and Crow has six'

• The game supports team play modes including 2v2, 2v1, and 3v1 (Keith Elwin mode)

  high confidence · Dwight Sullivan discussing team play variants and mentioning '3v1, which is the Keith Elwin mode'

• Cooperative play requires all four players to select unique turtles; team play allows duplicate turtles

  high confidence · Clarification during stream: 'In team play, everyone can be the same turtle. Oh, great. In co-op play, everyone has to be a different turtle'

• All episodes are heavily pulled from the actual TMNT TV series

  high confidence · Dwight Sullivan: 'All of our episodes are heavily pulled from the next episode'

• Donatello has a one-shot multiball (Turtle Power); other turtles require four shots

  high confidence · Dwight Sullivan: 'If you're Donatello, it's only one shot, but if you're everybody else, it's four'

• There are three wizard modes: Team Up, Final Battle, and Cowabunga

  high confidence · Dwight Sullivan: 'There's three wizard modes. There's Team Up, which you need to play four episodes to qualify Team Up. There's Final Battle, which is at the end of all eight episodes. And then there's Cowabunga, which requires everything in the game'

Notable Quotes

• “every ounce of this game is covered with geometry as far as shots are concerned and it's amazing to finally see it all fleshed out with the art”

  Dead Flip host@ 5:55 — Highlights the density and complexity of the playfield design

• “It's a screamer, isn't it? It's so fast. It's so much fun to loop that loop.”

  Dead Flip host (about inner loop)@ 26:01 — Reaction to shot quality and playability during team play demonstration

• “I'm envisioning someday that there's going to be four player tournament. There's going to be groups of four people that play co-op in competitions, and they're going to compete against other people playing for four players.”

  Dwight Sullivan@ 22:47 — Indicates design intention for competitive tournament formats with 4-player co-op teams

• “So player four has an obligation to really rack up the points for everybody.”

  Dwight Sullivan@ 30:55 — Explains the cascading hurry-up mechanic that rewards final player in co-op

• “Gary Stern appreciated that helpful hint. He liked the one-shot multiball.”

  Dead Flip host@ 25:23 — References Gary Stern's approval of Donatello's one-shot multiball design

Entities

Signals

• ?

  event_signal: Stern Pinball hosting livestreamed gameplay reveal with full development team participating via Zoom for direct Q&A engagement with community

  high · Dead Flip stream format with John Borg, Dwight Sullivan, Jeremy Packer, Joshua Clay, Mike Vinacore, Elliot, Jerry Thompson, Jim Sullivan all present and answering questions in real-time

• ?

  competitive_signal: Competition mode removes randomness for tournament play; design supports both casual and competitive play philosophies

  high · Game modes menu explicitly shows 'standard play competition, which removes all randomness'

• ?

  design_philosophy: Cascading hurry-up mechanic in co-op mode rewards subsequent players for completing skill shots, incentivizing strategic player order and skill execution

  high · Dwight Sullivan explaining skill shot stacking: 'if player three makes a skill shot player three will get three sets of hurry ups...the value you collect carries over'

• ?

  design_philosophy: Team play and cooperative gameplay designed as core feature with intended tournament potential for 4-player co-op competition teams

  high · Dwight Sullivan: 'I'm envisioning someday that there's going to be four player tournament. There's going to be groups of four people that play co-op in competitions'

• ?

  licensing_signal: Episodes in game are heavily adapted from actual Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series content

  high · Dwight Sullivan: 'All of our episodes are heavily pulled from the next episode' with examples like 'I Want a Body' episode shown