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My TMNT Review

The Hardy Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·18m 20s·analyzed·Aug 23, 2020
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Hardy reviews TMNT (8.6/10): great design & code, but left outlane & display animations are major issues.

Summary

Hardy provides a comprehensive review of Stern's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine, scoring it 8.6/10 overall. He praises John Borg's challenging layout design, Dwight Sullivan's complete and robust code, and Jeremy Packer's artwork, but criticizes the problematic left outlane, overly bright flashers, stuck ball lock issues, and weak display animations (particularly April's rendering). Hardy notes the game launched with complete code—unusual for Stern—and is currently on backorder until October, suggesting strong commercial performance.

Key Claims

  • Stranger Things was not fun and was poorly received; secondhand market was full of LEs indicating low demand

    medium confidence · Hardy, opening context about Stern's previous title and market conditions

  • TMNT launched with complete code version 1.10, which is unusual for Stern and reflects Dwight Sullivan's passion for the project

    high confidence · Hardy, code section: 'game launched with complete code which really speaks volumes because that is not typical of stern'

  • The left outlane area is problematic and is believed by players to have a magnet, causing most ball drains

    high confidence · Hardy: 'I believe everyone that has talked about this game...they believe that there might be a magnet over there because that is where majority of their balls tend to drain'

  • Most owners have not legitimately completed the final battle on three balls without extra balls

    medium confidence · Hardy: 'I can guarantee you that a majority of the owners of this title have not legitimately made it all the way through the final battle'

  • The 1-2-3 combo activation is too frequent and annoying, with limited call-out variety (only two phrases remembered)

    high confidence · Hardy discusses combo activation repeatedly: 'I feel like that needs to be nerfed...there's only like two different phrases'

  • The ball lock mechanism has a coil pulse that's too short, causing balls to get stuck and requiring manual intervention

    high confidence · Hardy: 'the coil...doesn't pulse long enough to allow the balls to roll down...Gravity cannot do its job because the coil quickly goes click-clack'

  • April's character model looks poor in the display compared to her cabinet artwork by Zombie Yeti

    high confidence · Hardy: 'April does not look good...she just does not look good...not alone on this...she looks so great the way zombie yeti drew her and then you look on the display...very off-putting'

  • TMNT is Stern's best game since Jurassic Park and will likely outsell it

Notable Quotes

  • “the left out lane is so bad that it's actually what straws the score down for design for me”

    Hardy@ 2:42 — Identifies the single biggest design flaw in the game, a recurring complaint

  • “Dwight did not go easy on this code. I can guarantee you that a majority of the owners of this title have not legitimately made it all the way through the final battle.”

    Hardy@ 5:17 — Emphasizes the difficulty and depth of the code, differentiating TMNT from previous Stern titles

  • “game launched with complete code which really speaks volumes because that is not typical of stern to do something like that”

    Hardy@ 4:28 — Highlights unusual industry practice and reflects on developer passion

  • “I think what really draws the score down for me is that I even care to watch the animations I skip through them because I not impressed with them”

    Hardy@ 13:39 — Major criticism of display animations; actively degrades gameplay experience for reviewer

  • “I really enjoy my boy mark silk's voice on the game...my favorite by all means was crane that was even better than what i remember on the cartoon”

    Hardy@ 15:43 — Positive reinforcement of voice acting quality, specific character praise

  • “if you settle for a pro you're not even really settling you're still going to get a great game”

    Hardy@ 17:00 — Strong endorsement of base Pro tier despite premium options available

Entities

John BorgpersonDwight SullivanpersonJeremy PackerpersonJerry ThompsonpersonJoshua ClaypersonMike KisvatpersonMark Silkperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Left outlane repeatedly identified as problematic by Hardy and apparently multiple players; suspected magnet causing unexpected ball drains; major detriment to layout quality

    high · Hardy: 'I believe everyone that has talked about this game...they believe that there might be a magnet over there because that is where majority of their balls tend to drain due to Borg's design'

  • ?

    product_concern: Ball lock mechanism fails to release balls properly; coil pulse too short, requiring manual intervention and glass removal; frustrating recurring issue

    high · Hardy: 'coil quickly goes click-clack up and down...doesn't give it the ability to release the ball...you either reboot the game or go in manually'

  • ?

    product_concern: 1-2-3 combo activation too frequent with limited voice variety; spinning pizza disc also overly activated; needs code tuning to reduce annoyance

    high · Hardy: '1 combo is activated way too often...there's only like two different phrases...I feel like that needs to be nerfed'

  • ?

    product_concern: Display animations significantly weaker than cabinet artwork; April character model poorly rendered; animations skip-worthy compared to competitors like Black Knight Sword of Rage

    high · Hardy: 'I even care to watch the animations I skip through them...nothing really impressive...I skip past those whereas these, they're not going to be winning any kind of awards'

  • ?

    code_update: TMNT launched with complete, bug-free code version 1.10, unusual for Stern; only minor tweaks needed going forward; reflects developer passion and quality

Topics

Game Design & LayoutprimaryCode Quality & DifficultyprimaryArtwork & Cabinet AestheticsprimaryDisplay Animations & GraphicsprimarySound, Music & Voice ActingprimaryPlayfield Mechanics & Ball Lock IssuesprimaryStern Manufacturing & Supply ChainsecondaryLocation Play & Commercial Viabilitysecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.72)— Hardy is overall enthusiastic about TMNT and recommends it strongly (8.6/10), praising design, code, art, and voice acting. However, he has significant criticisms of the left outlane design flaw, display animations (especially April), mechanical ball lock issues, and overly frequent combo activations. The positive sentiment is tempered by these technical frustrations, but the 'one more game' quality indicates strong appeal despite flaws. The backorder situation and comparison to past Stern titles (Stranger Things, Jurassic Park) suggest industry recognition of success.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.055

0:00
The following podcast is going to be an audio version of my TMNT review, so if you've already seen the video, chances are there's not going to be much content in this podcast for you. For those of you out there that would prefer a podcast, here we go. What's up guys and welcome back to the Hardy Pinball Podcast, episode four my teenage mutant ninja turtles review stern's last title was stranger things
0:33
and in my opinion it wasn't fun and that's just an easy and quick way to say it the thought in many ways laid upon others as well because you could tell with the secondhand market how it was just full of le's that obviously it wasn't a well-loved game so you've already got poor sales from a major license and then you add in covid19 that steps in and puts stern's factory to a screeching halt for weeks that is not good obviously for any manufacturer so time's going by
1:10
essentially stern is not bringing in as much money as they could be if they were actually working so when they bring out their next cornerstone title it needed to be a good one and thankfully it is does this game hold up to the hype is it a game that you should own let's find out as i bring you my first official review i will be scoring every major component of the makings of this game using a 0.5 ratio from 1 being the worst and 10 being the best i ran this game during my review process
1:40
using code version 1.10. The designer for this game is John Borg. It's coded by Dwight Sullivan. Art is done by Jeremy Packer. Sound and music by Jerry Thompson. Graphic art by Joshua Clay. And call-outs by Mike Kisvat. Let's talk about the most important part of a game, the design. John Borg has brought us a fast and fun and furious layout with three ramps, outer and inner orbit, spinning pizza discs, and it's what I call the fuck you disc, and I'll talk about that here in a little bit,

medium confidence · Hardy: 'this is probably...your best game since jurassic park...but i have a feeling that turtles is going to end up selling better than jurassic park'

  • TMNT is on backorder until at least October, with some customers unable to receive Pro versions until then

    high confidence · Hardy: 'This title is on back order at least until october some people are not able to get their pros until october'

  • The center ramp shot can only be made accurately using the upper flipper and is tricky due to ball speed

    high confidence · Hardy: 'that shot can only be made using the upper flipper with accuracy...sometimes too damn fast'

  • “It has the...quality to it, which I believe is going to be very good for location pins to just keep throwing that money in there”

    Hardy@ 16:30 — Predicts strong location/operator appeal, indicating commercial viability

  • “the spinning fuck you disc...will divert your ball to where you don't anticipate, and even worse, I've had this thing turbo-charge the ball and shoot it straight down the damn middle. Not cool.”

    Hardy@ 3:39 — Describes frustrating mechanical element designed to create chaos; can be overshooting

    • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    game
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Stranger Thingsgame
    Jurassic Parkgame
    Black Knight Sword of Ragegame
    X-Filesgame
    Stargategame
    Lethal Weapon 3game
    The Munstersgame
    Ghostbustersgame
    Hardyperson
    The Hardy Pinball Podcastorganization
    Pinball Browserproduct

    high · Hardy: 'game launched with complete code which really speaks volumes because that is not typical of stern...code is not perfect, but all it should need from now on is just some bugs and some polish'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Game is significantly challenging with deep code; majority of owners have not legitimately completed final battle on three balls; high replayability with 'one more game' appeal

    high · Hardy: 'I can guarantee you that a majority of the owners of this title have not legitimately made it all the way through the final battle...Dwight did not go easy on this code'

  • ?

    product_launch: TMNT on backorder through at least October; Pro versions unavailable until then; indicates high demand and supply constraints

    high · Hardy: 'This title is on back order at least until october some people are not able to get their pros until october'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: TMNT generating strong community interest post-Stranger Things; market recognizing it as top-tier Stern title; being noticed as 'very good game to own'

    high · Hardy: 'It is being noticed more and more by people out there that this is a very good game to own...I think this is your best game since jurassic park...turtles is going to end up selling better than jurassic park'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: John Borg intentionally designed challenging layout (fast/furious) and Dwight Sullivan avoided both extremes of Munsters (too easy) and Ghostbusters (code stuck in development); resulted in substantial difficulty curve

    high · Hardy: 'People had their concerns...they didn't want it to be another Munsters where the code was too easy...or another Ghostbusters where the code took years to complete. Well, guys, Dwight did not go easy on this code.'

  • ?

    venue_signal: TMNT positioned as strong location/arcade machine with 'one more game' quality; expected to drive sustained coin-in due to difficulty and progression hooks

    high · Hardy: 'It's very good for location pins to just keep throwing that money in there just to see if you can just go a little bit further this time'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Prior Stranger Things suffered from COVID-19 factory shutdown; TMNT backorder situation suggests either sustained demand or continued supply chain constraints

    medium · Hardy: 'covid19 that steps in and puts stern's factory to a screeching halt for weeks...when they bring out their next cornerstone title it needed to be a good one'

  • $

    market_signal: Stranger Things secondhand market 'full of LEs' indicating low demand; TMNT receiving backorder demand suggests inverse market health and stronger collector/player interest

    medium · Hardy: 'you could tell with the secondhand market how it was just full of le's that obviously it wasn't a well-loved game' vs. current TMNT backorder status

    • 2:13
    a hidden shot behind the upper flipper and a hidden ball lock. The shots took me some time to get down. Hell, I still haven't even got it perfected yet. This game can be a very hard workout. For those of you that are into nudging and not good at nudging, you better get good at nudging because that left out lane area is a bitch. I believe everyone that has talked about this game during their time playing it, they believe that there might be a magnet over there because that is where majority of their balls tend to drain due to Borg's design. I mean that left out lane is so bad that it's actually
    2:48
    what straws the score down for design for me. Then you have people that are also having issues with the layer shot because they keep on trying to do a forehand on it but I have better chances at making that using a backhand. It's in the video guys if you haven't seen it I do show you that it is possible with the backhand. The left ramp directs back to the left flipper, the right ramp directs to the left orbit, and the center ramp directs to the right flipper. And that shot can only be made using the upper flipper with accuracy. It's a tricky shot, honestly, because that ball
    3:22
    can go running around that orbit very fast, sometimes too damn fast. And I'm going to be honest with you guys, the game is a little difficult. Something that adds to the difficulty is the spinning fuck you disc. This thing's job is to screw you over and give you a show during the pizza multi-ball. This disc will divert your ball to where you don't anticipate, and even worse, I've had this thing turbo-charge the ball and shoot it straight down the damn middle. Not cool. Borg has brought us a challenging, fast, and entertaining layout,
    3:52
    and that just keeps me coming back for one more game. I mean, no kidding. When writing this review, I kept going over to my game and just trying to see if I could progress just a little bit further. I mean, what hurts this layout, like I said earlier, is the left in-lane, out-lane area. I mean, I would include the pizza disc, but that is mainly due to the code, so I'm pretty sure that can be tweaked. I really feel that this game should have had a subway system too. I mean, a manhole that should open up kind of similar to X-Files,
    4:23
    and that's where you can lock your ball. Maybe that should have been the layer shot, something like that. But other than that though I really enjoyed it I giving the design a 9 out of 10 Let jump right into code now as i said earlier i was running version 1 the game launched with complete code which really speaks volumes because that is not typical of stern to do something like that and i believe it's due to dwight being so passionate about this title i mean i could hear in his voice during the reveal of how excited he was
    4:54
    on all the things that he's wanting to do with this game. And it really helped convince me further on making the purchase for this title. I mean, people had their concerns when they heard that Dwight was coding this game because they didn't want it to be another Munsters where the code was too easy, and they didn't want it to be another Ghostbusters where the code took years to complete. Well, guys, Dwight did not go easy on this code. I can guarantee you that a majority of the owners of this title have not legitimately made it all the way through the final battle.
    5:30
    And when I say legitimately, I mean with the glass on and going through on three balls, unless you get an extra ball, legitimately making it all the way through. It has been a very tasking game. Now, the code isn't perfect, but all it should need from now on is just some bugs and some polish. Now, we've been through design, and that's the foundation, but code is the building blocks of what keeps people coming back for more. Without proper code, a game can be a major flop.
    6:03
    I mean, Dwight has developed a variety of goals to accomplish. I mean, you have the option to level up your specified turtle by doing training throughout the game. Leveling up your turtle is a good way to gain extra points constantly throughout the game, so I recommend that. hurry-ups, combo shots, and different multi-ball modes and accomplishing episodes during those multi-ball sessions. I mean, some things I have enjoyed about the coding on this game is the light show on certain modes. Like, for instance, when you begin the battle with Slash, you have your typical hit this shot, hit that shot, and then you have phase two where he transports you
    6:38
    to dimension X, and the whole game, like, turns red. It was a very visually stimulating, you know, effect for me and I appreciated that it was able to draw me further into the theme. Now I'm not going to go through every in and out to this code because this would make it a very long podcast and chances are the code will be changed and things will no longer be true. So I'm just going to tell you that there is plenty of code here to chew on guys. Plenty. But obviously it's not,
    7:09
    like I said perfect and there are a couple of things that I do not enjoy one of those is when the upper flipper is being fed by the orbit and you have this flasher above the left ramp that always well not always but it typically starts to flash very brightly to indicate that the ball is coming around but what that flasher actually does is hinder your ability to see to make that side ramp shot or center ramp rather i don't know maybe i'm just sensitive to the flasher
    7:41
    is my old age kicking it i don't know but i kind of wish that that flasher would be tamed down a little bit or maybe it's like that on purpose just to make the game more difficult either way that's something i don't care for there's been multiple times where i've had the ball lock area like like get stuck and it has like all the balls in there and it's like not releasing them and I'm okay with mechanical issues every once in a while due to something, but it's when I had to actually intervene and take the glass off to do something about it,
    8:13
    it's irritating because it has the built-in ball search mode, which fires all the coils, but the coil that really matters is the one that's keeping the balls locked. It doesn't pulse long enough to allow the balls to roll down. Gravity cannot do its job because the coil quickly goes click-clack up and down. which doesn't give it the ability to release the ball. And then the game just eventually just kind of like just ejects another ball and it's rinse and repeat. And when you get another ball locked in there to where you have no longer any balls in your drop area
    8:44
    and the game can't recover until you either reboot the game or go in manually to pull the magnets, get a magnet stick like I did to pull the balls out of there. There's a couple of things, but that's something that can be tweaked in code. I also feel that the 1 combo is activated way too often to where it annoying that it always going I trying to accomplish other goals and then bam I roll down the left end lane Oh let take these turkeys out I like here we go again Another one two three combo
    9:16
    So I feel like that needs to be nerfed to where it's just not activated as often. Like, it's just not available to be turned on as often. Just tame it down a little bit. But one of the main, like, pros to this title is obviously the co-op. I think that was a major selling point, and it's a very good move on Stern's part to really try to get co-op put into pinball. Not everyone likes to play competitively, and I think having cooperative methods is a good decision for this time of day.
    9:50
    That spinning pizza disc has also pissed me off quite a few times because of what it can do to your ball, and I feel like that may be activated a little bit too often as well. And so that's a little bit of a downer for me, but it's also something that could be tweaked in code or I could just play better, I guess. But I'm going to be giving code a 9 out of 10. Now, art. I mean, Jeremy Packer brings it once again with this glorious recreation of Turtles that I grew up watching.
    10:21
    I mean, you can tell that Jeremy wanted to do this title justice. Really, my only complaint about this art is that I wish there was more. And I'll go over that when it comes to animations, but Zombie Yeti, you did great. I've gone over the art, and nothing stands out to where I feel like I should mention any kind of issues. So I'm giving you a solid 10 out of 10. Sound and music. This game brings us the very nostalgic theme song that we all know by heart,
    10:53
    But it is in fact a remake and I can honestly barely even tell, but there are those of you out there that can tell and don't care for it. But it's not a big concern to me. I mean, my only negative about the soundtrack is that I felt like some of the boss battle music wasn't as intense as I would prefer it to be. One that I point out is the Bebop and Rocksteady, just the regular fight with them out in the streets. I felt the music was a little too tame.
    11:24
    I kind of wish it was a little bit more intense. That's pretty much my only negative. And I would have been going down even further on the score. But luckily, I gave it a fair shot and put the music into Pinball Browser and was able to go through the music and hear it without the mechanical interference of the game. And I was really impressed with the complexities of the orchestration that he put together, Jerry. And I really enjoyed it. So I'm going to be giving the sound and music a 9 out of 10.
    11:57
    This brings us to graphic art. Now, okay, from the beginning when this game was first revealed, I was not a fan of the display, and that still holds true today. There are many hits and misses, but I think mainly my complaint is I just wish that the display looked as good as the cabinet art. that's my major complaint is that you've got beautiful artwork all over this game inside and then you look up at the monitor and it's just very subpar i mean like right there in the middle
    12:33
    to where it's like it's it's turtles it's nothing impressive nothing really to really brag about i don't really have much to to say good about it it's just okay at best i mean my major complaint with the animations is april april does not look good even the still image of her on the tv or even the actual animations of her on the tv or on a particular scene it she just does not look good
    13:06
    it was something that i'm not alone on a lot of people have noticed this because she looks so great the way zombie yeti drew her and then you look on the display and it's very off-putting to where it's just like who what this does not look good and i get it that you know i spend a majority of my time looking into the play field and playing the game luckily but there are times that when i do look up, it's nothing really impressive.
    13:39
    And I think what really draws the score down for me is that I don even care to watch the animations I skip through them because I not impressed with them and I would just rather get back to playing the game And there's other games out there that have animations that I have no problem watching and that's one of them is Black Knight Sword of Rage. The animations on that were very impressive and really cool to watch. I wasn't skipping past those. Whereas these, they're not going to be winning any kind of awards and that's just my honest take on that i'm going to be giving the
    14:14
    animations a 5.5 out of 10 and the last section is call outs now call outs is also another sensitive area for me because you can have certain call outs that are played too often and then you get annoyed by hearing them and then the game becomes annoying so for instance you know like shoot the pyramid up the middle like on stargate then you have on lethal weapon three jump pesci's okay okay and then you even have most recent stranger things where you have the sheriff going okay
    14:48
    whenever you lose your ball and i heard that quite often but certain call outs need to be not as often and the portion i'm talking about is when you activate the very commonly activated one two three combo there's only like two different phrases i want to say that gets said and i know one of them is let's take these turkeys out i feel like this can be fixed two ways one you add more you know variety to that particular call out one two three combo or do like i was saying dwight
    15:26
    tame down how often one two three combo is activated other than that i really enjoy my boy mark silk's voice on the game he did great uh i enjoyed april no complaints on her voice at least for the game then you had shredder that sounded very close to what he sounded like on the cartoon but my favorite by all means was crane that was even better than what i remember on the cartoon i'm really hoping that when the topper does get revealed it is something to do with crane and hopefully they can even add some more call outs where he's insulting you while you play
    16:00
    I think that'd be pretty cool. I'm giving Callouts a 9.5 out of 10. When you tally all these scores up you get a grand total of 8.6 for the entire game guys and I think Stern did very well on this title. It is being noticed more and more by people out there that this is a very good game to own. It's very fun. It's got that I just want to play one more game quality to it, which I believe is going to be very good for location pins
    16:33
    to just keep throwing that money in there just to see if you can just go a little bit further this time. It can be very difficult. Even when you start getting those shots down, that left out lane is just a major pain. But the game is definitely fun, and I highly recommend a pro. if you get a premium or an le i mean props to you i salute you but if you settle for a pro you're not even really settling you're still going to get a great game so good job stern you did good
    17:05
    i'm interested to see where the code goes forward and getting even more curious about what you're going to release next this is probably yeah i think this is your best game since jurassic park without a doubt but i have a feeling that turtles is going to end up selling better than jurassic park this title is on back order at least until october some people are not able to get their pros until october it's crazy i'm glad i got my game when i did because i don't know if i would
    17:36
    have been able to hold out that long and i believe that's where we're going to bring this episode to a halt by all means if you have not seen my review on youtube check it out it's going to be much more entertaining than listening to this version of it. I wanted to give the audio version to those of you out there that don't care to watch YouTube to see my ugly mug. So here's the audio version for your enjoyment. I'll see you later, guys. Peace out.