The Making of The Uncanny X-Men

Stern Pinball·video·11m 42s·analyzed·Jan 22, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.024

TL;DR

Stern's X-Men design breakdown: unique layout, innovative mechs, custom art/animation.

Summary

Official Stern Pinball video documenting the design and development of The Uncanny X-Men pinball machine. Designer Jack Danger explains the unique offset flipper layout, innovative playfield features (Danger Room, seven ramps, no outlanes), and interactive mechanical toys (Sentinels, articulated hands). Art director Zombie Yeti discusses the comic book aesthetic blending past and future timelines, while animation director Zach Stark and composer Charlie Benante detail the custom LCD animations and era-appropriate music spanning '80s thrash metal to post-apocalyptic soundscapes.

Key Claims

X-Men features an offset flipper layout with no orbits, no outlanes, and seven ramps—the most unique playfield Jack Danger has worked on at Stern
high confidence · Designer Jack Danger directly describing playfield design philosophy and mechanical features
The Danger Room is the most prominent playfield feature, occupying a large portion of the bottom third with shrunken outlanes and featuring a hidden modified flipper mechanism on the underside
high confidence · Danger describing Danger Room mechanics in detail, explaining the hidden flipper lever that holds the ball via Cerebro lock
The Sentinel toy went through multiple iterations to pack coils, lights, and a motor into a small space, and early versions frequently threw balls out of playfield before being 'tamed'
high confidence · Danger describing Sentinel development challenges and engineering constraints
Zombie Yeti created custom character animations for the LCD after finishing playfield art, with Zach Stark leading an animation team that mastered an 'animatic' (moving comic book) style
high confidence · Both Yeti and Zach Stark discussing their respective roles in animation and visual design
Charlie Benante composed music in multiple era-specific styles: '80s thrash metal, '90s rock, '80s new wave, '90s industrial, and post-apocalyptic future themes
high confidence · Sound designer and composer discussing music direction and stylistic variety

Notable Quotes

“I just completely broke as many rules as I could. I offset the flippers to change the layout on the bottom there... It's the most unique playfield I've worked on since being at Stern.”
Jack Danger @ ~2:00-2:30 — Designer's explicit statement about breaking design conventions for X-Men; key indication of intentional departure from Stern's typical playfield philosophy
“Ending up in the Danger Room is exactly what it sounds like: it is a dangerous place to be... it's a very high risk, very high reward area.”
Jack Danger @ ~2:45 — Defines the central playfield feature and its strategic role in gameplay philosophy
“There's actually a modified flipper mech on the bottom side of the playfield with a small lever that holds the ball there, and it really is hidden in plain sight.”
Jack Danger @ ~3:45 — Reveals hidden mechanical ingenuity—technical complexity disguised by visual design
“You can't shoot on purpose. It goes behind everything and just pops back out the same way Kitty Pryde would use her powers.”
Jack Danger @ ~4:00 — Example of thematic mechanical design; Kitty Pryde shot is both mechanically unique and narratively integrated
“If you're going to have a Marvel game, who better than Zombie Yeti to do the art on it?”
Jack Danger @ ~5:30 — Direct endorsement of Zombie Yeti as the appropriate artist for Marvel IP; confirms Yeti's role as Stern's Marvel art lead
“I said, 'You know, I'm going all in. Let's just make this like a comic book page. Like, this is just telling a giant story.' Initially I set out to try to figure out: how do I make the future and the past coexist in the art?”
Zombie Yeti @ ~6:00-6:30 — Describes artistic vision for integrating 'Days of Future Past' narrative into cabinet and playfield aesthetic
“We're going to match that style. We're going to animate that... it's called an animatic—it's a moving comic book, essentially.”
Zach Stark (LCD animation director) — Describes Stern's evolved animation philosophy for Marvel games; establishes 'animatic' as house style

Entities

Jack Dangerperson Zombie YetipersonZach StarkpersonCharlie Benanteperson Jerry Thompsonperson The Uncanny X-MengameStern Pinballcompany

Signals

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community_signal: Stern demonstrating comprehensive behind-the-scenes content production strategy with multi-department interviews covering design, art, animation, and sound
high · Official video featuring designer, artist, animation director, and sound team discussing creative process
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design_philosophy: Audio-visual synchronization principle: every action seen should have corresponding sound design; individual character iconic sounds matched to specific mechanical interactions
high · Sound designer: 'Whatever you're seeing when you're playing the game, you should also hear... I wanted those characters to obviously have that same kind of sound.'
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design_philosophy: Composite multi-era art direction strategy blending past/'80s X-Men with future/'Days of Future Past' dystopia across cabinet, playfield, and animation
high · Yeti describing cabinet right side as past (Wolverine/Kitty in costumes) and left as dystopian future; animation matching this visual language
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design_philosophy: Hidden mechanical complexity: ball lock mechanism disguised as magnetic effect but powered by hidden modified flipper lever on playfield underside
high · 'There's actually a modified flipper mech on the bottom side of the playfield with a small lever that holds the ball there, and it really is hidden in plain sight.'
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design_philosophy: Intentional thematic integration of mechanical features: toys and shots designed to narratively represent X-Men characters/powers rather than generic game mechanics

Topics

Innovative playfield design philosophyprimaryInteractive mechanical toys and engineeringprimaryCustom art direction and visual storytellingprimaryLCD animation and comic book aestheticprimarySound design and era-specific music compositionprimaryMarvel IP licensing and aesthetic approvalsecondaryNarrative integration in game design (Days of Future Past)secondary

Sentiment

positive(0.92)— Uniformly enthusiastic throughout; designers express pride in innovation, unique features, and collaborative execution. No criticism or concerns raised; emphasis on breaking conventions and exceeding expectations. Closing statements position game as significantly differentiated and impressive.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

I think it's important for a game to do something unique and something new especially with the ball travel because it Peaks your curiosity you want to look at a shot and go how does the ball get to that area I and to watch that magic happen is just something I've Loved Xmen my whole life I was obsessed with I had the shirts I had the curtains on my windows bed sheets you name it and uh what better theme for me to be associated with than this thing that I absolutely love I have pretty much have every X-Men title probably from 92 to 97 it's like four giant bins worth of comics nobody doesn't like the X-Men anyone who says they don't like the X-Men are liars so the story this is based off of is Days of Future Past it's all about how Sentinels have taken over the world humans mutants alike everyone's in danger the world's just in complete disarray and it's such a cool story about like how little things you do in the past can affect the future and being able to go back and change that was such a cool idea for a pinball machine that we had to run with it and a player can choose how far they're willing to go down that path and how much they're either try to save the future or completely stop the future from even existing I knew going into this that I wanted this Playfield to be unique much like with my previous titles I Tred to introduce something a little different with X-Men it was no exception I just completely broke as many rules as I could I offset the flippers to like change the Italian bottom there the danger room takes up a large portion of the bottom of the pl field so the danger room uh there's been some talk about where that name came from if you're familiar with the X-Men you'll know that's their training facility but if you're not familiar with the X-Men it's named after me ending up in the danger room is exactly what it sounds like it is a dangerous place to be you shrunk like the outlines or something to make room for the danger room so it's the most unique Playfield I've I've worked on since being at Stern that is a very high risk very high reward area it's not hard to get out of it but if you want to spend some time in there you are risking your Falls longevity we definitely had to get creative with the packaging of how everything is tucked in on the bottom side of the Playfield on the lower third especially when there's a pop bumper there's a slingshot there's a an up poost when you shoot up the danger room ramp the cerebral lock holds the ball at the end of The Wire form and it looks like a magnet's doing it or it's just floating there there's actually a modified flipper Mech on the bottom side of the Playfield with a small lever that holds the ball there and it really is hidden in plain sight so in trying to make this game unique and fun uh I obviously went with a very strange layout there's no orbit there's seven ramps on this game no outlanes you never know where the ball might come out of we have a kitty Pride shot which is actually a sneak in shot you can't shoot on purpose it goes behind everything and just pops back out the same way Kitty Pride would use her powers and instead of using your typical three popup or cluster or Nest I actually separated them one just above the left flipper and one on right side of the cabinet for maximum Chaos on this game for when you maybe miss a shot or if it's rolling back probably the most prominent crossover shot is from the xjet up the Mansion ramp which then takes the ball behind the flippers and ultimately Into the Danger Room it it really is a journey through the world of the X-Men the dialing in the crossover shots uh took a lot of iteration took a lot of experimentation so making something weird for weird sake obviously doesn't go very far uh it just sort of happened that a lot of these shots you know horseshoe shots that go up backwards ramps or across field shots it's just strange stuff that you probably haven't seen before and weird works if it's also fun and this game turned out a lot of fun so leaning heavily on the cool concepts of the X-Men it really helped shape the idea of what we wanted to be the main features in this game thinking on the mechs and the toys in this game if I was going to spend time on a toy I needed it to be interactive so the Sentinels are an everpresent threat they will come out and they will attack you when you least expect them so when the giant Sentinel appears it's combatting you so the Sentinel is a great example of an awesome sculpted head comes out of the Playfield you break its jaw away it's shooting the ball back actually through the kicking Target so the Sentinel went through a few different iterations packing in a couple of coils and some lights and even a motor into a fairly tiny space was a bit of a challenge and there are two hands coming out of the play field as well one that can catch the ball with the finger and flick it backwards up a ramp it's got articulated fingers to stop the ball and like divert it into a place where it's going to hold the balls for a loot and then the left hand can actually destroy one of the wire ramps and cause the ball to Caren back towards your flippers with some danger involved the ramp hand is actually fairly true to the original design the idea was to make a ramp that could open up and divert the ball and the Hand kind of just goes along for the ride with the ramp the way it does is it pulls down on like this V cam so the the ramp actually comes up and down early on the Sentinel was not cooperative and would pretty frequently throw balls out of the uh play field we had to tame the Sentinel a little bit and make sure that it did what we wanted it to so if you're going to have a Marvel game who better than zombie Yeti to do the art on it well yeah obviously I grew up reading X-Men with this one I said you know I'm going all in let's just make this like a comic book page like this is just telling a giant story initially I set out to try to figure out how do I make the future and the past coexist in the art so if you look at the cabinet on the right side it's the Past Wolverine and kitty pride in their X-Men costumes but on the left side of this is a very Bleak Haggard looking Wolverine with Kitty Pride looking much older with everything just absolutely destroyed in the background because we were mixing up all of these characters from different eras I wanted to leave a little bit of a mark it is those characters from the comic books but you can tell it's his own little twist on it but it is exactly who that character is as soon as I got done with the Playfield they did ask me to come in and do some character work that they could use in the LCD so we have all custom animation in this game Zac Stark led the LCD animation team on this journey of creating all of this original content for our story I think originally we were trying to match like the 9s Saturday morning cartoonish look and like the comic look once we saw Jeremy's cabinet art and the Playfield art we decided we're going to match that style we're going to animate that what we try to do just to be consistent with the other Marvel games that we make is it's called an animatic it's a moving comic book essentially just so just a character sort of moving across the screen with lots of motion lines and and effects behind them so yeah we've mastered the art of this so main play in this game is in the past the 80s and we needed a music that sounded accurate to that era and Charlie bante absolutely knocked it out of the park with the different styles that you would have heard in that there's definitely an Anthrax or thrash metal feel to some of these songs we have so many different styles that he created that are used in the different modes so we have 80 style metal an 0 style Rock an 80 style New Wave an 0 style Industrial Music in the future it's a little bit more post-apocalyptic it's a Twisted version of the past and the music reflects that me and uh my partner Andy we kind of talked about it I think he went more dance oriented I was like yeah this is this feels right that way to go with the pinball game the songs are driving you to play harder once you start playing it a song kicks in and you forget you're playing the game because you're so into the music and you're just going with the flow Jerry Thompson did a lot of the sound effects whatever you're seeing when you're playing the game you should also hear and to me that feels right there are some iconic sounds for each character that people know and love and so I wanted those characters to obviously have that same kind of sound so like for instance the card throwing from Gambit or the energy from Bishop I take well over a hundred videos that come to me with no sound and then it's my job to make them excited and either put sounds that match the action or award Fanfare sounds or any other thing it needs to make it feel like a a solid cohesive package so on the Playfield you have different areas you're traveling in and so this is downtown you got the subway you got the city so obviously when you go through those areas I want that to translate audio wise the production line is like goes back to the days when you would see footage of like Detroit making cars you know what I mean that's the way I look at these pinball machines it's like there's so many moving parts to make in these games and once you see it go down you appreciate it so much more if you want something new if you want something that you haven't experienced before this is where this game fills that Niche this is one of the most unique layouts I've ever seen and it's incredible it's awesome the mechs are fun interactive and really help tell the story of the game this game is not like anything you played before I hate to be hyperbolic but it it literally looks 10 times better than what I imagined putting it together I think it's just going to absolutely blow you away the first time and every time you play this game you're familiar with cerebro uh so the guy in the thing okay so it's going to show you the thing what the am I even trying to say so just under the sentinel's head is Magneto who will manipul