Today is media day here at Stern Pinball and I'm here to check out their latest flagship title, Pokemon Pinball. When it comes to the Pokemon assets, they pulled a lot from the original television series, mainly through seasons 10 through 25. Pokemon Company apparently has changed some things for the lore and mechanical storytelling aspect of it. So, they no longer are kind of recognizing some certain elements that were in the earlier seasons. Plus, in the newer seasons, it's high definition clips. So, it makes perfect sense why they'd want to, you know, sign off on those. So, we got clips from seasons 10 through 25. You got the original voice actor that did uh Pikachu, the narrator, Giovani, as well as uh the announcer. So, you got a lot of recognizable voices for people that are fans of the original cartoon. So, that's great. And when it comes to the Pokémon monsters themselves, there's over 180 different unique monsters characters in this game. So, it's not short by any stretch of the imagination. More to come coming up with future updates.
Yeah. You'll notice a lot of the content is focused on generation one, the Kanto region, but we're um we have we have Pokemon in the game from all all the generations. Um at launch we have 182 that you can discover and catch. Um
and more are coming.
Yep. And more are coming.
And you'll also notice like this is um you'll see like a like the sort of land mass that we have here. This game is a region agnostic. So like it's not a pre-existing place that exists in that world. We got the opportunity to make our own location that you can travel to and that also comes with a really like awesome thing that they afforded us is we couldn't use a pre-existing Pokédex. So, they let us design our own Pokédex for our own region which contains our own four biomes here. So, uh yeah, like with everything that was meticulously looked over, they did afford us some really cool freedoms on some of the stuff.
Yeah, exactly. Um, so in the in the regions that we have, um, there's a forest region, the lake, mountains, and the desert.
You know, I think we said in we said in the in in the general session, all of the art is Pokémon Company art.
Um, uh, we didn't draw anything. We essentially composited their stuff. Uh, and and that really is about fidelity, right? It's about um they are very uh particular uh to make sure that everything is just perfect the way they've designed it. So everything line weights, colors, um relative scales of characters went under like tremendous scrutiny.
As it stands right now, obviously the biggest kind of fun aspect of it is going to be the connectivity with Insider Connected. It's going to track all the Pokemon you've captured, keep them in your insider connected account. So, obviously, that's going to be a mass appeal to a wider audience that are not maybe particularly familiar with pinball. And when it comes to the Pro versus Premium, this is another one of those cases where the Pro didn't get everything yanked out of it. So, it feels really good, especially for the price point. You got a fully interactive Meow Balloon mech that you would have on the Ellie and the Premium. Nothing's changed there. uh Pikachu on the Pro. It's the same sculpt and everything, but his head doesn't rotate and move around. He's not interacting with your gameplay. But I was pleased to see it, you know, being a nice sculpted toy. It's not a flat acrylic plastic. Uh we do lose a couple of mechanisms, though. Mainly the the magnets inside that front portion of the rocket area, Team Rocket, and that Meow Balloon. There's no longer a magnet underneath the Pro version. It's just stagnant there. As well as a scoop over on the lefth hand side, the Pokéball scoop itself. uh it is non-existent on the Pro. Instead, it's been switched out with the up post that's on the ramp. So, when you actually need to capture and collect your Pokemon, you're going to shoot that left ramp like you would on the premium and the LE, but instead of it going in a scoop and coming out that um little side exit, it's going to go up the ramp, come down, and the uppost is going to catch it, stop the ball, show your video display of what Pokémon you captured, and it's going to go on. Um, we're also missing the the bowl, the toilet bowl as people like to call it there on the left ramp here on the Pro. It just drops down into your in lane. No bowl mechanism there whatsoever. Um, and then we're also missing uh the interactive Pokeball itself. On the Pro, it does light up. Uh, but on the Pman, it kind of moves around. And me, I found that to be just a bit of a non-starter. In fact, I had to play several games before I even realized that the Pokeball was moving side to side on its own. I I just thought it was, you know, moving for me shaking the machine and just doing careful nudging there. And I thought that's all there was to it. The one thing I missed on the Pro versus the Premium more than anything is just that scoop underneath the ramp on the uh the Pokeball shot. I I think that adds a lot to the whole capture uh aesthetic/gameplay mechanic. Um it's cool to see it go in there and then shoot out a different exit. Psyduck shot. Uh that Psyduck shot is actually something you can actually sneak a ball in there on the Premium and get an activation that way. On the Pro version, that Psyduck shot is kind of blocked off. It's got a target there that blocks off any ball from going in there as well as going out there. So, it's just it's not part of the Pro uh gameplay experience. Having that miss on the Pro is uh it's a little hard to give up, but I I don't mind giving up the rest of the stuff. I do like the Pro back glass. It has a nice uh, you know, white, red, black kind of breakdown of the sections. It's reminiscent of a Pokeball, which is really cool. Uh, the premium is kind of a brighter orange, but has more characters represented. And of course, Ellie's Pikachu front and center. Um, there is no mirrored back glass on this one, as well as there's no foil cabinet artwork on the Ellie. Ellie does have some nice, beautiful purple powder coat. uh some really cool, you know, cutaways for the uh lighting system on the inside of the cabinet as well as the outside, which is really cool. Uh they did have some mockup like decals on side of the armor. Uh they said for the production, obviously, it's not going to be just stick on stickers, you know, that are placed on the outside of that. They're going to have a much more refined uh look to them. But as um for everything right now, everything was pending licensing uh approval. So, this is the best they could show us at the time. But the cabinet looks good for the Ellie. I do wish it had some sort of either mirrored back glass or foil cabinet artwork. It does have some nice bright shiny foil inner art blades which is really cool, but I think it just needs a little more touches to feel a little more, you know, premium and, you know, highly sought after collectible. There's no, you know, exclusive Pokemon card or anything like that. Obviously, something like that would drive collectors crazy and probably, you know, shoot the uh demand for this LE cabinet through the roof, but as it stands, the the purple powder coating I think looks nice with the the traditional uh yellow cabinet and the color way of Pikachu. Uh when I heard this game was announced, I expected to see, you know, the Ellie being all yellow Pikachu themed. So, it was kind of a nice surprise, I guess, to see the purple powder coating versus the yellow. And we do have a nice little uh Pokeball uh shooter knob on the Ellie, which is kind of cool. Of course, it's, you know, a no-brainer that you would use a Pokeball there, but between pro premium Ellie, the artwork, it's all pretty standard, pretty run-of-the-mill. Nothing too crazy. Playfield, I think, is very cohesive. They did a really good job including lots of different characters uh hidden sprinkled throughout the Playfield art, as well as the plastics. And I think there's good representation for the nostalgic people that grew up with this in their, you know, probably in their 40s now and their 30s. Uh, you're going to see a lot of the main characters that you know and love. And the fact that there's over 180 characters included on this, which is great. The shots and layout I found on this was very fun to shoot. Uh, if you're not a big Pokemon fan, uh, I'm I am guilty as charge. I was a grown man that had Pokemon bed sheets when he was like 19 in his bedroom. But uh that being said, you can absolutely have fun playing this game, shooting it. Uh it's got a bunch of callbacks and love letters to other games. So on the left hand side, you've got a left orbit that goes around, comes up, and comes down to a wire form. Very reminiscent of James Bond 007, obviously George Gomez game. And since this is a dual collaboration with Jack Danger and George Gomez, it makes perfect sense. Then right next to that, we have your left ramp, aka your Pokeball shot. Premium le. It uh has a scoop underneath it. the lift up the ramp flap. But one unique aspect of this, if you shoot up the ramp, it's got a little kind of cutout uh ditch area. So, if you don't make it all the way up the ramp, it can land in that lane and still drop down and come down to your left hand flipper. Um, which is really cool cuz a lot of times, you know, you shoot steeper ramps, you don't make it all the way up, the ball travels right back down in the middle and you're always screaming. Uh, but that's not the case. On the Premele has uh the the toilet bowl, aka just the fishbowl or just bowl in general. Uh, haven't seen one of those since Mustang from Stern. So very reminiscent of Creature from the Black Lagoon as well. So that's one aspect. And then the main toy mechanic, if you will, is the Meowth balloon is a kind of interactive bash toy that can come down into the middle of the playfield and you can hit it, bash it, get jackpot uh points and everything, which is great. When it's up and pulled out of the way, you're going to shoot up the middle shot, which is going to come around to the right side of the orbit. And then to the right of the Meowth Balloon is a interactive multi-stage uh captive ball. So, you hit it and there's actually a couple other balls back there, very similar to Judge Dread and the Cooling Towers. Uh, but they're all held with a little metal flap that kind of sticks out just a bit, but once you bash that, it identifies the Pokemon. And then right after that, it calls your attention to shoot that left Pokeball shot so you can capture the Pokemon. Um, so it's really cool. It's very uh beginner friendly when it comes to not only the layout, but the call outs. And I think they did a good job of making this approachable to a wider audience. And you know, Stern, they're no dummies. They know that this is going to be something that brings a lot of newcomers and new eyes to pinball. So, the best way they can approach that is to make this um as user friendly as possible, especially for people that have never played pinball. To the right of the captive balls, you have the Pikachu ramp, which is a nice uh metal ramp. Shoot it up, goes around behind Pikachu, comes back down the wire form to your right hand side, and then immediately to the right of that as well is your Charmander shot. This is a spinner orbit. shoot around the spinner, comes back around the backhand side and comes all the way around or it gets diverted back into the pop bumpers. Uh there's two pop bumpers on this one. One of the pop bumpers is actually quasi inside of the little middle triangle of the Meowth balloon. So, it kind of bounces the ball around in there. So, that's one of the reasons I don't really miss not having the magnet on the Pro is that pop bumper is still sticking out enough to give you that kind of elusive kind of like randomness of bouncing uh the ball around that the magnet normally would um just by bouncing it off that pop bumper there. And then right off to the very end of the right hand side is your scoop. This is what you're going to do to get your extra ball uh your mystery rewards as well as start your battles. So once you've, you know, identified your Pokemon by hitting the captive ball, captured your Pokemon by hitting the Pokeball ramp, it's time to battle them. So you're going to shoot that scoop, activate your battle, and then you go on and hit various different targets and shots within uh the game to win your battle. Win enough battles and things like that, you're obviously going to go on to your many wizard modes and your final wizard mode, your grand champion battle to be your masterclass Pokemon trainer. So a lot of code planned for this one. Obviously, it's in its early stages. things are still listed with pending licenser approval on the the back glass animations, things like that. But for the most part, everything is pretty well dialed in as far as just core gameplay mechanics. You got multiple multiballs, you got numerous different Pokémon represented, uh you got your battles and everything. So, that's going to be enough to keep early adopters uh busy for quite a while, I think. Overall, I thought it was a super fun game to play. If you're not already a fan of Pokémon, this is not going to magically make you a fan of Pokémon. You're not going to be a 50 or 60-y old man going out there and ripping open Pokemon cards and collecting all the figurines and action figures and things like that all of a sudden, but you will have an enjoyable gameplay experience if you just give it a chance. Overall, my initial impressions were really good on this one. I think the Pro is a good uh value. Uh the only really criticisms I have, I just wish the LE had a little more to offer as far as value proposition. I I think if you're going to spend that much money, save your money and go with the premium. I just I don't see enough appeal for the Ellie to justify any kind of extra expenditures and that nature. Um, but as an existing Pokémon fanboy, I really enjoyed playing this game. Uh, I I think it's going to just be a bonkers earner for, you know, anybody that's operating this game for certain. Uh, I had a blast playing it. I I just I love the theme integration. And I think this is probably one of the best examples of theme integration that Stern has achieved to date. Uh the toys, the gameplay. Overall, I think the Meowth balloon is super fun. It's a nice interactive uh toy. It's an easy multiball for newcomers. You just tell them to spam that shot up the middle several times. Hit the hit the Meowth balloon. The sculpts on this look great. Pikachu looks awesome. Meowth looks awesome. The Pokeball, you know, everything looks on brand, which is to be expected because of, you know, how uh protective the Pokemon Company are of their IP. They definitely went over this with a fine tooth comb. There's no goofy looking characters that look half drunk or anything like that. Um, since they did the artwork and everything. So, in that case, I mean, it is extremely well representing of Pokémon as a brand. Um, and as a pinball game, it's just super fun to shoot. Uh, lots of cool shots. There's a lot of people that were groaning, oh, it's a fan layout, but it's got different diversions and mechanisms that make it feel much more different than any traditional fan layout that you've played in the past, probably. So, I think they did a bangup job on it. And uh I can't wait to see how the code progresses and see the accessories. Uh the topper, they they hinted at it while we were here, but we didn't get to see any glimpses of it, but they did say it would be coming out uh sooner rather than later. Uh they did say the pros are going to hit uh streets first and then after that it's going to be the premium LE. So if you're an early adopter, uh it it definitely going to be one of those situations where it pays to be an operator because you're going to have first dibs at this game. And I think that makes the most sense because this is definitely going to be something that earns for operators and brings more people to pinball. Guys, let me know your thoughts and opinions down in the comments below of Pokemon Pinball. Is this an instant pass for you? Are you going to give it a chance? Are you a Pokemon fan? Let me know down in the comments below. If you enjoyed the content, make sure you hit the like button. Share this video with your friends if you found the information helpful. And as always, thanks for watching, guys. Really means a lot.