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Stern Pinball Rush Talk with a Rush FAN

Cary Hardy·video·42m 20s·analyzed·Jan 5, 2022
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Deep-dive review of Rush pinball with Rush superfan analyzing mechanics, art, pricing, and band involvement.

Summary

Cary Hardy interviews Rush superfan Thomas Cicchetti about the newly announced Rush pinball machine by Stern. They discuss design choices, pricing across Pro/Premium/LE tiers, mechanical features, artwork consistency, and how the band's involvement elevated the overall quality. Cicchetti provides Rush lore context to explain Easter eggs and thematic elements throughout the playfield and backglass.

Key Claims

  • John Borg is the lead game designer for Rush pinball

    high confidence · Cary states this early in the video as confirmed information from This Week in Pinball

  • Tim Sexton is the software designer for Rush

    high confidence · Cary states 'now we see it's Tim Sexton' and notes his typical work with Steve Ritchie

  • Rush pinball features 16 licensed songs from the band

    high confidence · Cary states 'we got the 16 songs' and Tom confirms he was impressed with the selection

  • Premium and LE models feature a motorized moving ramp for the Time Machine mechanic; Pro model has a static ramp

    high confidence · Cary explicitly compares: 'on your premium, the ramp to the time machine it moves. Whereas on the Pro it's going to be a static ramp'

  • Pro model pricing is $6,899; Premium is $8,999; LE price has increased

    high confidence · Cary states exact pricing: 'Pro is at $68.99. Premium is at $8.99. Basically $9,000'

  • Led Zeppelin licensing was difficult and restrictive compared to Guns N' Roses licensing under Jersey Jack

    medium confidence · Cary cites conversation with Steve Ritchie: 'evidently Led Zeppelin was very difficult to work with when it comes to the licensing'

  • Pro model has red and white general illumination; Premium has red, white, and blue

    high confidence · Cary states this as discovered detail in specs

  • All three tiers (Pro/Premium/LE) feature the sculpted Time Machine mechanic, not just Premium/LE

    high confidence · Cary: 'I was expecting them to have the sculpted time machine on the premium in LE and just have a sheet of plastic...But they decided to give us the sculpted version of the time machine in every model'

  • The Rush band was involved in game production, including recording call-outs and sound design

    high confidence · Cary states 'the band was involved in the makings of this' and references video of Ed from Bare Naked Ladies showing them 'doing all their recordings and call-outs'

Notable Quotes

  • “I've been a lifelong Rush fan. I've been waiting for this game since I started collecting 20 years ago.”

    Thomas Cicchetti@ 2:33 — Establishes Cicchetti's decades-long anticipation and credibility as superfan perspective

  • “I hate it. I just don't think they keep raising this price up every game.”

    Thomas Cicchetti@ 7:16 — Reflects community frustration with continuous LE price increases across game releases

  • “the one that I picked that I was hoping would be put in got put in...The Big Money...The first one that caught my eye when they showed that teaser video.”

    Thomas Cicchetti@ 8:21 — Shows band involvement influenced song selection to include deep cuts fans requested

  • “I think that's what a lot of people would anticipate Stern would do...But they decided to give us the sculpted version of the time machine in every model. So kudos to them for doing that.”

    Cary Hardy@ 22:31 — Praises Stern for not using cost-cutting measures (flat plastic ramp on Pro) that were widely expected

  • “if you look at the three there in the middle of your play field...if you look at the art and quality of Alex, he's drawn really realistically...and then as you go further to the right, it looks like it gets shittier and shittier.”

    Cary Hardy@ 23:47 — Identifies potential inconsistency in playfield artwork quality suggesting different artist contributions

  • “It's kind of like comparing like two or three different things...it's almost like there was two different artists that did Alex versus the other two members.”

Entities

John BorgpersonTim SextonpersonElliot EismanpersonMichael BernardpersonBob BaffeypersonChuck ErnstpersonSteve RitchiepersonThomas CicchettipersonCary Hardyperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Rush superfan perspectives show deep engagement with Easter egg hunting and album reference identification, suggesting strong fan appeal for culturally-informed players

    medium · Tom and Cary discussion of album cover elements: 'the owl is from fly by night album...the Clockwork stuff...from Clockwork Angels...comet or meteor from Vapor Trails...bunch of stuff from all the albums'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Rush positions as higher-effort band license compared to Led Zeppelin through direct band involvement in recording, call-outs, and creative decisions

    high · Cary: 'the band was involved in the makings of this...they were all on board with that...there's even been a video showing with Ed from Bare Naked Ladies on there showing them basically in the booth doing all their recordings and call-outs'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Inconsistent artwork quality on playfield band member portraits, with guitarist Alex Lifeson rendered with significantly higher detail/realism than vocalist and drummer, suggesting different artist contributions or quality control issue

    medium · Cary: 'if you look at the art and quality of Alex...you went from a pretty realistic looking eyes to these really oval looking eyes...it almost looks like there was two different artists that did Alex versus the other two members'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Third flipper implementation provides meaningful shots (side scoop, left ramp, orbit) compared to Led Zeppelin's single-shot upper flipper, improving mechanical engagement

    medium · Cary: 'going by, they wanted to talk like they did with Led Zeppelin, then they would probably say that ramp is accessible by the third flipper...one cool thing about that third flipper...it's kind of if you do shoot the orbit and hold that flipper up it will deflect it into the scoop'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.127

0:00
What's up guys and welcome back to my channel where I talk and do everything pinball. So if that sounds interesting to you, then hit that subscribe button down below. The following video is a little lengthy by all means because I do have a big Rush fan along the ride with me. Thomas Cicchetti is also one of my Patreon supporters and I told him to make sure to be honest, brutally honest in your thoughts and opinions about this game because I know I'm going to be. For those of you out there that are not Rush fans, I feel like this may be a little bit informative for those that would like to know more about why they are seeing what they are seeing on this game. So without further ado, let's get started.
0:46
Along beside me is a hardcore Rush fan, Tom Cicchetti. Hello, Tom. How are you doing? Good. How are you doing? We're doing good, I guess. So let's go through this game, and I wanted to get your opinions on it.
1:02
And I'm basically going to be going through the This Week in Pinball website because they typically have all the good images provided and everything and all the information. So we have lead game designer John Borg. That's not a great surprise. I think we were all in the know on that one when it comes to who all was involved and the makings of it, going to be designing-wise. We weren't sure exactly on the software portion, but now we see it's Tim Sexton.
1:29

  • The playfield artwork shows inconsistent art quality across the three band member portraits, with Alex Lifeson having more detail than Geddy Lee and Neil Peart

    medium confidence · Cary critiques the band member artwork: 'it looks like it gets shittier and shittier' moving left to right, suggesting different artists or quality control issues

    • Cary Hardy@ 25:24 — Speculates on inconsistency in band member portraits, raises quality control questions

  • “Slash was so involved in the makings of the game and whatever they wanted he did his damnedest to get it into the game...Led Zeppelin was holding off on things that they could put into the game.”

    Cary Hardy@ 6:10 — Directly compares artist involvement levels, suggests band cooperation is critical factor in game success

    • Geddy Leeperson
    Alex Lifesonperson
    Neil Peartperson
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Rushgame
    Led Zeppelingame
    Guns N' Rosesgame
    This Week in Pinballorganization
    Iron Maidengame
  • ?

    design_philosophy: Stern maintains full sculpted Time Machine mechanic across all tiers (Pro/Premium/LE) rather than cost-cutting with flat plastic on entry model, suggesting confidence in design and component cost management

    high · Cary states 'I was expecting them to have the sculpted time machine on the premium in LE and just have a sheet of plastic...But they decided to give us the sculpted version of the time machine in every model. So kudos to them'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Band collaboration and artist involvement significantly impacts game quality and feature completeness; Rush's willingness to participate mirrors Jersey Jack's positive Guns N' Roses experience versus Stern's Led Zeppelin restrictions

    high · Cary: 'Slash was so involved...and whatever they wanted he did his damnedest to get it into the game...Led Zeppelin was holding off on things...Steve Ritchie...evidently Led Zeppelin was very difficult to work with'

  • $

    market_signal: Continuing escalation of LE pricing across Stern releases causing collector frustration; Tom frustrated by price raises on every Stern release (Mandalorian, Godzilla, Rush)

    high · Tom: 'I hate it. I just don't think, I mean, they keep raising this price up every game...every release that came out with Mandalorian and Godzilla, all the prices kept going up. So I was getting pissed each time'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Rush tier model shows clear mechanical cutdowns on Pro (static ramp vs motorized, no VUK ball lock, no motorized drum clock) while maintaining premium features (dual scoops with subway mech, sculpted time machine) across all tiers

    high · Cary detailed Pro cuts: 'static ramp...not going to be a VUK...no ball lock mechanism...big bass drum over the pop bumpers with the moving motorized clock' vs Premium/LE keeping these features

    • And so that's going to be good because he's typically been working with Steve Ritchie. So it's interesting to see him now going to be working with John Borg.
    1:37
    Mechanical engineer, Elliot Eisman. And from what I'm seeing so far when it comes to the engineering on this game, I'm liking what I'm seeing when it comes to underneath the play field with the double scoops and the way that ball launches out.
    1:49
    That's pretty nifty right there. we're not seeing like a you know a building collapse and everything like we did on godzilla and that's what i'm going to try to keep from doing i do not want to make this to compare against godzilla that's not fair i mean i guess i could also say i don't want to compare it against led zeppelin because i also feel that wouldn't be fair either because this game has got so much more in it and it looks a hell of a lot better than led zeppelin so i don't want to compare it too much at least against Led Zeppelin. But if we're talking about band themes, then I think it's pretty fair and I'll try not to.
    2:27
    That's when I was waiting for it to come out. I mean, I knew I was going to have a biased opinion because I mean, I've been a lifelong Rush fan. I've been waiting for this game since I started collecting 20 years ago. So I, I mean, it could have had Bullwinkle on the play vote. I would have liked it, but I mean, I was, I was genuinely surprised with how well I liked everything, how everything looked on him. And that, and that's what I was mainly wanting to get you involved in on this conversation is because that I wanted to get it to someone that is going to be obviously biased because of your actual fanatic, you know, mentality for the band. You even have a tattoo. And I remember we, we even had a conversation and everything when we were at around Borg on an expo. So, you know, you got to show him your tattoo and he acted like he didn't know what that was kind of thing.
    3:17
    He's like, no one ever heard of Rush. He gave me the wink. Yeah. I've seen him 15 times all my life. Even drove up to Toronto to see him cause that's where they're from. So it was kind of like going down to Graceland, you know, to see Elvis. Yeah.
    3:30
    This has been a dream come true. So, yeah. So you're super excited. So are you in on getting on one? In which model? Yeah. I actually work for a distributor here in Columbus, Ohio. and they've already known that I was putting an order in for either a premium or an LE, and I was just waiting to see what the actual images looked like before I gave them the final word. So, yeah, I'm in for a premium. Premium, okay. I was like, well, which is it? You going to go with that LE because they upped the price some more. That had a lot to do with it, too. I mean, that price jump because they kept raising prices with, you know, I knew that I had it. We all kind of knew the game was coming out for a while now, So every release that came out with Mandalorian and Godzilla, all the prices kept going up. So I was getting pissed each time. I'm like, you guys quit raising the goddamn prices because my game's not out yet. I feel like I can get a better bang out of the buck from the premium.
    4:21
    Anything that's added on LE that I would want, I can do later on. And continuing on with the lead mechanical engineer, we had Elliot Osmond. And then technical lead artist, Paul, is that Chamnankich? Is that how you say his name? Do you know? I'm not sure. Is it Chamnon Kitt? I don't know. But I looked at this guy up, and basically his background has been mainly in video games in the past, except for 2018 to now he's been with Stern. I'm going to pop in here real quick because at the time of this recording on TWiP's website, the artist was not on the list as you can clearly tell from the image I have provided on the screen. but it has since been added so the artist for rush is michael bernard so sound engineer bob baffey and computer graphics art director chuck ernst uh so as far as chuck ernst we all know that he does damn good so i'm i don't as of right now there hasn't been a lot shown for what's going to be on the screen we're not going to usually see that until jack danger streams it i doubt that i'll have any kind of complaints especially since what i'm really excited about is that the band was involved in the makings of this. So I don't think from a design perspective, but I know that when it comes to the call-outs and the sound, they were all on board with that. And there's even been a video showing with Ed from Bare Naked Ladies on there showing them basically in the booth doing all their recordings and call-outs and everything. So I'm liking, and this is why, and I'm hoping that future manufacturers or current manufacturers in the future learn why charity jack pinball did so well with guns and roses and that was because they had slash so involved in the makings of the game and whatever they wanted he did his damnedest to get it into the game and i feel like if you want to compare led zeppelin to a lot of other bands it feels like led zeppelin was holding off on things that they could put into the game. And from what I gather from talking with Steve Ritchie and hearing a bunch of other stuff, is that evidently Led Zeppelin was very difficult to work with when it comes to the licensing and what they wanted in the game. And I think that really hindered why Led Zeppelin turned out to be kind of not the Big Bang I think a lot of Led Zeppelin fans wanted it to be. Let's go through some of my notes now that we know who all the main key players are. And we obviously know there's much more people involved in the makings of this game, but they kind of highlight just the keys on there. So when it comes to price, Pro is at $68.99. Premium is at $8.99.
    7:08
    Basically $9,000, but Limited Edition has gone up. Do you have any thoughts and feelings about the LE going up in price? I hate it.
    7:19
    I just don't think, I mean, they keep raising this price up every game, and they're not really, I mean, they're adding some stuff to it, the premium speakers and the powder coating. The one thing I like the most about the LEDs is the glass back glass. That's always a cool thing to have again. Oh, good. Like in general. The actual back glass, yeah. Oh, the actual back glass. Okay, not just in general with the art. So along with the pricing differences on this, we're seeing they've got 16 songs. So it's a pretty good amount of songs. I mean, were you expecting more or less? I actually thought there was going to be less I was impressed with how many they picked and they picked a really good list of them there's a couple that they didn't add that a lot of fans thought they would like YYZ that's one of their popular instrumentals that could have been good so in your opinion is there a particular song that you wish that they would have put in the game that I wish they would, no actually to be honest the one that I picked that I was hoping would be put in got put in.
    8:29
    There's a song called The Big Money, which is off their Power Windows album, which is a really great song. It's the first one that caught my eye when they showed that teaser video. I was so excited that it's going to be on there.
    8:41
    As a song that's missing, I think YYZ would probably be the one that I was disappointed didn't make the cut.
    8:49
    And Force 10. Force 10 would have been a good one. yeah that's one of those things where i'm like i don't really know a lot of their songs and this is why i wanted you to be on here because i could sit here and talk whatever i only know maybe three of these damn songs and it's nothing against the band i don't hate the band or dislike it or anything it's just one that never caught me to where i was like i need to listen to all their albums kind of thing might be an age difference thing i don't know but uh But yeah, so let's see here. So we got the 16 songs, and so it's a pretty hefty amount, and I think it's a large sum of the fact that they were more than willing to provide whatever they needed to make this game as good as it's going to be kind of thing. The pro versus the premium. So a lot of people want to know what are they not going to be getting on their pro model versus their premium. So the big differences on the pro versus the premium is that on your premium, the ramp to the time machine it moves. Whereas on the Pro it's going to be a static ramp. It's not going to move up and down. It's kind of like reminiscent to Iron Maiden only the Iron Maiden flipped up. It didn't move up and down kind of thing. And like you mentioned there's not going to be a VUK on that upper center shot to the left of the time machine that leads back to the inner right end lean with the wire form. So that's not going to be there. Instead of the VUK it's going to be just a stand-up target that she hit. It's just kind of hit up there and come right back down.
    10:23
    I think that's going to be a little bit better shot than the Led Zeppelin because that shot in general whether you have a wire form or not was freaking hard to hit So even if you did get it in there it was like all right cool It would be a lot cooler if it was a wire form but even then it was kind of a difficult shot to nail So along with that, you're not going to be getting a ball lock behind the drop targets that are on the left side of the machine. You have those three drop targets. There's just going to be a target, a standard target behind that. Whereas on the premium, you're going to be getting a ball lock mechanism and basically it turns into one of those locked balls that you hit that bounces up and hits a target that eventually will probably give you a two ball multi-ball kind of thing yeah i think that's a really cool shot i like yeah that's it i don't think i've seen anything similar to that before yeah it's always i always like whenever they put drop targets into a game i'm always like yay kind of thing i mean so i'm a drop target person so uh one big thing that they're not going to have on the pro versus the premium is the big bass drum over the pop bumpers with the moving motorized clock. And what all is involved in that when it comes to what it does to the game, you were just telling me earlier that you believe it's going to have elements pertinent to the gameplay on the Premium. Yeah, I think I remember them saying that it ties into one of the modes. Okay, because I didn't know if it was going to be kind of like, you know, like you said, Twilight Zone, or if it was going to be like a funhouse situation, but it looks like the clock moves when the ball is bumping through the pop bumpers.
    11:59
    So, and that was, those were the big main things. I thought it was pretty interesting is that even on the Pro, we're still getting two scoops with the ball launching back underneath the play field. But I want to say that's a little bit different on the Premium versus the Pro.
    12:16
    Let's see here. Let's look at the matrix here. yeah the pro basically just says you're going to be getting the side scoop subway with front main power scoop kick out so it looks like it's going to go in there and just kick out instead of i guess holding two pinballs at one time like you would on the premium something that they don't mention on this matrix and i'm kind of curious if it's even mentioned on here before i basically bust out be like yeah bitches didn't think i noticed this let me let me see here i don't want to be wrong but let's see here I wish I could do a word search yeah oh I can do a word search and I'm not saying it so along with the differences of what we've mentioned the other big difference and I want you to look at the images now between the pro and the premium and look at the the apron or no that must have been the le i was looking at yeah well the le still looks good in comparison to the pro the pro apron and i'm not yeah it's if you like i mean i'm able to on my screen right here i'm able to like just go back and forth back and forth back and forth real quick to see all the differences and the big thing i'm noticing is that the premium and the le aprons look so much better in comparison to the pro i I mean, after going over the differences, I want to talk about now basically likes and dislikes. And so far, I'm looking at my little list right here. My likes. Oh, one thing I caught that is on the premium that's not on the pro. The pro has red and white general illumination. The premium has red, white, and blue general illumination.
    14:04
    Yeah. Not yet. I don't know. I try to go mainly for the mechanical features when I'm talking about discussions and stuff like that because the lighting stuff, I'm like, eh.
    14:14
    I mean, there's a lot when it comes to the differences on what the Pro and Premium is, but the things that really matter, the meat to it, is the mechanical stuff. But yeah, you have a lot of little minute differences and everything.
    14:29
    So when you're looking at these three tiers, which model aesthetically is more pleasing to you? I like the premium. So premium is the one that is aesthetically more pleasing to you art-wise and everything? Art-wise, yeah. That was the first thing that stood out to me was the cabinet art on the premium.
    14:54
    It's funny because when I first thought about which one I would want to be on that cabinet, I was against using the first album graphics because that was the cabinet that accidentally got leaked a little bit back months ago on Pinside.
    15:10
    And funny, it's the cabinet I like the most. And see, me... I like the way it looks. I like the coloring. I like how they threw a bunch of little elements from the other album covers into it. It looks good. I like it. So, me, I love the hell out of the limited edition cabinet art. And I'm guessing that's just my mindset of liking, you know, the steampunk attitude as well with all the cogs and stuff like that. Like kind of like clockwork type of material and everything. I get it. But when I saw the just that type of theme, it just like caught my eye. So at first, at quick glance, I was like, oh, is that the pro? I mean, like would the pro just happen to have the best artwork on the cabinet? in my opinion kind of thing and no it just happened to be the le but i i like the hell out of the le along with the the blades and the side and everything that looks pretty cool the blades are pretty nice but i've also the the side blades that they're going to offer up as an accessory i like better yeah because it's got the actual starman logo on it and that's always been my favorite so the premium like you said i mean it's the basic of basic i mean but the cabinet for the back box that looks pretty cool i like the way that looks so it's definitely much better than what they did with led zeppelin when it comes to the art yeah yeah so uh pro this is where i have to go, what happened here? And it's not like it's bad, it's just that it's so different in comparison to the playfield. So if you're looking at the cabinet art, the style of how they're drawn in comparison to the style of how they're drawn in the playfield, it doesn't match.
    17:04
    They're two different styles. So if you can take a gander at those two images and just kind of give me your feedback on how you feel about that. It's one of those things where I'm like, I'm looking at the cabinet and I'm like, okay, it's not like it's bad. It just doesn't kind of match with what's going on on the play field with how the style on there is drawn.
    17:23
    I mean, what are you referring to? I mean, how the band members are drawn, how they look in comparison to how they look on the center of the play field. And I've got my own little thoughts on the center of the play field as well.
    17:40
    I mean, I think they look kind of similar. I mean, I guess when they – I wasn't really – I mean, it didn't grab me with the style that they used to do the members. But, I mean, I guess the more I look at it, the more I'm like, it's not too bad. It could have been a lot better, yeah, but it also could have been a lot worse. Yeah, that's what I'm leaning at. This is more around – I mean, I like it a lot better than Photoshop. Yeah, I think anybody will take not Photoshop any day of the week kind of thing. So I'm glad that they didn't do Photoshop, and I think this is just a good middle-of-the-road, a safe – I don't see it winning any kind of Twitter rewards for art package or anything like that. I just – I don't see it matching the play field. That's what I want to talk about next. Maybe not next, because I still want to kind of, maybe I'll just kind of go back and forth more on my likes and my dislikes, because I honestly don't have but maybe two dislikes compared to all of my likes that I have about this. So my first like was that the band was involved. Yeah. I really like the LE cabinet art. I really like the double scoop mech involved in this. I'm guessing it's only available on the premium in LE. So I thought that was pretty cool. and I'm liking that the third shot, there's three shots for that third flipper. And so... When you say the double scoop, it's not the pro. Yeah, you have two scoops, but evidently it doesn't have the same kind of subway mech as the premium. Oh, okay, I got you. Yeah, so you still have your two scoops, which is cool. And that's the thing is that, you know, they remove some things that are not going to be seen by the eye because it's underneath the play field with the mech and the subway system underneath the pro versus the premium is different. But I'm liking how they decided to keep both scoops in there. It's just that the mech underneath is not there. But I like the fact that the third flipper has got three shots that I can see. If you see more, by all means, please let me know. But I'm pretty sure there's only three shots, but going by, they wanted to talk like they did with Led Zeppelin, then they would probably say that ramp is accessible by the third flipper. Yes. The one cool thing about that third flipper that they should they mentioned in the discussion i don't think it should in the video they said it's kind of if you do shoot the orbit and hold that flipper up it will deflect it into the scoop oh so it's like a automatic just kind of like that's where it should go if you're going fast enough to hit that flipper and there's that shot also behind the third flipper also that's where like an extra ball can be located and the drum solo feature because it shoots it back into the lane so but yeah so i'm seeing basically you get a shot into the side scoop shot into the left ramp and that left ramp feeds all the way up either a couple of possible ways right or is it always going to feed because it's got that diverter i don't think it's going to allow it to go to the other side of that because it goes to the left ramp but i think it's always going to feed back to the left flipper. I don't know of that. I think that diverter is only whenever you make that right ramp.
    20:54
    Yeah, the diverter is just the right ramp. Yeah, it goes through the back box and then it comes it goes through the back of the game and it comes back. Yeah, that's that's that's kind of like and I think, yeah, I think that's more ideally how that would be. But I just like having a third flipper with multiple shots And that was one thing I didn really care about Led Zeppelin is that you had that one particular shot You had some targets that she could hit but that not as fun as hitting ramps with it Right. But yeah, you have your side scoop, your left ramp, and then as well as, it looks like it's going to be a repeatable orbit. Am I wrong? On that inner shot to the left of that left ramp.
    21:31
    From that upper flipper. yeah the third flipper you're going to hit that shot to the right of that left ramp yeah i think because if you look on the right side you can kind of see the lane where it comes out yeah i mean i'm seeing where the the shot to the right of the ramp of the time machine goes to that basically just kind of like comes back and feeds the upper flipper it looks like but as far as where that inner orbit shot leads to. It's probably in the video. I just can't recall where it goes, but I'm hoping that that's a repeatable shot. I like those repeatable loop-de-loop shots. That'd be nice.
    22:10
    So... I was kind of looking at the video to see if someone hits it, but they keep hitting that ramp. The time machine mech, that looks pretty nifty. I'm liking how that's also in every game. I was expecting them to have the sculpted time machine on the premium in LE and just have a sheet of plastic, flat plastic for a pro. I think that's what a lot of people would anticipate Stern would do. But they decided to give us the sculpted version of the time machine in every model. So kudos to them for doing that because I like that a hell of a lot better than what wouldn't surprise me if someone probably thought that they should do.
    22:49
    So the Rush cutout on the ramp, I like how that's also on every model as well. yeah that's the that's their type uh font for the hemispheres album okay so when it comes to like the art on the play field is there anything that just kind of sticks out to you or you thought could be better uh as far as better the the main thing is the the three band members i guess could have been I don't know. So here's my, I'll give you my input, and we'll see if maybe you kind of parallel with me on this one right here. If you look at the three band members, I don't know their names, I'm sorry, but if you had the three there in the middle of your play field. Alex on the left, Neil in the middle, Geddy on the right. Okay, so if you look at the art and quality of Alex, he's the blonde on the left, right? Right. Okay, look at the shading and just the quality of how he is drawn. And then as you go further to the right, it looks like it gets shittier and shittier. And I'm being harsh on that, but I mean, if you look at this, that almost looks Franchise quality right here on Alex. and then you move over and it's like okay you went from a pretty realistic looking eyes to these really oval looking eyes that kind of like goes more cartoonish and then you go to further to the right to where it's like okay the sunglasses kind of cover up the eyes but that just kind of makes it look even more cartoonish that's kind of his trademark thing too he always wears those little circular glasses yeah but it kind of reminds me i'm not sure if you've ever seen this uh picture before but it's like it's comparing like the different tiers of something or whatever it's a horse and you had the beginning of the horse looking really beautiful and then as it gets further along it gets shittier and shittier to where it's like the different stages of drawing something or whatever and it's like comparing comparing like two or three different things i'm gonna have to find that drawing and put it up here but it seems like it went really good with alex and as it went further to the right, it just kind of got a little it just kind of veered off into a different direction. Tell me I'm wrong or whatever, but that's what I'm looking at. Just the quality of Alex. Yeah, there's more detail in Alex. His face is kind of flat. I think that's just where it kind of veers off a little bit where I'm like, what happened here? It's almost like there was two different artists that did Alex versus the other two members.
    25:31
    I did see Someone already commented that Neil looks like Doug Henning. I don't know if you know who he is. No. Old magician. He's an old magician from the 70s. Oh, okay. That's probably why I don't know who he is.
    25:42
    But other than that, let's just take those three band members and how I feel about how they differ in the quality.
    25:51
    Nothing else really sticks out to where I'm like, what happened here or anything like that. I like how down the bottom where the inserts are and all the song names, they have little. catchy little graphics next to each song to go with them that's pretty cool and these are all images taken from the albums i assume uh like the flying brains uh that's from hemispheres yeah okay uh but some things like the tom sawyer on the raft that's not from the album that's just something that obviously no everybody knows what tom sawyer is yeah um i do really like that the star man is like prominently right there in the center that's that's a cool feature all right i mean like so going through the art i mean try to i guess nail down anything for anybody else who's not familiar with rush so that way they have an idea of why they went a certain direction that they did i mean like so that the owl for instance the owl is from fly by night album their second album and the whole front of the album cover is just the owl like an owl flying then it's cool it fits in perfectly right there i think i mean it's a good spot for it and then the little hoot again instead of shoot again. That's kind of funny. Yeah. And the Clockwork stuff, I'm guessing that's from their Time Machine? That's from the last album, Clockwork Angels. Okay. Time Machine was the name of their tour back in 2010. It was kind of like their greatest hits tour that they did.
    27:14
    They were basically doing, they had a time machine on stage, and then we go back to the different years and play the songs. Oh. That explains the whole Time Machine thing.
    27:24
    Okay. So going further up on the play field and it's kind of inching up and we've gone over the three band members right there. And is there anything else that kind of sticks out to you art wise that you agree with or don't agree with or think that, you know, I mean, I like, they got, it looks like they got a little bit of everything from all the different albums on there. Yeah. I'm seeing like an airship up here, right there in front of the third flipper.
    27:50
    That's from clockwork angels. Okay. The last album. Then you got the dice above the scoops for Roll the Bones.
    28:00
    Let's try to see. It looks like they got the comet or meteor from Vapor Trails on there on the left above the drop targets. Yeah, I see that. Yeah, I mean, they got a bunch of stuff on here from all the albums. So you're seeing basically a lot of little Easter eggs, basically, for those that are really into Rush. then they should get a kick out of just kind of going over this play field, trying to see if they can figure out which album that they're, you know, mentioning at a particular moment and stuff like that. I mean, the back, all, all three translates got Easter eggs all over.
    28:35
    So yeah, I'm not good with that. I was looking at the, uh, yeah, they got the airship right above the right ramp at the very top of the back panel as well. is there a particular reason why they've got 1978 ad on the time machine um no that's just one of the years i'm kind of wondering if that changes but i don't know if it does because during the concert that would just scroll around the different numbers would pop up you know as a song came on but yeah that looks like that might be stationary because every picture is 78 yeah that's probably Because the band actually started in 74. Hmm. Interesting.
    29:13
    My little Wikipedia guy for Rush right here. That's why I wanted to have you on here because people were like, you're not a Rush fan, Kerry. You don't know. And I'm like, I know. That's why I want to get somebody on here that does. And hopefully can educate a lot of you out there on why we are seeing what we are seeing on the play field. I mean, some people are going to look at this and go, I don't get it. Why do we have this? Why do we have that? And that's why I wanted to have you on here, Tom. So you can probably give a little bit more information to these people out here that are uneducated on Rush like myself kind of thing. It's my pleasure. Yeah, on the LE Backglass, it looks like they did a tribute to Neil Peart, the drummer, because they got the main big drum sitting there. Yeah, let's look at the Backglasses. I haven't looked at the Backglasses thoroughly yet, and I've already scrolled past them. Go back up. Backglass-wise, which one's your favorite?
    30:01
    I like the premium one. All right. Because it's got the moving pictures building in the background, which I actually went up and got my picture taken in front of. It's got the fly-by-night owl. I can see the star man. It's got the rabbits on it from Presto, which is, yeah, that's a nice little Easter egg. So basically, Coalesce is pretty good together. The back glasses, they all seem to flesh out pretty well together. Nothing stands out.
    30:29
    I mean, personally, as far as the art, I would rather have the pro-head artwork on the premium cabinet. because of Starman yeah exactly but I'm mainly I'm liking how just again I'm comparing to Led Zeppelin here I'm glad that they didn't just cheap out and just take an album cover and just blow it up and make that the artwork for it that was my biggest freaking complaint on Led Zeppelin in general was like how they just mailed it in on the art I'm like are you kidding me I could have done this I shouldn't be able to look at something and go, I could have done better. It looks like they went and got Led Zeppelin wrapping paper and wrapped it up for a Christmas gift and just put it under a tree. Yeah, and that's the thing also. I've noticed even on their feature videos for this particular game, whoever is doing the videography for this particular game put more effort into it. And that the thing that I like also about this reveal trailer and game trailer props to Stern again for putting a little more effort into reveal videos because this actually was put together and edited as well to where I can go oh yeah well I mean that was pretty good Because some of their reveal gameplay trailers I just like I mean I could have done that But this one was well done So props to them on their reveal trailers on building up the hype and showing all the ins and outs of how the game plays when it comes to where the ball goes. So I think I've gone over just my two dislikes was the pro cabinet didn't seem to match the play field. just the styles not that it was bad uh i do still think maybe the the art is the weak spot uh for this game i think the sound should be good uh the design looks like it's going to be pretty interesting to see it's borg so it's probably going to be a brutal game um then you have the art and i think that's it seems to be the weak spot on this game but i think it's a lot better than led zeppelin and it's yeah i mean i'm looking at the in lanes trying to wonder how many times we're going to yell his name out yep they're still gonna have the board bounce the rubbers on them though there's rubbers on the in lanes though man i do really like that le cabinet i stress that again that just uh i guess maybe i like yellow or something i don't know but that's just really sticking out to me. I do like that they went with a flat black powder coat for that. Yeah. Instead of doing some stupid ice blue. Yeah. Baby blue or something crazy. I mean, you can't go wrong with black. I definitely think that this is a game that a lot of Rush fans and those that are not even Rush fans are going to appreciate. It looks good. And I think that's the... I think it looks packed. Yeah. So it's like there's so much to do. There's shots everywhere. I can't see anybody getting bored with this game. Yeah. So as definitely a Rush fan, you're definitely pleased what Stern has put out. Yeah. I mean, like you said, and I'm sure everybody's going to say that the one downfall I see is the artwork, which it's not as bad as people were saying it was going to be. Yeah. I think people were probably going to be over-exaggerating on the quality of the art. And my thing is that I'm like, oh, it's not horrible. I mean, it's just a weak spot of the game. I think every game has got a weak point in it somewhere. I mean, you have to look at where a game is flawed just to be objective about it kind of thing.
    34:11
    But other than that, the game, I cannot wait to see it played. I don't know if they revealed when they're going to stream it. Usually Jack says. Yeah, he said the 7th, I believe they're going to stream it. All right. So that is going to stream a premium. Oh, that's on Friday. Sweet. So then we're going to have some gameplay footage to go over and see how well it plays. And I think it's going to be shooting pretty good. I'm hoping that it's going to be the kind of string that we had for Godzilla as well. It just get right in there. Show us how the game plays. Yeah. Not an hour of explaining everything, but here's something I think that even as a rush fan, that you should be a little disappointed about. And that is, if you're looking at the game, mainly for LEs. As an LE owner, you're spending $11,000 on this game. You've got signatures from the designer on there, but shouldn't you think you'd have something a little extra from the band?
    35:09
    I mean, especially with how much they were on hand to work on it, too. Exactly. I'm thinking that they should have their signatures on the LEs. I think that would definitely make it to where, oh, we increased our price, but you know what? We got the band to sign the aprons. Oh, okay, that's pretty awesome kind of thing. That gives it a little more incentive on getting the LE that you're getting their signatures on the game somewhere kind of thing, or even a signature card, something like that. You can get Elvira's couch, piece of her friggin' couch, you can get some guys to write their damn names down on a piece of paper. I'm just saying. One thing I don't like, and I mentioned it to you earlier, I can't stand flasher caps on slingshot plastics.
    35:53
    I never, ever, ever like that. I don't know why they still do it. It just looks ugly. I don't know. It just doesn't fit. And that's on a lot of games.
    36:06
    It just doesn't seem to fit for me. I don't know. I would actually consider buying aftermarket plastics and just taking the flashers out of there.
    36:16
    That's how much I don't like. Wow. Yeah, alright. It's something And I just never even thought about it. Well, the good thing is, at least, they're all red domes. Yeah. So it should be easier on the eyes, and that was one of my big old complaints about Borg's last game on Turtles is that some of the light show from Blinded by Dwight, he would just set up a shot coming around the orbit, but you couldn't see it because he's busy flashing your eyes, burning your retinas because he's like, Hey, ball's coming. I can't see. That's funny, you just say that and the strobe light on my flash Gordon just went off and shot me in the eye. There you go. I had to change out the lenses on my flashers on Turtles to red so that way it wouldn't be so harmful on the eyes. Yeah. So that's a good thing. I mean, yeah, you don't like the aesthetics of it, but at least they're not clear where they're going to blind you while you're looking down at your flippers kind of thing. That would just be cheap. The expression lighting is only on the LE. Only on the LE. But they said it's already routed out to add to the Pro and Premium. Yeah, I think the Expression Lighting, does it really actually illuminate anything, or does it just kind of give you an extra little light show? It's just a light show. Yeah, that's what I figured. I didn't think it actually illuminated anything, because I never actually played a Premium or an LE with the Expression Lighting on the Led Zeppelin, so I was just going by video. So mainly going forward is basically we're kind of curious of how it's going to play. What are the rules going to be like? I'm like, yeah, they kind of like give you some examples of the rules and how to start certain multiballs. But, you know, reading it versus actually seeing it done are two different things. And that's why I don't like going over rules and everything over a video, because just me talking about it, I myself start to zone out. So let alone someone else that's watching the video kind of thing. They just kind of get. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I'm not going to follow what you're talking about, how to score these multiballs and stuff. They need to see what's going on. So I just wish that more bands that are doing pinball machines would get more involved. And this is not just bands. I want all the people that are holding the licenses to give more, be more willing to make the product that Stern is trying to make better by giving them assets instead of like holding back and limiting them what they're going to be doing. and this is something that designers will not talk about and mention to the public, is that majority of the time the decisions that are made in the design process and the makings of a game are greatly determined by the license holder's decisions. There's times where designers have had to make drastic adjustments and changes due to the license holder going, no, we don't want that, or no, we can't have that, or we won't allow that. And so they had to scrub and redo stuff. and each license holder is more difficult to work with than the next I've heard from a couple of different designers on a particular thing I won't put it in the video but it's evidently very difficult to work with and Led Zeppelin was also horrible to work with they were very stingy with the assets and they wanted a lot of money and it sucked because the game could have been a lot better I believe and Rishi could only do so much with what he was given yeah i mean rush i mean i think that they're since now that they're technically retired i think they're looking into not as heavy as kisses with all the merchandising everything but i think that's what they're starting because i mean they just released their own brand of beer in canada not too long ago and it's supposed to be available here in the states i think they said the spring so yeah i mean they're doing their own beer they're coming out pinball machines i mean they're If you go on their website, they've got a whole new merchandise section now that they've just opened up.
    40:09
    I think that they probably got a kick out of being more supportive with it and jumping in and helping out as much as they could.
    40:17
    That's good. I just kind of wish more future license holders would do the same. Hopefully they follow suit and be like, what do you need? What songs do you want? What can we do to make this the best? you know I wish license holders would start to compete on which one which license holder had the best machine kind of thing and I'm sure Stern would be all up for it kind of thing but I think we're going to have to bring this video to a close because I'm getting blown up with emails and I've had oh my god yeah I've got to go this sucks I only want to finish reading that message I'm probably going to be having to go to work but uh Yeah, by all means, everybody, this is Tom Cecchetti, and he is a major Rush fan. I mean, when you put a tattoo of a band on your body, I guess that's legit. I mean, I don't know what to say it right there.
    41:12
    But, yeah, exactly. So, by all means, I'm hoping that this video is informative to you out there to make a decision on whether or not this game should be in your collection. Your thoughts and opinions, please put them in the comments section down below. Tom, do you have any closing remarks or words or suggestions or anything?
    41:31
    No, I just hope everybody plays it first before they make an opinion, because I think it looks like it's going to be a great game. And we'll see that on the 7th. Jack Danger, Deadflip, is going to be streaming that, and then I'm guessing I'll end up doing another video about the gameplay. All right, guys.
    41:51
    Subscribe button, thumbs up, and until next time, peace out. Outro Music