We said, we said goodbye and it backfired. Too late, too late to try because it backfired. Sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to what seems like the only pinball content creator without an ad for his content. It's Kaneda's Pinball Podcast coming at you from Row 8 in Connecticut. What are we going to talk about on this early Thursday morning show? I want to talk about call outs. How important are call outs? They add so much personality and life to a game. And I'm starting to read about some games out there where the call outs are underwhelming. And can you just turn the call outs off and just use call outs from the movie only? Really will that make for an interesting pinball experience? You know what I'm seeing around this hobby lately is simply this. For this much money and it makes sense. People want the total package. They can't just have a game with good artwork and bad gameplay. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, right? Not much code in that game. Gonna get old over time just looking down at it Alice. You can have a game with maybe great theme integration like the big Lebowski. But what's the knock on the Lebowski? We don't talk about this anymore. You newbies don't even know about these things. The Lebowski, the code is very, very simple. It gets a little old. It's very easy to get through that game. And so Lebowski kind of gets dinged for being a little bit boring because there's not enough going on in the game. It's a simpler game. I know you can add stuff to it, but that doesn't count. Adding your own soundtrack to pinball machines? Nobody wants to do that. You've got games that have amazing code, stuff like Batman 66. I still think one of the greatest coded games of all time. And talk about call-outs. Boy, does that game have call-outs, not just from Burt Ward and Adam West. It also has the entire show. When you go back and watch the old Batman show, it is sort of like narrated by somebody as the show is happening. So it's the perfect kind of show to teleport into a pinball machine and you're going to have amazing call-outs. And then you've got Lord of the Rings, man. It's got some of the greatest call outs of all time. Super Jack Pinball. I don't know why I sound like a combination of Gimli and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Is it even Gimli? Is that my accent? Yeah, right. Yeah, I think it's Gimli. Okay. But you know what I mean? It's like, look at Godzilla. Amazing call out. The moment you hit the start button, the game is talking to you. It's pulling you in. And when you think about a pinball experience, there's something about the call outs that sort of are the connective tissue between the major moments in the game. And then during those major moments, having really awesome call outs makes it even more exciting. And look, sometimes the call outs can come from the clips and the assets from the property. And sometimes they're created originally for the machine. I think I saw somewhere where Jersey Jack said that Sonic the Hedgehog has something like 5,000 callouts or unique words for the game. 5,000. 5,000. So I don't think we're going to jump on this game and feel like the callouts are a miss. I still think when I think about the greatest callouts I've ever heard in a pinball machine, and it is the number one reason to own this pinball machine because the gameplay is atrocious, is Rick and Morty. If you've never played Rick and Morty in a home environment and not laughed out loud at the call outs and the sound effects and everything that game is throwing back at you in an audio way and a speech way, you have not heard the greatest call outs in all of Pinball. And if you go back and you think about the Bally Williams classics, you know, the Twilight Zone, Adam's Family, Monster Bash, Attack from Mars, all of those games when they didn't have an LCD screen and they had to rely on the mechanical magic of the mechs and the sound and the call outs are really what made those games so epic. And when you think about it, they used to bring in professional voice actors that knew what they were doing. Sometimes you hear some of these modern games and they're just mailing it in. It's like they don't even know how to coach the talent on how to do it in a pinball way. Because when you're doing call outs for a pinball machine, it's different than if you're just reading from a script. And I still disappointed in some games where why if you got this talent in the booth why would you make the call outs so boring and so mundane games where that was the case are games like Stranger Things They got Hopper in the game Listen to him He sounds like he wants to go to bed What other game was it Was it Rob Zombie Like he was so boring all throughout that game And then you look at the two latest spooky games. And this is the reason why I wanted to talk about call outs, because I'm hearing that Evil Dead has some of the greatest call outs in the history of pinball. And I've played it and I've heard all those Bruce Campbell call outs and they do add so much to the game. Think about it. If you removed those call-outs from the Evil Dead game and just had the clips from the movie and turn the call-outs off, how much of a good experience would it be playing Evil Dead? And that is why when you go over to Spooky's Beetlejuice, the next offering, and they clearly couldn't get Michael Keaton to do the callouts they wanted to. They are now shipping these games to customers with the callouts turned off. And this continues to be a little bit mind boggling to me because it's like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. You're telling me that you made call-outs for a game to the point where you feel the game is better without them. So there was no way to make the call-outs worthwhile. There was no way to make them good enough to keep them turned on. And I've never seen this before. Have you ever seen a game where a manufacturer is shipping them to customers with the call-outs turned off? I think Godfather was the other one where you had all those cringeworthy Jersey Jack employees adding call outs to the game that absolutely ruined the game. So yeah, there, you don't want to be in the same conversation as the Godfather. You don't, you don't ever want your game to be compared to what the Godfather did. So look, I think it begs the question, with so much time left in this game's coding life cycle, do we think that Spooky Pinball will revisit the callouts on Beetlejuice or will their strategy be to just add more from the movie, more stuff like the staircase dance? Are they just going to keep putting more in like that? And the other question is, how much more does the game need? You know, I'm not hearing people say that Beetlejuice is empty or the code feels incomplete, like they're saying about Pokemon right now. But, you know, the hard part is this. We are now living in a pinball world where it is all about relativity. It is all about relativity. When you are someone who just went through Evil Dead and you're having the greatest time on Evil Dead, and even though you don't love the theme, You're blown away by the Evil Dead total package, right? The call outs, the art, the mechs, the shots, everything about the game, the sound, the moments, the modes, everything in that game is really, really making you excited. And then you go from that to Beetlejuice. And it might just be an example of less is more. When you have a theme that isn't as expensive, that isn't as protective, that isn't as precious, where the actors aren't as expensive, you might be able to get a lot more into that game. Hello, Winchester's Mystery House. Look at everything that's in that. And what's exciting about Winchester's Mystery House, if you have one, and boy, is it looking like you are lucky to have one because they are not popping up for sale. And I don't think they're ever going to be obtainable for anywhere near what they were when they came out. And the thing about Winchester is this, because they don't need to ask permission of the movie studio because they don't need to try to chase down the Pokemon. Winchester can put whatever they want into the game. You know what I'm saying? Like their creative boundaries are limitless on what they can do with that game. And so maybe that's a case for something like Dungeon Crawler Carl. I have to read or listen to this audio book. But man, if you have something like that where the owner, the creator of the series is all in the same way the Rick and Morty creator was all in on Rick and Morty. Now, look, let's go back to Rick and Morty for a second. Isn't everybody disappointed that Rick and Morty as a game was set up in a way where they could easily add new seasons to the game itself? And when the game came out, they said they were absolutely most likely going to do something like that. And they have not done it. And the reason why is because they only made 750 and it's a lot of work. And if they did that for a game that they're never going to make more money on, why bother? Now, it does beg the question, why wouldn't Spooky just do it and charge people? Because it is work. You don't deserve to just keep getting every new season of Rick and Morty for free. I bet people would pay. It's an interesting thing. DLC can work if it's done in an appropriate way. I think that would be a really really interesting thing And it definitely an interesting conversation If a company keeps adding more that wasn part of the initial game I think you can charge for it Okay, so it's going to be interesting to see what happens between Beetlejuice, between now and the end of the year. After Beetlejuice, we're going to get Goonies. We're going to see how that goes. I think they're going to get call-outs. I do. I think they're going to get one of the Goonies actors, Josh Brolin. They're going to get one of them to do the call-outs. The good thing about Goonies is there's like eight of them. There's so many Goonies. So you really just got to get one to do it right. And I think they will get one of those goonies. The problem with Beetlejuice is it's hard, man. You know you want to get Beetlejuice to do the callouts and he was not available. Evil Dead, you've got the main character doing the callouts. That works. Didn't they get Richard Dreyfuss for Jaws? You just want to have somebody big associated with the franchise. Did Keanu Reeves know he didn't do the callouts for John Wick? It was the other guy, Winston, who runs the Continental. So look, in the end, in the end, I want to say this, to put a pin in this, callouts are so important. All of you know it. When you play a pinball machine that has stellar callouts, it really adds so much to the game. When the callouts are amazing, it's almost like you don't even notice them as much as you should. But when they're bad or when they're missing, they stand out like a sore thumb and you really, really, really have a hard time owning a game with terrible callouts. All right. What else is going on in Pinball, baby? The Pokemon topper is right around the corner. I hit up George Gomez last night. He said it's going to be priced accordingly with some of the recent toppers and it's going to be out very, very soon. So I think they're waiting on a code update. I think the topper is going to come with a code update. Pokemon LE prices have plummeted from their high. And by plummeted, I don't mean you can get one for 13. I mean the prices of 18 to 20 are gone. The new going rate, and I helped someone sell one yesterday, 3,000 over, and that is where people are at. Now, I was just thinking about this. If Stern had made this topper, which is going to be the Pokemon Fish, it's going to be like Fishtails. If Stern had put that topper on the LE as an exclusive topper, then yes, these LEs would have held at $18,000 all day long. The same way Jersey Jacks CEs used to have unique items. There's a reason why Pirate CE sells for way more than Pirate's LE. Look, and everybody, you know how I feel. They just don't give enough to the LE package. No rad cows, no exclusive topper. And so, yeah, over time, it's almost impossible to justify spending the money on these LEs that just don't have enough that's different. And I'm also going to say that I'm very disappointed that Stern has given up going after any of these mod makers that are making so many mods, everything from like the plastic 3D crap, but really like stuff like the inner art blades. You're allowing people to steal the Pokemon IP and sell inner art blades left and right. You can sell them on Pinside. You can sell them anywhere. And this is the problem. If you allow people to jack the IP left and right and don't do anything about it, you're going to allow everybody to make their games look much better than they're supposed to look for the amount of money they spent on the game. And I know it's a game of whack-a-mole, but you got to get in the game, Stern. You can't let everybody just make their own version of the Pokemon ball as the shooter rod and sell it out from underneath you. Because again, it's like one of the few items these people who spent $13,000 on feel like they have unique. Like I've got the master ball. Only I have one. There's only one of 750. But if you allow the mod community to make their own master balls and sell them left and right, you're not protecting the buyer who bought the game from you. And again, it's a little bit of laziness. I mean, if you're going to spend time making stupid posts about pinball machines wearing jeans, did you see this on Facebook? Which jeans? What are you doing, Stern? This stuff is garbage. Like, you should be embarrassed that you are posting this stuff on social media. You look like idiots. I gotta be honest. You look like idiots. Like, protect your brand a little bit more. Every time they do those like those question posts with the dumbest, most inane thing. Is it a lazy Wednesday? Nothing else to say? Speaking of fish and games, have you seen this Brian Allen fishtails art package? Brian, come on, man. Come on. The fish looks like a barracuda with those teeth. He looks like he did some meth. And Brian, like, what is it? Is this it, man? Is this it? I'm really speaking to Brian. Now Brian this is it Every time you do an art piece on a game it got to look like the characters just did some meth and their eyes are popping out and their mouths become huge and their teeth are humongous And they all look like the cover artwork from the freaking Jerky Boys album Go Google Jerky Boys the album Did you do the art for that Brian Like, I don't understand. So, like, you're just going to bring your style and your vision to everything, even if, like, the feedback. Come on. Does anybody think that that fishtails trans light with the damn fish with the teeth looking like that is normal? That's a freaking barracuda jaw. That's not what's, isn't it supposed to be like a bass fish? Show me a bass fish that has teeth like jaws and tell me this is normal. I don't get it. I really don't get it. And I know he's working on the art package for Circus Voltaire and he better dial it down, man. Dial it down. Seriously. Especially when you're doing remakes. It's like, don't make it more of a distraction. Just make it a little bit better. And I know it's hard doing remakes and re-imagine art packages, but I just think out of all these artists, Yeti, Franchi, Brian Allen, I don't think people are like, we need more Brian Allen on Pinball machines if this is what the look is going to be, Brian, and I mean it. I think you have to figure out a way to get to a middle ground with your style. It's just not working for me. All right, what else is going on in the world of Pinball? We're close to Sonic the Hedgehog. It's going to be the game of the year. I'll give you a little bit of an exclusive right now. Nobody knows. Now you know. I am hearing that the CE armor is going to be a beautiful, a beautiful, shiny, candy apple red. I think it's going to look nice in a lineup next to Toy Story 4 and Willy Wonka CE. And look, the reason why is there's a lot of blue elsewhere. And I'll just say this. This is going to be the most sparkling cabinet of all time. Wait until you see it, baby. I still think this game is going to be the game of the year unless one other game I think could knock it out. I think it's going to be a battle between Fallout and Sonic the Hedgehog. I do. Fallout and Sonic the Hedgehog. And I think the best-selling game of the year is going to be Pokemon. It is. I'm just telling you right now. I think Pokemon will be the best-selling game of the year. I know some of you are sick of hearing this, but the game is just so much damn fun. I was talking to Ed Robertson about it. He's playing it with his kids who are in their 20s, and they're loving it. Everyone whose game is playing properly is absolutely loving it. It is just the beginning. There's going to be so much going into this game. It is like, what do you need, man? Four shots that are super fun to hit. So look, I get there's games out there that might have like eight shots or 12 shots in which like nine of them are clunky. And that's why people are loving Pokemon, because every shot is fun to hit. And, you know, even though it's easy to see what to hit, it's still going to be challenging to get through the game. That is why this game is going to work. And yes, I don't think it's worth $13,000. And no, I don't think the premium is even worth $9,500. And yes, I think this game would have been perfect at the old Stern prices. A pro should be five grand, a premium should be $6,500, and the LE should be like $8,000. In that pricing world, Pokemon is embraced. But at these prices, it's hard, man. Man, it's hard. My wife lost her job. My mom's suffering from cancer. The world is so expensive. Everything out there is ridiculous. We are at war. Oil prices are through the roof. The world is on fire and pinball prices are insane. You know, and that's it, man. It's like I'm just in this mindset of like, yeah, I didn't want to spend $14,000 on Pokemon, but I did. It's bringing me a lot of happiness and it's bringing my family happiness. But I know deep down inside, I know I should have been able to give my family that game with everything in it, with those art packages as an LE. I should have been able to give them that game for no more than $8,500. It's just the reality of how I feel. I don't feel like my 14 grand plus I got to buy a topper. So now I'm at $15,400 all in on Pokemon. It just doesn't feel right. It's a lot of money and I'm just having a hard time even feeling like I want to go get more than one machine a year. I mean, think about it. You guys out there, really, you must be making bank if you can go spend $30,000 to $45,000 on just pinball machines a year. Maybe you don't have other lifestyle choices that are expensive. Maybe you're not driving Dodge Demons or going to Japan in business class. But boy, oh boy, oh boy, that's a lot of money for just the pinball experience. It doesn't even come with a bottle of wine, any caviar or any sexual activity. It's a pinball machine. Everybody, happy Thursday. I got to get to work. Kaneda out.