[Music] Recently, I was lucky enough to get invited over for media day at Stern Pinball headquarters. Take a tour of the factory, see what's going on there, as well as check out the latest game title that they were releasing, Star Wars: Fall of the Empire. Now, I'll be the first to tell you right out of the gate, and I will make no apologies of this. I'm a massive Star Wars nerd. My son's middle name is Skywalker. I've literally been hired to be a professional bodyguard for Ian McDermad. So, yeah, I can literally say I've been the royal guard to the Emperor. I mean, Star Wars, it runs deep in these veins. So, you can imagine my excitement when I heard that they were going to be making a new Star Wars game. I was even more excited because this is the first official unveiling of the Spike 3 platform for a Cornerstone release from Stern Pinball. And what that essentially equates to is we get new gizmos, new gadgets, new improvements uh moving forward with Spike 3 that we didn't have on Spike 2. Right out of the gate, you'll notice some slight changes. is the cabinet head itself has been completely retoled. However, it still does have the same measurements, footprint, width, dimensions, everything of Spike 2, so it'll blend right in. However, you'll immediately notice the larger screen that it has. So, with Spike 2, we had a 15.6 in LCD screen. This one, we have an 18.5 in. And they were able to keep the same standard back glass uh artwork size, dimensions, everything. So, a back glass from a Spike 2 machine can go in a Spike 3 machine and vice versa. I'm a fan of you get a bigger screen. None of the drawbacks. It's not like they had to crop and, you know, shrink down the back glass. And for a fan of artwork in general, I like what they did there. Also like that they didn't go the Jersey Jack route and just throw a 27in screen in there because then they look like, you know, followers and not leaders. You look like a copycat because you you're doing it years later after everybody else. But again, I go back to the fact that I like that they're keeping a traditional size transite there in the backbox and we're not losing any real estate there. So, I love what they did there. We've got upgraded sound system throughout. This thing is immensely more powerful than the Spike 2 sound system. Has wireless Bluetooth connectivity built in to the system. You, you know, access it via the menu and everything, which is great to no longer have to buy a third party add-on. So, that was exciting. Uh, we got a new power supply, new, you know, quality of life improvements. This release in particular was a little bit uh different than future releases are going to come. Basically, we have a Spike 3 redesigned uh cabinet head. Uh the body itself is still the traditional Spike 2. Things will change on the next iteration of the uh releases from them, but as it stands right now, you you're still getting all the the improvements of Spike 3 uh in the top and the backbox and the menu system, the power and all that kind of stuff. But uh the the base cabinet itself um not quite there yet, but it will be just around the corner. So yeah, Star Wars Fall of the Empire is the name of the game. This actually is Star Wars the original trilogy, Star Wars 4, 5, and 6. Uh it's got its own unique tagline. However, this is not like King Kong in that it has its own unique story. This is Star Wars that you know and love. This is the Star Wars characters you know and love. All the assets, all the music, you name it, it's there, all represented. uh why they called it fall of the empire because I mean when you think of that original trilogy that's really what the story line was about and I mean you got to differentiate it in some way shape or form I mean they've already released a Star Wars game in 2017 they have the Star Wars home edition I mean if you're branding something and you want to type in Google you know Star Wars pinball machine you want something unique come up so you got to give it a tagline and that's what they've done with Star Wars fall of the Empire so when it comes to artwork this was actually the result of a team effort four unique individuals all coming together and really kind of specializing in certain areas and focusing on things. So like one guy had to really focus on, you know, artistic realism for these characters that we know and love. We didn't want to see, you know, like Derpy Han Solo whose face looks like it's melting or it's, you know, improperly aged or anything like that. And I got to say, uh, the the team that was responsible for the artwork packages as a whole did a great job. I went over all three cabinet models really with a fine tooth comb. I didn't find any artwork that just looked questionable. uh these are well represented. These these heroes, these rebels, these dark side uh characters, everybody that you know and love from the original Star Wars trilogy is done justice when it comes to the artwork. I think they did a great job with it. As far as the uh back glass artwork, I think they did an awesome thing here. Um it has the original like kind of Ker toy line uh trim around it, which kind of gives you an optical illusion on the back glass that maybe it might be smaller. I I love what they did with it. When it comes to the artwork on the pro model, Return of the Jedi is kind of the theme here. Uh we've got the battle of indoor on the cabinet body itself with Ewoks and you know speeder bikes and stormtroopers fighting in indoor forest. Uh on the cabinet head itself, you got Luke versus Darth Vader and a lightsaber battle with Emperor Palpatine sitting there in his throne while the space battle rages on behind him. Uh they did a good job with it. Back glass again is a Return of the Jedi theme. Uh on the premium model, you got Empire Strikes Back as the main theme here. So, you got a really more intimate shot of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker uh locking up on their lightsabers on the cabinet body itself. And then on the cabinet head for the premium, you've got the bounty hunters. You got Boba Fett and Bos sitting there looking menacing at you. I think they did an excellent job across the board, but if I had to pick one, premium would probably be it. And of course, the limited edition version does always have a special package treatment. Uh not only including artwork, but this one has the Battle of Hoth as the main focus. It has unique cabinet artwork on both the right side and the left side, which differs from the Pro and Premium, of course. Uh you've got your custom powdercoated armor. This is a nice blue. There's no metallic flake or anything built into it. It's just a nice, you know, blue color. Uh we got some addats there on the cutouts of the kind of flipper guards there on the side. And then we got, of course, you know, our custom signed apron. Uh this model is limited to 770 units commemorating the, you know, original release of the movie 1977. expression lighting in the speakers. The speakers themselves, you got, you know, upgraded speakers as well as unique individual tweeters uh that are separate. Uh you have the expression lighting uh around both sets of speakers, if you will. You also have unique cutouts um on top of the speakers and tweeters, which I thought was nice. And of course, you have the expression lighting inside the cabinet, as well as the custom inner art blades that are again the Battle of Hoth. I think they did a really good job. My only criticism, maybe critique here, um, was the cabinet head trim itself. The T- molding is the that fake faux chrome, if you will. Not a big fan of that. Uh, honestly, I wish they would have just put a blue up there to kind of match with the powder coated armor. Uh, but again, that those are personal preferences. Uh, the Pro and Premium had black T- molding across the board. This is one of the first times I can think of where they didn't really do any kind of color differentiation there. But overall, Ellie, it's a looker. Pricing is going to be the same across the board. There's no price hike here. So, you know, 13,000 MSRP is going to be your uh LE price. You know, your $10,000 price point for your premium and your $7,000 price point for your pro model. And when it comes to film assets, I know a lot of people when they first saw the, you know, the teaser trailer and heard Fall of the Empire, they were concerned that maybe this was a unique story and wouldn't have any movie assets. It's got all the movie assets. You got over a thousand video clips in this thing. You got custom callouts. It's a Star Wars fan delight. It's got all those moments, all those scenes, all those characters, all those music, John Williams score. I mean, it's got everything from the films that you would expect, wish, and hope to see in a pinball game. The gameplay itself, of course, follows the original trilogy. So, one thing I really thought was neat, and I liked how they did it, when you first start the game, uh, before you've really activated any modes or anything, you're greeted with the opening crawl and John Williams score for Star Wars. And then ball two, you're greeted with Empire Strikes Back. And Ball 3, it's Return of the Jedi until you activate a mode. And that's not to say that each ball is relegated or stuck with modes and scenes for that specific movie. That's not the case, but it was a nice touch. When it comes to shots and layout, the game was designed by John Borg, legend of the industry, been around for a long time. Has a reputation for kind of developing games that are a little bit more on the harder side, as well as have a reputation for taking older previous designs of his, uh, flipping them, mirror them, tweaking things here and there, maybe move a scoop, put it over here, making slight adjustments to older designs. Uh, so I kind of went into this uh, experience with that expectation. And then when they revealed the game for the first time and John started going through things, it was very apparent to me that this was a fresh take, a fresh design from him and I was very excited to see that. So to break down the layout from left to right, over on the left hand side, first thing first, we've got two pop bumpers, one on each adjacent side. When I first saw these, I thought, "Oh no, drain monsters right away." But that's not the case. They're farther enough up on the playfield that I didn't really have any kind of issues with them uh being the cause of a negative drain or something that was beyond my control. They add to the gameplay more than they take away from the gameplay. And I thought that was a nice touch. Uh then we have a Darth Vader scoop over here on the left hand side around the left outer orbit. We have a spinner that comes corresponds over on the right outer orbit with a matching spinner. So you got a two spinner game. Uh, moving over to the right a little bit, then you have this Luke Skywalker shot, which in my opinion is probably the tightest shot on the game, but it is backhandable, which is nice. This is your kind of mode finishing shot. So, any kind of mode you you start, you're going to end up, you know, completing the mission, if you will, by shooting this Luke Skywalker shot. It leads up to a wire form from a Vuck that comes around a circular helic style uh metal wire form ramp that also is going around an AT sculpt that is in the middle, which is nice. and it's supposed to, you know, simulate the toe cable taked down, uh, that we see in the Battle of Hoth, which is really, really cool. Uh, then we got a a droid standup target that's right next to it. Uh, and then we have the Death Star. So, this is a new mech, even though, you know, they've previously released a Star Wars game in 2017 that had a Death Star involved. Uh, this is unique mech. So, it is a a physical ball locking mechanism. You're going to shoot the shot the first time. It's going to hit the Death Star, which has a a target on the front. jaw essentially is going to lower and open the Death Star. You're going to shoot three balls into the the mechanism itself. It's going to start Death Star multiball. All three of those balls are going to come flying out of the Death Star at a relatively fast speed. Uh and typically aiming towards the right flipper. It's really cool when this happens. One of the things I liked the most about this in the gameplay experience was if you were in Death Star multiball and you got enough jackpots and super jackpots and all that, you would literally blow up the Death Star. the game would freeze, the flippers would die, the lights would go out, and you would see this massive, you know, explosion of the Death Star on the uh the scoring screen display, and uh then it would slowly, you know, boot itself back up, and then you would go back in for round two, aka victory laps, and you would keep your, you know, multiball multiball going. But as an experience, I thought that was a great way to represent the Star Wars blowing up the Death Star moment from cinema and just represent it in the game. And I think they did a great job in that aspect. Then right up the middle, you have your hypers speed ramp, which is nice. It's got a nice, you know, sculpted uh Millennium Falcon toy situated right above it. And then in the back panel, it has a a hole opening in which you shoot the ball. It's going to go through the back panel of the machine, come around to a wire form on the lefth hand side, and then come back down to your flipper. I just like how it was designed and everything. Like I said, you're shooting the ball up the middle off the ramp through a hole in the back of the back panel. You got the the Millennium Falcon situated right over the middle of the top of it. And you got, you know, star artwork there. So, it's simulating that, you know, kind of jump to light speed, which is a nice touch. Uh, if you don't get the ball hard enough, it'll drop straight down and it kind of rolls back down to the orbit. Then over next to that is the job of the hut ramp, if you will. This is a plastic ramp uh that has kind of a whitewateresque kind of, you know, whirlpool drain to it, which is cool. Also, your mode activator. This is also where you get your attabol, which is the number of kind of like rotations around this. There was times where we shot it up there and the ball would take quite a while to drain. Um, next to the job of the hut uh, plastic ramp, there's another metal wire form tie fighter ramp which shoots up, curls back down around, and then has the wire form come back and drop down to the right hand flipper. And then immediately to the right of that again is your other um, spinner. But the coolest feature of the game by far is the use of the force magnet. Now, this is very cool how they designed this. Um, basically there's a little cutout on the right hand side that allows the ball to travel from all the way down from the apron over back into the shooter lane. But the way they've designed this, there is a magnet dead center that is represented by Yoda, of course, which is great. Um, that you can use to save the ball that drains from either the out lane or the middle. You build it up with switch hits. You're trying to spell the word Jedi if you get the J and the E. So, two letters out of the four, you get the ability to potentially force grab the ball as it's draining out of the left hand side. And if you time it right, because this is a skill, this is not a gimme. You hit the action button when it's illuminated and you get those two letters spelled, you can fling it with a a magnet pulse and it'll go all the way from the left to the right side of the apron and with enough gusto, it'll go back into the shooter lane and then come back into play, which is absolutely amazing. Uh key to note here on the apron, there's a little bit of a metal um add-on piece that sticks out that allows the ball to kind of like lift a little bit. And once you time that specifically as it hits and the ball comes up just enough, that's where you're going to hit the magnet. That's where you're going to force grab and throw the ball all the way from the left to the right and back into the shooter lane and get in play. If you get all four letters of Jedi spelled, you get a much more stronger grab. And this is mainly intended for that kind of uh middle drain if you will, which is again another impressive feat to see and it's on brand with the IP and the use of the force. Spent a lot of time doing this and it was super exciting to see it work when it did work, but it was never a gimme. I would say I probably had maybe a 30% success rate um pulling it off by itself. Once I kind of figured those nuances out and really kind of figured out the timing of it, then I was having much more success. But far and away, this is the coolest feature of the game.
When it comes to code, Raymond Davidson, aka Ray, is the lead on this one. Obviously, a well-renowned, wellrespected pinball player and coder in his own right, coming right off the success of Metallica remake, remaster, whatever you want to call it. Uh, I like what he was doing with this. I like the explanations and, you know, the progression of the code he's working with. Obviously, with all Stern releases, it takes typically about a year, a little bit more maybe to fully flesh out a game's code, but right now, out of the box, early adopters, there's a lot to see and do. There's three unique multiballs, various different modes representing all the Rebel main characters, if you will. Uh, I think there was three or four Job of the Hut modes unique to that, you know, specific shot. Uh, there was Darth Vader scoop challenges/ modes, mystery awards there. Uh, no wizard mode coded in there yet, but again, there's lots to see and do right out of the gate. So, I don't think anybody really has to worry about that. Uh, played all these games numerous times for hours and hours on end, and I didn't feel like I was repeating the same modes or same things or hearing the same call outs. I do think this is a much more approachable uh game both in playfield layout as well as code than the 2017 Steve Ritchie release. Uh, the biggest headache I had with that one, I thought the code was all over the place in terms of being able to truly understand a narrow linear path. I felt like I had to have this check the box list that was a mile long that I had to go down, progress through to get a decent score on that game. Whereas this one, uh, you got the option to really kind of focus in on story progression and mode progression or building and blowing up your score, which is nice. So, you got the two avenues that are welcoming to both veteran players as well as newcomers. biggest example of the most welcoming nature of this game via the code uh is the hypers speed multiball that you can essentially start by spamming up the middle. I think it's a four shot uh combo. You just hit that middle ramp shot four times and then you're you're starting a two ball multiball. You can kind of treat it like T-Rex multiball and you can build your jackpot values. Uh you hit a bunch of shots, really build those up before you really cash them in. Uh you have the opportunity to do shot multipliers which are really cool. So you can, you know, get your shot multiplier built up and then you put it on a specific shot so you can really start blowing up the score. A lot of good things. I heard, you know, you know, Raymond talk about things where he's pulling from the Walking Dead code and pulling from Jurassic Park code and pulling all these great things that people have known and love in pinball code over the years and applying them to this game, which makes for a great experience for both, like I said, newcomers and seasoned players alike. So, like where this is going, like the current state of it right now, and I think a lot of people are going to be happy with it. And with the never- ending debate of pro versus premium, let me break down for you the differences. So, on the pro model, you're missing a lot of the aesthetic toys. So, there is a Stormtrooper helmet on the right side that is prevalent on the Premium LE. That is not here on the Pro. Uh, same thing with Darth Vader helmet. He's not there on the Pro. Premium has a TIE fighter toy for the TIE Fighter ramp missing on the Pro. Premium has a job of the hut sculpted toy that has a light bulb in it. Kind of illuminates and flashes uh during gameplay. Completely missing on the Pro. Uh the ADAT itself on the premium. Uh like I said, when you hit a certain super jackpot, it'll fall down simulating the toe cable takedown. While the addat itself is still there on the Pro model, it is stagnant. It doesn't fall down during gameplay. It just sits there. um the hypers speed ramp on the premium, it raises uh if you shoot it while it's down on the premium, it literally just hits a rubber bumper and comes right back down to you. So, it really, in my opinion, didn't add a whole lot of gameplay with the the raising and the lowering of the ramp because in reality, it just shot straight to the back, hit a piece of rubber, and shot straight back to you, which a lot of times ended up in a dangerous towards the middle uh drain that you had to kind of slap save for. So, on the Pro, the ramp is always fixed up. It's never moving. It just stays right there. However, I was happy to see that we do have a physical ball lock on the Pro and the Premium. So, the Pro still has the Death Star lock where you have to hit it, the jaw opens, you shoot the balls in there, and then all three balls come out, which is nice. So, for the most part, there are no real gameplay changes. All the shots, for the most part, are all the same across the board. Pro, Premium, LE. Uh the biggest omission in my opinion on the Pro unfortunately is the force magnet. It is non-existent on the Pro. Uh so it is a virtual save if you will. So when you're building up your letters, um if you got all four Jedi letters saved, you will always get the ball back if you hit the button, but it doesn't have the magnet. So you don't get that amazing experience of like magically throwing the ball from the left out lane all the way over back into the shooter lane and back into play. You don't have that experience of catching the ball dead center in between the flippers and it flying back up into play. So that is my biggest miss unfortunately on the Pro. So I did have two observations and criticisms that I needed to mention. First and foremost uh I I got to say I played various different copies. So multiple pros, multiple premiums, played all three models. Uh this was kind of across the board on all three of them. So first observation I noticed was a full plunge typically was not always going around the orbit and coming around to the lefth hand side which is what it's supposed to do as designed. Kind of hard to articulate the ratio and the percentage. Maybe one out of five, maybe less than that, maybe more than that. But I did observe it enough to where I got my camera and recorded it. But you'd do a full plunge. You'd pull it and it would go up and it would kind of nick something around the the Java exit there on the right hand side. hit that rattle rattle and then come right back down on the right hand side. Wouldn't go all the way around. Kind of I hate to compare it to this, but you know, X-Men plunge gate where it was supposed to, you know, shoot around and it was hitting things in the back and rattling. Similar experience here where the ball wasn't making it all the way around. I think it's easily fixed, but it was enough where it happened frequently enough to where I was like, that's not that's not ideal. Second observation I had was the hypers speed jump ramp. So, by design, you shoot the ball up the ramp, goes through that hole in the back panel, and then comes around the wire form. However, if you don't hit it hard enough, it's going to go up the ramp and then fall down and land into the little channel that is essentially the right and the left orbit there in the back. So, notice quickly right out of the gate, you know, during gameplay, you're going to shoot it repetitively, and not always will you hit that shot and it'll fall down. And I looked back there closely and I already could see dimples in the playfield where that ball had, you know, consistently fell down, hit, fall down, hit and then rolled out. Uh, one of the copies I already noticed that it had a chip in the playfield where the paint had come up. Uh, so that was concerning for me. I I think, you know, they should at the very least have a strip of myar back there that protects that impact zone because you're going to miss that shot. It is going to naturally fall down and hit the playfield. and if there's nothing there to protect it, um it is concerning that you're going to be damaging your game. Those are two kind of design things I noticed right out of the gate. Hopefully, they're easy fix by Stern, but definitely wanted to mention them. And at the end of the day, this was a super fun game to play. Like I said, I already told you I'm a massive Star Wars fan, so it didn't take a whole heck of a lot to blow me away when it comes to Star Wars. However, I did get to see a unique layout from John Borg, which was again a somewhat shock to me, which is great. Uh the introduction of the force magnet and how it was applied and used in the game was absolutely amazing cuz it's so on brand with the theme. Great theme interaction. Uh the coding I really happy what I saw where I heard it was going to go and overall I can say emphatically this is the best Star Wars game that has been released. Plain and simple. 2017 has its charm. However, it doesn't hold a candle to this version in either gameplay demonstration of the Star Wars assets in itself. I think this game does a better job of showcasing those both visually and auditorially. Uh, and just general fun. Like, I had so much more fun playing this game than the 2017 version. Uh, and I think most people will agree once they get their hands on it. I definitely recommend you check it out. I think it's obviously going to be an easy easy win for Stern. I really hope it is because Star Wars as a brand is globally recognized, easy to easy to sell. People that have never played pinball will typically in a lineup of pinball machines gravitate towards Star Wars because it is such a recognizable IP. So, it makes perfect sense to me why Stern would want to go back to that well and do what they did. Uh, they were nice enough to give us a little bit of an introduction and George Gomez when he was first talking about this game and did the whole concept and design of the game. They said, "We originally started and said, hey, what did we miss on the 2017 version? What what did we not accomplish?" I'm glad they went that route because it truly from a Star Wars fan and as a pinball fan um feels like a much more improved experience. Highly recommend you check this game out as soon as you can. Supposed to be shipping in midepptember, so right around the corner. And guys, let me know your thoughts and opinions. And if you're so inclined, let me know in the comments what you would have done, what you would have done different, what you like, what you don't like about the new Star Wars: Fall of the Empire game. If you're interested in gameplay videos, I got those linked up here on the channel as well. And guys, if you enjoyed the content, make sure you hit that like button, share this video with your friends if you found the information helpful. As always, thanks for watching, guys. Really means a lot. [Music]