King Kong will be the New King!

Cary Hardy·video·17m 40s·analyzed·Apr 17, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Carrie Hardy predicts King Kong will surpass Godzilla; defends art direction and commits to in-depth machine coverage.

Summary

Carrie Hardy reviews the King Kong pinball machine reveal stream, expressing high confidence that it will dethrone Godzilla as the top-ranked game on Pinside. She discusses the game's visuals, mechanics, and art direction—acknowledging some find it 'busy' but defending its original artistic approach. Hardy has ordered a King Kong LE for $13,000 and commits to creating original content with the machine once it arrives, shifting away from 'armchair quarterback' coverage toward hands-on gameplay analysis.

Key Claims

King Kong will dethrone Godzilla as the #1 ranked game on Pinside
medium confidence · Hardy states she's 'putting [her] chips on King Kong' to surpass Godzilla and is 'very confident' in the prediction based on the stream footage, though she acknowledges she was wrong once before with James Bond.
King Kong code at version .80 appears further along than current X-Men code
medium confidence · Hardy makes comparative observation: 'this game definitely looks further along at .80 than what X-Men in its current state looks like' but notes it 'may be debatable.'
Kong's hands are coded to potentially hit the glass as a knocker for future high score callouts
medium confidence · Hardy references information from Loser Kid Pinball podcast where Keith Elwin mentioned Kong's hands can hit glass; she speculates they may eventually be used for replay/high score feedback.
The train car multiball sequence is the primary mechanical differentiator the modding community cannot easily replicate on Pro versions
high confidence · Hardy explicitly states: 'the train car multi-ball loading sequence i don't see that being replicated' and notes most other Premium features (spider, gong, Kong movement) will be modifiable.
Hardy has spent $13,000 out of personal/patron funds on a King Kong LE with no sponsorship or distributor relationship
high confidence · Hardy explicitly confirms: 'I do have a King Kong LE on order' and 'i have bought this legitimately there is no like oh i'm borrowing it from a distro or there's no sponsorships this is my money and my patrons money out of my pocket.'

Notable Quotes

“I'm putting my chips on King Kong now that this one's going to surpass Godzilla.”
Carrie Hardy@ 3:32 — Core prediction; establishes her main thesis about Kong's competitive positioning against the current #1 ranked game.
“does that kind of like, that just means you want pinball to never get better, in my opinion... you don't want Stern Pinball or any other pinball manufacturer to produce anything better than Godzilla?”
Carrie Hardy@ 4:07 — Addresses community gatekeeping around Godzilla's top ranking; frames preference for game improvement as a value statement.
“Art was one of them being sticklers that people had and here we are with the game being in the number one position for what four or five years running so i don't think that it's art that's going to hold a game back from being loved by the people.”
Carrie Hardy@ 11:53 — Defends King Kong's art direction by drawing parallel to Godzilla's rocky art reception at launch; argues art criticism didn't prevent Godzilla's success.
“I'm no longer going to be an armchair quarterback, because I'm going to have the game here to play a lot. Be able to see the good, the bad, experience the good and the bad, and see how well the game develops over time with code.”
Carrie Hardy@ 16:26 — Personal commitment to shift content strategy toward hands-on machine coverage rather than remote speculation.
“the game looks damn awesome... I have called this many times on multiple games, and I've only been wrong a couple of those times... but when I watch a stream and I see how a game shoots I've got a pretty damn good feeling and intuition on how well the game will do.”
Carrie Hardy@ 2:12 — Establishes her track record and methodology for predicting game success based on stream/video footage.

Entities

King KonggameCarrie HardypersonKeith Elwinperson Godzillagame Jerry ThompsonpersonStern PinballcompanyX-Mengame

Signals

?
community_signal: Stern executed high-quality release stream with rapid turnaround and coordinated media creator engagement (multiple content creators playing next day).
high · Hardy praises: 'This stream went off very well. I had no issues with audio' and notes 'You got it going on to a show this weekend as well. You got other content creators that are going to be playing it tomorrow.'
?
design_philosophy: King Kong's original art direction (three-artist collaboration) intentionally diverges from licensed asset reuse approach (Godzilla) to enable broader creative freedom.
medium · Hardy defends Kong's custom art approach: 'gives them the ability to do a lot more' and notes 'lack of assets...is going to hold this game back because it's their own thing.'
?
community_signal: Carrie Hardy transitioning from 'armchair quarterback' remote commentary to hands-on machine ownership and long-term gameplay documentation.
high · Hardy explicitly commits: 'I'm no longer going to be an armchair quarterback...I'm going to have the game here to play a lot' and plans to 'break even' on the $13,000 purchase to fund ongoing machine acquisitions.
?
product_strategy: Train car multiball loading sequence positions as Premium/LE exclusive feature that modding community cannot easily replicate on Pro models.
high · Hardy explicitly identifies train car sequence as the one mechanical feature that Pro owners 'can't' replicate through modding, while other Premium features (spider, gong, Kong movement) are expected to be customizable.
~
sentiment_shift: Carrie Hardy's positive reception of King Kong may represent broader community enthusiasm shift away from Godzilla as the uncontested top-ranked game.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.053

0:00

What's up guys and welcome back to the channel where I talk and do everything pinball. So if that sounds interesting to you, then hit that subscribe button down below. Now the stream finished up, I don't know, at this point in time, an hour and a half ago. I got to watch most of it while I was at work. Hopefully they're not watching this, but I was in the process of typing up reports at the end of the shift and was able to watch this as well. And then when I got home, dinner, family time a little bit, and I was able to finish the remainder of it. So two different sessions, but I wanted to just kind of talk about what we've seen. And I'm sure that a lot of you would like to know my first impressions on the game. And for those that do not already know this from the live stream that I did a little over a week ago, I do have a King Kong LE on order. it's going to be here hopefully by the end of the month so with that being said there's a lot of you i'm not even going to say the word a lot but i'm sure there are those of you out there that when i compliment what i'm seeing and talk positively about this game you're automatically going to be going oh he's talking so good about it because he's got one on order or he's buying it i get what you're saying but it's actually going to be the opposite if anything else since i have spent thirteen thousand dollars on a pinball machine that will be here i will be more critical i am but i have bought this legitimately there is no like oh i'm borrowing it from a distro or there's no sponsorships this is my money and my patrons money out of my pocket to buy something

1:55

So by all means, if I don't like something about it, then I am going to be critical about it. With that being said, let's talk about the stream a little bit. Now, if you watch the stream, then you automatically already know that the game looks damn awesome. Okay? I have called this many times on multiple games, and I've only been wrong a couple of those times. but when I watch a stream and I see how a game shoots I've got a pretty damn good feeling and intuition on how well the game will do without even playing it and whenever I first saw the trailer for King Kong I was already in the wow state of mind because of how much was underneath the glass and I and we're going to go ahead and talk about it but my initial impression after watching the release trailer for King Kong was that Godzilla is I might have cursed on my Patreon when I said it but I believe that this game will dethrone Godzilla now I've only said that one other time and I was wrong and that was on James Bond and that was merely because I was assuming that the code was going to get so awesome.

4:30

Is that what you're trying to say? Or you have no hopes of it being surpassed by another game? Every new release, I'm always hoping for improvement by at least manufacturer improving on what they've already done. and by all means i'm always looking for improvement over pinball entirely kind of thing and i do see a lot going on in this game it may be a little too much i i think that this is also something that i have been getting i've been because i've been showing this trailer to friends co-workers like hey check this out and you see a lot of people going wow wow you know and then the word I think tends to be brought up the most is busy now I didn't like to ask them like so what do you mean busy does that mean the art does that mean the mechanics mechanical nature of it kind of thing you know so I may need to clarify that with them and maybe I'll ask them here in a bit or when I get back to work tomorrow but busy definitely is a word to use for what we're seeing on this play field when it comes to the art it was kind i think the last time we had this thinking is when we saw venom with the art on that game i think that was a term that was being used was it looks very busy kind of thing and so that may be the same way for king kong but i feel that you know and when i was telling people via patreon my thoughts and feelings on the game whenever i first saw the trailer i was very impressed with what i was seeing and then i was asked well what about the art and i said that i liked it but i'm can definitely see people not liking it because i knew that this was going to be a very subjective art package package especially since it's evidently a collaboration of three different artists and i think that might be a mistake. We'll see as the machine gets here. That's why I don't want to like talk too good or talk too bad about it because in the end it's going to be like what this thing looks like in front of me and all I've merely got to go by is what were images that we're seeing on the screen or on the stream right here. So I'm going to be seeing it in person in a couple of weeks. Yes, I could have gone to Stern and be playing the game tomorrow at this point in time, but I decided to use that around $1,000 it would have costed me in travel and food and lodging and everything and just actually put that towards buying the damn machine. That's what I felt was a better deal in the end. it's like nothing against those of you out there that made the trick spent the money to do the media thing i've done it before a couple of times you do you boo but it's like what was i getting out of it aside from getting to play the game a couple of weeks early maybe be one of the few that gets a video out before some other people kind of thing but at this point in time i don't think I need to be first anymore, but that's just my perspective on that. So I'm not in a rush to be the first one to get something up. It tends to kind of go my direction anyways when it comes to traffic on this. Let me get a drink of water, guys. But I'm pretty sure that Stern definitely prefers me to buy one of their games instead of doing the typical armchair quarterback. I'm trying to get away from that guys and that's why i'm hoping that this is the first of more machines to come but the only way i'm going to be able to do what i want to do is definitely support from you out there the public so this is going to be something that we're going to try on this game and we're going to see how it goes but it going to be the game going to be here for a certain amount of time going to do a lot of content in regards to it and then eventually it going to be something that going to be going on behind my paywall on Patreon whether it be a raffle or just someone that wants to buy it but all I need to do is just break even on what I paid for it, which is the $13,000 on there, and then that money goes directly into another new game. Could be Dune. Could be, I mean, I don't know. It could be Harry Potter. It could be something from Turner Pinball. I mean, I don't know. And that's going to be something that my patrons will be able to vote and decide on. But at the looks of it, it looks like I'm more than likely going to be getting and keeping a premium of King Kong. This is just my gut feeling at this point in time, but I know I'm pretty sure I don't need an LE. I'm merely getting the LE so I can get it sooner, so I can get content out to you guys sooner. Well, Kira, you just said that you don't need to be first. Yeah, yeah, I know, but I have ideas in place and things that I want to do that no one else is doing. So that's just something to look forward to on that. But back to what we saw on the stream. I enjoyed what I saw. I'm very confident in my purchase at this point in time. The game looks fun. What we're seeing on the screen looks fine to me. I mean, they have some assets that they're not, I don't want to say assets because people are gonna be like, what assets? But there's some screen assets that are still in the making when it comes to code. But when it comes to code, if you want to compare this game to, sorry Jack, but X-Men, this game definitely looks further along at .80 than what X-Men in its current state looks like. That may be debatable, but just saying that this stream went off very well. I had no issues with audio, and I didn't think I would. It's Jerry Thompson. He knows his shit. I mean, I already messaged him letting him know he did a great job on it. And as far as, like, Elwynn, I think I already told him after I saw the trailer, or did I?

10:59

Maybe I haven't yet. So maybe, Keith, I'll reach out to you here in a bit. But as far as art, I guess I would have to reach out to three different people. But even then, I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about it. I'm not, like, mad about it or irritated about it. Some people, they want to have assets from other King Kong stuff. They want it to look a certain way, and I'm like, you know, this kind of reminds me a little bit of when Godzilla did come out. Now, Godzilla did have the assets from the old Godzilla. I get it. But when we didn't even see the game, no one cared about the theme of Godzilla, it seemed. A lot of them didn't. And when the game came out, what was the big, bitching, nitpicking thing that a lot of people had? Was the art. How Godzilla looked. the whole cucumber thing and i'm sure a lot of you probably forgot about that but art was one of them being sticklers that people had and here we are with the game being in the number one position for what four or five years running so i don't think that it's art that's going to hold a game back from being loved by the people it's not going to be lack of assets that's going to hold this game back because it's their own thing which gives them the the ability to do a lot more and i'm hoping that's what we're going to see is just a lot of cool stuff there was a lot of cool little modes like the the dead eye mode where you're having to plunge the ball and you just get a ball in there you're plunging and going over i liked all that i do see in the future when it comes to the pro versus your premium the mod community is going to have a field day by turning a pro into a premium there's going to be a lot of things that they're going to be able to somewhat replicate but i think the one thing that's going to be that they can't is the train car multi-ball loading sequence i don't see that being replicated i do foresee definitely someone doing the spider someone doing a gong someone doing the ability to have Kong somewhat move around like they did with Jurassic Park Pro There was a mod for that I think that a pro you going to get almost everything that a premium has except for that main ball lock sequence back there for Kong. And when it comes to Kong, I'm liking what I'm seeing with him. A lot of people didn't know this, but it was mentioned on the Loser Kid Pinball podcast Keith mentioned that you know his hands can hit the glass Kong's can so it's not completely coded yet but it sounds like that they may use Kong as like the knocker he already hits the glass for replay but maybe whenever you get a high score maybe he hits the glass eventually in the future it seems like that might be coded I don't know why it wouldn't but I think that's kind of a cool aspect that he's able to hit the glass that's pretty interesting in my opinion something i noticed on the multi-ball sequence whenever the train car gets hit is that and i think this is even on their trailer you only see two balls going down the right orbit and not three and i'm and i saw it every time that the train car got hit by kong one i thought it was really cool that he did his little fist power-up maneuver to hit the train car that was kind of funny and when he does you have two balls that fall down and one ball that seems to fly out every single time i don't know if that's purposeful for a ball to fly out every time if it is it i mean it looks fine because it makes it look more chaotic but that was just something i noticed i mean it's not something that i think was brought up like does that ball supposed to fly out like that or is it all three of them are supposed to drain i'm content with both ways honestly it didn't bother me it made it seemed like more of a you know kind of an explosion type of ordeal so i like that but i did notice that i also noticed that the game looks a little dark on the play field so it won't surprise me that i'll be putting a set of pin lights on this game whenever it gets here so jimmy if you're watching this i'm gonna need a set of those for my king kong so uh i just like my games well lit guys and if anything else that it kind of gives you a better idea what the game is going to look like when it is well lit so there's more content in the future for you right there little heads up on what we got going on now i will say that the le back glass is my favorite and this is not me going oh because he's getting an le like no i mean i looked at the art package and i'm like which back glass do i like best the le and was the same way on dungeons and dragons i didn't even buy the game but damn it the le back glass was my favorite and that's i think the way it should be. I think the LE should be like the pinnacle of just like, man, that's just awesome. Kind of makes you want the limited edition kind of thing. My goodness, I guess I'm getting so excited that my watch thinks I'm doing a workout. It's like, keep up the great work, or maybe I just didn't do a whole lot at work today. One of those two things. But either way, I don't really know what else I'm going to mention about what we saw on the stream. All I'm going to mention is that right now, I'm super excited for what I'm seeing. I'm definitely looking forward to playing it, having it here in the house in the next couple of weeks. That's right, it's going to be no more armchair quarterback stuff, because I'm going to have the game here to play a lot. Be able to see the good, the bad, experience the good and the bad, and see how well the game develops over time with code over a course of a month or two before I move on to another game. Hopefully, that's what the plan is. Alright, I'm going to wrap this up, because I don't think there's anything else that needs to be mentioned. And if there is, like I said, the game will be here before the end of the month. But congratulations to Keith Elwood and team over the launch of this game. I'm happy to see the release go the way it did. You got a stream out very quick for everyone to experience the game. You got it going on to a show this weekend as well. You've got other content creators that are going to be playing it tomorrow. So it's going to be a lot of Kong going on right now.