And can you feel the love tonight? I am number one No matter if you like it or take it sit down and write it I am number one Sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up Wow, we did it. From behind the paywall, Kanata's Pinball Podcast. Thanks to each and every one of you. We have gone six for six in the twippies. Hey, Mark mechanism. I am sitting in the back of this flown fauna blalo debated but I am if that NYC with Cyance Hane. A night just was just a nice, next to the next time you're here in the Hyde Hill space down late and one of the queria to numb the motion – The It's about each and every one of us and how these machines have brought us together From all over the world and I can't believe without any public shows I think we put up like seven shows all year We once again have one for favorite pinball podcast and we almost got number two for favorite pinball streamer We got bumped to number three, but only because of the weighted voting system And you know that system is in place to try to beat Kaneda and it makes everybody in second and third place get closer and closer. But we still are the world's number one and the world's favorite pinball podcast and the numbers don't lie and I love being the people's champion. And here's what we're gonna do, we're gonna talk about what TPF was like, we're gonna talk about these new games because I was there. I love seeing Pinside and everybody who was not at the show is arguing back and forth whether or not games like Galactic Tank Force are any good and I'm going to give you my experiences on each of these games and what the vibe was like around each of these titles at Texas Pinball Festival and then I'm going to give you my concluding thoughts about what I think comes out of the show now because we've got all of these new games, we've got so many pinball machines The question is, what's going to happen next? I'll summarize what I think is going to happen as we head into April. It's going to be four D's, yes the letter D, and the four D's are going to be this. We're going to see deliveries, we're going to see Delays, we're going to see Delight and we're going to see Delusion. And those four things are going to happen. We're going to see Stern get games to people. We're going to see people wait forever for Pulp Fiction. Broadcasting I'm not going to go out and personally give shout outs because there was so many of you, But I do want to say a very happy belated birthday to Ian over in the UK. It was so much fun hanging with you, your beautiful wife and your beautiful son. And there are so many of you out there who came up to me and we had such good conversation and crack as they would say in Ireland. No, not the drug, but crack, which is just a really good time. And that was what the show was all about. And I literally landed in the airport and Derek picked me up in his Porsche GTS electric Yes, Derek, the DTS is nicer than the base level and he drove me right to Perry's and then the happy hour started right away. So my show got off to a bang and that's always the highlight of the show for me is just hanging out with each and every one of you. And I also want to thank Hector for picking up the tab at tight end and introducing me to all these rare bourbons. Thank you, Hector. You are the man. If you don't know who Hector is down in Mexico, I mean this guy is wearing a jumpsuit that should have came with Jersey Jack's Godfather CE. He looked like a mob boss. Hector, I love you brother. It was awesome meeting some of my female friends like Tori and Honey. Such nice people. Everybody is so nice. Now look, I said I'm not going to go down a list because I want to talk about what TPF was like. Let's start with the Twippies. The Twippies were much, much better this year. I know they still have issues with the microphone and where to keep it because when you listen online, it's like they're screaming at us sometimes. But the show itself and being in the show itself in Texas was a blast. They did a much better job. The flow was really great. So Todd and Emoto and Will, thank you for putting on such a great show. I just want to throw someone out there that I think should host it next year. Rebecca from Fliptronic. She did the red carpet. She was freaking amazing and I think she has the perfect energy. And she knows how to like keep the crowd going and drop anecdotal jokes throughout each interview. I think Rebecca at Fliptronic, I think we just found our next Twippy host for 2023. I also feel like I want to open up the podcast category for next year. I've won it six years in a row. I would love to give the award next year. Take Kaneda's podcast out of the running and let's let someone else win the award. I know this is going to upset some of you. We have an entire year to change our mind on this strategy. I know you love seeing me get up there, but maybe we now give someone another crack at it or its best new podcast or some different category, but I would love to get up there next year and have no pressure and just be able to give the award finally. I will also say this Todd Tucky is amazing. So do you know after I won the award when Todd said there is a villain in every great movie, they originally wanted him to say that I was a The pinball podcast that people hated. And he said, I was not gonna say that word. And I want to say, Todd, thank you so much. And it still goes to show you. How can the world's favorite pinball podcast still be labeled as this negative thing? And if you walked around the show with me, you saw nothing but love, nothing but enthusiasm for pinball. And I loved every moment of going around that show because it was nothing but love. It was nothing but good vibes. There was no toxicness at all. And any of the toxic people, and they were there, the people I know who hate me, they were the ones who were turning around and walking right away and they're the ones who are not having fun and we're winning, all of us, the Kineda Army, the Kineda Club, and I want to say this right now, you're no longer an army in my book, you're no longer a club in my book, you are all part of the Kineda family and I love that each and every one of you is here. Now let's talk about the games at TPF. Here's how I'm going to do it, I'm going to go down all of the new games I saw at the show and I'm going to We're going to do them in this order. We're going to talk about Turner Pinball's Ninja Eclipse, and I will end with American Pinball's Galactic Tank Force. How does that sound? Let's get right to it. Alright, soTurner Pinball, this guy Chris Turner, he worked with Deep Root. He brought this new game Ninja Eclipse to the show. The game had no business being there. It wasn't ready to show off. In the company of all of these new games, seeing this game and where it is headed, the only way this Ninja Eclipse game will ever find any customers is if this game is priced between $3, 000 and $4, 000. And that's what it looks like right now. Now, I know it's early on in development, but I just want to say this right now. We don't need another pinball company that has no idea how to manufacture games, and that's why I can't even take these guys seriously. Deep Root did not know how to make any games. Why would this guy know how to do anything on a manufacturing level? And I never would have shown up with a game like this because, again, who cares about Ninja Eclipse when we have all of these amazing other games coming out into the pinball market? Before I move on to Pinball Brothers Queen, the other thing I wanted to say about the show is this. Texas Pinball Festival is amazing. It is so much fun. It is two days nonstop of partying and pinball and people and that's the best way to describe the show. Here's the one thing that's really challenging when it comes to a pinball show like Texas. It is really hard to get immersed into the games. The show itself is so loud, everything is going at the same time. Imagine trying to go to a car show and every car is revving the pinball machine and that is why I think these manufacturers when they're dealing with people like Canada and Kerry Hardy and other content creators they should really invite us to a more But I still did get a great sense for shots and for layouts and for toys and for Magic in these The pinball is a game, so I think I saw enough to make an initial first impression. Alright, so let's go over to Pinball Brothers' Queen Pinball. And I played a few games of Queen Pinball and the game shootss fine. The flippers are a little weak on Queen. I didn't like the flipper feel. The problem with Queen Pinball to me is simply this. The game feels very dated. It feels dated in every way. It just feels dated. You walk up to it and we're used to now seeing, you know, music pins like Foo Fighters and Guns N' Roses. If you own a Multimorphic, I think you're really going to want this game. But again, this is just not enough for me to be writing a check for $11, 700 for the platform. I just don't want to own enough of the portfolio of games of Multimorphic to go in on one. And that's just me personally. And I think still that's how a lot of people feel. And I heard Jerry's also going to announce another game this year for this platform. I'm still really nervous that production for this Multimorphic unit It just isn happening fast enough I don see many people unboxing Weird Al and so as I was playing this game I also just have that in the back of my head These guys can really make these units And so if you order this game when are you going to get it and it falls into that D column of like delays and I think you going to be waiting forever to get your multi morphic And I still think Jerry is missing that triple a theme game like Weird Al was a step in the right direction But I'm also not seeing many people unbox their weird ales. So look, a cool Scott Dinesi game. If you're a Scott Dinesi fan, the question becomes is this, is this game better than TNA, right? And so look, you could probably go get a used TNA for a good $4, 000 to $5, 000 less money than this game itself and then you don't feel the pressure to have to buy the other games for the Multimorphic system. That's the problem with this system. Alright, I know you didn't tune into this to hear my thoughts on Multimorphic and that's why I'm saving the other games and you can see I'm saving the big titles for the end here. The other caveat I want to say about all these games people is the prices in pinball are so high now. Every single game I went up to, I had to think about how much is the price of this game and you can't get around that. When you stand over a godfather, you can't get around the price. You know, I think we're looking at all these games now, like how much do they cost? I mean, talk about the most ridiculous item at the show. There was a Batman SLE at the show for sale for $38, 500 and I walked around the game and it was all beat up and scratched. I mean, the decals were scratched, the backbox was all beat up and you can't replace those decals from Stern Pinball anymore. And so look, I just bought a Batman SLE for $25, 000. There are now only 79 Batman SLEs in the world because nobody's going to want this destroyed one. I felt so bad like seeing a Batman SLE in that condition trying to make that much money. It was like looking at a celebrity that used to be beautiful who's now like a meth head and all washed up living under a bridge. That's what that Batman SLE looked like and I always feel bad when people bring a museum quality game to a show and let people beat on it for like two days. Like some of these games The games should never be on location and Batman SLE is one of those games. Alright, so let's go on to Spooky Pinball and Scooby Doo. Now look, part of me going around a show like Texas is not just the games themselves. It is how did each manufacturer treat me at the show. And I just want to say this, I'm a human being. And so when I walk up to a company and I see their games at the show, It's really interesting to see who says hi to me and who gives me the cold shoulder, who looks the other way. I'm very perceptive. I can see what's happening. I can see who wants to talk to me and who doesn't. You know who was the rudest to me at the entire show? I'm just going to be honest because I went up to him and said, Hey Mike, Mike Vinikour over at Stern Pinball just was so rude to me at the beginning of the twippies and I was so taken aback by how rude he was to me and I don't even know what I did to Mike. I don't even speak about Mike. You should relax buddy because I'm getting people excited about your company far more than any marketing efforts you're doing my friend so chill out bro it's just pinball. My point is the nicest people that I encountered when I walked up to their booth at Texas Pinball Festival was the crew over at Spooky Pinball and you've listened to my show. I've been very candid about this company. I mean I made this company redo their playfields to get rid of hedge multibah. There are reasons why Spooky might love me. There are definitely reasons why Spooky might hate me. But when I walked up to Spooky's booth, I got the nicest greeting from Bug out of any company in the entire industry. And I want to say that goes a long way. I mean you are at a show. Everybody is a potential customer and Kaneda is easy to hate. But also Kaneda has a large following and Kaneda has fans. So why would you treat Kaneda with such anger? Why would you brush Kaneda off if The other thing Bug did that nobody else did, and I mean this, nobody else did this. When I walked up to play Scooby Doo for the first time, Bug walked over and said, hey, can I give you some pointers on how to play the game for the first time? He was the only pinball manufacturer that did that. Everyone else saw me in their area. Everyone else saw me in their section, but he was the only one who said, hey, Chris, let me show you how to jump onto this game for the first time. And it just goes to show you in life people, the details matter. All these little encounters we have with each other, they matter. This is how a brand's reputation is formed. It's not just because you launched a game, it's how you interact with people on a daily basis that really matters. And so I was so appreciative of Bug and him walking me through the game and then I jumped on to Scooby Doo. Now here are my thoughts on Scoobydoo. The game is beautiful. I mean This is absolutely a gorgeous game. They brought six of them to the show. They all sold out. The game itself is absolutely gorgeous. The other part about the game is this. This is going to be a very friendly pinball game. And that's like a Kenaida Nice way of saying this is a pretty easy game to get into and to experience the gameplay because it's not a difficult game. It doesn't drain very often. You're going to be able to hit these shots in a fan layout. It's easy to get the ball to the In the upper playfield, everything about this game is very welcoming to a casual player. And I talked to a lot of people at the show and that element of this game has a lot of people excited because there were a lot of new games at the show that are just really hard, they're really brutal, you're gonna drain all the time, there's air balls all the time. But Scooby Doo is a game that if you walk up to it, you're gonna be able to like experience the game. You're gonna be able to get that ball to different areas of the playfield, you're gonna be able I'm not the best pinball player and so I appreciate the fact that there is something for everybody and Spooky Pinball Scooby Doo is a game that more casual people and families will absolutely enjoy. And we can't look at every pinball machine like it needs to be for everybody and that's the other thing I loved about all of these games. There's basically something for everyone at every skill level. And there's something for everyone with all of these different themes out there with all of these new releases. The other thing I noticed about Scooby-Doo was the flipper feel. And the flipper feel was great. Like these were some of the strongest flippers at the entire show which made shooting the game so much fun. And I also really enjoyed the upper playfield. I know some people have been complaining about it being too slow. I don't agree with that. I like the fact that when you shoot the ball up the middle, you have to hold the left flipper to open up the bookcase to keep the ball in play in the upper playfield. I like how many shots are on that upper playfield. It's not just like a loop around a spinner over and over again. There's a lot you can do up there. You know, and also talking to the Spooky Crew, they said like this game's got a lot of challenging elements in the code itself. Even if the shots themselves are not the most difficult, it is going to be difficult to get through some of the modes because of how deep the modes are. And that's what I think pinball should be. I don't like it when games are frustrating because the design is always trying to punish me. You can punish me enough by making me have to hit a sequence of shots in a row. Like, it's hard enough to do that. But to have to do that and the game is also always sending balls right down the middle or cheap outlane drains like Willy Wonka, like, I don't like that stuff. I don't like when a game's layout is designed to punish me. I like when a game's code is difficult, but it's fun to try to get through the code. So look, Spooky Pinball, this is your best game to date. It looks gorgeous. You're going to sell everyone. And again, thank you for being such nice people. It goes a really long way. They even gave me a free sweatshirt and t-shirt. I didn't even ask for it, and it looks great. But as I said to them, you can't buy Canadian loyalty. I will still be candid. If these guys mess something up, I'll be the first one to call them out on that. Alright, Stern Pinball's Foo Fighters! There were a lot of FooFighter machines at the show. I also want to say Jack Danger was super nice to me. Jack is a great guy. I always like hanging out with Jack. He's taller than me, he has a cooler jacket than me, he's more handsome than I am. Everything about Jack Danger. It makes Kaneda look like a hobbit next to Jack Danger, but I'm super excited to see Jack Danger and his FooFighter game. I got to play it a few times and here's my take on the FooFighters. Again, you gotta remember, you can't really hear much at the show. So like getting into the animations and the callouts and the music was not possible at TPF. But my take on Foo Fighters, it's a beautiful machine. The only thing is this, we've now had so many beautiful machines from Zombietti. Look and great art is great art and this is great art. It just doesn't wow as much anymore simply because we've had so many of his art packages on Stern machines. And that's interesting, right? We start to get used to stuff that's really, really nice. And then the question becomes how do you take stuff to the next level? And so when you stand over Foo Fighters, the thing I love about the game is it's very unique. I love the layout of this game. It doesn't feel like any other Stern machine I've ever shot before. Absolutely unique layout. It doesn't shoot anything like Godzilla. It's a very fresh design for a Stern game and I absolutely enjoyed shooting it. But I do have a caveat on the game itself. Are you ready for it? When I was standing over the premium and they had a premium there, they didn't have an LE. When I was standing over that game and I was looking at what was in it from a mechanical standpoint, I couldn't help but feel like we are really getting ripped off by Stern Pinball. There's just not a lot in the game from a mechanical standpoint. And for an Ellie of this machine to be $13, 000, no thank you. I just can't see the value at all in them charging that much for what's in this game. Don't get me wrong, the game shoots great, the game looks great, the animations are amazing, but from a pure mechanical standpoint, there's really nothing on a toy level or a mechanical level that is going to wow you. You're going to hear my conclusion on the entire show and this is going to be a theme, but for this much money, right, for spending $10, 000 on a premium or $13, 000 on an Ellie of Foo Fighters, I really want there to be something that wows me, That goes beyond artwork. That goes beyond the animations on the screen. And I think every pinball machine that is at least $10, 000 or more should have a mechanical thing in it that creates a pinball moment that makes you say, wow, I just don't think Foo Fighters has that. I think it's got the gameplay. It's got the flow and it falls into that new narrative that these distributors want you to believe that shots are the new toys in pinball. I don't believe that. It doesn't cost money to make good shots. It costs money to engineer toys in a game. And so I did leave this game feeling a little bit like I wish it had something like the toy box in Aerosmith. You know something like the bell and the cannon in ACDC. Something like the disappearing hammer in like Metallica. It just doesn't have that mechanical thing that's gonna wow you. Alright, let's move on to Jersey Jack Pinball's The Godfather. Now look, Jersey Jack had a huge spread at TPF. Right when you walked in, they were right there. And they had a lot of godfathers, they had a couple CEs there, they had Dialed In, they had Hobbit, I don't know if they had a Wizard of Oz, they might have. There was no Pirates of the Caribbean there, but it was all about the godfather. Now I want to give you my first impression of Godfather Pinball. And I'm going to be honest, I'm going to be completely candid here. I didn't get the warmest reception from Jersey Jack Pinball. Jack was Jack's very nice. Jack shook my hand. Jack came over to me. Jack is always a gentleman. Although Jack did grab my Kaneda hat off my head without my permission and then signed it with his name. I did not like that. I did not appreciate that. I don't think you do that. I don't think you take someone's article of clothing off of them and then sign it with your marker. No, no. I work too hard for my stuff. I don't want to have Jersey Jack's signature on my Kaneda hat So I went quickly upstairs and removed it from my hat I did I did not get a warm reception from Ken I saw him there You get the shoulder shrug and the head nods that I there you know but nothing No one came over Eric said hi but that about it No one really wanted to talk to me at Jersey Jack Pinball and I could understand why And so look I went up to the game and I want to say this The CE of this game is absolutely beautiful It is a gorgeous cabinet It is bright It is bold It is gorgeous I mean there no doubt about it Like this thing stands out from an artistic The game is a very ornate, beautiful game. I stood over the Godfather and played a couple games. Now, remember, trying to get into a deep ruleset game at Texas Pinball Festival where you cannot hear almost anything is not the best experience. But I'm going to say this right now. When you just stare down at the Godfather, it looks like the most barren Jersey Jack game to date. It just does. Like they had a dialed in there and I walked back and forth between dialed in and this and it was like oh my gosh if this thing is twelve or fifteen thousand dollars then dialed in should be thirty thousand dollars and that's how I felt. It almost takes a while to get used to standing over a Jersey Jack game that is pretty wide open like the Godfather and doesn't have many toys or major mechs in the game because we're so used to Jersey Jack games just being loaded. Having a lot more stuff near the flippers having a lot more mechanisms in the game and when you stand over this game it kind of felt like their version of Black Knight. I was like wow this is pretty wide open and pretty empty feeling for a game that cost this much money. And yes is it Jersey Jack's best flipper feel to date? It absolutely is. Does it have much better flow than Guns N' Roses? Absolutely it does. But I can't escape how empty the game really feels. And also the major toy in the game, right? The guy up the center with the spinning disc. That doesn't create any wow in pinball. It doesn't give you the wow. And I was at Texas Pinball Festival when they unveiled Pirates of the Caribbean and we saw that upper playfield rocking ship and the cannon shot and the whirlpool ramp and the three spinning discs. And I remember what it was like when Jersey Jack would unveil a game and there was so much physically and mechanical in it that would wow us as a pinball fan. You play Godfather, it's just not there mechanically. And that's why you're hearing the narrative like shots are the new toys because that's all it's really got is a bunch of shots that divert in a bunch of different directions, but it just doesn't have a wow toy. And I think even though the game's fun to shoot, I think everyone's takeaway on Godfather is going to be simply this. The game is extremely overpriced. And I think everyone is feeling that way about these JJP machines. It doesn't look like a $12, 000 game. It doesn't look like a $15, 000 game. And it's because of what's on the playfield. People are not going to go in because of radcals and toppers. They need to see the mechanical wow in a game if they're going to write a check for $16, 500. The other thing is I think everyone now realizes if you go in on these games early on, you're going to lose so much money. So if you're curious about Godfather, you're just going to wait and pick up a used one. And that's where it's at with Jersey Jack Pinball. And I gotta be honest, I feel like the vibe around JJP these days after Toy Story and now Godfather, I don't think anyone's really excited what this company is delivering at these prices. If Godfather LE was $9, 500, I think the enthusiasm for this game would be so much greater. But at $12, 000, I'm just not feeling it. And I'm definitely not feeling a thousand CEs at $15, 000. And I think their marketing department is letting down their designers because if all these games now are going to be this moving forward, I think the enthusiasm around Jersey Jack Pinball isn't there right now. And I heard more rumors that Steve Richie's game is Elton John and if you go from Toy Story 4 to Godfather to Elton John, I'm not sure that's going to be a winning formula. Now we did hear from Eric that he is going to add more length to the Godfather clips from the movie. That is good news. Because that's the other thing, ladies and gentlemen, I'm just gonna be honest. When I walked up to Godfather CE and I saw that topper, it's a cool topper if the game was Kingpin or like Dick Tracy, it just doesn't fit this theme at all. And so a lot of what I saw at TPF just reinforced my feelings on The Godfather that it's just not The Godfather. It's a mafia game in which they've licensed The Godfather for the artwork and for some clips through the cutscenes, and they're using the characters from the movie in the game itself, but the actual game is not like playing The Godfather movie at all. And that's the direction they went in, and for some of you that's good enough, but I just think theme integration matters a lot in pinball, I think it's one of the weirdest theme integrated pinball machines of all time. And that's it. It's an easy pass for me. I never liked this theme to begin with and I think the way they executed it is kind of strange. Alright, now speaking of a game we thought was going to be executed in a strange way but actually ended up being one of the biggest hits at Texas Pinball Festival, maybe the biggest hit of the show itself was Pulp Fiction, right? C Barṛṣpulpfiction game with no ramps and no LCD screen, how could it be a hit in a modern pinball setting which all of these companies are giving us LCDs and full RGB controlled lights and all of these ramps and all these wire forms and all this stuff and then Pulp Fiction comes out of left field and becomes the hottest pinball machine right now in 2023. Now here's the thing about CGC's Pulp Fiction. They had four of them there. I got to speak to Ryan White. Ryan was really nice. You know, Ryan's like an interesting character. Like, that's all I'm gonna say. Like, I asked him about Chicago Gaminging Company and Cactus Canyons and, you know, he talks to you in these like weirdly hyperbolic and dramatic ways and I'm not even sure after having a conversation with Ryan White if I even learned anything new. They will be making the Cactus Canyon games and Pulp Fiction, he said, would be on the line in Q3 2020. As I said with the 4Ds, this is not going to be one where delivery happens anytime soon. You're gonna see a lot of delay between now and when the game is made. But here's the thing about Pulp Fiction. When you walk up to this game, this was the most visually stunning game at the show. This was the most visually arresting and impressive game at the show. When you walk up to it, this game is just a work of art. It is absolutely gorgeous. It's gorgeous. It's gorgeous in its simplicity of execution. It screams Pulp Fiction through and through. It looks like a game that came out years ago. It looks timeless. And I think that's the thing about this machine that is winning so many people over. It's like a modern timeless classic game. We have never had a Pulp Fiction pinball machine. We've never had a Quentin Tarantino machine. It just works so well. And then you've got that classic silk screened playfield where the colors on silk screened playfields, there's not as many of them that's on like a digital playfield like Foo Fighters, but the colors on this machine just pop. They just pop so well. And that is why Pulp Fiction LE is going to be the hottest game of the year. Hands down, everyone is a collector, anyone who wants something special, this is gonna be the game you're gonna want in your house because it's just a freakin' pinball work of art. And theme matters, people, and my gosh, did they nail the theme on this game. When you go up to this machine and you start playing it and you hear the gunfire pop bumper sounds go off and you get into a mode and the song starts playing, this game is an absolute blast to play. And I played about five games on Pulp Fiction. It's a fun game to shoot. The ball times are kinda long, like you can stay on this game for a while. It's a slower game. It doesn't play as fast as a modern machine. But it just breaks up the monotony of what every other game is trying to do. And I absolutely love this game. I went up to Marc Ritchie, I shook his hand, I said, congratulations Marc, I think you really nailed it on Pulp Fiction. And you know what he said to me? He said, Chris, thank you. That means a lot, especially coming from you. Thank you Mark for the kind comment. And that's it with this game. I mean now it's just going to come down to when can they make these games. And Ryan said Q3 so that's the fall so there's going to be a long wait for this game but I think this is going to be the hottest game of the year. And the other reason why this is the hottest game of the year, it's not just because it's Pulp Fiction, it's not just because it's awesomely cool, it's not just because of the call outs or the music by David Thiel. The reason why people are walking up to Pulp Fiction and The game is less than $10, 000. Chicago Gaminging isn't trying to rip us off. They're not trying to do any shenanigans with the pricing. And they got everything you'd want in this game. Everything you want is going to be in this game. And so you're going to see and you're going to hear this from a lot of people. This was the game at the show that had the longest lines. most people wanted to hop on. Now albeit there's a caveat. There was only four of them there. So of course the lines are going to be longer for a game with only four versus like Godfather where they had like 10 or Foo Fighters where there was like 20. But there was just a level of buzz and excitement that I did not see at any other booth in the show. Beautiful game. I can't wait to each and every one of you get to stand in front of one. All right, let's end this show with Galactic Tank Force. One of the weirdest launches in pinball history. It doesn't even feel like the game launched yet. I really mean it. There's still not today. There is still not a great gameplay video of this game available for people to look at. And that is why LEs are still for sale. And that is why when I read pin side, there's still a lot of confusion about this game. And I want to give you my impressions on this game. I played this game more than I played any other game because I was very curious about this game. And this game to me was one of those games where like it's an original IP. It's a Galactic Tank Force DennisNordman game. What would it feel like to play this game? Was this game gonna wow us? What was it gonna be like to see that tank in person? Just what the heck is this game all about, right? Because it's really hard to get your head around a game that's like tanks battling in space, but then there's cows and then there's ice cream and you're collecting cow farts in a mode. I don't exactly know what's going on with all of this game. And then we saw the video clips of like the actors and everyone was complaining about that. And the launch video for the game was terrible. And then you know Franchi's releasing these 1950 error like ads to promote the game. Like we want you in the Galactic Tank Force. You got the Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post stuff. And so you're confused like is this a 1950s game? Is it a sci-fi campy movie from that period? And then you turn the game on for the first time and it's playing dubstep music which is weird if it's a 1950s sci-fi game. And then you look at the screen and then the animations don't match that. And then you look down at the playfield and there's a big tank in the middle and all of it, like all of it, it's all over the place this game. And it's even hard for me after playing this game all weekend, it's really hard for me to tell you I even know what I experienced. But let me do my best to try to get my arms around this game and break it down for you. First let start with the cabinet because here the truth about this game and I talked to a lot of people who are in the industry Dennis Norman has been trying to make this game for over 10 years He had this tank cabinet idea for over a decade It been in people garages and barns for over 10 years and when I went to the seminar they spent so much time talking about this damn tank cabinet that all of a sudden it clicked for me Like this is just like Dennis Norman dream to make a pinball machine where the The cabinet is a tank and that is the genesis for this entire game. And now it all makes sense. It's like they really built this game from the outside in. Now I believe a pinball machine should be built from the inside out. You should start with what's on the playfield and before that you should start with the theme. And that's how great pinball machine comes about. Here is the theme and then we're going to make what's on the playfield, integrate that theme in the best possible way and then we will make the I think this game does the complete opposite. Let's make a crazy cabinet that people wanna walk up to that's like a tank and then the game itself, well we'll just figure that out as we go. And that is the ultimate way I feel about this game. It feels like a mixture of all these weird different schizophrenic ideas where they were just trying to figure out what to put into this freakin' tank cabinet and none of it is cohesive at all. None of it. It's like this absolute schizophrenic game that has absolutely no creative direction whatsoever. And that is why after playing it, and I'm going to give you my gameplay thoughts, after playing it, I still feel confused about what they're trying to achieve in this game. And let me break it down like this. So you walk up to this game, you walk up to this game, it's a tank, alright, it's called Galactic Tank Force. The game starts with a game. When you hit start in this game, guess what it doesn't tell you? It doesn't tell you anything about what you're doing in the game when the game starts. Who am I as the player? I don't know. Where am I right now in this universe? Am I in a tank? Am I on Mars? Am I in outer space? There's zero introduction to the player about what you're doing in this game. The moment you start the game, the dubstep music starts playing. They really need to go back and figure out how to get that into the code of the machine. Because I don't even know what I'm doing. Why am I shooting this tank up the middle? What is the point of any of this? And it's all so weird. See, you don't need to do that with a license theme people know about. Because if you walk up to Lord of the Rings, or you walk up to Pulp Fiction, Or you walk up even to the Godfather, you have some sense about what this story is about, who these characters are, what happens in the storyline of that movie or TV show. But when you walk up to Galactic Tank Force, I have no idea what the heck is going on, who I am, what I'm supposed to be doing, what is the significance of any of this. And here's what I think happened and I'm just gonna say this. I think there was a lot of division internally at American Pinball what this game was gonna be. I think Christopher Franchi wanted this game to be a 1950s campy sci-fi kind of game. His artwork reflects that. All of his marketing materials reflect that. But the game is not that. So I don't think his artwork actually matches what's happening in the game itself. And think about it. So the artist's style is not represented in the music or in the video clips or animations of the game itself. So there's a disconnect there. And then you've got Galactic Tank Force. You got this weird like outer space tank battle going on and we've all seen sci-fi movies and you know sci-fi music has a very unique sound to it. And then this dubstep music comes in which totally disconnects you from like the world of outer space and then it starts to make no sense. It sounds more like Dance Dance Revolution than it does like an intergalactic tank battle. The whole thing is just a mashup of ideas, and I'm still not sure. I mean this. I'm still not sure if it works. I will tell you this. The tank cabinet is pretty neat to walk up on it, but once you fold back the backbox, it's absolutely pointless. Like it's absolutely pointless to have that L-E or signature edition of the game, and don't get me started on the 17-5 for the signature edition, Which is a total joke because I had a friend who bought one at the show for like $15, 500 so you can already save $2000 and this whole call for price BS, you know how I feel about that. But that novelty of the tank cabinet is absolutely gonna wear off and if you put this game in a lineup of games it's absolutely pointless. I think the way to go if you want to get one of these games, I would just get the deluxe edition because it has every single thing you need in the game. Let's talk about the gameplay. Like I actually enjoyed shooting this game but there's no way around the simple fact. This game is just airball after airball after airball. And if you shoot up the middle frequently, which you do in this game, you're gonna get a ton of airballs. And I don't mean just little airballs. I mean the ball was flying over the flippers, people! Direct hit up the middle was flying over the flippers. It would also fly over that post that pops up to save from a straight down the middle drain. That post wasn't even tall enough to stop the airballs from flying over it. I have never played a game with as many air balls as this game has. Now look, you can't fix air balls with code. Now that's a problem for them because you can't fix air balls with code. This is a really bad design decision. That tank and those targets should have been much further up the playfield the way they are on Attack from Mars. And I don't know why they designed it this way. And when I look down at the playfield, I mean, my gosh, there were so many dimples on the playfield because of that. Something similar? Right of the tank you've got this moving target back and forth that's got like the UFO with the cow hanging from it. Alright you got that. But here's my thing, I'm just gonna say this right now. There are no toys in this game that really wowed me whatsoever. And that is why I walked away from Galactic Tank Force really disappointed. Cause I'm like where are the toys? Where are the toys in this game? I like the artwork, I like the lighting, I like the colors. I didn't have a problem with those like floating pin stadium lights. The game is beautiful and stunning when you're standing over it, but I just didn't see any mechanical wow whatsoever in this game. The tank doesn't fire balls back at you. You know that was the original design. Instead of those targets being stand-up targets, they were supposed to be drop targets, and then it was like a scoop that fired the ball back. The problem was the ball was firing straight down the middle, so they made it the way it is with the magnet in front of the tank. The game is a fun game to shoot, it's not bad, but I think the reason why you want I'm not saying that you should play the game, but I'm saying that if you want to play Galactic Tank Force, you're just curious about what the heck is going on. It really is a game that makes you want to play it over and over again because of the curiosity around it, not because you're loving it, you're just curious what the heck is happening in this game. And as far as those video clips go that we all hated during the trailer, they're not really used that often. I will say when they do pop up on the screen they look really good. The LCD screen on this game looks amazing. But again, I have no idea why any of it's happening. The game is such a mashup mess of ideas. And I think this game is going to develop a little bit of a cult following. And there's going to be some people that immediately praise this game. Like I'm not going to name names, but someone told me this is a Nordman classic already. No, it's not. It is not a Nordman classic already. I think this is Nordman's dream of a tank themed game. He got AP to make it for him. And there's probably a reason why nobody else would make YOU MUST REMEMBER THAT, RIGHT?! IT'S LIKE…AMERICAN PINBALL NEEDED A HI surprise Show! Never!!! You To Have Your In-P twisting Knapp Camera task temas This is a new version of the pinball show. I'm not going to say that it's a bad thing. I'm just going to say that it's a weird thing. And I think some people will accept this weirdness. But I think many of you out there will be confused by it. And I think this was a really strange game for American Pinball to go all in on with Dennis Norman. And I think this is going to be a really strange game for American Pinball. I don't think it's going to have the sales success they think because I think the tank is going to get old and is a novelty you don't need. I think people will enjoy playing the deluxe version for like $8, 000. And if they actually offer the standard version of this game, I think that would be the best selling version of the game. Because you don't need any of the other stuff. You just want to see what is all this weird stuff happening. And that's my take on Galactic Tank Force. Now look, this has been a long show. Let me conclude this show by saying the following. I played every single new game. Pinball is the most expensive it's ever been. And I mean it when I say it. You're gonna have to play all of these games. None of these games, I mean it when I say it, none of these games have anything in them where the ball does something magical. And I want to end this show with that point. For this much money and pinball being the most expensive it's ever been, I really was somewhat disappointed that the entire industry, every single company combined, nobody engineered a single mech that is a wow mechanism. So you can have seven or eight new games, but nothing in them is really magical. Nothing from a mechanical standpoint is going to create a pinball moment that is unforgettable. And that is why even after playing all of these games, I am very happy to not buy any of them. The one game I am going to get is Pulp Fiction LE because it's just such a cool work of art and I love that movie. But from a pinball standpoint, I am still very disappointed by what's going into these games mechanically. It's a lot of money, people. There's a lot of talent. We know they can do it. We've seen them do it before. I just wish what we were getting in these games was as impressive as the prices themselves. And that is why I have so much fun with each and every one of you. And the community to me has more value than these games right now. I'm happy to play older games. I'm happy to buy used games that are great, that are masterpieces. I think almost all new in box pinball is overpriced and I think a lot of you feel that way and I think we're going to get our pinball kicks together with each other and I think a lot of us are going to be keeping our money in our wallets until these companies get back to engineering something in a pinball machine that is a wow moment. Everybody thank you so much for your hospitality down in Texas. I love each and every one of you for supporting this show. Thank you. We'll talk to you soon.