Episode 647: "Kaneda, The Unkind"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·23m 52s·analyzed·Feb 8, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Kaneda defends critical stance on manufacturers, discusses Rush/Legends/Halloween/GnR gameplay.

Summary

Kaneda reflects on recent gameplay experiences with Rush, Legends of Valhalla, Halloween, and Guns N' Roses, offering critical assessments of each. He addresses criticism from Damien (Haggis Pinball) for being "unkind," defending his role as accountability-keeper for manufacturers who miss production deadlines and fail to communicate with customers. He argues that holding companies to their promises is essential community service, not personal cruelty.

Key Claims

Rush Pinball is a solid game for Rush fans but won't revolutionize Stern's lineup and lacks broad appeal
high confidence · Kaneda, based on hands-on gameplay at Jack Bar
Legends of Valhalla's apron text is unreadable with gold lettering on black background when lit, making it impossible to read in-game instructions
high confidence · Kaneda, direct observation during gameplay
Halloween (Spooky) lacks polish, needs significant code work, has sterile feel with long periods lacking callouts or engagement
high confidence · Kaneda, comparative gameplay experience (played after Godzilla)
Jersey Jack Pinball's core problem is weak flipper feel/coil power, not game design; they require aftermarket PinMonk cooling fans
high confidence · Kaneda, direct observation; confirmed by location operator John at Jack Bar
Haggis Pinball promised production would start in January but provided no update when deadline passed
high confidence · Kaneda, referencing Damien's public communications
Spooky Pinball's upper playfield designs lack thematic integration; they slap artwork on arbitrary layouts rather than creating immersive space transitions
high confidence · Kaneda, design critique using John Wick/Halloween as examples, comparing favorably to Lebowski/Pirates/Family Guy

Notable Quotes

“I think Rush is going to be a game that if you're a Rush fan, you will enjoy. But for everybody else, I don't think you're going to make room for this game if you're not a diehard Rush fan.”
Kaneda @ ~10:30 — Core assessment of Rush's market appeal and design intent
“I feel like Legends of Valhalla is a $6,500 pin. I just can't see anywhere close to $8,700 for this machine.”
Kaneda @ ~12:00 — Direct pricing criticism of American Pinball's Legends of Valhalla
“There's no real satisfaction in hitting those three shots on the left like the hedges. No satisfaction in that whatsoever.”
Kaneda @ ~17:30 — Specific gameplay criticism of Halloween shot geometry
“Jersey Jack Pinball just feels soft. Like the flippers feel weak. It almost feels like you're willing the ball up the playfield versus the flipper snapping the ball up the playfield.”
Kaneda @ ~27:00 — Articulates the persistent weakness across JJP's entire lineup
“I don't want to have to add this stuff after the fact. Why isn't Jersey Jack measuring the heat from the coils? Why aren't they doing this stuff?”
Kaneda @ ~29:15 — Questions why JJP isn't solving flipper issues in factory, not post-sale
“At the end of January, there should have been an update. There should have been some communication from the company and there wasn't.”
Kaneda @ ~39:00 — Core grievance against Haggis Pinball's communication failure
“I don't care if you don't come on my show. Just get the customers the games they pay for and that's the only thing you owe.”
Kaneda @ ~44:15 — Clarifies that his criticism is fundamentally about consumer accountability, not personal vendetta
“Somebody has to keep these companies accountable and I don't care if nobody will break bread with me.”
Kaneda — Asserts his role in the community despite manufacturer alienation

Entities

KanedapersonDamienpersonJohn BorgpersonStern PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyAmerican Pinballcompany Haggis Pinballcompany

Signals

?
product_concern: Legends of Valhalla apron text unreadable when lit; gold lettering on black background makes in-game instructions illegible
high · Kaneda: 'They need to realize you can't read the apron card at all... you can't read a single word of it when it's turned on'
?
product_concern: Jersey Jack Pinball machines have chronically weak flipper feel; coils overheat on location preventing power adjustments
high · Kaneda and location operator John confirm coils get too hot; requires aftermarket PinMonk fans to manage heat
~
sentiment_shift: Haggis Pinball's credibility damaged by missed January production promise without communication; community now questioning viability
high · Kaneda: 'At the end of January, there should have been an update... there wasn't' and 'I still have a question mark about the long term viability'
?
product_concern: Halloween (Spooky) lacks polish; long periods with no callouts or engagement; code needs significant work
high · Kaneda: 'The code needs so much work... you can literally go like it seems like a few minutes where there's no callouts'
?
design_philosophy: Spooky's upper playfield designs are thematically disconnected; artwork applied to generic layouts rather than creating immersive space transitions
high · Kaneda: 'They just made a design and then just slapped these themes over it... you just hit like a drop target or a spinner'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.072

0:00

Welcome to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. I'm your host Kaneda. Everybody, I tried to get Damien on the show. I offered him a chance to come on Kaneda's Pinball Podcast and he rejected the offer with one word. He said Kaneda is unkind. He's not wrong. Kaneda has not been very kind to Haggis Pinball lately. I want to talk about that whether I think it's more important to keep these companies honest, to keep them delivering what they promise the customers or should I be kinder and should I cheerlead every single pinball manufacturers efforts? Should I have more empathy for the companies or should I stand up more for the consumers? I think you know where I'm going to go with this one. I've also played Rush Pinball. I went to Jack Bar. I played Rush Pinball. I played more Halloween. I played Legends of Valhalla and I played Guns and Roses with weak flippers. We're going to talk about my thoughts on Rush Pinball, but let's get right to it. Let's get right to it. Let's start with Rush. Let's end with my feelings about being called unkind. So Rush Pinball by Mr. John Borg, Stern Pinball's latest machine. What did I think of it? Well, I'm going to say it right now. I think it shootss really good. It's a Stern machine. It feels like a Stern machine. It looks almost as good as other Stern machines. And it's a game where I feel like if you are a Rush fan, you're really going to have a good time with this machine because it just oozes Rush. What's your 굿戰? I thought that was very satisfying and I had a good time playing the machine. I was impressed by what's in the pro version of this game. I really don't think you get that much more with the premium and the LE. I don't. I think people who buy the pro of this game are going to have probably just as much fun as the people who buy the upgraded versions. I think that ramp that goes up into the time machine isn't really going to add anything to the game. I really don't. I'm not the biggest fan of the three pop bumpers that are on the left side. When you go around the right orbit, you always end up sort of landing on those pops. It feels a little bit like Iron Maiden, but for the most part, what I liked about the game was the game sounded great. I mean, the music in this game was phenomenal. The screen and the LCD implementation of Rush up there was great. It does feel a little bit like they were trying to do what Guns N' Roses is doing. I almost wanted the screen to be bigger, right? Because I'm so used to seeing Guns N' Roses on the big 27 inch screen and it fills the entire screen with the band performance. This one, you know, it's like you want more. You just want more of it. You got all this great concert footage and it does feel a little bit small. There's a lot going on on the screen. Again, I didn't play this game that much, but for my first time playing Rush and not really knowing what to do in the game, I think the game plays fine. I think it plays fine. This is not going to be a Stern machine that a year from now we're mesmerized by anything in it. I think this is going to be a game that if you're a Rush fan, you will enjoy. But for everybody else, I don't think you're going to make room for this game if you're not a diehard Rush fan. And I think that's what they were going for. Like, let's make the Rush fans happy. Let's put all the effort into the integration. But from a pinball standpoint, I just don't think this does something revolutionary, right, in the world of Stern Pinball. Z пере dados Mysom Até Tell мог B vidéo Page Builder Kubzięki Get cuid Kyle.outhby francastext awakenظigns deliberate b If you're playing Pinball konkrastivál favorites, The game is standing still and it's turned off. When you are playing a game, it's all about the shot geometry and the gameplay. Now that being said, a game can have both. Like at these prices, games should have both. They should have stellar artwork and stellar gameplay and even stellar theme integration. So more to come on Rush. I hope to play the game more in the near future. Then I went over to Legends of Valhalla, played some games of Legends of Valhalla. Again, you know, it's an okay game. There's nothing in Legends of Valhalla that blows me away, but it's fun. I'm a fan. I mean, you know, again, I feel like Legends of Valhalla is a $6,500 pin. I just can't see anywhere close to $8,700 for this machine. The other parts about Legends of Valhalla that just annoyed me this time, the apron. They need to realize you can't read the apron card at all. And these details matter to me. So when they made this apron and they print it like gold lettering on a black apron and you can't read a single word of it when it's Faith Trenology Translak Siyamens ID Welcome to a game the apron tells you on the rule card what to do in the game So why would you make a game where you can read what to do in the game It's really embarrassing and they need to fix it the other part I would change on legends of a hollow which again I think it's just a tack on thing that doesn't really do anything and it actually detracts from gameplay I never like it when you hide the pathway of the ball like жизN być mooi, and podbisn顠 nhi PUBG Uninvited�� beyonc을 perceivedVer benutu apare hanger on map'thrac' Thank You For Putting 20 레เช Darth🤗† rite через plausibility, Shan SNB 13 Fart completen 5 Packs, Stationeryㅠㅠ I Produce kardeş抄N Introduction Packs LeBleu sponsored by phase Consortin or gift吗 forè tag bie Thank you for your interest. employees will receive freeowriting programs with their purchaseware. To all the people who are watching Channel diplomatic to the people who are listening to channelagem to feel not aloud of opening the Nacho I've been ragging on Bug and Luke a little bit that they need to get better designers over at Spooky Pinball. And so I played Halloween. I played it a lot. And I wanted to sort of see like, is this game getting unfairly sort of lambasted by the community? And I walked away from Halloween just feeling sort of the same way I did going into it. That it's a game that just lacks a lot of polish. The code needs so much work. Like you're playing a game. And you can literally go like it seems like a few minutes where there's no call outs like there's nothing really pulling you through each of these modes and each of these journeys in the game and it just feels like a little sterile like I guess maybe if you're in a dark basement and you've got the Halloween music cranked up that's meant to creep you out but for the most part as a player when you go from a game like Godzilla which I did I went from Godzilla to Halloween and there could be no more drastic example of one game that just comes to life with all this personality and you've got all these call outs and it's talking to you and you're in it like you're in the Godzilla world and it's so much fun and then you go over to like halloween and it's a little bit of a snooze fest like it just doesn't pull you in in the same way whatsoever i know there's more code to come and the other part is just the shot geometry in halloween like there's nothing you're really going to be able to do to make the shot geometry better and my takeaway this time was this Most of the shots are right up the middle and those ramps are the easiest ramps to hit in the history of pinball. There's no real satisfaction in hitting those three shots on the left like the hedges. No satisfaction in that whatsoever. And then most of this is getting the ball to the upper playfields and it's fine. Like when you're up there, it's okay. But nothing you're doing in those upper playfields is really that satisfying. You're just hitting like a drop target or a spinner. Out Chuck Stenwell, Spooky Mani J extremorge It's like they just made a design and then just slapped these themes over it and it doesn't work for me. It really doesn't work. And what's crazy to me is I think about these games were designed to be John Wick and I still don't understand that. Like why would these upper playfields be the continental? I think that's what they said they were supposed to be. It's like going into the continental but that makes no sense. If you were making a John Wick pinball machine and you wanted to give the player the feeling of going into the continental, Then you would make the front of that Continental Hotel and like the doors would be like something that opens up and you go into the Continental. The Continental is like that iconic hotel front that's actually, I think it's a steakhouse in New York City. That is what you need to create, not just make arbitrary upper playfields and just slap artwork on top of them and say, oh, now you're there. Because a pinball machine should teleport you to something you physically feel like you're going to. and I think Lebowski does it so well Pirates of the Caribbean did it so well Family Guy did it so well with the upper playfield as the miniature pinball machine like Stewie pinball machine but these games just don do that And so I walked away from Halloween feeling like not only is the code problematic but the layout It just nothing really special And I think that going to be the primary takeaway from these games is just the design is not there the code is not there You know overall I just think these games aren delivering what they need to deliver and I not sure they could course correct these games Okay And then I played Guns and Roses at Jack Bar and for some reason just getting the flipper power to be strong enough just doesn't work on location. John said the coils get hot so quickly that if he cranks them up, you're only going to get a few games before they lose all of their power. I've said this before, everyone has been saying this. Jersey Jack Pinball needs to have a meeting to figure out how to get their flippers to feel better. It might be a software issue. It might be a hardware issue. Whatever it is, these flippers just don't feel as good as stern or spooky machines. They don't. They don't sort of have that power. They don't have that snappiness. And it always comes back to haunt them when people talk about gameplay because I think people unfairly, they unfairly say like the designs at JJP are not good. The gameplay is not good. No, the number one problem with every Jersey Jack game is the way they feel. And I think they need to do some research and work in this area. If I walk into a conference room at Jersey Jack Pinball and I say, what are the problems we need to solve? Like what is the criticisms we're hearing? Well, there's the playfield quality issues, but the second thing you will hear over and over and over again is Jersey Jack machines just feel soft. Like the flippers feel weak. It almost feels like you're willing the ball up the playfield versus the flipper snapping the ball up the playfield. It's so much more fun to shoot a stern machine because of the flipper feel. And I think Jersey Jack can solve this problem. But again, it just always feels like a company that can never address these kinds of issues. It's like game after game after game. The feedback is always the same weak flippers and bad quality playfields. If they can nail those two things, if they can improve those two things, this company is going to get a lot more people excited about these games. And I don't know what the issue is. Like I don't make flippers. I don't make coils. I don't think we should have to be spending $11,000 and then installing like pin monks fans into the games. Like you should not have to do that. Like put like an intercooler or a radiator in a pinball machine. These companies should be figuring this stuff out in the factory. I mean, those fans are necessary. If you have a Guns N' Roses, you need to buy the PinMonk fan system. But why isn't Jersey Jack measuring the heat from the coils? Why aren't they doing this stuff? I don't want to have to add this stuff after the fact. Alright, so Haggis called me unkind. And Damian's not wrong. I have not been kind to Haggis Pinball. I have not been kind to Jersey Jack Pinball with their playfield issues. I have not been kind to Spooky Pinball with these latest two games. And I was thinking a lot about this, like, should I have been nicer? Should I have been softer? Should I have been more empathetic with what they're going through considering there's COVID, considering he's a family man, considering they're getting Kelts out the doors? And everyone's telling me like the way they built Kelts, Kelts is built like a Rolls Royce. So I know that Haggis Pinball, when they screw a game together, it is going to be one of the best put together games. Does any of that erase the fact that they I'm a pinball manufacturer. I don't think it's necessary for me to be friends with the manufacturers because they have their own destiny in their hands. There is nothing I could say that would ever hurt a pinball manufacturer's ability to sell Out 되는데 Robert happy, Tyzięki PC imagine briefly, come Carpenter.com

17:10

Review тобoy as a What does it all mean? Let show you I Dennis Ramirez branches of entrepreneur groupe Fanani Franchis I going to talk to you today about the audience sint hamburg brother of Simpl Thema Entertainment in Mexico and how to make Ti consigo. But I don't feel like I've done anything wrong. And the reason why my show got a little bit more sharp elbowed in the last few weeks is that Damien promised people production would start in January. January came and went and he gave no update. And I'm sorry Damien, I know you're going to listen to this, but I don't think that's how you should operate. Why did you say production in January and then give no update? That's not being unkind. I am simply holding you to your own words. I am simply holding you accountable for the very things you promised. I didn't promise those dates. I didn't say July. I know it's hard making pinball machines. I wouldn't go into pinball manufacturing and I might have been unkind to you, but I'm not going to apologize. You don't owe me anything, Damien. You owe me nothing. The only people you owe something to are your customers and I do think you're going to get I'm going to end with this. My show has always been a reaction to people's behaviors. It has been. I reacted to the fact that they took orders, that they told people July. They then told people summer, end of year, January. I didn't say any of those things. I was simply witnessing what they were telling customers. And there was hardly anybody asking questions when January came and went and then I did a show about it and the thread started to blow up and people started to ask questions about what's going on. And that's a good thing. We should not, in this hobby, just let these companies go radio silent after they've missed month after month of promised deadlines. For those of you who are customers, come on, wake up. Have a little bit of a backbone. Ask for a weekly update. I don't need a release date. Like, I don't think he should give a release date. But every week, he could at least update his customers, oh, we're waiting on this or this just came in. Oh, we're working on this. Like, you can't share any photos. You can't give us any update whatsoever on what's going on in the factory. Sorry. That's not how you would run a business. And I love how quick these companies go from being ultra transparent The way to do it. And he knows this. Damien knows this. He's been in this hobby long enough where he knows this, but I think he's feeling some of what Barry and Yap felt over at Dutch Pinball. Remember like you'd have your weekly updates and then you realize, holy crap. Holy crap. Sometimes a week will go by and nothing happens. Like there is no progress because when you're making pinball machines, a lot of times you're just waiting. You're like, you're waiting for vendors. You're waiting for parts. The whole machine is designed, the whole machine is finished, now it's a waiting game. You've got to wait for stuff to come into the factory, you then have to hire people to put the games together, and you might go three to four weeks where you know there's no significant updates. I need to wait for this part to be made and it's not going to be here for six to eight weeks and oh my god, how can I tell people that, that I know that? Well, the first thing you can do is just never tell people production's going to begin in two months when you knew it was not going to. I'm sorry Damien if I was unkind, but you know you shouldn't have said that. And that doesn't mean you're not a nice guy. It doesn't mean I don't want to hang out and have a beer with you, but I've got to keep these companies honest. Because if I don't, who's going to do it? But that's always been my role. I just want to keep these companies honest. If you say you're going to do something, then do it or explain to us why it didn't happen. And that's all it is. At the end of January, there should have been an update. There should have been some communication from the company and there wasn't. So Kaneda the unkind has to have the unfortunate role of trying to keep these companies honest. And again, I don't care if you don't come on my show. Just get the customers the games they pay for and that's the only thing you owe. You don't owe me an explanation. All you do is owe those people games and I do think you're going to get them their games. I still have a question mark about the long term viability if you can go this long without getting machines on the line. And is it going to get better with the next game? Who knows? I look forward to seeing Fathom out in the wild and I'm sorry that I was unkind but I'm not really that sorry because somebody has to keep these companies accountable and I don't care if nobody will break bread with me because when I go to shows, believe me, the manufacturers don't want to talk to me. Like Eric Minier snubbed me. Like he walked right by me and he totally snubbed me. I mean he said he didn't but he did and he didn't talk to me. You know Stern doesn't want to talk to me. David Fix will talk to me. Jack Guarnari will talk to me but there's a lot of people As long as I feel like I'm standing up for your rights in this community, I go to bed at night feeling just fine. Canada's Pinball Podcast. We'll talk to you soon. Later.