The Pinball Show Ep 125: GTF?!

Pinball Show Patreon Feed·podcast_episode·22m 45s·analyzed·Apr 10, 2023

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Hosts pan GTF's presentation and strategy over its actual gameplay in scathing post-show review.

Summary

Two hosts deliver a scathing, in-depth critique of American Pinball's Galactic Tank Force following hands-on play at a convention. While praising the artwork and some mechanical features (magnets, ball locks, lighting), they lambast the game's layout, audio/video integration, presentation strategy, and pricing. The core argument: poor marketing and reveal strategy damaged sales more than any inherent game flaw, with specific criticism of the simultaneous release/play reveal, confusing pricing tiers, and lack of clear purchasing information.

Key Claims

Galactic Tank Force is the 'loser' of the big five games shown at the convention (implying worst game of the event)
high confidence · Host states 'the loser of TPS has to be GTF' in direct comparison to Foo Fighters, Godfather, Pulp Fiction, and implied fifth title
The game's layout is dated and feels derivative, featuring only one real ramp, three pop bumpers, and a middle shot target
high confidence · Host describes layout structure in detail: 'It's two orbits. It's a left ramp. It's three pop bumpers and it's a middle shot target' and compares it unfavorably to Avatar
American Pinball's presentation and marketing strategy caused more sales damage than the game's actual design flaws
high confidence · Host explicitly states: 'I believe I make a strong case here... AP themselves... I'm not convinced, listener... that American Pinball wants to sell product'
The game had mechanical issues at the show including air balls due to missing brace plating on stand-ups, launching balls into glass
high confidence · Host describes 'stand-ups in front of the tank and the air balls because there wasn't brace plating to keep them from bending out of position'
Artwork by Franchi is excellent and considered 'the greatest part' of the game despite being called one of his worst packages by some media
high confidence · Host: 'I heard some people in media saying this was Franchi's, one of his worst packages, even though it's good' but counters with personal praise
The reveal livestream after TPF was 'one of the worst reveals in recent memory for any company'
medium confidence · Host reports secondhand: 'I only heard people tell me that it was one of the worst reveals in recent memory' and 'I have not heard a single positive statement about that reveal'
GTF featured confusing pricing with a Collector's Edition priced $4,000-$6,000 higher than LE, primarily for a lenticular back glass and thermos
high confidence · Host states: 'this collector's edition that was $6,000 more just with a lenticular back glass' and questions what justifies the price difference

Notable Quotes

“Galactic Mother Truckin' Tank Force... This is what they've been spending, what, two years on? What the fuck was that?”
Host 1 (Zach Sharpe) @ 00:00-00:30 — Opening statement sets the critical tone; establishes surprise and disappointment after long development
“It is hard for me to articulate the disappointment I felt playing this game. The sheer... I don't think I put it on a pedestal.”
Host 2 (Dennis Nordman implied) @ 00:30-01:00 — Core emotional reaction; suggests game failed to meet even modest expectations
“Can we agree that the artwork is by far the greatest part of this new game? I would say yes.”
Host 1 @ 02:00-02:30 — Establishes the one clear positive aspect; frames everything else as problematic
“There's a cacophony of content. And it just doesn't mesh. Like, you can be campy. But... it's a hodgepodge.”
Host 2 (Dennis Nordman implied) @ 05:00-05:30 — Succinctly captures the theme integration failure; explains why camp aesthetic doesn't work
“I think what compromised the sales... is the way that they presented this to the world... the way in which they revealed and launched this product was the egregiously the worst way to sell this product.”
Host 2 @ 15:00-16:00 — Core thesis: marketing execution damaged sales more than game quality; pivotal argument
“When you've shown people pictures of a tank, I had a list of 40 to 50 people that said... 'just give me one send me an invoice'... but then when you wait three weeks for everybody else to start blasting on this you're not going to make sales.”
Host 2 @ 20:00-21:00 — Concrete evidence of FOMO-driven pre-launch interest destroyed by extended reveal strategy
“Don't get cute with the reveal when people want it the most get their wallets open... that's why i don't know if they're really wanting to sell products.”
Host 2 @ 21:30-22:00 — Suggests American Pinball's marketing strategy contradicts basic commercial objectives

Entities

Galactic Tank Forcegame American Pinballcompany Dennis Nordmanperson Zach SharpepersonChris FranchipersonSteve BowdenpersonJack Dangerperson

Signals

?
product_concern: Galactic Tank Force exhibited air ball issues at conventions due to missing brace plating on stand-up targets, causing balls to launch into glass. Center bank design flaw allowing ball overshoot.
high · Host: 'the air balls because there wasn't brace plating to keep them from bending out of position... the ball clearly soars right over, just like a flying tank'
?
product_strategy: American Pinball released three pricing tiers (Deluxe, LE, Collector's Edition) with unclear differentiation. Collector's Edition priced $4,000-$6,000 higher primarily for lenticular back glass and thermos, creating dealer and customer confusion.
high · Host: 'this collector's edition that was $6,000 more just with a lenticular back glass... can you explain to me what's different here?'
?
content_signal: The post-TPF livestream reveal was 'one of the worst reveals in recent memory for any company.' Product presenters failed to answer basic business questions (production timelines), did not communicate purchasing locations, and avoided discussing product sales information.
high · Host: 'I only heard people tell me that it was one of the worst reveals... I have not heard a single positive statement' and 'Maybe we say something... instead of saying Oh, we don't do the business part of this'
~
sentiment_shift: Community sentiment collapsed from pre-launch enthusiasm (40-50 potential buyers ready to purchase based on tank imagery alone) to post-reveal rejection after extended drip-feed marketing and negative livestream presentation.
high · Host: 'I had a list of 40 to 50 people... but then when you wait three weeks for everybody else to start blasting on this you're not going to make sales... everybody dropping out'

Topics

Game layout and design philosophyprimaryMarketing and presentation strategy executionprimaryProduct pricing and tier strategyprimaryTheme integration and aesthetic cohesionprimaryManufacturing quality control and mechanical reliabilityprimaryCompetitive landscape at convention/eventsecondaryCommunity sentiment and dealer perspectivesecondaryAmerican Pinball business practices and personnel changessecondary

Sentiment

negative(-0.82)— Hosts deliver harshly critical assessment while attempting to acknowledge some positive elements (artwork, certain mechanical features). The dominant sentiment is profound disappointment in execution, marketing strategy, and overall product viability. One host (implied Nordman) is more critical; the other (Sharpe) offers occasional counterargument but ultimately concurs the game failed expectations. Ending note of embarrassment and withdrawal suggests loss of faith in the product.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.068

Thanks again for the ongoing support as a Pinball Show Club member. Enjoy this exclusive TPS content, and make sure to visit the Pinball Show Club Discord to chat about the bonus material. Galactic Mother Truckin' Tank Force. I think the easiest way for us to describe and analyze this game is just by simply answering the questions of Who? What? When? Where? How? And, most importantly, why? Why indeed. What the fuck was that, Dennis? This is what they've been spending, what, two years on? What the fuck was that? Holy cow. Literally. Holy cow. Holy cow, literally. I don't even know where to start. It is hard for me to articulate the disappointment I felt playing this game. The sheer... I don't think I put it on a pedestal. I don't think I put it on a pedestal, Zach, before playing it. But wow. Wow. You know, I can see a lot of people... I don't think there will be a ton of people that will disagree that Foo Fighters was the best game of Texas. But there will be some. I don't... But the loser of TPS. has to be GTF. Oof. Of your big five, GTF has to be the loser. I mean, no, not everyone's going to agree with that, but the majority will. No one puts LC in the corner. Okay. I don't know. All I heard was whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. Oh, it was a porno version of TNA audio. oh boy i i don't know what was worse in it like if you had to rank the worst aspect of it it would be tough because there's so many categories competing with one another is it the video is it the audio hmm maybe it's the layout or possibly the rules i don't all right let's get the good maybe we should get the good out of the way there's a lot of good for me all right the The art's good. The art is very good. I really, I thought, because I heard some people in media saying this was Franchi's, one of his worst packages, even though it's good. Really? Still one of his worst. I told Chris during TPF. Oh, I liked it. It competed for one of my favorite packages by him. I really liked it. No, I think he knows the retro style. Yeah, that style, he nailed it. And then leaning into that, I thought, made a lot of sense. and it's too bad the rest of the game doesn't. Can we agree that the artwork is by far the greatest part of this new game? I would say yes. I would agree with you, yes. So that was good. Here's my thing, and then we will discuss it. I'm still not convinced I hate it, this game. Well, but you are a simple creature who even likes Scooby, so I'm not too shocked that you're going to give this a pass in some way. but there's so there was parts when i'm seeing streams or playing it that i'm like i like this game here's the other thing i could say i'd say is and i need more time to really suss this part out the rules might actually be good on this game yeah they're simple they're like i need i need more time on it but it seemed like uh i was figuring out what i needed to do like the game was displaying to me that what i was accomplishing and so i think the rules are probably there sure that would be my second win for the game. I think the rule package makes sense and the art's great. Everything else... Everything else, Zach, I just... Poor Nordman. Poor Nordman. Don't you pity me. I did everything I wanted. I wanted a game with one ramp. But the tank, Nordman. I wanted a game whose tank would give you air balls over your flippers. Do people like ramp diverters at this point anymore? What is that? Godfather has 29 different ball feeds. You will enjoy my three. Oh, man. There's magnets. There's a magnet. And this game is about ice cream. There are three magnets. There are maybe more than one magnet. There's a cow being hung under a UFO. couldn't we at least get a transparent string holding that i was waiting for the ufo to shoot uh like a plunger dart out to wrap the cow i okay even the holograph sticker behind it to try to hide the mech no i i i just i think they spent more fucking time coding the motorization to get it to the tpf show than they did the rules i look i don't i i don't i just don't i was just waiting at some point for it to be like you know i'm sonia blade right Maybe that's in there. All right. Again, I couldn't hear it well, but I could hear parts of it. You were able to see it Is that nice I was able to see it And I get it They like all right we doing this We got to be campy Zach, we got to be campy, right? And I'm like, yeah. And I spoke with Steven Bowden on the last day. And he's like, you know, we felt we really had to. With a game like Galactic Tank Force, you got to lean into the camp, right, Dennis? And I'm like, yeah, but. And I didn't want to. Like, I didn't want to be mean. And I'm like, I think Steve was right. They did have to lean into the camp. But there's a difference between leaning into the camp and then just a hodgepodge. Or I think the word I used on Eclectic Gamers was a cacophony. There's a cacophony of content. And it just doesn't mesh. Like, you can be campy. But, all right, so we've got a 50s cool art style throwback look. You've got this 90s CD-ROM video game acting stuff. which okay maybe if I could hear it maybe I'd have liked that a little more but I couldn't really hear the call out I couldn't really hear the video discussion so you got that integrated in you didn't get the puns I mean I couldn't hear very many of them I heard a part where Sonia Blade was telling me that I could leave but my cow and ice cream could stay and I'm sure there's probably some double or triple or quadruple entendres going on there and that's cool I guess if I could really have embraced it and again I have to remember I'm at a show, so that's going to be difficult. But I'm trying to hear all this over the dubstep soundtrack, which doesn't align with the 50s aesthetic. And I'm not anti-dubstep. I've heard Skrillex. I know this stuff. But I know some of this stuff. I know, like, them happy, bright Sprite stuff. Twerking cows. And scary monsters. I know about that stuff. You get it. Yeah, I get it. I get what the kids are going for here. They got all of that coupled with this geometry that I just don't think works. I just, that this layout had been in pre-existence. They spent a lot of time before they went to release. They didn't tweak any of it. Like. If they were going to standardize the location of three pop bumpers, god damn it, that's where they would be. It's two orbits. It's a left ramp. It's three pop bumpers and it's a middle shot target. I mean, what is this? The days of Avatar? Why is there only one notable ramp? Because, okay, yeah, there's another ramp feedback from the cow shot thing that, you know, bucks up into a thing. But that's not a real ramp. So not a real ramp shot. I'm like, what the heck? Avatar? Really? Why are we? They got the Octoberfest physical ball lock. Or as I noted on EGP, someone else had told me Thunderbirds. That's what I reminded them of. Thunderbirds. Yeah, I'm with you, Dennis. I think that there is a huge difference between leaning into camp and becoming a reoccurring camp counselor for 25 years. That's the problem with their leaning into camp. It was cute at first. And then they leaned so hard that it got weird. And then it kept leaning. It didn't help matters, Zach. Like in my professional podcasting opinion, it did not help matters that they drip fed this release across an entire month while these atom bombs are being dropped by all their competitors. It's like – and it's spooky, which had been announced a few months beforehand. I could see them thinking, okay, we'd get – there's enough time past that and all that. And then boom, Foo Fires, which of course is just blown up everywhere and is having sales out the ass and just doing gangbusters for Stern. And then boom, Godfather exploding out there. And then, boom, this other mega fat man from Pulp Fiction, which everyone's like, holy crap, this game is awesome. Just looking at it, everyone's like losing their minds. And then Galactic Tank Force is like, here, let's drop a teaser trailer where you can barely find the name of the game in the tiniest legalese font known to man. I don't even think they've got a YouTube channel yet. A little bit more. And then it's a little bit more, a little bit more. And I ain't even going to talk about the after-TPF livestream reveal. No, we're going to dodge. I see it. I only heard people tell me that it was one of the worst reveals in recent memory for any company. I refuse to watch it because I don't want to be sad. I'm trying to be a happy person, and I don't want to be sad, but I have not heard a single positive statement about that reveal. Oh, it's its own story. But my experience at TPA, and I get it. They acknowledged because they were in a rush, I guess, to get the games there or whatever, or they're backpedaling after what happened there. And the stand-ups in front of the tank and the air balls because there wasn't brace plating to keep them from bending out of position. And so they started launching the balls up into the glass and all of that stuff. And over their little in-between flipper peg that come up, that little – Yeah, the little peg. So this game is like – A loose decal on it. It wasn't a good experience. It's not good. It's not good. And I don't know if the rules can fix that. Here's my question. This is where you and I have disagreed on this before. I think there are some layouts that cannot be saved by the rules. This one, I'm not going to go so far as to say that this is a bad layout, but it does feel like a dated layout and not in a – not like in the Pulp Fiction way, which feels like, hey, let's do something kind of throwback but put in some modern accruements around it. Like the, you know, the subway aspect and the stuff going on in the back. And of course the rotating toys of like the briefcase and stuff. This was okay. We're going to have this campy display screen stuff. I like all right I can get into that We going to throw in dubstep into a 50 setting Don get it but whatever I just turn the volume down But the shots don feel great It didn feel good to shoot Okay. And I didn't have a – I only played it once. But I didn't have a short game. It was a decent game. I've played this game more than I did any other game at TPF. So I think I'm talking enough about it. I just – it doesn't – it didn't work for me. It was not my least favorite game of the show, but that's only because Scooby was there. Oh, damn it. We'll talk about that in a minute. Here's my pitch to the listeners out there. I believe I make a strong case here, one that maybe people aren't thinking of. When it comes to layout, the sound, the porno video-like features, the dubstep music, the rules, I don't think any of that compromised the sales of this product quite like AP themselves. I'm not convinced, listener. I'm not convinced, Dennis, that American Pinball wants to sell product. And if they do, then I'm concerned that they may not know how to do it. I think what compromised the sales, that is what you want to do, right? Ultimately, that's the goal. You're a manufacturing company. You want to create product to sell. Correct? Yes, right? Yes. Okay. That's the basis of what we're assuming is their goal. if that is their goal i think what compromised the sales more than the layout more than the sound more than anything on this game because i think there's some great selling points there it's just they pissed all over them and they hid the selling features i think what compromised the sales and continues to do so is the way that they presented this to the world the way in which they revealed and launched this product was the egregiously the worst way to sell this product they had people interested in buying this fucking game just by looking at pictures of it but you couldn't buy it you had to wait another month so that they could show you everything that you could hate about this game and not only that they said when you can purchase this we're going to do it simultaneously with you playing the game in an environment in which you're not going to like it either even features that we can showcase like an alien surprise we're going to make sure not to put that in any type of marketing or promotional material. We're going to double down on the stuff that we know you're going to hate. The people that you have no clue who they are and their tacky nature of being poor actors. We're going to fill up a reveal video of just that. We're going to show you very little of the thing that you care most about, which is the actual game and pinball machine. And we're going to show you, even in promotional materials, the flaws of this game, the layout, the issues with that layout. there are issues with the design and the layout of that game in which they're fixing in my opinion with the experience that that crew has the engineers have at that team there is no excuse in having a so-called we're fixing this center bank center banks dennis have been done since the dawn of time and pinball no excuses hell you had one in hot wheels right there you slain it a little bit so it's a little bit smarter design layout so it wouldn't fly right back at you so much so they put a center pop-up post. The ball clearly soars right over, just like a flying tank. The issue is not necessarily the layout because I did have some good games, and I had fun shooting some of these shots. The orbits, the spinners, the Vuck shots, even the magnets were pretty fucking magical. That center magnet on that tank, that needs to be the highlight because they did stuff with that magnet for a tanking, catching that ball mid-playfield and throwing it back at this tank to attack it. That was super fun. That swinging cow, albeit goofy as hell with a white string, visually looks cool. Making a stand-up target and move on something that I want to hit is pretty impressive to me because I think stand-up targets are design filler. But they put a magnet under it. They made it swing a cow. They attached it to a rod that has a UFO on it. The lighting in this game is phenomenal. The back magnet, phenomenal. The Vox with wire forms. A physical ball lock. A planet that designed in a half Saturn shape so that the mirrored back panel makes it look like a full one with lighting in it. Incredible stuff. Even the feel of that ramp is nicely done. There are a lot of nice things in this gameplay, so I can't say it was a complete dog. But anytime design-wise you're going to put five or six stand-up targets, even concave so they all aim at the middle of the thing, Dennis Nordman, you know better than that. What in the hell are you doing there? And if you're going to put something like that that's dangerous, you've got to make a drop target so at least you can blast through them or at least you can hit a freaking like Mark Ritchie's Indiana Jones ball lock behind them. Give us something else. Don't just give us that or you're going to have bad design ball flying issues. But yeah, it just goes down, in my opinion, to how they presented this. people gave the guy that presented the Arcade Hollywood, Arcade Pinball, or whoever it was, gave him a hard time. I get it. I know the constraints probably presented. I've worked with American Pinball before on some media stuff that didn't pan out. Believe me, brother, I get it more than any. So I can't blame that person because I don't know the ins and outs of it. I do know that some of the highlighted features were the wrong features to highlight I do know that that would have very much benefited from a behind If anything Dennis is going to benefit from a featurette or a documentary filmed about the making of, or the details of a new product is going to be an original themed game. Explain to us. We want to see that passion of why the fuck we're saving cows and trying to get ice cream and beating some lady called Annoya. And she called Annoya. I don't remember the name of the cast. I couldn't hear it. If anything needs some more explanation and passion driven behind it, it is a further explanation in the featurette or something similar to it. I think Stern just did a 60th Bond featurette that was really good. So something like that. And then no gameplay. We didn't have any gameplay. Look, when you've shown people pictures of a tank, I had a list of 40 to 50 people that said, look between us that tank thing is so damn cool that unless it's stupid stupid price i'll buy it just give me one send me an invoice but then when you wait three weeks for everybody else to start blasting on this you're not going to make sales and it did that's what happened to my sales sheet gone gone gone gone gone everybody dropping out don't get cute with the reveal when people want it the most get their wallets open that's why i don't know if they're really wanting to sell products. Why are you so worried about driving this damn thing down a hallway of a convention center? It looked like a tank. It was damn cool. And this whole three model thing that they came out with, the deluxe, the LE, and then this collector's edition that was $6,000 more just with a lenticular back glass. I'm going to be honest. As a dealer, when I was messaged that they're going to hate all this, but it's real. When I was messaged all this, I was like, okay, I think I can sell some LEs. I think I can sell some deluxes. prices are comparable to other things. I think this looks like a fun game. There's a lot of features that I can sell the hell out of on this game. A lot of cute, fun stuff. But then I messaged him. I was like, is this a typo? I know it's a call for price and we can price it however, but I know what price you're making us dealers buy it for at a collector's edition. And holy shit, I don't know if I want one of them. Like, can you explain to me what's different here? Because I'm missing something. But I wanted some clarification as to what am I supposed to tell my customers whenever I see a lenticular back glass and a thermos that is jacking this price up to $4,000, $5,000, $6,000. Oh, what a mess this game was. Sad, too, because I do believe the presentation that was given and the fun that I had, they could have tripled, quadrupled sales if presented in a different manner. That's my take on this game. I still kind of want it for some reason. I still kind of want the LE version of the silly tank tracks, the LEDs. It's just hokey enough that it works. It's almost like I wanted them to present this and just shut their mouth and let us sell it. Well, I don't know. I mean, I didn't dislike everything about it, but the layout just felt a little too derivative from styles of affordability. The one ramp thing and all that. It just didn't feel like it had that many shots and stuff. They didn't feel clunky. I didn't think it was inherently a horrid layout, but it sure didn't feel like a great one. And the theme alone is just not – I'm just not into camp enough to want to invest money, especially given their raised prices on something like this. I don't even know when they're going to come out. Well, I'm setting all that aside. I have no clue when this thing is being released. It left an overall – it left a negative impression. They could fix some of the things that I have negatives with. But it'll never be a great game. And so because of that, I'm out. Sorry, you've been shark tanked. Oh, and that was the last of our big five. It comes in for me at, you know what? I still like the feel of it better than a P3. Call me biased, but that, ladies and gentlemen. I'm just glad you didn't talk about that live stream. Oh, shit, I didn't. That was a mess on so many levels. So many levels. Can we not just coach the people that are going to be presenting a product and say, Hey, guys, somebody asked about development and production timelines for this because they want to purchase it and send us $12,000. Maybe we say something to the effect of having an answer or directing them to somebody with an answer instead of saying, Oh, we don't do the business part of this. What the fuck are you there for then? And why are you at a Stern Designers fucking studio to do it? What is going on? And maybe, just maybe in the two or three hours that you're there presenting this brand new product to the world, and especially doing so in the way you are to maximizing eyes, maybe just maybe tell them at least once, twice, hell, I don't know, five times because that's the fucking goal is to sell the product. Maybe tell them where they can buy the game. Don't rely on, thank God for Jack Danger, don't rely on the Stern employee to post up the website of where to buy this game. Jack sold that game better than they did. What are you doing? Where's Dennis Nordman at? He's the designer. I just, I don't get it. I don't get it. There's been a lot of people that left AP recently. We put in an order. The sales guy came back with an email that said I no longer work there. I don't know what's going on. So, yeah, that's the stream. Oh, boy. Okay, sorry. Rant over. That's GT. Actually, I'm no longer doing the GTF voice because, quite frankly, I'm embarrassed. So I'm done. I'm done. GT Wub.