Episode 919: "The Princess Bride First Impressions"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·21m 28s·analyzed·Feb 26, 2024

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Kaneda's mixed The Princess Bride impressions: unique but expensive, shallow gameplay, pricing will hurt sales.

Summary

Kaneda provides first impressions of Multimorphic's The Princess Bride pinball machine after watching a 30-40 minute stream, praising its unique assets and innovative mechanics (like the left-hand-only Inigo Montoya mode) but criticizing gameplay depth, replay value concerns, and extremely high pricing ($11k-$13.7k) that he believes will limit adoption. He also discusses Stern quality control issues, offers code suggestions for Spooky's Looney Tunes, flags Jersey Jack's unresolved Godfather CE hardware issues, and highlights a community mod adding music to Big Lebowski.

Key Claims

The Princess Bride standard edition costs over $11,000; LE is $12,700; CE is $13,700
high confidence · Kaneda stating pricing tiers directly from what he observed
The Princess Bride stream reached over 13,000 concurrent viewers
high confidence · Kaneda directly observed during the stream last night
The Princess Bride won't ship until summertime with slow monthly production rates
medium confidence · Kaneda's observation of production timeline; no specific official confirmation cited
Pinball Brothers had to lower prices on Alien and Queen due to poor sales
medium confidence · Kaneda citing industry observation; not independently verified in content
Stern's new factory has produced inconsistent build quality, particularly on Stranger Things and Venom playfields
medium confidence · Kaneda reporting observations from friends and personal inspection; notes lifted inserts and poor clear coat application
Josh Kugler is 'the most valuable member' at Multimorphic for his coding and mode design philosophy
high confidence · Kaneda's direct opinion based on gameplay observation
Jersey Jack has not resolved tarnishing issues on Godfather Collector's Edition golden lockdown bars and side rails despite December 2024 communication promising January fix
medium confidence · Kaneda reporting latest industry intel as of late February; describes pattern of slow Jersey Jack repairs
Final Resistance came out and has low community engagement
medium confidence · Kaneda's observation of forum activity and player discussion levels

Notable Quotes

“It is sort of like giving a review to a unicorn, right? There's not many of them out there. It's a super rare platform.”
Kaneda @ ~6:30 — Illustrates the challenge of evaluating Multimorphic as a unique platform with few comparables
“And no other pinball machine can do that. There's absolutely no other pinball machine out there that could track the ball like that and bring that unique mode to life like that.”
Kaneda @ ~11:00 — Praising the Inigo Montoya left-hand-only mode as a genuinely novel capability of the P3 platform
“It feels more like a mobile game and a pinball machine had a baby versus a traditional pinball experience.”
Kaneda @ ~15:30 — Core criticism: The Princess Bride doesn't feel authentically like traditional pinball
“I just don't think at these prices he's going to find a lot of people.”
Kaneda @ ~21:00 — Main conclusion: pricing will severely limit market adoption
“If Stern streamed a new game, there would have been like another 50 pages on Pinside following the first ever world premiere gameplay of a Stern machine.”
Kaneda @ ~19:30 — Comparing community engagement disparity: Stern streams generate massive forum activity; Princess Bride barely registered
“This game will be so much better if people can select which episode they play. And not all episodes should be unlocked until you progress through the game.”
Kaneda @ ~27:00 — Specific design recommendation to Spooky Pinball for Looney Tunes code
“Every week there are like 10 tacky new mods put out into the pinball world. Why? Why are we doing this?”
Kaneda @ ~32:00 — Commentary on community mod trends and aesthetic philosophy
“Once someone has that game in their home, why would you care? Why would any of these companies really care?”
Kaneda — Philosophical point on licensing enforcement for home pinball modifications

Entities

The Princess Bridegame Multimorphiccompany Josh KuglerpersonStern PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyJersey Jack Pinballcompany Looney Tunesgame

Signals

?
product_strategy: The Princess Bride priced at $11k-$13.7k is positioning as ultra-premium product but Kaneda argues this is too high relative to market demand for P3 platform; recommends $6k-$7k would drive meaningful adoption
high · Kaneda: 'I think the standard edition is over $11,000... I just don't see many people wanting to spend that much money... If this thing were six or seven thousand dollars I could see people taking the plunge'
~
sentiment_shift: 13k concurrent stream viewers but minimal Pinside forum discussion (one extra page) suggests either lower platform enthusiasm or different audience demographics; contrasts sharply with Stern new game streams which generate ~50 additional forum pages
high · Kaneda: 'At some point last night, they had over 13,000 people watching... But when I woke up this morning and I went to Pinside, I didn't see many people talking about it... If Stern streamed a new game, there would have been like another 50 pages'
?
design_philosophy: The Princess Bride prioritizes film narrative fidelity and visual/audio assets over dynamic shot variety and combo potential; Kaneda critiques this as 'watching the movie' rather than playing pinball
high · Kaneda: 'It felt like you could hold the flipper up and watch the entire scene... you're not really progressing through the scene with the shot. It's kind of like you're just watching the movie versus the gameplay actually progressing you through the movie'
?
design_innovation: Inigo Montoya left-hand-only fencing mode is genuinely novel: P3 platform tracks ball position and restricts flipper inputs to only left flipper regardless of ball side; no other pinball platform can replicate this mechanic
high · Kaneda: 'You play with your left hand only. And as the ball is tracking... you only use your left hand to flip both on the left and right side... And no other pinball machine can do that'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.064

0:00

In my defense, you gotta know that when it comes, it never goes the only way until it goes. On my defense.

0:15

As you wish, another episode of Canada's Pinball Podcast. Okay, so now we've got the Princess Bride Pinball Multimorphic. Streamed it last night. I want to give you my first impressions of the game after watching about 30 to 40 minutes of this game being played by the Multimorphic team. We're going to talk about Stern Quality Control just a little bit. People sharing photos of Stranger Things playfields. It looks like they're applying the clear coat with like nail polish brushes or something over there. I don't know what's going on with these in-house playfields over at Stern. We're going to talk about a big Lebowski mod. I haven't really been following. Something really cool each and every one of you can do to your big Lebowski. And then we're going to talk about Looney Tunes and the code in the game. And something that Spooky Pinball needs to do to make the Looney Tunes game all it should be. That's all, folks. Welcome to Canada's Pinball Podcast. All right, let's talk about The Princess Bride. Now, we've been speculating. What would it be like putting a movie theme onto the multi-morphic platform? Would it work? Would it make for a revolutionary new pinball experience? Is this going to be the game that gets more people to pull the trigger on this platform? Now, I watched it for about, like I said, a half hour or more. And there's some stuff I really like about this game. I really like all the modes in the game. I like how you go through the book like you do in the movie. I like that it's very linear. You start a mode and you're actually watching the entire scene sort of develop right in front of you. You could see the scene on the play field itself. You could see it on the LCD screen. So there is a lot of assets from the movie coming at you. It's not broken up. It's not choppy. There's no mute eclipse. It's like every iconic scene from the movie is being teleported into this pinball experience. And so if you're a fan of the Princess Bride, right, you've got the music. It's very calming. It's unlike any other pinball music out there. And that's what I kept feeling as I was watching this stream. It's really hard to like evaluate a multi-morphic pinball experience because nothing else is quite like it. It is sort of like giving a review to a unicorn, right? There's not many of them out there. It's a super rare platform, and I haven't really seen that many multi-morphic streams. And unlike any other pinball stream, when they show you what's going on with the multi-morphic, it's just different. You've got the big screen as the playfield. You've got that row of targets that go up and down that can become scoops. You've got the upper half of the playfield, which has all of the mechs in the game. And so what are my overall first impressions of this game? Well, first and foremost, let's start with the good. I think the assets are great. I think all the assets you want from this game are in the pinball machine. You got the call-outs, you got the clips, and they look great. And I like the fact that you don't have to look up at the screen on the back box to see the clips from the movie. You know, because a lot of these games, you know, you never really see, like, what's going on up there. And I think when we watch a pinball stream, it's a little deceiving, right? Because when you're focused on hitting your shots, you're really not focused with what's going on on that screen. And a lot of times we complain about the assets on the screen, even though we don't see them very often. So I like the fact that you can still be looking down at the pinball gameplay and still see all of the stuff that you want to see that's on the screen. So I really like that. I also like the fact that it's, again, linear, like you're seeing the whole scene from the movie that you remember and that you love. Now I'm going to do a little devil's advocate when I go to some of the stuff I didn't like, because sometimes it just felt like you could hold the flipper up and watch the entire scene, like you're not really progressing through the scene with the shot. It's kind of like you're just watching the movie versus the gameplay actually progressing you through the movie itself. I also like some of the really unique stuff that P3 can do. So there's like the scene where you play as Inigo Montoya and you're like sword fencing with your left hand. And then when that happens, it's one of the coolest modes I've seen in pinball. You play with your left hand only. And as the ball is tracking, whether on the left side or the right side of the game, you only use your left hand to flip both on the left and right side of the game because it tracks and knows if that ball is on the right side of the play field. And no other pinball machine can do that. There's absolutely no other pinball machine out there that could track the ball like that and bring that unique mode to life like that. So I thought that was really cool. I like the cliffs of insanity, how the ball climbs up those cliffs and you make it to the top and then it rolls down the hill with the as you wish I like that You know so there some interesting stuff happening in this game Okay so that the stuff that I do like What was some of the stuff that I sort of like I'm not sure yet, right? After watching this, I'm still not sold 100% that people are gonna jump in on this game. It did feel like the gameplay was a little underwhelming, right? It felt like the assets were there, but the actual gameplay itself, Like the shots in the game, you're just going from the flippers to the north of the game. There's really not that many interesting shots in the game. There's like the left orbit. There is the shot up the middle, which looks really easy. It did look like there was a lot of flow, but it just didn't feel like there was a lot of dynamic gameplay going on. Like there was a lot of interesting combos or the ball is going in a lot of interesting directions. It felt like a very basic design. And for those of us out there, right, we're now spoiled with some really incredible pinball designs from people like Keith Elwin. We've got Steve Ritchie's Elton John. You got Jack Danger's Foo Fighters. And I think a lot of these pinball machines that we've been loving recently offer some really interesting gameplay and design elements. And I'm just not sure this game delivers. And it's probably also really hard, right, to design a lot of dynamic gameplay with this platform because the designer is sort of hamstrung into only being able to work with that upper portion of the play field. And so I walked away feeling like I wasn't sure whether or not this game in a home environment, if the gameplay would get boring pretty quickly. And again, I don't own it. I need to play it. But it just didn't feel like the gameplay was blowing me away. All right. So there was that. And then also, like, I was just wondering, too, it's such a mode-based game. And when you start a mode, like I said, you're going from, like, the beginning of the scene to the end of the scene. And I'm not sure how many modes there are, whether it's, like, 8 or 12. And I just was wondering, how long will the replay value last in this game? If you're always sort of experiencing these modes the same way, is there going to be enough variety and replay value? Now, it did really feel like all the modes were radically different. I like the one where the king is introducing Princess Buttercup and it's her nightmare. And because it's her nightmare, you got to play the game where there's no trapping the ball and you got to keep the balls going on the fly to get through the mode. I like stuff like that. I think Josh Coogler is actually the most valuable member over there. I love the way Josh Coogler codes these games. I think he thinks of very interesting modes and really thinks about how the hardware and the software can do really unique stuff to make for a unique pinball experience.

8:06

Right. I don't really feel that way when I play a Stern machine or a Jersey Jack machine. I don't feel like people are taking enough risk when it comes to making truly unique modes in pinball. And I think Kugler's got such a unique mind for coding games. I also like the way you can sort of save a ball after you drain. What is the torture chamber called again? And the way that works is you have to basically keep two balls alive and make it all the way through the end of the scene. And if one of them drains, you lose. Like I like stuff like that. That's a much more fun way to save a ball than like the state fair thing in Wizard of Oz. So there's like elements I really like in this game. And I definitely feel like if you rock up to a pinball show and you put a few games on The Prince's Bride, it's going to put a smile on your face. Now, all that being said, after watching the stream and watching the gameplay, I feel like it's a mixed bag, right? There's stuff to really like. There's stuff that's unique. I also feel like when you're looking at it, it doesn't really feel like pinball. I don't know. There's something about it. It feels more like a mobile game and a pinball machine had a baby versus a traditional pinball experience. And that's what Jerry's going for. But because of that, I'm just always wondering, you know, how many people are going to take the plunge and that's the kind of pinball experience they want. At some point last night, they had over 13,000 people watching the stream of the Princess Bride. That was a lot of people. It must have ended up on the front page of Twitch. But when I woke up this morning and I went to Pinside, I didn't see many people talking about it. And I'm just truly curious if people are even interested in this platform. And I'm just going off of what I'm seeing, right? If Stern streamed a new game, there would have been like another 50 pages on Pinside following the first ever world premiere gameplay of a Stern machine. And so then Jerry shows this game and there's barely anything, just one extra page on Pinside. And, you know, so as I'm looking at this game, I just think it's too much money. I mean it when I say it, I think this entire package needs to be a loss leader for Jerry. He needs to get units out in the world and he's not gonna get many units out in the world at these prices. Like I think the standard edition is over $11,000. Then it's like 12.7 for the LE and then $13,700 for the CE version of this game. I just don see many people wanting to spend that much money to have an experience like this If this thing were six or seven thousand dollars I could see people taking the plunge and getting one into their home But I think it's all just too expensive. It's just all too expensive. And look, I get the whole value proposition of switching out modular games here and there. That would work out if you had like five or six games that people really want. But right now, you know, where are you at? Like, if you're a Princess Bride fan, you also have to be a Weird Al fan to make this thing make sense. You know, Final Resistance came out. I don't hear anybody talking about that. I hear it's a great game, but again, it's a game where not a lot of people are playing. And I still think the majority of people who are buying these games right now already own an old P3 unit. So Jerry is most likely selling more modular kits than he's selling full games. So I think it's going to be hard for these guys. I do. I think at this price point, I think there's even less people that are going to be enticed to pull the trigger and buy one. It's just a different pinball world now. You know, this came out five years ago and it was like 8,500 bucks. I think he's having a lot more success. But for like $12,000 to $13,000 right now, that's a lot of cheddar. And you're also not going to get your game right away. Like this game's not even going on the line until the summertime. So it's like, why would you buy it now? You've got four months at least before these things even make their way out the door. And they're not going to be making many a month, you know. And the way he's doing it, like you can't cut the line if you buy the collector's edition. I don't know. I think it's going to be a very slow burn. And there's a reason why the Pinball Brothers had to lower the price on Alien because they weren't selling very well. They had to lower the price on Queen because they weren't selling very well. And then here comes Jerry with one of the most expensive pinball machines in the market. And there's not much demand for Multimorphic to begin with. And I just think from a marketing standpoint, it's really going to struggle to find sales. And the elephant in the room is simply this. If he made this game on a normal pinball cabinet with a normal play field, he would probably sell three to four more times units than he would on the platform because the price would be cheaper. It would absolutely be cheaper. All right. But that's never going to happen. So my overall impressions after seeing the game for the first time, it looks like a fun game to play. I would absolutely play it at a pinball show. I just don't think at these prices he's going to find a lot of people. All right. So those are my first impressions of this game. What else? Let's talk real quickly about the quality of these Stern playfields. Now, look, ever since Stern moved into the new factory, it's not just the playfields. The quality of the builds has gone downhill. I have a lot of friends who bought like Elvira when they made that in the new factory. Nothing but issues. I'm looking at these Stranger Things playfields and they're terrible. Like they're absolutely terrible. All the inserts are lifted. it. The clear coat looks terrible. I walked over to a Venom the other day and the clear coat looks terrible. But then I got people in the Jaws thread saying their Jaws looks like glass. So I'm not sure what's going on over at Stern Pinball. There seems to be a lot more inconsistency in the build quality of these Stern games. And you know how I feel. For this much money, we should not be getting crappy quality machines. At this much money, Stern should be the best they've ever been built. And you know the answer. They're not. You know, people have lifted the hood on these modern sterns and the soldering is all bad. The clear coat's not there. Stuff is connected to places incorrectly. I don't know what the deal is. Like, are they rushing games out the door? Do they have new line workers? Whatever's happening in that new factory, though, is just not creating the best quality stern machines we should be getting for this much money. All right. So that's happening over there. Let me talk real quick about Spooky Pinball. they've got to make a single change to Looney Tunes to make it a much better game. I was watching the stream of that game. And right now, all the modes in the game are randomized. And they're going to have something like 22 episodes of the iconic Looney Tunes series. And people don't want them to be randomized. Luke, listen to me. I know you listen to this podcast. This game will be so much better if people can select which episode they play. And not all episodes should be unlocked until you progress through the game. That will make this game 10 times more enjoyable and 10 times more fun. It'll also create more replay value as you try to unlock some of those episodes buried deeper into the game. And don't do it like Rick and Morty. Because Rick and Morty, the reason why you randomized it was that was how Rick and Morty was in the show. Whenever they went on a different adventure, they didn't know where they were going to end up. But if you do it with Looney Tunes, what's gonna happen is this, is people are gonna see all of the game in like a month and then they're gonna wanna get rid of it. And I don't think you should do it that way. Trust me, as someone who's played Batman 66, the greatest coded game by Lyman Sheets that game is so much fun because you can select your journey You give the players the control and they will have a lot more fun And that way when you know you love a few things and you just have like 20 minutes, you can go experience the stuff you love and not just have to play some random game every time. So we will see if Kaneda shouting from the rooftops can get spooky pinball to change direction on how Looney Tunes is developing code wise. All right, what else is going on in the pinball world. So let's talk about real quick, Jersey Jack. You know, we haven't mentioned these golden lockdown bars and golden side rails from the Godfather collector's edition. Remember they were tarnishing and they were changing color. And this happened like almost a year ago and they still have not sent out a fix. Now the latest I'm hearing is this, we are supposed to get a fix any day now. They sent out communication in December that the fix would be available in January. We are almost at March. The other concerning thing is they have not been communicating to everyone who owns the collector's edition. And I don't know what they're trying to do. I don't know if they're trying to minimize the amount of people that want the fix, but every single one of those original games is going to need a new lockdown bar and new side railing for the game because both of those are having problems. And that doesn't seem like a cheap fix and we know Jersey Jack they make people wait forever for these fixes. When Guns and Roses was having playfield issues it was like a delay of a year by the time you could actually buy a replacement playfield from Mirko. So we're going to stay on this and make sure they hold true to their word and we're going to follow to see if they send those things out sometime in the next month or two. Last on my list is a modification to a game that I actually think is pretty interesting. Before I talk about this mod, I want to just once again do a public service announcement. Stop ruining your games, people. Every week there are like 10 tacky new mods put out into the pinball world. Why? Why are we doing this? What is wrong with you guys? Do you need every single empty spot on your Jaws machine to have something glued to it? Stop doing it. It's like you're ruining all of your games. It's at the point now where less is more. I'm so tired of seeing all of these tacky mods. Now, an interesting mod is the Big Lebowski. And I don't know how I missed this thread for like a year, but there is a gentleman, I think his name is Jeffrey, and he has made it so you could add new music to the Big Lebowski game. And he's been at this for like a year now with help from the community, adding new music, adding some call-outs, making sure the new music works with the existing Dutch Pinball code and the call-outs. He's got like Kenny Rogers, the gambler playing when you're playing the dude abides. And it's like a really interesting thread. It's like 10 pages long. And of course, Dutch Pinball can't like endorse this whatsoever because they're stealing music and putting it into a game. But man, if you think about it, if you buy a $13,000 pinball machine and the pinball company could just turn a blind eye to people being able to upload music, what a game changer. I wish we could do this to more of our games. Can you imagine if people could add the Johnny Depp scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean, what that game would have become? And yeah, you're never going to get the license holder to sign off on it. But once someone has that game in their home, why would you care? Why would any of these companies really care? When you're in the privacy of your own home, you could do whatever you want. I get that maybe you wouldn't want that on a commercial level. Like you wouldn't want to be on location or at a bar. You wouldn't want operators like displaying the game with like music that you don't have the rights to. But do you think any of them really care? I mean, I don't think so. There's so few people even into pinball. I don't even think they would care. So if you have a big Lebowski, go find that thread. They're on version like eight or nine of this mod. And it seems really, really interesting. And from the feedback of the people who have done this mod, they say it's a huge game changer. So there you go, Big Lebowski fans. Now you've got something else to put in your game besides a toilet bowl and a joint. Everybody, tomorrow is Killian's birthday, which is why I wanted to get the show up today. He is going to be three. February 26. My little man is three years old. I love him so much. And all of your support and all of your contributions mean so much to Brenda, to Killian, to my family. I'm happy you stick with this show every month. You know I would love more of you to join the Raise the Roof Club. If you want to donate a little bit more each month, we will happily take it. But as I've always said, I'm not going to raise prices even though the world is an inflated nightmare. Everybody be good. Have a good Sunday and we'll talk to you soon.