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PNP 675- Sonic: Top 5 Rad & 1 Bad!

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·38m 47s·held·Jun 25, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Sonic the Hedgehog (JJP) praised for innovative layout, glitter cab, and Eggman mech; concerns about speed and accessibility.

Summary

Orbital Albert reviews Sonic the Hedgehog machine through a "Top 5 Rad and 1 Bad" format. He praises the collector's edition cabinet's glitter aesthetic, the unique dual-playfield layout (particularly the large upper playfield), the innovative right ramp with speed effects, the interactive Dr. Robotnik/Eggman boss mech, and the overall game speed that reflects the Sonic theme. He expresses concerns about gameplay visibility through the upper playfield and the game's difficulty for younger/casual players.

Key Claims

  • The CE cabinet glitter implementation is the best since or better than Elton John, possibly the second-most beautiful cab ever (after Harry Potter's Mina Lima version)

    high confidence · Orbital Albert, episode 675, comparing aesthetic qualities across machines

  • The upper playfield takes up approximately 55% or slightly more of the total playfield, larger than Black Knight upper playfield

    medium confidence · Orbital Albert, discussing layout analysis; notes this is his estimate and expects Pinside to dig deeper

  • Steve Ritchie implemented a clear coat (plastic/polyurethane) on both sides of the upper playfield to maintain visibility of the lower playfield

    medium confidence · Orbital Albert, citing Steve Ritchie comments in Loser Kid interview

  • The game speed is so fast that younger children (5-12 years old) may struggle, despite the kid-friendly Sonic theme

    high confidence · Orbital Albert, direct observation from gameplay videos

  • The right ramp features a magnetic speed boost effect when the ball hits it, creating a distinctive visual and audio effect

    high confidence · Orbital Albert, describing observations from Tilt Pinball and other gameplay footage

  • Dr. Robotnik/Eggman mech moves left, right, and up/down, allowing players to bash and smash it with the ball

    high confidence · Orbital Albert, describing gameplay mechanics seen in promotional videos

  • Jersey Jack deleted their initial gameplay livestream quickly because it was poorly shot (over-the-shoulder, washed out)

    high confidence · Orbital Albert, direct observation of the deleted livestream

  • The game lacks left-to-right shot combos because both upper and lower playfields require primarily vertical shooting

    medium confidence · Orbital Albert, structural layout analysis comparing to Star Trek

Notable Quotes

  • “Sonic said, Elton John, hold my beer. I'm going to be the glitter master, not you, right?”

    Orbital Albert @ ~5:00 — Expresses enthusiasm for the Sonic CE cabinet's glitter implementation compared to previous machines

  • “The King of Flow, Steve Ritchie newest pin, Sonic the Hedgehog.”

    Orbital Albert @ ~1:30 — Introduction of the machine and reference to Ritchie's design philosophy/nickname

  • “I think that there's a good chance that that's not true at all. But what is true with this layout is that if the upper playfield is fun, the lower playfield looks to be very fun.”

    Orbital Albert @ ~23:00 — Hedges previous speculation (from paywall episode) while emphasizing the dual-playfield design's potential

  • “Play before you pay. This is the way.”

    Orbital Albert @ ~35:00 — Core advice for prospective buyers given Sonic's speed and difficulty

  • “This man, this man cognitively to me seems like he's still like 110 percent. Like he was just right on with every question that they asked him.”

    Orbital Albert @ ~33:00 — Positive commentary on Steve Ritchie's mental acuity during Loser Kid interview

  • “Dr. Robotnik is by far the most rad thing in this game. I have been very critical of some of the past games, not Harry Potter, of course, but some past games for not having maybe enough interactive toys.”

    Orbital Albert @ ~45:00 — Highlights the boss mech as the game's standout feature and contrasts with previous JJP releases

  • “Wow, I think that is a super fast game. And the king of flow, the king of speed, Steve Ritchie himself, he's out there in his red frickin' Corvette running from the police on the California highway.”

    Orbital Albert @ ~34:00 — Connects the machine's speed design to Ritchie's personal brand and lifestyle

Entities

Sonic the HedgehoggameJersey Jack PinballcompanySteve RitchiepersonOrbital AlbertpersonStern PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyBarrels of FuncompanyHarry Pottergame

Signals

  • ?

    announcement: Sonic the Hedgehog officially released by Jersey Jack Pinball; episode published shortly after launch

    high · Orbital Albert states 'That's right. The King of Flow, Steve Ritchie's newest pin, Sonic the Hedgehog' and discusses the game as recently released

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Game features exceptionally fast ball speed and physics, particularly on upper playfield; challenging for younger/casual players

    high · Orbital Albert observes balls reach upper playfield 'in record time' and notes 'The speed when you're on the upper playfield, maybe almost too fast for most players'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Interactive Dr. Robotnik/Eggman boss mech moves in multiple directions (left, right, up, down); ball-bashing mechanic with thematic integration

    high · Orbital Albert highlights Dr. Robotnik as '#1 most rad' and describes it as 'innovative mech' that moves left/right/up/down with player interaction

  • ?

    design_innovation: Dual-playfield design with exceptionally large upper playfield (55%+ of total space); upper playfield includes speed-boost ramp and loop-to-loop shot

    high · Orbital Albert analyzes: 'it looks like it's taking up at least 55%' and compares to Black Knight's ~40% upper playfield; notes this is 'the most unique layout' in his decade of coverage

  • ?

    design_innovation: Right ramp features magnetic speed-boost effect that dramatically accelerates ball return to flippers; creates distinctive Sonic-themed audio/visual cue

    high · Orbital Albert describes seeing 'the ball like get magnet thrown up it like so fast' and hears Sonic power-up sound effect when ball hits ramp

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.116

0:00
Sous-titrage ST' 501 Pimball Nerds Podcast, coming to you from beautiful River Higerts, Nova Scotia.
0:43
Welcome back, Pimball Nerds, to episode 675 of your fifth favorite Pimball Podcast. My name is Orbital Albert, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking all about the top five rad and one bad of Jersey Jack's newest offering, That's right. The King of Flow, Steve Ritchie's newest pin, Sonic the Hedgehog. All right. So before we get into it, I'm just going to be honest. Part of the reason why I did create a Patreon for the show is because if I had a little too hot for TV and, you know, was maybe a little bit more critical of either content creators or companies than I prefer to be, I reserve the right to later on put that behind the paywall. And that's exactly what happened to episode 674. I thought maybe I was a little harsh on one or two pinball companies and one or two content creators. So I stuck that behind the wall. But a couple hundred of you did manage to listen to it in the first few days it was out there. And to any of you, I did warn you at the start of that show, it was going to be a little rough. I'll be honest, if you go, you know, two months with only doing two shows, and I almost had a cheater show where I had Jamie on from, of course, the JBS show where we just talked about TPF. Thank you, Jamie, for doing that. But that was such an easy show. It's just two guys talking, mostly him telling me all about TPF. Like, I really got rusty. I got rusty. And I'm going to try to be better today. I have some more notes. I'm going to try to stay more on track. And let's just get into it. We're a minute and a half in, so let's just jump in here because I am excited for new pinball day. I will also apologize that my top five rad and one bad was not up two days ago. We were notified the day that Sonic the Hedgehog came out by Nova Scotia Power that we were going to be losing power for three to six hours while they're doing maintenance work on the lines. Which is really, really good for me to hear when it's summertime and it's not either blazing hot and you would need air conditioning or freezing cold and you would need heat.
2:50
Black Knight Sword of Rage
game
Tilt Pinballcompany/organization
Loser Kidperson/content_creator
Retro Ralphperson
Zach Sharpeperson
Joshperson
Scottperson
Elizabeth Gieskeperson
Travis Mosemanperson
Pokemongame
Transformersgame
Guardians of the Galaxygame
  • ?

    product_concern: Large upper playfield may obscure visibility of lower playfield; reliability of transparent coating (plastic/polyurethane) unclear until in-the-field testing

    medium · Orbital Albert notes 'the only way to test that, and let's hope Jersey Jack has tested this' and cites Steve Ritchie's mention of 'some type of clear coat that's applied or plastic or polyurethane'

  • ?

    product_concern: Loop-to-loop shot on far right may be difficult/inaccessible; observed zero successful loop hits in available gameplay footage despite multiple attempts

    medium · Orbital Albert states 'I've been watching the loop exactly zero times' in 15-minute gameplay and notes 'a couple times they just barely hit the ball' on the ramp instead

  • ?

    content_signal: Early official JJP gameplay footage was poorly executed (deleted quickly); community content creators (On Tilt, Retro Ralph, Flip N Out) provided higher-quality early coverage

    high · Orbital Albert notes JJP 'posted a 15-minute portion of their live stream and then deleted very quickly' due to poor camera work; praises On Tilt and Retro Ralph alternatives

  • ?

    collector_signal: Collector's Edition cabinet features extensive glitter implementation; regarded as among the most beautiful modern pinball cabinets aesthetically

    high · Orbital Albert calls glitter 'absolutely gorgeous' and ranks Sonic CE as 'number two' most beautiful cab ever (after Harry Potter), noting it's 'right on brand' for Sonic theme

  • $

    market_signal: Sonic not a limited production run; availability unlike fast-selling competitors (Spooky, Barrels of Fun); 'play before you pay' strategy viable

    medium · Orbital Albert advises 'Play before you pay' because 'they're not going to sell out... Spooky's Next Pin really fast' and notes Sonic's position vs. Barrels of Fun Reserve Club

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Steve Ritchie designed upper playfield gap/width intentionally to avoid criticism of difficulty being too easy (contrast to Black Knight Sword of Rage feedback)

    medium · Orbital Albert speculates: 'I think the real reason why he would have made that gap so wide is so that nobody and their mom could say, oh, that upper playfield is just too easy... that's the feedback that he would have got with Black Knight'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Elizabeth Gieske actively promoting Transformers pinball through livestreams and community engagement; demonstrating content creator strategy for Spooky releases

    high · Orbital Albert observes Gieske 'really awesome' and 'doing her best to try to promote Transformers' on Flip N Out Pinball livestream

    • Because both of those we primarily get from the power grid. So I was like, go at it. If you can make it so that my house doesn't go without power the whole rest of the year when I really, really need it, just go at it. I can be a day late on Sonic the Hedgehog. Even though I like to be the first person out there with content, it didn't happen this time. And also the power didn't go out the day of Sonic, which was good and bad. But then they notified us. We humbly apologize. It's going to be Wednesday from 3.30 till 9.30. And so I had planned to record in the morning, but due to a number of other obligations, my son is graduating from high school this week. His actual graduation is tomorrow. His prom was last week, so shout out to Owen. Or is he a better known Little Orby Jr., LOJ. If you're ever out there in the wild, out and about, especially in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, or who knows, even maybe London, Ontario, if we can get to go home with him for a trip soon. And I say home as London, Ontario just because I spent, you know, 40 years of my 45 year life there. But of course, I do feel like River Herberts, Nova Scotia is my home here. But what I was going on to say is that I just was too busy yesterday. And by the time the power came on at 1030 at night, I was too exhausted. So here I am. I'm sorry. Two days too late. Better late than never. Is that right? Is that right? I think that's what they say. But wait, it's better to be 10 minutes early than one minute late. That one I'm still working on. I haven't quite learned that lesson yet, but let's just get right into it. So number five on the list, and I tried to kind of rank these by how interesting and how cool I think they are, but of course it's a little bit difficult to do that because we've seen very, very, very little gameplay, but we'll talk about that in a second. And most of this list was made before I saw the gameplay. I will just say that. And a couple things had to be revamped after seeing one really poor gameplay and one okay mediocre gameplay video. We haven't seen a really good – I know they can't just bring in Jack Danger of Deadflip to do it, but geez, could you try to, I don't know, contact someone who has more streaming experience. But we'll talk about that in a minute. So number five, I want to start on a positive note here, is the CE Cab. Now, I'm not going to go so far as to say the collector's edition cab. The way that that glitter is implemented is absolutely gorgeous. I don't think we've ever seen glitter so effectively used ever, not even on Elton John. And I said, oh, Elton John, you think you, it's almost like Sonic said, Elton John, hold my beer. I'm going to be the glitter master, not you, right? So, anyways, I love, absolutely love the CE cab and I also, also understand that, you know, I'm not their buyer. I'm not within that range. But wow, that would be great if I could afford that someday. Maybe use two nose, maybe once Drop Target Danielle and I sell the farm, maybe someday I could afford it. Because it is beautiful. I will say that the playfield artwork is exactly how you'd want it. I understand some people wanted the 1990 Sonic. I did too. I am far, far, far more nostalgic for the 1990 Sonic. In fact, I haven't played any Sonic since. I've seen some of the gameplay of the newer games.
    6:20
    But anyways, that would be the big ask. That was not the Sonic. Jersey Jack was offered. So I understand they've got to do what they can. And that glitter cab is just gorgeous. I would say other than the Mina Lima, okay, the top version of Harry Potter, which I still think is the most beautiful cab in all time, I think that this Sonic, to me personally, is coming in at number two. I think I can't – I would have to see it in person, of course. Glitter can be deceiving depending on how you take pictures of it. It can look better than it looks in person. It sometimes will look not as good as it will look in person, but wow. Overall, I think it looks incredible, and I can't wait to see it in person. I just – just, you know, between the play field, those – what are those extra little lights they have, everything else? From an artwork and an aesthetic point of view, they have – sorry, Franchi – knocked it out of the park. And by the way, to anyone who saw the title of the last show, yes, I did clickbait you. I'm sorry, guys. Sometimes I do that. I've got to have a reason for you to listen, especially with those long episodes. Today I have no clickbait for you. It's just a top five and one rad. And it's just a thank you to everyone who even got, you know, even a quarter through that last episode because it probably wasn't my best. But let's just get back to Glitter Cap because Glittergate is no more. These guys have unmistakably gone glitter crazy and it's for the good. I think it looks great. I think it's right on brand. You know, everything that Sonic does sparkles between the rings and the diamonds and the gems. Okay, so I get it. Also, number four on this list, what a unique layout in all my years of covering pinball, which is almost a decade now. And then I don't even know, like, you know, however long playing since like grade seven or grade eight when I first, you know, really started playing pinball on arcades.
    8:12
    I've never seen a layout quite like this. It's almost like the first time that people walked up and saw Black Knight by Steve Ritchie. They went, oh my gosh, like the OG one, not the Stern one, okay. We'll talk about that in a second, but that upper playfield, a lot of people say that the new Black Knight, I think that was Sir Richie's last machine over at Stern, that the upper playfield is not very fun at all, especially on, is it the pro that just has hardly nothing up there and you can just keep it going forever and ever and ever and it's not that hard and it's not that fun. And tournament players love and or hate it because you could just, if you know how to rinse and repeat up there, you could just go for hours. And sometimes people have. So I think that became a point of contention or either that or maybe it was the premium that was easier to keep it up there. But this particular playfield, I will say this upper playfield is so unique because of the size. Think of even the old Black Knight. I would say the old Black Knight, it takes up about a third of the upper playfield is or a third of the entire playfield. Maybe even, you know, like 40%. Nah, nah, nah, nah. Hold my beer, Old Black Knight, because, wow, this playfield's taking up what? Like, it looks like, ah, someone will dig into this on Pinside or something, but it looks like it's taking up at least 55%. It looks like with the Widow Peak coming down there way past half that it actually takes up just I would guess slightly more than half Maybe it slightly under maybe it 49 But I never seen an upper playfield take up so much space And it's absolutely okay that an upper playfield takes up that much space if one of two things is happening. A, if it's fun as hell to shoot. And B, if you can see what's going on underneath that playfield. So the only way to test that, and let's hope Jersey Jack has tested this, I'm going to go ahead and assume they have, and at least under their testing, the amount of testing they've done, apparently Steve Ritchie on the Loser Kid interview was saying that there's some type of clear coat that's applied or plastic or polyurethane or something. So there's something that's put on top and on bottom to make sure that it stays clear. And if it stays clear and you can actually see everything that's going on underneath that giant playfield, it's kind of like you got a twofer. You know what I mean? Like a twofer one. Like when you go to a pizza place, you pay for one and you get two, right? It's kind of like that because it's like, I will say this, the avatars lower playfields, even though there's multiple of them, none of them look that fun. And from what I've been told from people who have played it, they just aren't that exciting. I'm sorry. They seem okay probably the first few times because it's very it's it's the first few times. It's novel, I guess. But this upper play field has a lot of shots to it in itself and looks very fun and very interesting, but very fast. It's hard. It's easy to get it up there. It's hard to keep it up there. Okay, so that is something to think about. But this layout just looks so unique and so interesting and so different from anything we've seen a long time. You kind of have two playfields and that lower playfield looks more fun to play than I even thought it would be originally. That lower playfield is giving me vibes of, of course, a little bit like Pokemon because it's got that center battle area that's very, very similar. And to anyone saying that like either Sonic copied Pokemon or Pokemon copied Sonic, absolutely not. If they both kind of copied Junkyard, sure. If they both have kind of copied, you know what I mean? But the thing is, both of these pinball machines would have been being created for so long individually that I would be, even though I like to put on my conspiracy hat from time to time, and I did on my last episode talk about why I believe it's possible, even though it's very rare, that maybe the reason you got the touch was added last minute and Optimus Prime could not be. I'll move last minute why I thought maybe it's possible those two things are related. So shout out to the one or two of you that managed to listen to that episode before it went behind the paywall there.
    12:29
    I think that there's a good chance that that's not true at all. But what is true with this layout is that if the upper playfield is fun, the lower playfield looks to be very fun. If the upper playfield is fun and we can see some better players play it because I only saw a very short version of the live stream that Jersey Jack put up and then deleted very quickly, which I'm glad they did because it was extremely washed out. It was like over the shoulder. It was shot very strange. I don't know if it was like it almost was like they had the camera on the guy's head or the guy's shoulder or something. It was very strange how they were shooting it. I only saw it for honestly maybe a minute and a half and then it was deleted. I caught the very, very end of it as our power was coming on. And then I did catch On Tilt. So they're called On Tilt Pinball. They posted a 15-minute portion of their live stream. And their live stream was better. I don't think they had direct audio because you could hear the flippers really, really, really loud. So it would have been nice to have the game volume be a little bit louder. Also, they weren't showing the video, so I don't know if that was due to copyright rules, but it would have been really nice to see the video screen.
    13:40
    It was cool that they had a camera on the upper playfield. Again, you weren't seeing – if they did get the ball up there, they usually got like on average one or two shots before it went down, sometimes no shots it seemed like. So that upper playfield is no joke, and I think the reason why Steve Ritchie would have made this unique layout at the top so interesting and different and made that gap so wide, I think the real reason why he would have made that gap so wide is so that nobody and their mom could say, oh, that upper playfield is just too easy, right, and keep it going and going and going because that's the feedback that he would have got with Black Knight Sword of Rage, right, Cern's upper playfield, as we were just talking about. So I think it's a very unique layout and I celebrate that because too often it kind of seems like it's rehashed. Like you can think about it, that upper playfield looks like no other playfield I've ever seen. The lower playfield, yeah, like the battle area kind of like Pokemon. The other stuff, I don't know, maybe more reminiscent because the shots seem pretty far up the playfield a lot of them. There's not any really important, I guess my only, if I had to be critical about the unique layout is, even though it's not a two flipper game, it kind of is, hear me out here for a second, you either are using two flippers to go more so vertical on the bottom of a playfield, or the main playfield is, if you will, or you're using two flippers to make primarily vertical shots on the upper playfield. But regardless of which playfield you're on, there's no left or right shots. So you don't really get those fun little combos that you would get like on Steve Ritchie's masterpiece Star Trek, right? So that's got to be my favorite thing is that that upper right flipper allows you to nail either a shot to the orbit and then all of a sudden you have a really fun shot to combo into one of the – I know you can combo into the one ramp and then there's another shot you can combo into. And from time to time, you can even actually hit. It's very, very, very hard, but you can actually hit the dangling thing, depending on the ball spin and everything else. Like whatever it is that you – what is it? The Starship Enterprise, I guess. I think that's what it is. So when that's hanging down. So, yeah, really, really, really unique layout. And now this one, I actually – number three on the list originally was the loop-de-loop, but I had to take out the loop because after seeing it go around, I've been watching the loop exactly zero times, and I re-watched this 15 minutes twice. Maybe it does, and I just missed it because I was running around and tidying up the house and doing some other stuff while I was watching, but I tried to watch for it every second I could. I did not see it hit the loop. So in reality, maybe I'm wrong, but what I did see is it hit that right ramp. And oh, my God, Steve Ritchie explaining it doesn't do it justice. Even in Retro Ralph's video, even the Flippin' Out video. And thank you to both Retro Ralph and Zach over there at Flippin' Out for doing those two videos. I watched both of them and enjoyed both of them. Zach's was more of a shorter five-minute kind of part. And then Retro Ralph's was really neat. He's kind of doing like a blog of how he interacts with it and everything. That was really interesting to see as well. So they were both very well done. But in none of the videos I saw until I saw the live stream, a couple times they just barely hit the ball. And I don't know the people from Until Pinball. I don't know how many games they got to play before this. I'm sure they were just finding the shots. You know what I mean? It sounded like they hadn't played it a lot before, if I had to guess. And obviously it just came out recently. So, yes, they probably haven't been playing it for weeks or months. But as they were slowly finding the shots, a couple times the ball only got like halfway or quarter way up that ramp. And all of a sudden you heard the, I'm doing a, that's a really, really, really bad version of, I'm normally bad at sound effects, but not that bad. Whatever it is, you know, when Sonic is like powering up or when he hits like the speed zone and he goes much quicker. Well, when it hits that ramp, just seeing the ball like get magnet thrown up it like so fast, that looks really cool. So that's like I don't know if that will get old. Like every time like so I could see myself just like even if that ramp isn't even lit for extra points or anything like that, just hitting it towards it, just especially in multiball just to enjoy like I don't know. Like I wonder if you hit three balls at it at once, what would happen? I don't just interesting. It's going to make for some interesting gameplay, I think. And it looks cool. I think overall the loop to loop, because not only can you hit it up the loop to loop, it is so far to the right, though. It's going to be right on the tip of your flipper. And again, like, you know, the few times the loop was lit, I did not see them hit it. But I know it was lit for at least one of the modes and it was, you know, all the lights were, the LEDs were going underneath it saying, hit the loop. And if you do hit the loop, I guess it can go up and then it can pause up there and then shoot back at you really fast. And that seems cool, too, that the loop can be used both directions. That's really innovative and interesting. So I don't want to leave the loop out, if you will. I don't think the loop has any feelings. He's not going to go home crying tonight, okay? It's not a super woke loop, don't worry. But that was rude. Come on, Albert. We're trying to be nice today. But just to me personally, maybe just because I saw the ramp work like five or six times and I didn't see the loop work at all, to me personally, I think that the ramp is maybe more innovative and interesting. And I could see that ramp being implemented more often than the loop again I don know The loop was I guess a little underwhelming even in the videos I saw being used But I think in person maybe especially if it a really tough it looks like a tough tight shot Maybe just hitting it, it's like it's worth a lot of points or it starts a really cool mode or, you know, if it does something really cool, but it's still a really tough shot, like on Guardians of the Galaxy, that scoop to the right, it kind of looks like it's almost in that realm of just on the very tip of your flipper. It is rewarding when you do finally hit it in there, if you do finally hit it in there. Okay, let's get into number two. Can I have a sip of my coffee? You guys, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, treat yourself to a sip. If you can safely, okay, if you're operating an aircraft right now, if you're driving, if you're flying a 747 and you're about to land or take off, okay, don't take a sip of coffee. But everybody else, you are excused. Unless you're in the bathroom, get your coffee out of there. That's just weird. All right.
    20:23
    So we're drinking other people's coffee. For like five years, I only drank Angry Alpaca coffee. And now we have to like, we have to be like everybody else, the non-coffee owner peasants and just search out other coffee brands at good prices that taste yummy. It's all right. I kind of miss it. We're on hiatus. I don't know if we're going to sell it. I don't know if we're done. We'll figure it out. So number two is the speed. Oh my God. This, and I don't even know how, especially without those side-to-side shot combos. I don't know how, but these balls get up to that upper. However, the balls, however they're getting up there, they get, I think it's on the left, not the left orbit, but just like to the ramp maybe right there. The ball gets up to the upper playfield in record time and you're shooting immediately. It's so fast that I saw them miss it multiple times. It almost seems like, remember in Halloween that it had those lifters or whatever that brought the ball back to the in lanes really quickly? It almost seemed like something like that, how fast they got up there and how fast the ball was launching down at your flippers. Like it was on fire, which it should be. It's sonic. It's all about speed and going quickly. Okay.
    21:35
    But wow. And then when you shot, like I said, you shot that ramp to the right, no matter how fast you shot it, even if you shot it like really well. And it seems like it's, I don't know if this is true. Maybe this is just, maybe the on tilt people are just on point. Maybe they just tuned in their flippers perfectly. I have no clue. But it seemed like those flippers were having no issues hitting anything. What I will say is it did look like a couple of those shots are very tight. This is not an easy player like Pokemon without a single solitary hard shot. It looks like there is multiple challenging shots. A couple times I saw players brick five, six times in a row without hitting anything. And I think that's when they were going for the more challenging shots like that right ramp is very wide open and such. But anyways, the speed of this machine is so fast. The speed when you're on the upper playfield, maybe almost too fast for most players. And although this is a very kid-friendly theme, I'm not 100% sure. I think if you're like 12 to 20, it'd be fine. But I think if you're like 5 to 10, maybe even 10 to 12, it's just going to be such a quick game. You know, of course you can slow it down a little bit by having it less, you know, by making it less steep and such. But, wow, I think that is a super fast game. And the king of flow, the king of speed, Steve Ritchie himself, he's out there in his red frickin' Corvette running from the police on the California highway. Still to this day, and I will say this also, for a man just of his age, for a man of any age, I'll be honest, he did the Loser Kid interview. And shout out to Josh and Scott for that. That was very well done. Wow. This man, this man cognitively to me seems like he's still like 110 percent. Like he was just right on with every question that they asked him. He knew the answer. If he wasn't sure he was OK to say so, you know, he tried his best to be forthcoming about everything. And I think that I think this is going to be a good game for them. Um, I, I do, the really good news is everybody can abide by my number one piece of advice, play before you pay. Because whether, whether or not you want that collector's edition with all the glitter or you're thinking you're just going to go, what is it, the arcade or the, do they call it the limited edition, the lower end? It's so confusing, Jersy Jack. Why can't all the pinball companies just get together and call them all the same? I don't know. So, but whether or not we ever get an explanation for why or how this game is so freaking fast is still up in the air, but go play it. Play before you pay. This is the way. Because they're not limited, because they're not going to sell out Spooky's Next Pin really fast, because they're not going to sell out potentially Barrels of Fun. Barrels of Fun? Boff? Can we just call them Boff? Well, because Barrels of Fun will typically sell out very, very, very quickly.
    24:37
    With the Barrel Reserve Club, I'm not 100% sure they will sell out as fast as they would have without it. But, you know, I go into more detail on that, let's just say, on my Now Behind the Paywall podcast, which you can go listen to over there if you'd like. But let's go on to the number one most rad before we have to talk about that one bad. And the most rad by far is, Domo Arigato, Dr. Robotnik, thank you very much for, or wait, no, sorry, I am the Eggman, woo, he is the Eggman, woo, cuckoo, cuchu, he flew over you, watch out as he goes and takes a big poo, all right. Sorry, we're supposed to call him the Eggman, not Dr. Robotnik. So there you go. I'll leave the singing up to Glenn for the rest of the show. How about that? Or at least I'll throw him at the start. So you probably heard him first. And speaking of Glenn, I've got to give a quick happy birthday. Sorry, buddy, I did plan on doing a show on your birthday, but life. And so happy birthday to one of my favorite dudes in all pinball, fellow tribe member, good friend. Honestly, I don't talk to a whole bunch of people in pinball nowadays like I used to. There was a day in time when I was talking to like 20, 30 other people in pinball every single day, and now I'm honestly a lot less plugged in. I still go on Facebook probably more than I should, but I'm mostly an observer. I like from time to time or do the odd comment. I do enjoy joining live streams. I was in the Elizabeth Gieske was in the Flippin' Out live stream last night with Joel and Jared. That was pretty cool to see her in there answering all the questions and trying to show them what to shoot, trying her best. She's really awesome. I think she's doing her best to try to promote Transformers. And I think that I think that I think that if you want to see how good the flow on Transformers is and how cool the code is, although watching Jared and Joel and Joel especially does get a decent amount through the game, I would suggest going and watching Travis Murie over there on the Pinball Company on his YouTube channel. And well, I guess it's his company's YouTube channel, but he does a great job. I watched that tutorial. He does a great job just showing the flow and kind of just some of the simple code, like not that the code simple, but like showing you simply how to start a mode and how to bring in a side quest. And he does a really good job explaining it and kind of blowing it up a little and just showing you not just how to get some good points in it for tournament players, but just explaining kind of how the code works in general. So anyways, so many content creators, so little time, can't spend all day shouting out. So we've got to talk about the Eggman, okay? When I was younger, they used to call me Eggbert. I don't know why. But maybe it's because I just love eggs and bacon so much. Who knows? Give me all the eggs and bacon you got. Ron Swanson. Thank you. All right. Give me a Parks and Rec Seinfeld or The Office Pinball machine already. Bring back comedy. Make comedy great again in pinball. Can we do that? Can we do that? All right. So Dr. Robotnik, I left Dr. Robotnik for number one because he is by far the most rad thing in this game. I have been very critical of some of the past games, not Harry Potter, of course, but some past games for not having maybe enough interactive toys. Ironically, I think Toy Story did have a lot of interactive toys, which was Pat Lawler's last pin. For other reasons, Toy Story was not beloved. By the way, my wife just got to go see Toy Story 5 and she really enjoyed it. She thought it was better than probably, honestly, all of the other ones other than 1 and 2. She wasn't going to say it was better than Toy Story 1 or Toy Story 2. Come on. Those are the OGs. You don't go against the OGs. But other than that, she did think it was actually really good. She enjoyed it. But yeah, Dr. Robotnik not only goes left and right, but he also goes up and down. And you kind of like bash and smash along the bottom of him there. And it looks like in the videos like you are actually really hitting him. Sometimes you'll see the ball go under him, and I think that's when he's lifting up. So my only fear would be that when you get in the mode that you fighting Dr Robotnik the Eggman sorry when you fighting the Eggman that it I mean if you not a really good shooter I think there at least two ways to get back up to that upper playfield maybe more But like if you not a really good shooter you could spend depending on how short that hurry up or how long that boss fight is with the Eggman You could spend a lot of shots trying to get back up there. Right. So I could see that. And I hope that they implement it fairly often. I hope the boss battles aren't something you only see like one in 10 games, one in 15 games. I hope they implement it fairly often because that is the type of mech I'm talking about. This, what an innovative mech. You know, he's chilling in the garage or something like that, and then he comes out. He's going left. He's going right.
    29:44
    I have to just say I can't wait to shoot it, and whatever mode it is that gets that guy to come out and make you fight him, I can't wait to play that because that looks so cool. I think I'm trying to think of, like, the crane from P3 Multimorphic. That was a super cool mech. Obviously, the big building in Godzilla, right? But like, really, this Dr. Robotnik is more on theme. It is, it's just, it's intelligent use of how it works is so cool. We didn't really see the jetpack implemented in 007 that well, I don't believe. Even though I guess that is on theme as well. But wow, I can't wait to play it for that reason and many more. Now the asterisk I wanted to leave in here, I am not a topper guy, okay? And I know the topper only comes with the CE. So I tried to include in my top five rad and one bad, not like I would never put a shooter rod in, I would never put in like inner art blades, you know? And I also probably would never add in topper to top five rad. Quite often we don't see what the topper looks like when the pinball machine first comes out. And also the topper is not included with all the models. But I will say this, that topper, although I don't think it's quite as cool as the Magic Curb, I think it's right up there. I think it is really, really cool. I would like to see it implemented a bit more. It was only seemingly like doing stuff, maybe like one in every two or three minutes. I would rather see it having like even just like micro movements where it's just moving a little bit there. Like, hey, what's going on? What's happening? Why aren't you starting a mode where I'm doing something? I would like to see the topper used just a bit more, but when the topper was implemented with the 3D graphics or the lenticular, it almost looked lenticular even though it obviously isn't. Like with the screen and the, I don't know what you'd call it, like with the fade going back when Sonic moves or Dr. Robotnik on the other side or whatever. It's really neat. It's really interesting. It's really cool. I hope they implement it really well. That is a cool topper. Now my one bad because there always has to be a bad I've got to make sure I'm not too shilly and I am a little bit you know I got to make sure that I try to you know are you listening Jersey Jack I got to make sure that everyone knows that I don't think it's a perfect machine and I think it is a massive massive I think that it's a gamble to have an upper play field that big because it does. Obviously, by only having I still think the lower playfield in itself is super fun and more fun than I thought it would be, to be honest. But that upper playfield, it seems like every time you up there, you're almost like and again, maybe we need to see like a more skilled player play it. But it seems like you're just holding on for dear life. Like I said, I watched the ball go up there multiple times. It's not hard to get the ball up there. It's hard to get the ball to like some of those shots look very, very challenging from up there. Um, maybe not the two, uh, they're not drop targets, but they are, you know, they look like the pushback things. Those look fine because you can hit them from any side really. And it looks like they would probably, it would count as like hitting it. But some of those other shots look pretty tricky. Now, maybe once you get in the flow of it, it is easy to keep it up there and I'm completely wrong. But if it's too easy to stay up there, then you have what I call the Scooby Dooby issue that Spooky had, where they had this upper playfield where every time you got up there after about four to eight minutes even as a mediocre pinball player you go okay well I'm kind of sick of being up here I'd rather actually play the game game but then the lower game game suffered because you couldn't see like a third of the playfield so you you kind of had only two-thirds of a playfield on the bottom of Scooby-Doo and one-third of a playfield at the top and therefore you didn't have one full fun playing playfield and I don't feel like Sonic has that issue due to the fact that it's that Plexiglas That you can see through down to that lower playfield. And I also think the lower playfield in itself is super fun, even if you were just playing that by itself. But the question is, is that upper playfield being such an integral part of the modes and an integral part of the game? If you have to be up there, even if the top pinball players who can keep it up there for a long time, and I bet you there will be some pinball players who can keep it up there three, four, maybe five minutes, depending on the setup. If you have to keep it up there a long time, but the shots aren't that fun. And so far, I don't know. I would either have to play it before I pay for it, like I always say. I would either have to play before I pay, or I would just need to see quite a few more live streams. And I would have to, or at least one live stream with a variety of different players. So I think that's something Stern does really well when they do a live stream or a gameplay video. They make sure to have one or two players who are like middle. There's no one who works at Stern who's a horrible pinball player or they're not going to bring in the custodian who doesn't even know what pinball is just to double flip on all of them. But maybe they would. Who knows? Prove me wrong, Stern. I want to see it. I want to see it. That would be funny. Like, just to prove Orbital Albert wrong, we brought in the custodian. And then he's just like – it's like Good Will Hunting and he's just like – he's a pinball wizard. Okay, sorry. That song is not allowed on the show. Who knows? Anyways, I hope that the upper playfield is fun. It looks like it has potential. You're not up there too long. It looks like for 99% of players, you're not going to be up there for too long if it's not that fun until Dr. Robotnik comes out. Then it looks hella fun for sure. But until that exact moment, so just Jersey Jack, if you're listening, make sure there's multiple modes where you can go against the boss, including one or two easy to get to the end of modes. Because not just for kids, but just for average, mediocre, everyday pinball players that are going to be at the arcade, we want to make sure that, you know, your main mech, your most fun mech by far in the entire game, I think everyone can agree on that. We want to make sure the highest percentage of players can see it, not just the top pinball nerds. Anyways, guys, I hope you enjoyed that show. I really enjoyed talking to you guys about it. But I am just getting over a cold so my voice isn't exactly where I would want it. But hopefully today's episode did sound a little bit better than the one from the other day because I am on my sure six that I got gifted from Retro Ralph. So shout out to Retro Ralph. Make sure you go check out his content. I can't wait to hear like from, you know, the JBS show or the roundtable when they all sit down with Kale and they talk about it. I have not had the chance to go listen to Kale and Serge talk about it, but they break down all the shots. And wow, I can't wait to nerd out on that later today. And you should too if you haven't. Sonic looks great. Congratulations to Jersey Jack and the entire team. I don't know if the sales on the C would have been quite as high as they would have wanted or expected. Maybe the launch could have just, I don't know. It's a little bit of the old je ne sais quoi. I don't know what was missing, but it feels like something was missing from that particular launch that just it wasn't cohesive enough or there wasn't like there was no like one big live stream where everyone was excited. Imagine a big live stream where we had Steve Ritchie there. You had like the coders there. You had all the production there. But I mean, shot really well with direct audio, with really good video. Like imagine how great that live stream would be. And I'm excited, Jersi Jack, if you're listening for that live stream because I'd like to see that happen where we can hear you talk about the game. And if you don't want to do it live, that's fine. We've learned sometimes Stern's lives don't go as they want. That's absolutely fine. Can we at least see like an extended gameplay video with some decent players in there shot with it, not washed out, etc. So, all right, Pinball nerds, please remember to join me on Patreon if you want to help out. I did recently lose my job. And after I lost my job, I did a shout out on my show saying I would really appreciate if anybody would like to join me on Patreon because it is a financial burden on my family. And after saying that, I lost someone on Patreon. So I went from 15 Patreons to 14. So it would be super duper rad if you enjoyed today's show and it was entertaining. It really gets me fired up. If not, that's totally cool. Thank you just for listening and getting to the end. But if you enjoyed it even a little tiny bit, remember that my lowest end Patreon is only $1 per week American or $1.35 a week, I think for Canadians. Australians, you're probably in about that same boat where it's a little bit over $1 a week. But hopefully you find it worth it. And I am going to start continuing to now that I'm back recording a lot much more shows. I'm going to be doing some more Patreon stuff as well. So until next time, Pimball Nerds, remember to eat, sleep, and breathe. Sonic Pimball.