Unser Glied, Glouven. Welcome everybody to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast live and I mean live because I am live on Patreon right now and as I just told people I'm gonna give you my review of Sonic the Hedgehog. My first impression review of the game. I also played Transformers. I'm going to give you my feelings on that game as well. There's in-laws all over this house. Some are at the Home Depot. Some are outside. I'm not going to edit this show. I can read the chat and I want to give you my feelings on the game. I've been waiting to play this game for maybe like a year. Sonic the Hedgehog, Steve Ritchie over at Automated. I first want to say thank you so much to Frank and Mike over at Automated. If you are thinking of getting this game, give Frank a call. He will take care of you. He's a great guy and he has it in his office and I got to play it uninterrupted. I was there at 8 o'clock in the morning. It is now noon. I am back home. It's about 25 minutes away. I am going to say something right now that I think is accurate. I think nobody has played Sonic in America outside of the JJP team more than Kaneda. The reason I'm saying that is I just spent hours on the game, and I mean hours nonstop. I played like about five or six games the normal way and then I did my thing that I did with Harry Potter. I opened up the coin door and I kept ball saving to see what's in the game and I did that for a long time. We're going to talk about this because I wanted to see what is in this game, what is going to come at you as a player and I also wanted to get a sense of the gameplay, The upper play field, everything. I have so many feelings about this game. They're all inside me and I can't wait to share them with each and every one of you. Now, before I get to that, and I'm not going to edit this show, so if there's some pauses or awkward moments or the volume goes up and down, it's just the way these live shows go. I want to say welcome to the 49 people on Patreon that are here right now. I appreciate you being here. I will do my best to sort of maybe field some of your questions as I go. And some of you have played Sonic, and so I am curious if my assessment of this game matches up with some of the stuff that you have experienced with the game. Okay, so before I get to Sonic, I want to quickly cover off on Transformers because I played Transformers for about a half hour. It was a Transformer Pro and I have to say that because it's really empty when you look at the Soundwave and you look at the Grimlock and Optimus is as embarrassing and as bad in person as I thought. You know how some women look better in real life? Optimus looks worse in real life. He's bad. I'm also really taken aback by the Megatron sculpt, which is just seemingly way too big, and the whole thing seems very imbalanced. But here's the thing about Transformers. I want to talk quickly about the code. I thought the code was awesome. I was expecting it to be awesome, and it was. Coming from Sonic and then going over to Transformers, I will say what I love about Transformers, it really does just put you right into the show. From the moment you hit start, the theme song, you got the voices, you've got everything, you got the clips, it really puts you right back into the show. So I did love that aspect of the game. So I didn't play Transformers as much as Sonic, but I will say my feelings on Transformers are this. And I know it's a pro, and I know that Sonic CE is about almost three times the price of Transformers Pro, but there is no denying the fact that this game and Stern Pros, man, they look really, really, really cheap. They used to look cheap, but now they look really, really cheap. That Soundwave plastic is embarrassing. I can't even believe they would think that is good enough. And you know look I enjoyed the game I enjoyed the game There were fun elements to the game I think there a lot of fun shots coming off of that upper right flipper There were a lot of air balls in the game that I was shocked by The drop targets by Megatron were air balling every single time But you know after playing Transformers for about 10 minutes I did walk away feeling like the game design is not the best And the reason why I think Transformers suffers, I don't think there's any rewarding shots up the middle. And I think that that is a huge design issue with the game, in my honest opinion. In fact, there's nothing exciting up the middle and there's also nothing exciting on the right side except for that right ramp which is fun to hit. Other than that, this entire game is so much right to left and so much happening right to left where it does feel very lopsided. And what's kind of funny about that is the left side of the game is where all the dead Autobots are. They don't do anything. They don't transform. They don't interact with the ball. And yes, when you play this game, there is no getting over the fact that Optimus transforming in the truck mode would have radically changed the way this game played. Absolutely. So I don't buy it that it wasn't fun. I could never accept Transformers without Optimus transforming. And again, I just think the shots in this game, when you get a rhythm going, it's fun. But I do think Transformers is a little bit clunky. And I feel like the lack of satisfying shots up the middle is not what most people are really, really going to enjoy. All right. So that's Transformers. Easy pass for me, in my honest opinion. I think if you're in on one or you want one, definitely jump on it. But I think this is going to be another Stern game that really loses a lot of value pretty quickly. And I think Stern's got a big issue with their games and their platforms just looking too cheap. Transformers also, the Pro Edition, when Frank had the lights off, dark. I couldn't see half the game. Stern lighting is abysmal. I mean, there's no reason why a Stern Pro put into a dark game room is almost unplayable. I couldn't even see the top half of the game because of the poor lighting in Stern's platform. And so what I had to do is Frank comes in, I had to turn the lights on. He's like, who turned the lights on? I'm like, I had to turn it on. I couldn't see half of the game. The other thing that was concerning with Transformers was the playfield quality. I mean, it looked like dull. It was all cratered and dimpled. It looked so much cheaper than my Pokemon LE playfield. So I'm curious why Transformers playfield quality looks like crap and Pokemon LE looks incredible. Can someone answer me that? Are they using different methods? Did Pokemon get more attention to detail? I'm not sure. But, you know, maybe the cost cutting on Transformers also led to them sort of taking back some of the clear coat. There's different manufacturers of the playfields, Ozzy. That's terrible. So if you're in on a Transformers, get ready for a crappy playfield from Stern. Are these the ones that were rejects or were they fixed? I don't know. I really don't know. All right, let's talk about Sonic. So I walked into the room and I see Sonic the Hedgehog. It was where Beetlejuice was. And, you know, walking up to the machine for the first time. How did it make me feel? Let me start right there. When you just walk up to it and you see this game for the first time. How did Sonic make me feel? Well, look, it's a Jersey Jack. It's beautiful. It presents beautiful. The ring lights are super cool. But my attention right away, and this is going to be interesting because this grabbed my attention right away. And it's also the thing that I paid the least amount of attention to when the game was going. And that is the topper. The topper is stunning. The screen behind the figures is amazing. The screen is better quality up there than the actual 27 inch screen. I think it's an OLED up there. Absolutely stunning topper. It is like one of the coolest toppers to look at. But you know, listen, when I say this, you will never notice it while you're playing Sonic. So if there are some of you out there that are wondering, is the CE worth it because of the topper? Well, the answer and the truthful answer is this, not to the person playing, it's not. Maybe to your wife or your kids or your friends who are looking at it, maybe. But I spent two and a half hours on this game and you almost never look up And the way Steve got his game designed you are really always looking down because this game is so fast that you almost just hunch over the whole time It's almost like unnatural to look that far up and to like see what's going on with that topper. So I think the topper is cool, but I think the topper is unnecessary on every aspect of this game. It doesn't add anything. It doesn't add much when you're battling Eggman again because this game makes you look down and stay down. You almost don't even notice what's going on on the screen, let alone the topper. Okay, so I walk up to the machine and the first thing you're going to notice is the massive upper play field. And you're also going to be very impressed by the clear upper play field and how clear it is. I mean, it is like see-through. I mean, they nailed it. I've seen other clear upper play fields. There is nothing. There's no scratches. We played this game for hours. Not a mark on it. It is as clear as a crystal clear lake on a beautiful day. There is like absolutely, if I were you, no worries right now that that upper play field is going to block any shots. And it's really cool because when you stand over it, you can see the multi-level game in front of you and it's inviting. There's no sense of, I don't know where these shots go, that you're going to lose the ball anywhere on this game. There's absolutely nothing that blocks the pathway of the ball in Sonic the Hedgehog. Kale, how you doing, brother? Kale, I'm so curious. I can't wait for you to hear my review of this game. So, so, okay, so we play a bunch of games. Me and Frank, we go back and forth. We do two-player games. And, you know, he told me how you can select the different environments that Sonic, the different levels, if you will, of the game. And, you know, I have to say this. After selecting different levels, the music changes a little bit. Obviously, what's on the screen changes a little bit. But when you go from like level one to two, you can start at the top, you can start at the bottom, you can start in the middle. You know, here's my assessment is like no matter what level you picked, no matter what level you select, it always feels like the same game. All right. There's not like this radically different kind of gameplay. There's not like radically different lights. There's not radically different music. Keevin, it just feels like no matter what you're picking, you kind of end up in the same place. It's like ordering different items on the menu and no matter what you ordered, they're going to bring you a hamburger. And that's what it just felt like. It felt like I'm eating the same meal again. I'm in the same level again, even though I'm not in the same level. And the reason you feel that way again, because you spend so much time staring down at the game because it's so fast. And it's like just stop and go, like no pauses. You don't even look up at the screen. And I don't think I've played a pinball machine quite like this, where you are so intently focused on what's below the glass. A lot of that has to do with the upper play field. We're going to get to that and the challenging elements of that upper play field, the reward and the risk factor of being up there. And then all the other shots below the upper playfield because you're so like, you know, tuned in to what's happening below the glass. I hate to say this, but like you almost never look at the screen. This is not a trap your ball frequently and look at what's going on. This is just like, you know, Sonic's video game footage is taking up the whole screen. He's just running. He's moving fast. And there is that disconnect. I mean this when I say that there is that disconnect because absolutely nothing that's happening up there is connected to what you're really doing below the glass. And because of that, I think over time, you get more and more disconnected between the physical gameplay and what is actually on the screen. Now, what is on the screen when you're playing is very beautiful. I just think as a player, when you're in this game and you're, you know, trying to hit your shots, you just aren't going to be looking up there much. And part of that has to do with the more simplistic nature of this game. This isn't like Harry Potter and eight movies. This isn't, you know, a movie with like all these different scenes you remember. There's really not a lot to go back to. And I think that a blessing and a curse with this game And I explain why Because there aren like those things you trying to unlock When you think about it it like what are you actually trying to get to in Sonic right Every game every like video game is the same It like collect the rings get to the final boss battle battle the boss run through the level and then go do it again And so for those of you out there a little bit worried that there's going to be some repetition here and your worries, I'm here to tell you, your worries are accurate. You are going to feel like I just did this. I just spent all this time getting from A to B and now you got to start over maybe with a different level, maybe with a little different music, but it's the same kind of cycle. Now, there are those of you out there that are going to like this kind of cycle because it's just fast. It's not going to stop you in the traditional kind of sense that other games stop you. It's not a narrative-driven game the way some other games are. So for those of you with big collections, this might be a sort of welcome departure from what we're normally used to with some deeper pinball machines, And especially a game like Harry Potter, which I think is the complete opposite of how it comes at you versus Sonic. So, you know, there's a lot of like repetition. So let me get right to, I think, the burning question on everybody's mind is the upper playfield. Now, it is really easy to get up there. It really is. The shot up the middle takes you to the upper playfield. It returns the ball to the upper right flipper. And there's a nice little pause. It flashes so you know a little bit of a delay so you know the ball is coming and you can time your shot. So that is one way to the upper play field. The other way is the left ramp will take you up and it will feed the left flipper of the upper play field. Now, so I have one little gripe. No, no, I've got a lot of like I've got a lot of pros and cons. I'm not even going to, you know, try to categorize them in a dramatic way. But here's my thing. The left flipper is, you know, both flippers do not return the ball to the bottom flippers. And when both ramps, you know, maybe the like right one kind of does, but not all the time. It kind of does, but not a clean return. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's fun. Like if you think about Pokemon, those ramps cleanly return the ball to the flippers to set up your next shot. Now, the left flipper in Sonic returns it to the upper playfield and the right ramp is the magnetic ramp, which does the loop-de-loop. And then sort of like after the loop-de-loop, it drops it and it kind of hits the tip of your right flipper. But it's not like, I'll tell you this, 30 to 40% of the time, the right ramp loop-de-loop will send the ball straight down the middle. Like it drained about 40% of the time. And Jersey Jack knows this. You know how I know they know this? Even if the ball save is not on, when that loop-de-loop happens, it saves the ball if it quickly goes straight down the middle. Now, I did find that to be somewhat frustrating. The magnetic part of the ramp is super cool. It's cool to charge it up. It's cool when you kind of like just kind of barely make it to the ramp and the magnet grabs it and throws it around the loop-de-loop. So the loop-de-loop itself is, it's fine. It's fine. That's the best description of it. It's fine. It's not a wow moment. It gets old pretty quickly, but not like, I don't mind it. You know what I'm saying? It's not like I'm, I don't want to do it anymore. Like it's fun because there's speed attached to it, but it's not as fun as the big looping wire form in Elton John. It's not as fun or dramatic as that. Okay, so when you get to the upper playfield, when you get up there, it's interesting. It really is interesting because there's a lot of shots up there. I don't even want to say how many. I'm assuming it's somewhere in the ballpark of nine shots. It feels like there's orbits. There's a ramp up there and a mini little ramp in the upper right. I think there's even maybe one, another one in the left. There's like one ramp on the right. It sort of locks the ball for a little bit, then comes back around. Then there's another really tight orbit that's right above the upper right flipper. And then there's the two targets. There's a lot up there. And, you know, it's not bad to shoot. It's fine shooting it. But, you know, I will say after I'm going to I'm going to put this in context in a little bit, but it is interesting when I think about my time up there. It's like my time in college was very interesting. When I think about my time on the upper play field, it's like it's a mixed bag because. I almost feel like the shots themselves, it's almost like a mini game on top of a game. And it's almost like there's a tiny little pinball machine sitting on top of this bigger pinball machine. And in a weird way, the sort of what the ball does on the upper play field is almost like more interesting than what it does on the lower play field. But, you know, those shots are very short and they happen very quickly. And your reaction time needs to be immediate because there is that humongous gap where the flippers are. And I have to assume that originally there wasn't even going to be a post there. And then it would have been the worst upper play field in history. So I'm just like curious about, you know, the what led to, you know, Steve wanting to do it this way. And I feel like it would have been more fun if the upper playfield didn't have that big center gap. And I'll explain why later, because this game's like coding and what you need to achieve to get through this game really does require a colossal amount of shots to be hit on that upper playfield, Which is so challenging because you can't trap the ball up there. And, you know, I'm going to explain what kept me on this machine for over an hour trying to get a single Emerald. And gang, you know, I'm going to for those of you who just joined, I played Sonic for like an hour straight, opening the coin door to try to do a couple of things to get through all the levels and to collect all the emeralds. And I'm going to explain to you what I think is the biggest problem right now with Sonic that can be fixed. And I think they're going to fix it. But right now it is it is brutal. So what I'm going to explain happens in this game as you try to get through it. Okay, so you're up there. You're in the upper playfield. Let's talk about like the lower playfield. I feel like this game suffers from a few things. I think there's too many shots. I think there's too many shots underneath the bigger upper playfield. I think Steve would have done himself a favor. If he had simply sort of removed maybe some of those completely like at the ends of the tips of the flipper shots, there's like the chow shot and then there's the other one. Like these targets at the very, very like ends of that fan are just almost impossible to hit. Like you almost have to like ricochet or get a good bounce off the sling. But because you've got those and then another shot, I think, before even the orbit, everything to the outsides of the orbit are really not satisfying and almost just like random deflection kind of targets. But because they're there, every single shot in this game, to me, is just a little too tight. And if you look at it, it's interesting. Look at the left ramp. If you look at the left ramp of this game, look at like the opening to it. It's kind of on a little bit of an angle. It's not like a straight, straight line from that bottom right flipper. And because of that, it's not like the smoothest shot to hit. Same with all the other shots in this game. I almost felt like because they were just a little tight, it's like here's what's crazy. The backhanding of the left ramp is easier to hit than ever hitting it off the right flipper. And vice versa, hitting those drop targets that lock the ball to get to Emerald multiball, Well, hitting those drop targets, there's like the inline drop targets, a lot easier if you trap up on the right flipper and you backhand. Okay, Dave, for some reason I can't read your stuff. You come up as blocked. I don't know why. I don't know what I did. I didn't block Dave Fraser. He's played the game. But Dave, I don't know, man. Maybe text me and I'll read what you say. But for some reason, everyone else can read what you're writing but not me. All right, I don't know if you blocked me, Dave, or something. I don't know what the deal is. So that the thing It like this weird thing in the game where you want there to be just more fast flow and you want the flow to be like going from bottom right to upper left and the flow to be going from bottom left to upper right Right So like you know the speed of like hitting across the playfield ramp is so satisfying And I think in this game, it's interesting. It's like it's not as satisfying as you want it to be. And it's because the shots are tight and there's a lot more bricking in this game than there is in Elton John. John, there's a lot more, you know, it's almost like there's so much to shoot at that if he had taken out a shot or two and just opened them up a little bit, I think it would have been a lot more fun. And I mean that. I think there's a level of, like, frustration and the lack of combos in this game. Because the thing, you know what I'm saying? One of the most satisfying things in pinball is the combo between a left ramp and a right ramp, right? Or a combo orbit. The orbit in this game is super satisfying. It's super fast. It's Steve Ritchie orbit. Others have said it. I'll mirror what they've said. The fact that there was no spinner on the orbit makes no sense. It wouldn't have slowed the ball down at all. I feel like that was a miss. The upper playfield combos are great.