Episode 1102: "Kaneda Plays Potter"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·24m 37s·analyzed·Jun 11, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Kaneda hails Harry Potter as JJP's best shooter mechanically but warns its bloated code undermines an otherwise masterpiece.

Summary

Kaneda provides an extensive hands-on review of Harry Potter pinball after playing it at Automated, praising its exceptional shooting mechanics, layout, and Jersey Jack's manufacturing craft while expressing serious concerns about overly complex code that makes the game difficult to understand and progress through. He criticizes the matte-finish CE cabinet artwork and atrocious topper design, predicts the game will dramatically devalue competing JJP titles (Godfather, Elton John, Avatar) and Stern machines, and recommends the Wizard Edition over the Collector's Edition as the superior choice.

Key Claims

Harry Potter is the best shooting Jersey Jack game ever made, eclipsing Elton John and Avatar
high confidence · Kaneda, direct statement after hands-on play: 'this is the best shooting Jersey Jack game ever made. It is. It eclipses Elton John'
Harry Potter will destroy secondary market value for Godfather, Avatar, and Elton John CEs
high confidence · Kaneda predicting market impact: 'if you own a Godfather Harry Potter is going to destroy the value on your Godfather it going to destroy the value on your avatar' and later 'Godfathers are gonna start to be worth like seven thousand for the ce and five for the le'
The CE cabinet artwork has a matte, coarse finish rather than the shiny gloss of previous JJP CEs
high confidence · Kaneda describing cabinet in-person: 'It's very dull and has a matte like finish. Even when you touch it, it's very coarse and has a very, almost like a rough finish to it'
The game's topper is 'atrocious' and should not have been approved
high confidence · Kaneda's repeated criticism: 'I think it is horrible. I think they should be embarrassed. There is no way this thing ever should have been approved'
The code is overly complex with 96 modes across eight movies, making progression nearly impossible for casual players
high confidence · Kaneda expressing concern: '96 modes eight movies you can't even unlock movies seven and eight until you get through all of one through six all of one through six on a three ball game'
The game has bigger slingshots than typical to reduce outlane drains and is easier to play than other recent JJP games
high confidence · Kaneda's observation: 'I noticed that the slingshots were really big on this game. If you look how long they are, they look longer than normal. I think Jersey Jack did that on purpose'
The Wizard Edition is the better choice over CE due to glossy rad cows and superior topper
high confidence · Kaneda's recommendation: 'I would argue that the Wizard Edition, if it has the glossy radcals, is the way to go. Because I don't think everyone's going to love the matte finish of the CE artwork'

Notable Quotes

“It is like opening up the Ark of the Covenant. There's just like godlike glow coming from the machine, which you just never get on any other machine.”
Kaneda @ early in review — Establishes JJP's superior lighting and visual presentation as a key differentiator from competitors
“It eclipses Elton John...When you go from Harry Potter and walk over to Elton John, which I did, it makes Elton John look empty. Even when you go over to Avatar, it makes that game look empty.”
Kaneda @ gameplay section — Direct comparison establishing Harry Potter's superiority in shooting mechanics and content density versus previous flagship JJP games
“this game just really shines...it just pulls you in because of how beautiful it is, because of how beautiful it shoots, and because of how stunning the overall presentation and platform is of a Jersey Jack game. It's like they nailed the craft of what a pinball machine can be.”
Kaneda @ presentation assessment — Highlights Jersey Jack's manufacturing excellence and design cohesion as core strengths of the title
“It's like Jersey Jack is just giving you now something that just looks so much better than everything else...it hits you in a visceral way that Stern machines just don't.”
Kaneda @ competitive positioning — Explicit statement that Harry Potter outclasses Stern's visual and visceral presentation, with market implications
“I'm worried that this game has got too much they're trying to do with the code so that when you hit start you're not really sure what is happening at the beginning of the game which I don't like and it's just overly complex it's just nothing about it is intuitive.”
Kaneda @ code critique — Main concern about game's long-term satisfaction and accessibility; suggests fundamental design imbalance
“It's too much. And that's my overall assessment of Harry Potter Pinball...They need to dial it down. They need to simplify it and I hope they can do that.”
Kaneda @ conclusion — Summarizes the tension between Harry Potter's mechanical excellence and code overload; suggests JJP needs to do focus group testing

Entities

Kanedaperson Harry Pottergame Jersey Jack PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyEric MinierpersonJoe Katzperson Guns N' Rosesgame

Signals

?
product_concern: Harry Potter's 96 modes across 8 movies with unclear progression logic makes the game difficult to understand and potentially inaccessible to casual players; Kaneda worries the complexity will only increase with future code updates
high · Kaneda's sustained criticism: '96 modes eight movies you can't even unlock movies seven and eight until you get through all of one through six...I don't know what the journey is...It's too much'
?
product_concern: The Collector's Edition cabinet artwork has an unexpectedly matte, coarse finish rather than the glossy, shiny appearance of previous JJP CEs; this impacts the premium aesthetic that justifies the high price point
high · In-person observation: 'It doesn't come through in any of the photos. It's not like that shiny rad cow material that we're all used to. It's very dull and has a matte like finish'
?
product_concern: The Harry Potter topper is judged as 'atrocious,' 'horrible,' and 'a disgrace' on an otherwise beautiful machine; Kaneda suggests JJP should halt production and redesign it
high · Strong language: 'It is even worse than I imagined. It is atrocious...I think they should be embarrassed. There is no way this thing ever should have been approved'
?
design_philosophy: Kaneda criticizes the code team (implicitly Joe Katz) for attempting to do too much at once, lacking finesse and restraint; suggests broader strokes and simplified approach would yield better game experience
high · 'Joe Katz is wearing all of his clothes at once and wants us to feel like he's got good taste. It's too much...They need to dial it down. They need to simplify it'
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Topics

Shooting mechanics and playfield layoutprimaryCode complexity and game progression difficultyprimaryCabinet artwork finish and visual presentationprimarySecondary market devaluation and FOMO pricingprimaryJersey Jack vs Stern competitive positioningprimaryGame development process and focus group testingsecondaryEdition variants (Pro/Premium/CE/Wizard) and pricing strategysecondaryTopper design quality and manufacturing standardssecondary

Sentiment

mixed(0.62)— Kaneda is very enthusiastic about Harry Potter's shooting mechanics, visual presentation, and Jersey Jack's manufacturing craft. However, he expresses serious, sustained concern about the game's overly complex code, which he views as a fundamental flaw that could undermine long-term enjoyment. His tone shifts from euphoric about the hardware to frustrated about the software. Overall positive about the machine as a product but negative about its design philosophy and development approach. The secondary market devaluation prediction and criticism of competitor games (Stern, other JJP titles) adds a somewhat bitter note to the assessment.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.074

We're caught in a trap. I can't walk out. Because I love you too much, baby. I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said. All right. I've done it. I've been there. I've played Harry Potter pinball. I played a bunch of games over at Automated. I return to you now at the turn of the tide. People can stop complaining that I haven't played the pin. Am I now allowed to have an opinion about Harry Potter pinball? It was there. It was next to every major release by Jersey Jack and Stern Pinball. The great thing about seeing Harry Potter at Automated, when John Youssi it in a lineup of everything that's come out over the last bunch of years, you appreciate what Jersey Jack has brought to pinball. I've got a lot of feelings about this game. And I kind of want to walk you through what my experience was walking up to it for the first time, because right now, all I've seen are streams. I've seen videos on the Internet. I've seen all the assets that Jersey Jack has given us. And when I walked up to the machine, it was just there. It was just like I turned the corner and there it is. The first thing I noticed, like all Jersey Jack machines, they light up a room. It is so bright in a dark playing environment, which is what we had. and it really does just pop out. It is like opening up the Ark of the Covenant. There's just like godlike glow coming from the machine, which you just never get on any other machine. Something about the hot rails and the full RGB LEDs. There's just something about the way Jersey Jack machines light up the box that just nobody else does. And it pulls you in, it really does. And that's going to be a theme that you hear throughout this show, this game's ability to pull you in. And keep in mind, this is just me playing it for like an hour, but it definitely does pull you in. The second thing I noticed when walking up to the machine was how dull looking in person the CE cabinet artwork is. And I don't mean dull like it's uninteresting, but I was expecting really shiny, you know, having seen so many Jersey Jacks CEs in person, I have one in my home right now, I was expecting a much glossier, shinier cabinet. And this artwork, it doesn't come through in any of the photos. It's not like that shiny rad cow material that we're all used to. It's very dull and has a matte like finish. Even when you touch it, it's very coarse and has a very, almost like a rough finish to it and certain elements in the art have more like a smooth foil like texture. I didn't love that. I got to be honest. I was expecting it to pop more. I was expecting it to be more shiny and it is much more subdued because I went back and I looked at Elton John. I looked at Godfather. I looked at Avatar. Those rad cows just look better. I mean it. I wish they had done a little bit more shininess in that cabinet, but it kind of goes because the gold armor on the game has a sort of similar subdued look to it. It's not the same armor as Godfather or Elton John. We went and got a lockdown bar from those two games, and it is a different color, so they're not reusing parts for Harry Potter. Okay, so then the next thing I noticed in the game was the topper, because I haven't played it yet. This is just my first time walking up to the machine. I looked at the topper and it is even worse than I imagined. It is atrocious. You might have heard me on my live. I think it is horrible. I think they should be embarrassed. There is no way this thing ever should have been approved. I don't know what Eric was doing. If I'm Jersey Jack, I would hit pause on these toppers and I would start over and I would tell everybody we're going to send you the real topper because it is such a disgrace that on such a beautiful pinball machine, they put the ugliest cherry on top of it. It is really that bad, people. Okay, but we don't love pinball because of rad cows. We don't love pinball because of toppers. We love pinball because it is a world under glass. It is a kinetically satisfying analog experience of a ball rolling around a piece of wood and you want to see how you get the ball from here to there. You want to see the ball do magical stuff. You want the game to come alive in your hands. So what was it like playing Harry Potter? Right next to it was a King Kong premium I got to play. I've been playing Guns and Roses way too much. Some might say two games on Guns N' Roses is too much, but I'm here right now to tell you that this is the best shooting Jersey Jack game ever made. It is. It eclipses Elton John, and the reason why I say that is Elton John is a lot of fun, don't get me wrong, but this game's got a lot more to shoot at. It's got a lot more things happening with the ball That's a lot more interesting. When you go from Harry Potter and walk over to Elton John, which I did, it makes Elton John look empty. Even when you go over to Avatar, it makes that game look empty. When you go over to Godfather, it makes that game look like it wasn't even started. I hate to say this but if you own a Godfather Harry Potter is going to destroy the value on your Godfather it going to destroy the value on your avatar and I think it really going to chip away at all the Elton Johns that have been holding value because it's the best shooting Jersey Jack game to date. And when you start playing it and you enjoy the shots and the geometry and it's not a brick fest and it doesn't drain like crazy on the outlanes like some other Jersey Jack games. I noticed that the slingshots were really big on this game. If you look how long they are, they look longer than normal. And I think Jersey Jack did that on purpose. I think they're trying to make it so you're not going to see a lot of side-to-side action drain the ball. And so it's a much easier game to play than any other Jersey Jack game I've ever played. I think the easiest game before this was probably Toy Story. But there's just something satisfying about shooting this game and looking down at it. It definitely does have a much more World Under Glass feel to it than any of the previous Jersey Jack games we got recently. And look, there's no Hogwarts Castle under there. But what is there? What is there does really pull you in. The gold wire forms, the big diverter staircase, the death eater, the upper quidditch playfield, it all sort of works nicely. Most of the action in this game is happening at the top of the game. So the middle of the game is pretty wide open and that's what makes it very fun to shoot. It's real simple in pinball. You've got to give the ball some space to go to really have flow. And that's why Guns N' Roses is so unsatisfying because it's always crashing into something so close to the flippers and you really can't get any flow in Guns N' Roses even when you lob it up the game because there's nothing on the right side that has any flow whatsoever. And there's really no flow on the left side because you go up that ramp and that's about it. The orbits are all the way on the end. That doesn't really create a lot of satisfying flow. And the upper right flipper shot on Guns N' Roses is clunky. It's not a really satisfying shot to hit. Whereas in this game, the upper right flipper shot is super satisfying. The shots up the middle are very satisfying. How they send the ball either into the staircase. It can go into the pop bumper. There's a little mirror I didn't even notice until I was playing the game that is showing you what the ball is doing. That's really cool. I think someone's going to mob that and make a really nice mirror go there. But I didn't even notice that was there. Looking at any of the streams, the player's point of view of this game, right? We've been seeing so much of the top-down view of Potter. But from a player's point of view, it definitely is an interesting game. It definitely feels like it has more in it than we've seen in the photos. Now, is it packed? I wouldn't use the word packed. I think a third of the game is packed. I think two thirds of the game are kind of empty. I would have liked to have seen something interesting on the left side of the game. There's not even a physical kickback in this game. There's usually a physical kickback in Jersey Jack games. So there's nothing really happening on that left side at all. There's nothing really happening on the right side at all, other than that target that pops up that saves your ball. So there's not a lot of drama or anything really interesting happening in the lower half of the game. It's all about going north on the play field. It's all about the speeds that are happening up there. But there's a lot of really interesting combos in this game I was hitting. and man you can't you can't fall asleep in this game there's moments the ball is coming back at you so damn quick i was like wait a minute did that come from somewhere else i wasn't sure like because when you hit the ball into the staircase area it's firing it in so many different directions i love the fact that the game keeps you on your toes it's not going to get boring and when you play it realizing that that's going to be how this game plays it does make the replay value in it extraordinary it really does it's definitely not going to be a game where you're going to get tired of the way it shoots and i hate to say this this game is really going to make every other jersey jack game age pretty poorly because i think this being the most satisfying jjp game i think people are going to get over the old ones really quickly. It's been forever and a day since we've ever got a Jersey Jack game that's not a music pin that shoots this well. Wonka's not this interesting to shoot. It's not that interesting to shoot dialed in. I think it really is a gameplay winner, and I think Eric should feel really proud about the satisfaction that he's going to give players when they play Harry Potter pinball. I will also say like the artwork is fine. The artwork, I didn't have a problem with it. The lights in the game are fine. There's a lot of lights going on in this game. And when they're doing interesting things with the light shows, it's really cool. They don't use the tiny little LEDs, but when they want to, when they want to create a moment in this game with lighting, they can do a really cool job. I didn't feel like it was rainbow puke. I didn't really know what I was doing either. The one shot that was hard in this game, and I'm sure I'll just find it, was the scoop on the right side. That's how you select the different movies. That's not an easy shot to hit. I'm not sure I ever got to the top, top wire form, which uses the magnet to send the ball in a different way. I got the balls on the magic wand Locking them there was cool There was a lot of satisfaction in that Way more satisfaction than locking the balls in Avatar or Godfather There just something about physical ball locks that are nice to see. So gameplay wise, great game, great layout, super fun to shoot. Does it have a wow mechanism in it? The answer is still no. Even after playing it a bunch, I was wishing there would be a little bit of something more dramatic, something that would just wow when it happens. It's not going to happen in this game. Would I have liked there to have been something, you know, the ball flying through the air a la Houdini, something like the theater of magic trunk. I would have liked there to have been something more like the shooting star outlane save from Toten. Just something mechanically that pops up and does something a little bit more magical, maybe to save your ball, maybe to fly through the air like a wizard, just doesn't have it. Okay. So for those of you that want to call people over, you're not really going to have the thing to show people that this game can do. So there's that. I also felt like looking down at the bottom of the game and I mean this like the bottom half of the game does feel like they stopped spending money in that part of the game like everything's happening at the top the sculpts all the levels of play all the effort something about looking down at the plastics on the slingshot area it just looked like a little cheap it looked like an opportunity to put some sculpts there. I get the modders might do it, but again, we're talking about a $15,000 machine, so I would have liked to have seen something on there, something a little bit more interesting. It didn't bother me because your attention is so much on the gameplay, and that's the thing, is when you make the gameplay so satisfying, it's true, you get away with not having too much other stuff. The flippers are amazing. These flippers are so much better than my Guns N' Roses flippers with the new IO board. This game, I think, has as close to stern flipper feel as you're ever going to feel on a Jersey Jack machine. They also don't sound so loud. We went over to King Kong, and they're so snappy and loud. These just felt a lot more premium. It's weird to say that. It just felt like the way you close a door on a Mercedes and Stern feels like you're closing the door on a Honda Civic. The other thing about this game, and it's hard to sort of, it's hard to really crystallize what I mean by this, but I think this is where Harry Potter just really shines. And I think everyone who plays this might want one because of this. This game is just so magnetically appealing. And by a magnetically appealing, I mean, it just pulls you in because of how beautiful it is, because of how beautiful it shoots, and because of how stunning the overall presentation and platform is of a Jersey Jack game. It's like they nailed the craft of what a pinball machine can be. And this company's been doing it, but I think they finally have done it where it's not unsatisfying after you hit the start button because of the gameplay. But this game wins on craft alone. When you look at this thing next to the lineup of Stern machines they had there, when you look at it next to Pulp Fiction, when you look at it next to all the games, it's like Jersey Jack is just giving you now something that just looks so much better than everything else. And the $10,000 version of this game has everything in it. I would argue that the Wizard Edition, if it has the glossy radcals, is the way to go. Because I don't think everyone's going to love the matte finish of the CE artwork. And I think the CE topper is atrocious. So I think the Wizard Edition, if it has the glossy radcals, is going to be the best version of this game. It's also going to be the best looking version of this game. Because again, the CE's just got a dull finish to it. But it doesn't matter. It's like this game just jumps out at you. It hits you in a visceral way that Stern machines just don't. But this game also has an Achilles heel. And I think the Achilles heel of this game is going to be the code. And after playing this game and really enjoying the way it's shot, I turned around to everybody I was with and I was like, do you have any idea what you're doing? And everyone said no. And then they handed me the rule chart for the game and it was ridiculous. And that's my worry about Harry Potter pinball. I'm not worried about it being stunning. I'm not worried about the gameplay. I'm worried that this game has got too much they're trying to do with the code so that when you hit start you're not really sure what is happening at the beginning of the game which I don't like and it's just overly complex it's just nothing about it is intuitive and there's way too much happening all at once and I'm worried about that because I think there's a masterpiece here if Jersey Jack can dial it down a little bit on the code they've got to figure out a way to use more finesse when they're tackling the subject matter like this. They should have done broader strokes, less of all this stuff happening at once, all these side things and choosing this and choosing that and getting this banner and going to this school and collecting this item They should have broad stroked the major moments in the films that everybody remembers and they should have pulled those through more and let you feel those moments more. We start at this mode and it's Harry at the table with his relatives and the guy's belly is blowing up and John Youssi them talking to each other, but you're not really in it. And here's the crazy part. you can hear very slightly you can hear in a lot of those scenes the sound effects so i do think they have permission to use those clips but for some reason i just feel like the game's trying to do too much all at once and that is my worry about this game is that they might have overdone it in the way they're approaching the software and that could really be detrimental to the overall enjoyment of the game because you still want to feel like you have a grasp of the code of what's going on and I only played it for like an hour but that's my only concern if I'm them I think they need to do what they did with Wonka remember when Wonka came out and nobody got to see a lot of the fun stuff and it was too hard to get to everything but it makes me nervous because wonka was only five golden tickets right five golden tickets unlocked five magical memorable wow moments in the game i'm worried about this because i don't even know like what the journey is 96 modes eight movies you can't even unlock movies seven and eight until you get through all of one through six all of one through six on a three ball game and that's my worry is that you're gonna jump on potter you're gonna have fun playing it but progressing through the game is gonna be impossible because they've just put too much in it and i think the way they're treating this game is that movies seven and eight are kind of like valinor in lord of the rings like they don't expect most people to ever get there or see it and I don't know right it's like when you play Lord of the Rings you can still destroy the ring and get to all the memorable moments in the movies without having to get to Valinor and if you've ever played Lord of the Rings pinball one of the most satisfying moments to get to is there and back again and I'm just worried looking at the map of everything happening in this game. It's too much. It's too much. And that's my overall assessment of Harry Potter Pinball. It's absolutely stunning. It's an amazing shooter. It makes Stern games look like a tinker toy. Stern's got some work to do. It really does. I think this game is going to sell like no other. They're going to make collector's editions first. Then they're going to make one of the other editions. So if you get an early CE, I think your games are going to go up in value because I think people are going to want one, but I actually don't know if the CE is the way to go. I thought I did going into today, but again, I think the Wizard Edition with the Radcals and I actually think the Wizard Edition topper is nicer than that atrocious thing on top of the CE. So gang, you could save yourself a bunch of money. And with them making the CEs unlimited, I don't really see any of the FOMO or the need to get one. They're not even going to have a plaque on it that says this number out of right you're not even gonna know but overall overall I was surprised it doesn't sound like a slot machine I was wrong when you are playing this game in person it doesn't sound like Willy Wonka it doesn't sound like a slot machine there's just so much going on and I think this game will be one of the greatest games of all time if the software team on it can distill it down to something that gives the player a more intimate, approachable game. Right now, as it stands, it is not that. It is too much going on at once. Everything's crashing on top of everything. You start a mode and eight other things are crashing on top of it. It's not intimate. They need to approach it with a little bit more style, a little bit more taste. and right now it just feels like Joe Katz is wearing all of his clothes at once and wants us to feel like he's got good taste. It's too much. I think they need to dial it down. I think they need to simplify it and I hope they can do that. It's one of the reasons why I worry that they don't do any early testing or focus groups on games because I do worry that what we see is what we're going to get. And I worry that they're going to add even more and they don't need to add more. They just need to simplify what they have. Everybody, thank you for being a member of Canadian Pinball Podcast. I love playing new pinball machines. I love it. I can't wait to go back and play this game again. I do kind of wish there was one in my home. I'm going to lose a fortune on Guns N' Roses. My Guns N' Roses CE is after Harry Potter comes out, it's going to be worth eight at most eight seven thousand on top of it to get a damn harry potter ce but that's gonna happen to so many games this game is gonna torpedo the value of your guns and roses your elton john your avatar and your godfather i think out of all of them godfathers are gonna start to be worth like seven thousand for the ce and five for the le i mean it that's how much better harry potter is canada out