He's got some playful multiplayer. Yeah, he does. Great live stream last night, guys. It went on for two hours. It was broadcast from the Comic-Con or from the hotel, you know, last night. So it was fun watching that and seeing people blow this game up. So what sets this gameplay really apart is the fact that you can pick different characters. And as you pick the different characters, you start with a base of four. As you play in the code, you level up over subsequent plays, and then you can unlock even more. But for now, the character that you choose is what changes which diverters are active during that game. And it looks like you can switch characters mid-game, and you can definitely switch characters at the end of each ball. So, you know, that was interesting. The other thing that I heard from the official Stern podcast that they did, they covered the different musical styles that each of the four main symbiotic characters that you pick, you know, how they integrate into the game, which, you know, I think that's cool. I want to learn more about that. And I think as we go forward, you know, after the game's official release and it's made and it's in people's homes, I think that's where we might see some of the code evolve is they add more music there. So definitely a plus. So, you know, my initial impression, just looking at the play field, I was like this game, you know, I think out of 10 where, you know, Zero is like the worst game ever made, like an unplayable EM or Bone Busters or something. And then, you know, 10 would be one of the greatest games that are around right now. You know, probably Godzilla at the top and the 9.5, you know, Medieval Manus or Fit In, whatever you think. I was giving it a solid like 7.2, you know, which I don't think is a terrible score. I'd give Velvira an 8.1. So it kind of comes in right around there. That was my level of excitement initially after seeing this. It was a serviceable superhero game is what it looked like to me. It looked every bit like a pinball machine, so appropriate, but nothing revolutionary. What did pique my interest, though, is once I watched the gameplay and saw how they've integrated picking your character and playing, and then this new thing they're doing with the code. So with Insider Connected, the idea is that you will scan in your ID so it's personalized to you and connected through the internet. And then as you play, every switch that you hit, every mode that you complete, basically everything that you do will grant you some sort of in-game tracking experience points and allow you to level up. And as you level up, your character becomes more powerful. And I think where this comes in is when you get into a mode where you're battling against, you know, one of the sub-boss enemies of the game or, you know, Carnage or what have you, instead of taking, you know, eight shots to complete that mode, maybe it'll go to six and as you level up maybe you'll get to four and so the idea is that if you're playing you're not quite finishing these modes or it's a little difficult at first the more you play the easier it'll be able to get and that's what really excited me because that means the more you play the farther you're going to be able to progress in the game you know instead of just you know learning the shots and just grinding like we normally do so for us normal pinball folks that aren't you know high level uh tournament players every time we start a game right now since now to when pinball was invented, every time you hit the start button, you're starting at ground zero. You know, you're walking into the cave, grabbing the sword and starting, right? Nothing carries over from the game before. But I think they're going to bring in some of that video gamification of pinball where as you play, you get to, you know, kind of retain at least some of that progress that you've already made. So that sounds awesome. Now, I don't want tournament people to feel left out. That's easily toggleable, you know, so throw it into tournament mode and then everybody starts fresh plate, no randomness, you know, play traditionally like always. But for those of us that want to play more of what I would call like an adventure mode, where, you know, you're building experience and progressing through the game, that's fantastic. Now, following the live stream with Jack Danger and everybody of the gameplay, there was another live stream from the Pinball Podcast community on the Pinball Network. And, you know, they kind of went and discussed as they do. That was also a good stream to watch. but the coder came in and talked a little bit more about you know it's kind of given it was dwight sullivan sorry i said damien earlier i was thinking of golden locks dwight sullivan came in and he was actually doing a little q a there too and so um basically uh your four characters that you start with as you level up and make it all the way through beating the end boss null right this big baddie symbiote guy that will then award you one of three additional marvel characters that you can then play at going forward Wolverine Hulk and Captain America as like their venomized versions right so that that that's great that's fantastic so I threw a quip in there when I was watching this live last night and I was like so what about Null is Null a playable character and then he got right back to me and he's like yes Null is a playable character and that was mind blowing for me I take that to mean after you you know unlock all the three additional characters plus the four you start with, he will become an additional selectable character with like music and stuff. Now, I'm not sure if that's quite what he meant. I don't know if he took me saying Null is a playable character, meaning Null is a character you can play against. But dude, if there's like, you know, secret bosses in this, that is very much in line with what I would expect from like, you know, a fighting video game. You know, you play through Mortal Kombat enough times, you unlock the bosses to play at, and then there's like secret characters that you can unlock. and so i'm loving that so i hope this direction that they're going these are the kinds of things that they've been thinking about because in code updates you could then add you know additional characters potentially now uh the other thing this game has going for it uh venom right uh is that they're using the comic book license and not movie licenses and assets so it's not like they have to go through movie studios and uh you know famous voice actors and things and try to get approval to use their likenesses or whatever. If they've gotten access to the Marvel comic brand, they should be able to keep mining that for content. So I would love to see bonus things come up different times of the year, like, hey, play this game this next week. There's a new character you can play as or something. And we can see that in future code updates. So I love the direction they're going. The layout is serviceable, meaning like it not blowing me away but it doesn look like it terrible right It looks good It Godzilla level you know with magnets and things all over the place There not one spinner in this game for instance you know Bond 60th had four maybe they used them all up I don't know, but the game looks like it'll play okay in spite of the fact that it's missing a spinner, and I like the ripped spinners, and I've even quipped online that I'm thinking about, you know, picking up my own aftermarket spinner and bolting it in there somewhere. It won't register with the gameplay at all but it'll give me some kind of kinetic feedback or whatever so what do you think so um you know the the whole tagline you know like you're the host pick your host and that changes the game this is what they meant by that the character that you pick will set up the diverters and ball pass and things for the game choose your host change the game right right that was the tagline that they were given so um gameplay looks to be fast so in the uh wire forms at either side, there's ball staging areas. It looks like about three balls can be held and each of the wire forms like towards the mid-range of them. You see a picture of the layout, you'll see what I mean. As the balls come down the wire form ramps, they'll kind of drop down this little, you know, three ball high capture area where there's a locking pin and then they can then be subsequently released. But what they were doing during the game play, like when you're playing it, as you hit a ball up into the start of the wire form, if there's a ball that's already staged in one of the locks, it'll go ahead and just kick out and fire to your flipper. so the ball will hit your flipper quicker than it would be normally with gravity coming through there and i think that's kind of where they get a lot of this fast playing aspect of this game so i did have a question like are these balls staged there all the time like you know when you put the six balls in the machine do you have to then independently load each one as well i asked in the chat and what i got back from the coder was like no um as you play you don't have to stage any balls but as you're playing they will then lock in there and then from then on they are staged So, you know, I guess you finish a game, if the balls are still in there, they'll stay in there, and the computer knows where all the appropriate balls are and everything. You know, so that was interesting. It does add some frenzy, and maybe that went into a little bit of the design process of, like, you know, putting these in in lieu of banks of drop targets that we would typically see on the left and right side of the play fields. And apparently a spinner, right? Like, not one spinner. A modern pinball machine with not one spinner. This thing's got to play fantastic when it's in your hands to make up for that. So I'm excited about that. What else did I have I wanted to talk about? We talked about experiences and leveling up. Null playable. I still need some clarification there on if he, like, let it slip that he's a secret character that's in there. You can play as the boss, which, you know, if they're going more video game rule set, that totally is in line. And that seems reasonable. But I do want confirmation of that before I put that out there. So, you know, I'll have to ask that in a subsequent live stream. But wouldn't that be sweet? You know, you get through the game several times. you unlock everything and then there's this final boss that you can play at maybe there's like some cool lighting patterns and music and stuff that come with that um so three different versions pro premium mellow lead which one you're going to get you know a lot of the people love the fast playing and lower price point of the pros i think if you just break it down by artwork um i think the premium has the artwork i like the least uh the le cabinet where it has venom on the side and that blue and black and it's going to have the foil in there and the armor with like the cut out so it looks like it's dripping ooze or whatever uh that is going to look so great in person that for sure the le at least the venom side of the le is going to have the best art for sure the carnage side on the other side is more red but it's going to have the foil in there it's going to look great so that le i think as as a as a total package is going to be looking the best the pro i love the graphics on the pro it's like uh you know it's venom but it's very purple and purple like the Concord Grape Juice purple instead of like, you know, dark, dark like Elvira House of Horrors purple, right? So I like that one second. And then, you know, the kind of red of Carnage and the Black Spider-Man there for the premium, you know, it's okay. I was hoping to go, you know, really dark colors, brooding, dark blues and purples, you know, like just kind of a bruised up looking machine. And instead, it's a little bit more of the, you know, almost like, you know, some trims of Iron Maiden or something, just like a lot of red. so that's where i got um i think that the the changing play field is going to be such a huge component to this game it's only available in the premium and the le version the pro version doesn't have the the tilting bookcase mechanism and it's not going to have a lot of the ball diverting uh aspects of it so i don't know from what they say it's supposed to play faster we haven't seen a gameplay stream yet of the pro it's probably coming up like this week heck it might even happened today so i'll look for that but i think for getting this game with how it's designed the more you play it the more experience points you get uh the nuances between all the different characters i think that like the heart of this gameplay is only going to be available on that premium level end up um so i've already you know full transparency i've already put in my order for a premium that's the one i want should you get an le i think the le is going to look great the limited edition. There's 1,000 of them. The freemium version is coming in just under a hair under $10,000. So it's already expensive. You're looking at the smallest hair under $13,000 for that 1,000 edition limited edition. Here's what it comes with. The foil cabinet art on the sides is going to look great. Is it worth $3,000? You're going to have some custom cut armor with powder coat that will save you a lot of steps and fabrication sourcing and, you know, powder cutting your own armor so okay um but if you want the coin door to match you're gonna have to pull that off and get that dipped anyway um invisiglass will be on there it's about 250 you can add that yourself pretty easily as you can with the shaker motor that it comes with um the interior art blades though i do want to pause here and give a shout out to whoever came up with this uh this decision to go with the uh art graphic mirrored art blades for the interior of the cabinet so as you're playing you know the the plain black inside of the the cabinet play field under the glass instead of just having the acrylic decals like we're typically used to there's been this trend to take the mirror blades which have always been available um but to overlay graphics on top of that mirror and stick those in there and those look like fire i hope those come as an accessory um i've heard a rumor that six weeks after release that's what they're targeting to have the accessories the armor the shooter rod and whatnot and what have you is hopefully a topper but yeah for sure that's really going to elevate it i love the idea first of all i'm going to digress a little bit into mirror blades mirror blades are great because they give you like that illusion that your play field is bigger than it is it reflects a lot of the lights so if you've got a great light package and like a lot of metals and chromes in your game art blades really bring more of that out and they reflect a lot of the light and make it look bigger than it is it's mirror um you know but but you know they do detract a little bit i do like the look of art blades because it kind of completes the look at the playfield art kind of comes up to the sides of the cabinet makes a cohesive package so mirroring those two ideas of bringing the art in there so everything looks complete and finished but also having that reflectiveness i am giddy for that sir i think that's great i'm gonna give somebody a shout out for that mirrored art blades love it uh the other thing you get with the limited edition that you can't really replicate is a actually mirrored back glass instead of just the plastic trans light for the back box So is that all worth For me no No I think But you know if this is what you want you want a special game for your house then I'm not going to call anybody that went in on the limited edition foolish because I think you're going to have a great-looking package, something that I cannot even completely replicate. So those are my thoughts on that. Premium is where I'm at because I want that gameplay. I don't want to spend $13,000, and I'll just have to make do with the fact that the cabinet art isn't quite as good as the Pro or the Limited Edition. That's where I come down on the breakdown of this. All right, so that is all the Venom news that I have to review and give you my views to use for Venom, you guys. That didn't end up rhyming at the end there.