Stern Pinball Mandalorian: My First Impression

Cary Hardy·video·20m 58s·analyzed·May 12, 2021

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Mandalorian launch praised for art and execution, but Baby Yoda static toy is a missed design opportunity.

Summary

Cary Hardy reviews the newly announced Stern Pinball Mandalorian machine, praising the art packages across all tiers and the overall launch execution compared to previous releases, but criticizing the static Baby Yoda figurine for lacking animation or interactivity and taking up disproportionate visual real estate. He expresses surprise that the mini-playfield made it into the Pro model, discusses the Pro vs. Premium trade-offs (plastic vs. wire ramps, magnets, mechs), and notes frustration with the 10-day delay before gameplay footage becomes available, which he views as unusually long and potentially harmful to pre-order momentum.

Key Claims

The Baby Yoda figurine in Mandalorian is a static, hollow shell that does nothing mechanically and should have been animated or interactive.
high confidence · Cary directly observes from released imagery and compares to Homer Simpson's head in The Simpsons pinball, which actually reacts to gameplay.
The Mandalorian launch was significantly more successful than Stern's previous title, with no copyright/audio muting issues on social media release.
high confidence · Cary explicitly contrasts this launch with prior Stern releases that had copyright problems.
Randy Martinez's art packages for all three tiers (Pro, Premium, LE) are all good, with Cary personally preferring the Pro due to its orange/yellowish color palette.
high confidence · Cary states this as his observed opinion from released artwork.
One main character from The Mandalorian show is missing from the artwork and game, likely due to Disney's decision rather than Stern's.
medium confidence · Cary speculates without evidence that Disney mandated the exclusion, but acknowledges it's his opinion.
The 10-day delay until Jack Dangerous's gameplay stream (21st) is unusually long and may harm pre-orders, as many players won't commit until seeing gameplay.
high confidence · Cary cites Jack Dangerous's posted stream date and compares it to typical 7-day gaps between reveal and stream.

Notable Quotes

“What was the difference between Homer Simpson's large head and big old baby Yoda? It was the fact that Homer Simpson's large head, say it with me, did something. It reacted with the game. It turned. It moved around. It did something.”
Cary Hardy@ 8:26 — Core criticism: static decorative toy vs. interactive mechanic is the fundamental design miss.
“I feel like Baby Yoda should have done something... have him react with the game to some sort of fashion whether it be his head turns a little bit or his arm moves up and down... I think having him react with what you're doing in the game would have made this game easily a home run.”
Cary Hardy@ 10:00 — Design suggestion: minimal animation would have elevated the toy from decorative liability to design highlight.
“There's a chance that we may see something sooner than that. We'll see. But I want to get close to wrapping up this video by saying, Brian, Brian Eddy, for those of you who don't know, designed this game. Even though I have not seen it shoot yet, I do want to say congratulations, and I am so glad that this title, as of right now, looks better than your previous game.”
Cary Hardy@ 15:02 — Backhanded compliment to Brian Eddy: current game visually superior to his previous Stern design.
“A lot of people, including myself, am not going to put an order in on a game until I see how it shoots, at the bare minimum.”
Cary Hardy@ 13:55 — Market signal: gameplay footage is critical to purchase decision, and delayed reveals directly impact sales.
“I mean, you can buy other things for the game why not give others with the pro the option to upgrade or at least change to the wire forms because it's not there's nothing different aside from the building materials the structure of the game is still the same.”

Entities

Cary Hardyperson Brian Eddyperson Randy MartinezpersonJack DangerouspersonStern PinballcompanyThe Mandaloriangame DisneycompanyDeadflipperson

Signals

?
business_signal: Pro model plastic ramps vs. Premium wire ramps create cost cliff; Cary suggests offering wire ramp upgrade kit (~$200-300) as aftermarket option rather than forcing $2k+ jump to Premium tier.
medium · Cary: 'they could sell the wire form separately as an accessory... why not give others with the pro the option to upgrade... without paying the extra couple of grand for the premium.'
~
sentiment_shift: Mixed community reception in comments: some players excited about theme and art, others concerned about Baby Yoda functionality, color palette, and theme integration depth.
medium · Comments from Ronald, Draven, and Bruno express reservations about color palette, theme integration, and static toy cost-benefit; contrasts with positive comments from Todd Tucky and Cigars and Pins.
?
competitive_signal: Brian Eddy's Mandalorian visually outperforms his previous Stern game, suggesting quality improvement or design growth, though Cary withholds judgment pending gameplay.
medium · Cary: 'I am so glad that this title, as of right now, looks better than your previous game' despite not having seen gameplay yet.
?
design_philosophy: Baby Yoda figurine is static and non-interactive, serving as pure decoration despite occupying prominent visual real estate; disproportionate scale relative to other playfield toys (Razor Crest) creates visual imbalance.
high · Cary compares to Homer Simpson's head in Simpsons pinball which actually moves/reacts. Suggests alternatives: hand movement to push ball, head turns, arm movement, ear movement responding to gameplay modes.
?

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.063

0:00

Gizmodo.com. The company's latest design takes inspiration from Star Wars The Mandalorian and includes a baby Yoda trapped inside who can use the force to manipulate the balls trajectory. Not quite. I mean they did a good job of making it sound cooler than it actually is so I'll give them that.

0:30

What's up guys and welcome back to my channel where I talk and do everything pinball. So if that sounds interesting to you then hit that subscribe button down below. I've already released two videos today regarding Mandalorian and I'm hoping due to those videos release and how short they were that will also make this a shorter video than my typical first impression. I first want to congratulate Stern on a successful launch. This seems to go off much better than their previous title, but they had a little bit of a leak right there close to the finish line before the release. But overall, I think the launch was much more successful. There wasn't any kind of copyright issues with them releasing the video on Facebook or YouTube and the audio being muted and stuff of that nature. For those of you out there that don't care to listen to subjective opinions and everything, especially coming from me, then this video is not going to be for you. So when we're talking about my first impression, let's talk about my real first impression whenever I received the leaked image of the LE. This was very grainy, and it didn't really represent the machine very well. And I was like, you know what? I'm not going to put this out there. I'm not going to do a video on it or anything like that. we're so close to the launch and we're going to see all the high res images and everything and mirror just a few hours away so i was like i got it i saw it and i just let it rest but initially whenever i first saw it the first thing i noticed was obviously the big baby yoda inside of the cabinet and i was like well this is obviously the le i doubt very seriously we're going to be seeing this baby yoda in all tiers and i was wrong but we'll go over more talks on the baby yoda a little bit further into the video first let's talk about the art this is a rare occasion where all art packages for all three tiers are honestly good in my opinion i think i actually prefer the pro due to i'm kind of biased towards the color orange i i don't know it's just kind of a favorite of mine so orangish yellowish hue going on with the pro uh fancies my tickles my pickle better i guess is a word to say it but the premium is also good as well as the le the art packages uh i just need to compliment martinez on the art that i have as of right now i can't think of anything negative about it all characters are in the show are represented on the artwork except for one there's one person that's not on there and those of you that follow all that stuff and junk know why she's not on there oh hi but not having her on the play field or on the artwork or anything like that is not a make or break i don't think for anybody actually although i do feel that she was a main character in the theme so it's i guess it's but whatever i don't think that was Stern's decision on removing her from the game. I'm more than willing to bet that was Disney's decision and that got passed down to Stern that developing the art you were not able to put her in it. That is pure thoughts coming from me. There's no evidence of that, but I'm willing to bet money that that's more than likely what happened. Now let's talk about playfield layout and design and this is also another rare occasion where i'm looking at your pro and your premium i'm not going to talk about the le because it's the same thing as the premium only with extra shiny and fluff but as far as like the core design and layout it's the premium versus the pro and whenever i'm looking at every new release guys i tend to at least let you guys know which one I would prefer to have if I had to choose between the pro or premium or which one I felt like you were getting the best bang for your buck. And I feel that for this game, it's a tough one to call. As of right now, with just the footage that we've seen, it's very difficult for me to go, well, it's obviously the premium. Well, it's obviously the pro. They look like they're both possible winners at this point. Now when it comes to the layout, it's a fan layout and that is not my preference. Not that I dislike them, it's just that I tend to fancy towards the more obscure layouts versus your typical shots all lined out accordingly But I have to say that I not turned off by what I seeing so far This looks like a safe shooter when it comes to successful shots at least So because when you make a shot it's going to come smoothly back to you except for one and I kind of went over that a little bit in my shots and layout video. There is the the horseshoe style that doesn't smoothly come back. It goes underneath your right ramp, hits the side rail, and then it looks like it more than likely goes straight to your left slingshot, which is going to put it in an uncontrollable state of chaos. Once again, we have no gameplay of just someone playing it, so it's difficult to tell at this point. Now let's talk about the elephant in the room or the baby yoda in the pinball machine and that is the fact that one we wanted baby yoda in this game once we heard for sure that it was going to be mandalorian i mean he's the main character right behind mando so it's like you have baby yoda that we all wanted and then stern gives it to us but then we're like well maybe not quite like that we kind of wanted it another way so when i first saw the baby yoda in the leaked image i was like that's it's a pretty big yoda i can't wait to see what he does and because i knew he was going to have to be on the premium i figured they were going to yank it out on the pro and no they put it in all tiers and i was like wow so we get baby yoda in all tiers that's pretty cool i'm wondering why that is it's because he doesn't do anything he's just he's a literally a doll i mean he's a hollowed shelled figurine that does nothing and people were complaining i saw whether it be on facebook and even on pin side for the little bit that i have perused and they're saying that the baby yoda takes up too much real estate and honestly i don't feel that he takes up a lot of real estate he's literally got two shots in and underneath him he's not blocking any shots he's got the orbit that goes underneath them as well as the center ramp that also goes through him technically he's nothing but a hollow shell i think what's throwing people off on this is the scaling factor of him he's very large in comparison to other things in the game specifically the the razor crest If you see the Razorcrest, its size is quite smaller than Baby Yoda. And this is just probably a little off-putting when it comes to us looking into a game. And this is not uncommon, guys. This has been done plenty of times in games. I mean, you can bring it to even The Simpsons, where you had your upper left playfield portion where you had the couch. The couch is relatively small. whereas you had Homer Simpson's head that was relatively large. But what was the difference between Homer Simpson's large head and big old baby Yoda? It was the fact that Homer Simpson's large head, say it with me, did something. It reacted with the game. It turned. It moved around. It did something. So it wasn't just static. So I'm thinking that's also what people are harping on. and I agree with is that I feel like Baby Yoda should have done something. And we could go on more than likely for hours on what they could have done with the Baby Yoda in the corner, whether it be the sizing or doing something else different with magnets. I mean, we'll just throw some ideas out there as it is. I mean, you could go from the ball coming up the center ramp and his hand, like, you know, his fingers move a little bit and it does the whole push the ball into that mech that brings the ball to the lower playfield or the mini playfield stuff like that i mean like i said it could go on and on other ways of moving the ball but that's just me talking out my ass right there when it comes to that of the potential possibilities of it but i think bare minimum well they did bare minimum and that was the fact that they just put a static doll in there but i think something else that they could have done that i don't feel like would have been too like outrageous was have him react with the game to some sort of fashion whether it be his head turns a little bit or his arm moves up and down every once in a while i mean i his ears can kind of like move around a little bit i think having him react with what you're doing in the game would have made this game easily a home run and i'm not saying that this Baby Yoda static doll breaks the game. But that is probably the miss when it comes to making this a full package of awesomeness And then we can move away from talking about the Baby Yoda portion I don want to have to beat that nail any further into the wood But then we can move on to the wire forms versus the plastic ramps. This is where I'm like, okay, I get it. This is typical. What you're going to lose on your premiums versus your pros is that you're going to get your plastic versus metal. You're going to lose magnets. and you're going to lose a lot of mechs that do motion. So I'm honestly surprised we still got the mech that diverts the ball to the mini playfield. I'm honestly surprised that we still even got the mini playfield on the Pro. That was also a surprise to me. When I saw the playfield in the leaked image, I was like, well, that's also going to be yanked out for the Pro. So it's nice that we've still got that. We're short a flipper and the moving of it, but I think overall I'm surprised. I was so surprised. Were you surprised? then I'm glad that they kept at least the mini play field in for the pro and but here's my thing I feel like when it comes to plastic versus wire forms that's obviously a personal preference and also cost but the way I look at it for this particular game is that they could sell the wire form separately as an accessory I mean you can buy other things for the game why not give others with the pro the option to upgrade or at least change to the wire forms because it's not there's nothing different aside from the building materials the structure of the game is still the same so they could easily move the wire forms into place to replace the plastic ramps if they so wanted to that's just an option i feel like they should have on the website for those that want to get the pro but still want those wire forms without paying the extra couple of grand for the premium why not cop up i don't know maybe a couple of hundred bucks and that's still shooting a little high but to get the option for wire forms that would be pretty cool when it comes to talking about the mini play field and how we play on it and what all you do with it this is something that i'm gonna have to see in action guys i i need to see how this plays i'm afraid to say that it looks good or it's going to be awesome because I made the mistake of thinking that Black Knight Sword of Rage was going to be so awesome when I saw the trailers for it with the upper play field on that and then the stuff what I thought you were going to be able to do with it and then I saw the gameplay and I was like I changed my mind so when it comes to the mini play field and how that functions and how it shoots i'm going to wait to see what all that does for the gameplay footage that we're going to get down the road and when will that be well according to jack dangerous post today he's not going to be streaming this game until the 21st 10 days away that is a little weird That's almost really questionable why they want to wait 10 days to show everyone how the game shoots. That may be the longest gap in between an initial reveal to a stream.