Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised. The Pinball Network is online. Launching the Pinball Show. Thanks again for the ongoing support as a Pinball Show Club member. Enjoy this exclusive TPS content and make sure to visit the Pinball Show Club Discord to chat about the bonus material. It's finally time, Dennis, that I speak more about my personal experiences having owned a GTF LE. I think it's time that we do some people's favorite segment. It's called Things I Like, Things I Don't About GTF. So let's jump into it. Things I Like, Things I Don't About GTF. Now, I'm correct in saying, Dennis, that you have not had an extended amount of time on Galactic Tank Force yet, just at TPF. Yeah, I haven't seen it since. Okay. So you can comment or question or whatever you want about this. Overall, I shouldn't like this game. Because it's goofy, some of the decisions are downright wrong that they made with this. They launched this game like a cold turd. A lot of it is bad. It's hokey. It's unnecessary. The design elements with the tank up front, I'm not supposed to like this game. But I've been playing this game more than any new game that was released this year. Can you believe that? Sure. I can believe a lot of things. It's close with Bond 60th. I've been playing a lot of that because it's quick and it's a fast game. But this game has me more intrigued than others. This game is very difficult. And that does pull me in more so than like Foo Fighters. Don't get me wrong. Foo Fighters is great, but band pins just don't capture me as much as like a movie or a television show or just something like that. Or a tank. Even some original stuff. It just doesn't. The band pins don't. Now, that has a storyline that does a little better. But Foo Fighters is like it shoots so well, it just doesn't kick me in the nuts. And sometimes I want to be kicked in the nuts. That's all. So things I like about GTF, the look. Listener, the look of this pinball machine is hard to argue against. It is cool. It's retro, but it's new. It's beautiful. From the artwork, Christopher Franchi is some of my favorite work he's ever done. The simplicity of the cabinet. I'm talking about the LA here with the tank treads and the LEDs and everything. Of course. Of course you're talking about the top tier. Absolutely. Signature. I haven't got one of those. Design. The design of this game is nothing special, but it works. The design works. And I'm talking about design like how high the ramps go up, the materials they use, metal versus plastic versus that kind of stuff. The tank location is questionable with the stand-up targets. But you're not going to hear me complain about those because the one that I own, I don't have the ball flying up and over the flippers. I certainly have it flying back straight down the middle if I hit it wrong, but that's the design of it. You've got to know that if you hit it in that direction, a triple bank drop down. But in the slam tilt interview, Dennis tried to stop that from happening. What did he say? I don't remember. Well, something about how when you have anything, you can't really – what works on paper doesn't always execute in real life. So he tried tweaking it in a variety of ways to have it go to the flipper was the goal. But with the different setups. Anyway, it was, I don't know. Basically, the argument seemed to be geometry doesn't work right. You know what would. GDF. I was waiting for one of them just to say that. You know what? GDF. The design of that concave of the stand-up targets, that's boring. and it's brutal. Well, you hate stand-ups in general. Yeah, they're stupid. They're a pain in the ass. They did this Joe Balcer design, thin stand-ups around the whole game like they do on American Pinball, which I appreciate. Hello. Hello. It would have been boring. But the magnet in front of it fixes everything because it's purpose. When you're hitting it, you do get immediate feedback from that magnet, sometimes holding it, sometimes throwing it in a different direction. So it is fun going for that tank. And the design of the tank, albeit ugly 3D printing, we'll get into that, but it moves. It does react. Alien pops up. It's a pretty cool toy, but some questionable things there. But overall, the looks, the lighting is freaking phenomenal. The whole Penn Stadium thing on the game itself is awesome. The tank treads look cool. The use of mirroring in the back panel the display panel with the green it looks like a submarine panel The head shape works for me The look is fucking beautiful and i would argue that until i turn blue in the face it a pretty pinball machine and you know what i am that person when people come and they always flock to this game whether they're pinball people or not and they're like oh this is weird this is cool like i kind of like the looks of this game and i'm like you want to see this and i do i fold down the head and i show them and they're like oh my god that's actually really cool and they're like why does it do that i'm like well that's too nerdy it's yeah it doesn't really do anything but it does look cool yeah so i for non-pinball people you can just lift the play field and they'll be like whoa look at all those wires you get the same effect so that's a silly one you're right that's a silly one but still the one that i look at and i just smile because i'm like and the the sound activated LEDs around the trees. So stupid, but it looks cool. Alright, what I don't like about GTF, some of the details that they attempt to put in this game. The 3D printed toys are garbage looking. You can see the filaments. No, it's America's Most Haunted. No, it's worse. It is worse. What? I'm here to tell you it's worse than that. I don't know. I think you haven't looked at America's Miss Haunted in a while. When that alien comes up, you see they don't even clean out the filaments of his teeth. It's like I see strings. He's got something in his teeth. He's been eating lettuce. Yeah, he's been eating corn on the cob. Clean out the corn. Straight out of that poop monster from Whirlwind. I don't remember eating corn. Oh, man. So the details. The leg type, they went with those old-style legs, which they don't look bad. The problem is some of the Harbor Freight things don't fit in between them, like the hydraulic tables. You know what I'm talking about? So they're thinner. No, I don't know what you mean. The width in between the front legs is thinner than that of a regular game that you're used to. Okay. A lot of people can't put those tables. Well, I will say the Escalera Tilton truck table slides under it perfectly. But for a lot of people with the cheap hardware ones. So it's weird. It just looks weird. The tank tread lighting is not the cleanest at all. It's not even the most functional or interactive. It's sound activated. They don't have it coded, which is a big fail. It's not like Hot Rails where you hit this thing and everything turns one. No. It's just like the cheap Chinese LED remote control pattern thing. Well, that's what's affordable. But, Dennis, you have to manually turn on the tank LEDs in the back after you turn the game on. It doesn't come on with the game. Well, plug it into the service outlet. I don't know what to tell you. No, it's all plugged in, so it will turn on, but you have to physically press the power button on the remote control. it oh at least it has a remote it's just not clean it's a wired remote it came with that little amazon little 20 300 led color changing strip and they gave you the remote with it that comes with those kits it's like a godly it's a wired remote oh it's bad so the details are poo on this I love the details. They just aren't good. So mean. Things I like, though, about GT, the rules and code. Except for the light show code. Well, no. The light show code on the game is awesome. That's phenomenal. That's what I mean by the rules and code. That's awesome. The modes are clever and unique. They're fun. There's one mode that's like a sonar mode where it'll span the play field with lighting, and only one will show pink. Everything else is like a green sonar. How does sonar work in outer space? Dennis, I don't know why they're trying to get ice cream either. I'm not talking about storylines. Did you not listen to the Slam Tilt interview? They explained why the ice cream was in the interview. I fell asleep because the pillow was so soft. The interview was a soft-to-soft serve ice cream? Is that why you fell asleep? I like more firm on my matches. Just joking, Ron and Bruce. I'm not. I don't think they list. They criticized us having a Patreon. I'm not here to throw them under a bus. I totally understand them wanting to be nice to people, but it was a softball interview. It just was. Mr. Softy. It just was. It just was. Also, having five people on at a time makes it very difficult to do a solid interview, in my opinion. Yeah. It was a good interview, though. It was enjoyable, entertaining, but the code and the rules are fun. What did they say about the sonar thing? No, I said they explained the ice cream. They didn't explain the seminar thing, but I recall. Yeah, Jack Hader did that. Yeah, yeah, I get that. But, yeah, even the modes, like they have a repeatable ramp mode that's a lot of fun. They have a spinner. You have to build up your spins that I think it's something to do with udders or sprinkles or something. The code is. It could be udders. It could be sprinkles. They practically the same thing But it fun and it hard as shit Like I haven even defeated three modes I don think There no way I going to get to the end of that It's kind of Houdini-esque. It's tough. Tight but findable. The call-outs and stuff are so hokey. They don't bother me. I like the video. Even, like, what's her name? Empress Anoya. Empress Anoya. I don't know if she meant it this, but I think she's such a bad actress that it nailed what they were going for. Because if you watch, next time anybody's playing GTF, watch her video. You can see her eyes scan the cue cards as she's reading in the distance. But in the Slam Tilt interview, they spent a lot of time explaining the work with the voice actors. Yeah. And there was quite a struggle because only one was local. I think they thought two of them were going to be. The guy with the long hair is annoying. The professor guy is super annoying, cringy. He's local, though. Clementine, the newcomer, I think she's an influencer or something. She's a cosplayer. Cosplayer, okay. Wow, you really didn't listen at all, did you? Look, neurons, I only have so many. Let me quote Zach. This interview was entertaining. Let me also now quote Dennis impersonating Zach. I didn't pay attention to Jack shit. I like Clementine. She's good. You remember her because that's the name of a fruit. Yeah. Oh, Clemmy. Oh, Clemmy's good. But impersonal. I like the hard-hitting Clementine. So they have one of my favorite call-outs in all of pinball, though, Dennis. So it's a win for me. What's your favorite call-out? It is complete. I know you want to say it. I want to say it repeatedly. When they said this, I smiled, and I can't wait to hear it again. I've only heard it once so far. It's the following. You can't handle the scoop. You can't handle the scoop. Hell, yeah. Okay. I do understand, because you also really like with Punny Factory game Clover. Oh, my God. This does align. This does align with your sense of humor. You can't handle the scoop. It's game Clover, man. You can't handle the scoop. He says it like that, too. That's fantastic. That is funny. I still think that when you start the game up and once it's fully done with its boot, it really should say, You know what? But I think they're afraid to embrace that. They are afraid of selling games. I think they're afraid to embrace anything that the community has come up with, and that's all going to be through their weird insular process. That's why they went with the launch that they did. I don't understand any of it. But that doesn't mean that I can bash a game that I really, really, actually borderline love. Borderline love. It's like, but it's also borderline friend zone. No, this is definitely friends with benefits. Like, it's my guilty pleasure. I like this game. So the downside also with the rules and code is some of the call outs, some of the acting. it would have been okay if i thought they were acting in that day i think they were just so bad that it turned out that way um and it it can be annoying but there are some redeemable ones uh that aren't focusing around like cows twerking no that's not funny and it's not cute who gives a shit like they're how do i say this without being mean the reason this works is because they thought it was going to be perceived in a whole different way. And that's why it amuses me so. Well, you know, but humor is so tough. I think it's harder than a lot of people. I mean, you go through any reviews of this show, and some people are like, I love the screaming goat, and I love the stupid voices, and I love the weird jokes. And then other people are like, I hate the potty humor, and I hate the stupid fucking voices, and I hate all the stuff. So, you know, it's kind of like, it's tough when you're, And I mean, as Steven Bowden told, when I ran into him at TPF, he was kind of like, with a theme like this, you got to go all the way in, right? You got to go all the way. And I'm like, I don't know. It's so risky to me. It was what I was thinking. I was like, maybe I could see why you'd think you have no choice but to give it 100%. You got to go 100% camp. But if it doesn't click with everyone, is the voice acting bad by design? Is it bad because they hired bad voice actors, or is it bad because the voice actors didn't get paid enough, and they're like, we're not really going to try here? I don't know. It's clear that they did not try to. Yeah, no, I can't be convinced of that. I can't be. One of the other things I love about GTF, things I like, magnets. I know you love magnets. Magnets, not just bullshit diverter magnets, like magnets, true magnets. They have, what, three or four of this game. but magnets that make the ball do fun stuff. Why people are so against or allergic to magnet use and pinball, I'll never understand it. It punishes gameplay because it's randomizing. Thank you That why they hate it People like pinball because it a ball bearing doing physical stuff So when you see something defy physics and there no good explanation besides just magnets, it's cool. It's just cool. But people, but again, yeah, I know, yeah, I know they're your favorite subset of pinball players, but competitive people want the ball to predictably behave when they execute a shot and a magnet changes how You can make the same exact precise shot over and over, and the magnet changes how the ball behaves. And they don't like that because it's not predictable. They don't like RNG, random number generator. They don't want RNG in a magnet as an RNG. I love those competitive pinball players, but – Apparently not. If I'm relying on them to open up their wallet versus other people – You're magnetizing all their credit cards. They're not going to work. How are they going to buy, buy, buy when their card is fry, fry, fried? Don't cater to if there is that subset of – I would argue that the competitive pinball players like magnets. There's a subset there that do. You would argue incorrectly. There's a subset. They might like a magnet, like if it's like a Stranger Things backbox magnet hold effect that doesn't induce randomness, but then they hate that too because it doesn't always work right, so whatever. You're going to turn it off. So the magnet in front of the tank is so much fun. It can do a lot of things. As well as the one under the UFO and the cow, that's a hidden magnet. So it's under the play field a la Addams Family. Or American Pinball has done that with Houdini. The ball saves to the right. Like there's some randomness. If you hit a target, it'll just pulse that magnet. It's so cool. Speaking of that, I've played in pinball tournaments, Zach, where they've gone in and cut or pulled the wires on Addams Family to kill that magnet. Bastards. Yeah. It's what they do. It's a pinball tournament. I'd play in. The first one you'd play in, too. We talked about this. These TDs thinking they're cute and bastardizing these games. It's not cute. Hee hee. That's the sound they make when they cut the wire. Hee hee. All right, so Magnus is awesome. But the thing that I don't like, the last thing I don't like about GTF, this whole third flipper button multimorphic thing where you're doing the ramp diverter, player-controlled ramp diverter. What? It's straight out of the shadow. Why do you not like that? No, it's not straight out of the shadow. It's partially out of the shadow. It's shadow's second cousin twice removed. Because it's meaningless. I just don't give a shit if it goes to the left flipper right. If I need it to go to the other flipper, I'll just get it to the other flipper. That's why there's another ramp in a game. I would rather them code that ramp diverter for when I need it. I don't want to be making the decision. No, no. It's clunky. It's stupid. Why do you hate thinking? Because I'm playing a game, I want to naturally play a game with a level of skill that takes physicality. It's like a sport. I want it to feel more like that than chess. But you don't want physicality of having to deal with a diverter. It just makes no sense to me. Okay. It's boring. Okay. It's a boring use of… I didn't know you hated shadow, but okay. I love the shadow, but the shadow… Apparently not. Honestly, I don't do the shadow much strategically, though. I really don't. Well, I mean, I'm like, okay, I haven't got that ring yet, so I'll switch it just so I can get that ring and get into Vengeance. But other than that, I don't think of this diverter. You might figure out why that diverter's there as you get deeper into the GTF code. And maybe that goes back to the code and rules. I don't know. Which you said you loved, but apparently they didn't code the diverter to do anything good. Honestly, they have not given me a reason to care about it. So I don't. I don't mess with it. No. The only time I press that button is on the skill shot because you press it and it goes to another option on the skill shot. That's it. Sure. That makes sense. All right. So overall, guys, things I like, things I don't about GTF. You didn't hear me really complain about the design and the tank placement or the targets because I think those work, especially with that magnet. Maybe not what I would have done, but I don't think it's a killer like is being perceived in the community when this came out cold. right um their launch was bad and then people were just looking at things to jump onto uh and because of the and you know what maybe i haven't replaced the that bracket thing yet so maybe my my gameplay would change if it was flying over the flippers of course but it hasn't been yet because i haven't played enough games but i'll get that bracket and install that but that's not a it's not a game changer for me it's fun i like it there and i'd like to have seen some drop targets if I had to design it a little differently. Drop targets in front of the tank and going under it and stuff like that, even to the side. Maybe an extra ramp instead of just that manual ramp diverter. Add a different... And I like the VUC. We don't see VUCs enough in pinball going to a flipper, so that's cool. But a lot to like, a lot not to like. GTF is a certified winner for me. It's the reason that I have one in the showroom and I haven't listed it for sale because I play it and I play it frequently and I kind of want to keep it. So I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to do. It's tough but the thing is there are a lot of B plus games out there so you'll make your decision eventually. It's so pretty.