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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pinball Review

Cary Hardy·video·24m 20s·analyzed·Aug 19, 2020
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

TMNT pinball scores 8.6/10: excellent design/code, weak display art, tricky left outlane.

Summary

Cary Hardy provides a detailed technical review of Stern's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine, scoring it 8.6/10 overall. He praises the layout design by John Borg, the complete code launch by Dwight Sullivan, and Zombie Yeti's playfield artwork, while criticizing the graphic art display animations, certain code behaviors, and playfield ergonomics. Hardy positions the game as a successful 'cornerstone title' recovery after Stranger Things' poor reception and factory COVID delays.

Key Claims

  • Stranger Things was Stern's last cornerstone title and was not fun; poor sales evident on secondhand market

    high confidence · Cary Hardy opening statement establishing context for TMNT's importance

  • TMNT launched with complete code, which is a major milestone for Stern because other games in their lineup are still incomplete after almost a year

    high confidence · Hardy discussing code quality and Dwight Sullivan's work

  • Dwight Sullivan's excitement and passion about the project was evident during the initial reveal, giving Hardy confidence in the purchase

    medium confidence · Hardy speculating on the developer's emotional investment based on communication

  • The center ramp shot is easier to hit with backhand rather than forehand, contrary to what many players believe

    medium confidence · Hardy's gameplay experience and advice to other players

  • The flasher before the upper flipper center ramp shot makes the target too difficult to see and hit accurately

    high confidence · Hardy describing specific code issue that needs adjustment

  • Many players have not legitimately completed all episodes and battles to reach the final battle with glass on

    medium confidence · Hardy's observation of broader player community progress

  • April's character model on the display looks rough compared to Zombie Yeti's playfield art, creating an inconsistency

    high confidence · Hardy's direct comparison of display vs playfield artwork

  • Ball save always shows Mikey falling off the building, which seems thematic or licensing-constrained rather than dynamic

    medium confidence · Hardy noting inconsistency and questioning the design choice

Notable Quotes

  • “Stranger Things... that game was not fun. That's an easy way to put it. And I believe a lot of other people felt the same way. That was evident on the secondhand market store.”

    Cary Hardy@ 0:00 — Sets up the stakes for TMNT as recovery from a failed cornerstone title

  • “You could hit that Crane combo over and over again and you're never going to go oh my goodness I'm tired of making that combo. No it is very satisfying.”

    Cary Hardy@ 4:30 — Highlights a standout mechanical feature of the game design

  • “I've even had this pizza disc supercharge my ball as if it's like a cartoon character building up its speed in midair, and then it just shoots it straight down the damn middle. Not cool, Borg. Not cool.”

    Cary Hardy@ 5:21 — Expresses frustration with randomness element of pizza disc mechanic

  • “The game launched with Complete Code, which is a major milestone for Stern because that doesn't typically happen. There are games in their lineup that are still not complete that have been out for almost a year now.”

    Cary Hardy@ 6:28 — Notes the rarity of complete code at launch for Stern games

  • “I feel like that needs to be nerfed to where it's not activated as often... Your story, your multiballs, and your combos, and your hurry ups can all be going at the same time. It can be a little chaotic.”

    Cary Hardy@ 11:50 — Identifies specific code balance issue with hurry-up frequency

  • “Krang sounds better than the original. I'm honestly hoping that the topper has something to do with Krang and he does more call-outs.”

Entities

John BorgpersonDwight SullivanpersonJeremy PackerpersonJerry ThompsonpersonJoshua ClaypersonMike KizvatpersonCary HardypersonMark SilkpersonStern Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Multiple voice actors used including Mark Silk for primary characters; Krang voice particularly well-received

    high · Hardy: 'My boy Mark Silk is doing voices for a lot of the characters... Krang sounds better than the original.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Game has high 'one more game' replay value; strong appeal for both home and location play

    high · Hardy: 'as I'm writing this review, I keep going back and forth just to play one more game... The game definitely has that one more game quality to it which I feel is going to be great for locations as well.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: 1-2-3 combo hurry-up activates too frequently; limited call-out variety (only ~2 variants) for this mode creates annoyance

    high · Hardy: 'I feel like that needs to be nerfed to where it's not activated as often... there's only maybe two for the one two three combo. And that needs to be adjusted.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Pizza disc mechanic introduces unwanted randomness; can supercharge balls unexpectedly straight down the middle

    high · Hardy: 'I've even had this pizza disc supercharge my ball as if it's like a cartoon character... and then it just shoots it straight down the damn middle. Not cool, Borg.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Flasher before upper flipper center ramp shot obscures vision and makes accurate shot execution difficult

    high · Hardy: 'Dwight hinders your ability to see by making that flasher above the ramp just really intensifyingly just kind of blinds you in a way to where you can't make that shot. It's aggravating.'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.073

0:00
Stern's last cornerstone title was Stranger Things. In my opinion, that game was not fun. That's an easy way to put it. And I believe a lot of other people felt the same way. That was evident on the secondhand market store. So you already have poor sales of a major license. And then right before they're able to unveil their next cornerstone title, you have the COVID-19 situation, which forced them to shut down their factory and put manufacturing to a screeching halt. Delays, delays, week, week, week goes on. Nothing is going at these factories, which is not a good thing, obviously. So when Stern brought it back up and they released their next cornerstone title, it really needed to be a good one. And thankfully, it is.
1:06
Does this game hold up to the hype? Is it a game that you should own? Let's find out. I will score every major component in the makings of this game, using a .5 ratio from 1 being worst, up to 10 being the best. I will be reviewing the pro model using code 1.10.
1:27
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is designed by John Borg, coded by Dwight Sullivan, art by Jeremy Packer, also known as Zombie Yeti, sound and music by Jerry Thompson, graphic art by Joshua Clay, call-outs by Mike Kizvat. Kizvat, is that Russian? I don't know. I'm just brutally demolished this guy's name. But Mike Kiesvatt, I'm sorry. Anyways, let's continue.
1:59
Design and layout. John Borg has brought us a fun, fast, and furious version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with three ramps, an inner orbit, outer orbit, three pop bumpers, spinning pizza disc. I also call that the few disc. we'll go over that later a hidden shot behind the upper flipper as well as a hidden ball lock the shots in this game are going to take a little while to get really toned in hell i don't even have it perfected yet because the left out lane area of this game is going to have you on your toes that area right there is always a very scary place to be in this game it's a board design you You think you're safe, and then that sucker will just bounce on over there to the out lane and drain down, and there you are, cursing Borg's name like I have many times. No! People want to see.

Cary Hardy@ 21:44 — Praises voice acting quality and expresses hope for topper design

  • “I skipped past that so I can get back to the game. And that's because I'm not impressed with what I see on the screen.”

    Cary Hardy@ 19:28 — Explains core problem with display artwork: it actively detracts from gameplay experience

  • “The game definitely has that one more game quality to it which I feel is going to be great for locations as well.”

    Cary Hardy@ 22:53 — Assesses broad market appeal and location viability

    • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    game
    Stranger Thingsgame
    Black Knight Sword of Ragegame
    Stargategame
    Lethal Weapon 3game
  • ?

    design_philosophy: Left outlane/in-lane area is overly punishing and difficult; players struggle to control ball routing in this region

    high · Hardy: 'the left out lane area of this game is going to have you on your toes... You think you're safe, and then that sucker will just bounce on over there to the out lane'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Display character model quality (April specifically) is inconsistent with and inferior to playfield artwork by Zombie Yeti

    high · Hardy: 'April looks pretty rough... Especially when you compare it to what Zombie Yeti has done on the playfield... It just looks so much better that way.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Cooperative gameplay mode is positioned as essential for growing the hobby and bringing people together

    medium · Hardy: 'This is a great move for this hobby because we want more people into this hobby, and what better way than to bring people together to cooperatively accomplish a goal.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Ball lock mechanism occasionally hangs up; plunger pulse duration in ball search mode may need code adjustment

    high · Hardy: 'balls that really hang up in the ball lock area... The plunger that locks the balls needs to be pulsed longer... It just pops down and pops back up really quick.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Complete code at launch is a major milestone for Stern; other current games still incomplete after ~12 months

    high · Hardy: 'The game launched with Complete Code, which is a major milestone for Stern because that doesn't typically happen. There are games in their lineup that are still not complete that have been out for almost a year now.'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: TMNT positioned as successful recovery from Stranger Things failure; important validation for Stern after factory shutdown

    high · Hardy opening: Stranger Things was unfun with poor sales; COVID shutdown; 'when Stern brought it back up... it really needed to be a good one. And thankfully, it is.'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community concern about Dwight Sullivan's coding capability was addressed; Munsters comparison (too easy) and Ghostbusters comparison (incomplete) fears unfounded

    high · Hardy: 'people were a little concerned whenever Dwight was announced... they didn't want it to be another Munsters... or another Ghostbusters... But I can tell you guys, this code is not easy.'

    • 3:04
    When are you one? No! A lot of people are having trouble really toning in the shop or the layer area. And a lot of people are trying to forehand that. And it can be made. It's not impossible. But I find it's actually easier to hit with the backhand.
    3:36
    The left ramp directs to the left flipper, the center ramp directs to the right flipper, and the left ramp directs to the left orbit. That center ramp, or the side ramp shot as some people call it, can only be hit with your upper flipper and with accuracy. One does not simply just accidentally. Well, no, I've hit that thing plenty of times accidentally, but it does take some time to really figure out a sweet spot on that flipper to hit that center ramp with accuracy. And when you hit that center ramp, it is very satisfying, especially if you hit the inner orbit and then hit that a couple of times and then nail the center ramp, getting you a crane combo. It is even more satisfying because that ball just whirls around. It never gets old. You can hit that Crane combo over and over again and you're never going to go oh my goodness I'm tired of making that combo. No it is very satisfying. It's just that it's a little difficult to hit all the time because that ball comes around that orbit so fast when you're nailing it towards the right orbit and it flies around. Sometimes it's flying around too fast and the shot would probably be more makeable but Dwight has this flasher going off right before it gets to that flipper making it very difficult to hit, and we'll go over that in the code area, Dwight. To be frank, this game is a little difficult. You have the speed and the furiousness of that ball going around in general, then you add in what I call the f*** you disc. It's the spinning pizza disc that adds a level of randomness to your game. I have been screwed over way too many times with this thing. I've even had this pizza disc supercharge my ball as if it's like a cartoon character building up its speed in midair, and then it just shoots it straight down the damn middle.
    5:31
    Not cool, Borg. Not cool. But Borg, you have definitely brought us a very entertaining layout. This game keeps me coming back for more. Like, no kidding, as I'm writing this review, I keep going back and forth just to play one more game. Just one more game to see if I can progress a little bit further. What hurts this game is that left in-lane, out-lane area, and I would include the pizza spinning disc, but that can be tweaked with coat And I really feel like this game should have had a subway system I mean it only makes sense Having like a sewer lid that opens up somewhere balls going in there to lock your balls that way That would just submerge us even further into the theme of this game. I give the layout and design a 9.0.
    6:23
    Code. I played this game with version 1.10. The game launched with Complete Code, which is a major milestone for Stern because that doesn't typically happen. There are games in their lineup that are still not complete that have been out for almost a year now. And I want to say that is due to the amount of fun and passion that Dwight was having while working on this title. You could hear it in his voice, and at least I heard it during the initial reveal of this game. his excitement and just talking about all the things that you could do with this game and what he had planned for it. I was like, man, he's really excited about this and I feel the passion behind it, which gave me even more confidence to make the purchase for this game. Now, people were a little concerned whenever Dwight was announced to be doing the coding for this game because they didn't want it to be another Munsters where the code seemed too easy and they didn't want it to be another Ghostbusters where the code wasn't going to be complete for months and months and maybe even years actually. But I can tell you guys, this code is not easy. As of right now, there are plenty of people who have not legitimately made it through all the episodes and battles to see the final battle and even complete it legitimately, meaning glass on and not skipping everything to go to the final battle. Now, granted, the code is not perfect, but all we got left now was just some polish and maybe some bug fixes here and there. Now, the design of a game is the foundation, but the code is the building blocks that makes the game a game. Without proper code, a game could be a major flop. Now, Dwight has given you many variables to accomplish while playing this game. You could go through the game without leveling up your turtle at all if you wanted to, But he's given you the ability to actually level up your turtle doing the training shots. That can be done as well. I highly recommend it because by leveling up your turtle, that is a good way to have constant multipliers. But if you don't really care about your score and you just want to be able to get through the modes and get to the final battle, you can do that too. You have different kinds of hurry-ups, and these things can even be activated during a multiball. Your episodes can be completed during a multiball, which is a major help also on certain modes. Something I really enjoy that Dwight has done with this game is dealing with the lights. And how he's done certain things really brings me more into the theme and what's going on with the game. One of my favorite moments when I experienced it for the first time was battling Slash. And your first phase is just, you know, your regular just shooting some shots. But then you have phase two where he transports you to Dimension X. And when that happens, the game goes red. And you play it like you're in Dimension X. It really brought me further into the game, and that was something that really caught me off guard, and I really enjoyed it.
    9:34
    I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on all the ins and outs of the code, guys, because the code can be changed and there's all kinds of settings that you can adjust. I will say that there are a couple of things that I don't like as of right now. And one of those is when you launch your ball up the right orbit and it comes swinging around and you can make that shot with the upper flipper to the center ramp. And in order to make that shot, you need to be able to see. Dwight hinders your ability to see by making that flasher above the ramp just really intensifyingly just kind of blinds you in a way to where you can't make that shot.
    10:10
    It's aggravating. Now I also have had some issues where the game has locked up and it has to do like some sort of reset or I've had a lot of anomalies. I say a lot. I can count them on one hand how many times that the game has kind of had a what the moment. I've also had some balls that really hang up in the ball lock area and that's okay as long as the game is able to recover without any you know help from me and the thing is every game's got a built-in ball search mode and what it does is fire all the coils around the play field but the one that really matters is the plunger that locks the balls needs to be pulsed longer pulsing that longer gives the balls actually the ability to roll past it. It just pops down and pops back up really quick and that doesn't give the balls enough time to go past it for you to continue playing your game. So that could be a simple fix in code. Get on it. Oh gee, Kerry, what are you doing? Oh, you know what? Just enjoying my brand new pinball machine. Just got to take these balls out with a magnet in order to get to the blasted damn things. I also feel that the 1-2-3 combo hurry up, it seems to be activated way too often. It's almost like it's always on and it's almost always going and it's a little annoying sometimes where I'm in the middle of something and all of a sudden the 1-2-3 combo is activated. It's like, oh, here we go with this again. So I feel like that needs to be nerfed to where it's not activated as often. I mean you can have a lot of things going on at this game at one time guys. Your story, your multiballs, and your combos, and your hurry ups can all be going at the same time. It can be a little chaotic. I think one of the main selling points for me, as well as a lot of people, is making the code cooperative mode That is a must for this title but it not just cooperative among four players or two players You can even have 2v2 3v1s There options galore in there that I not going to go through but you can have different versions of cooperative mode This is a great move for this hobby because we want more people into this hobby, and what better way than to bring people together to cooperatively accomplish a goal. Twine has a few things to work on when it comes to polishing it up and getting a couple little bugs out, but overall there is plenty here for everyone that you want. I give Code 9 out of 10.
    12:50
    Art. Oh, where do I begin on this? The art is... Okay. So you can... Disregard what he said. The art on this game is fantastic. I really don't need to say much about this because the game speaks for itself, guys. Jeremy brings it once again by bringing a childhood cartoon of mine to fruition. He did it justice. You can tell by his work that he was having passion behind it. Really, my only complaint about the artwork is that there's not enough of it. I wish there was more, and that includes being on the display. But we'll go over that in the graphic art section. Jeremy, you did great. I've gone over the play field and the cabinet. I can't find anything that red flags me to just really pinpoint out anything wrong. Congratulations. I give you a 10 out of 10.
    13:59
    Sound and Music Now guys, originally I was going to give this category a lower score than what I am right now, but I felt in order to give it a really fair score, I needed to separate the mechanical sounds that were in front of me that was drowning out the audio a lot of the times, even with the volume turned up. So I put the music and sounds in the Pinball Browser and was able to listen to them separately with nothing else. and I gotta say that the orchestration and the sound effects for this game are very good. It sucks that the mechanical nature of the game drowns out some of the complexities and the orchestrations to me. The game brings us the nostalgic theme song that we all know by heart. It is a remake and there are people that deter against that and say that it's a completely different thing and they don't like it but honestly, I'm not bothered by it. The only couple of things that I need to mention is I felt that some of the battle music, or boss music rather, didn't feel boss enough to me. The only way I can really give you an idea of that audibly is by comparing what you would have for the Bebop and Rocksteady battle, the first one, and compare it to what you typically might hear in other boss music games to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. You have Bebop and Rocksteady.
    15:33
    Then you have this. So you see what I'm talking about there. It's not a major thing, but I do wish that the battle music was more battle intense. It got my blood pumping a little bit more to where I was feeling more into the game than I was in a battle. That's my only complaint. And there's also this one sound effect that I would hear throughout the game every once in a while, and I couldn't pinpoint it exactly until I was able to separate it from everything else in Pinball Browser, and I was like, that's what that sound is. It's not the exact thing, but it is damn close, guys. Here's the sound effect, and maybe you can figure out what I'm talking about.
    16:27
    Does it sound familiar at all yet? Let me slowly reveal what I'm hearing. I'm telling you guys, it's there. That's the only thing that I kept hearing every once in a while while playing the game. And I was like, is that Windows booting up? that's the only thing. There's a couple of things in the sound. That's it. Otherwise, very good, Jerry. I respect for your orchestration throughout this, because there's a lot of sounds I found out on this game. Sound and music, 9 out of 10.
    17:07
    Graphic art. Okay. So even from the beginning when this game was first revealed, I didn't care for the display art, the graphic art. I didn't care for it, and that still holds true to this day. There are many hits and misses throughout this animation, but I think the main issue I have is that I wish that the art on the display looked as good as the art on the machine. Oddly enough, one of my favorite animations that I think does really well and looks really good is the battle with Slash when they're at night, and everything's dark and the turtles are all shadows and stuff. But the way Slash looks and everything in that animation, that actually looks really good.
    18:00
    I mean, the turtle models are decent, but I think my major complaint is April. I mean April looks bad I mean that the only word I can really say for this because every time that she comes on screen I just like that doesn look good It does not look good at all Whether it be the still image of her on the TV reporting, or if she's actually out reporting, the model for her is just not good. Especially when you compare it to what Zombie Yeti has done on the playfield, on the back glass. It just looks so much better that way. I really don't know what happened here because April looks pretty rough. Something else to note is that every time you get a ball save, it's always Mikey falling off the building. And that doesn't make sense to me. Why can't it be the turtle that you're playing as? Why does it always have to be Mikey? I'm not sure if that is a licensing thing or is it story based to where in the episodes Mikey fell off and they caught them kind of thing. I don't know. Tell me in the comments section down below. I think what really drops the score on the graphic art section is that I don't even care to see the animations and stuff. It's like most of my time is spending looking at the play field. Now, obviously, a lot of that graphic art is for people that are around you, just have something else to view. But during the sections where I'm able to look up at the screen and see what's going on, I don't even care to see that. I skipped past that so I can get back to the game. And that's because I'm not impressed with what I see on the screen. There are other games with animations, like Black Knight Sword of Rage, for instance, where the animations on that were so intriguing to watch and cool-looking that I had no problem watching them. Whereas this one, I'm just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, go on to the next thing. That's a big thing for me, is if you don't even care to see them, then that's a big negative. Joshua Clay does a decent job for the models and the animations on representing what the turtles do throughout their adventures on this game but nothing really stands out or impresses me. I mean that's just my honest opinion on that and I don't feel like the animations for this game will be winning any awards. Just saying. So with that being said I give graphic art a 5.5 out of 10.
    20:30
    Call-outs. Now, honestly, call-outs can be a make or break for a game as well. If you hear a certain call-out too often, it becomes annoying, and then you're annoyed when playing the game. For example, shoot the pyramid up the middle on Stargate or Joe Pesci's okay okay okay on Lethal Weapon 3 then you also have the most recent Stranger Things whenever your ball drains too soon you hear the sheriff go okay that was one that I heard way too often but like even still call outs need to be highly varianced. So there needs to be multiple and I believe there's only maybe two for the one two three combo. And that needs to be adjusted either to not happen so often or there needs to be more call outs for that because that is the only thing so far that's really sticking out to me. The voice acting in this game is great. My boy Mark Silk is doing voices for a lot of the characters so now I get to hear those lovely pipes anytime I want to. Shredder was damn close to sounding how he actually did in the cartoon, but I think my favorite was Krang. Krang sounds better than the original. I'm honestly hoping that the topper has something to do with Krang and he does more call-outs. I don't know if I could get enough of him talking smack about me during the game. Some people want to complain about them not having the original voice actors for the Turtles, but I don't think that's going to make or break the game, honestly. Not for me. I didn't notice enough difference to where I was like, oh, it doesn't sound like they did on the cartoon. Not for me. Certain people will have that issue. I don't have that issue. I think the callouts are definitely better than subpar or even par. They did very well. Good job, Mike. I give you a 9.5 out of 10. so my overall thoughts for this game is that i highly enjoy it i'm glad that it's in my collection i do not see this game leaving my collection anytime soon because i really still want to get better at it that's my main thing is that i want to be able to legitimately get through the final battle and there's plenty to chew on here for code like i've already stated and i'm looking forward to even further bug fixes and polish for it. The game definitely has that one more game quality to it which I feel is going to be great for locations as well. The game is family friendly. It's definitely got the cooperative mode to get you and your friends involved gathering around casually playing or even competitively. You can't go wrong with getting a pro version for your home if you want to go with the premium or LE. I salute you but definitely pro is well worth what you're getting. When tallying the scores for each category we come up with an overall score of 8.6. Not too bad Stern. Very good on the game. I look forward to what else you got to bring us for this game and what's next. With that being said that's going to wrap up my review for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If you like what you've seen here give me that thumbs up and if you haven't already. HIGHER UPPERCUT!
    23:52
    Hit that subscribe button. Peace out. you