Art is...hmmm.

Looks very safe from a layout perspective, but I'm sure it will shoot and flow like a dream. Nothing really overly creative or innovative, just fast and flowy.

The art though...that art is terrible. It looks like a homebrew game where the only tool available was Photoshop.

The premium looks the best. If it plays as well as I expect it to, I could be in the market for a premium on the secondhand market in a few months to a year.

Here...

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Let's shut down this nonsense talk that either Heighway game flows anywhere near as well as a middle-of-the-road Ritchie game. I've played both of their games enough to know that's a silly claim.

It is crap. It looks like lunchbox art at best. But...it looks like a great layout and will probably shoot like a dream. Just like GoT, the art sort of fades away as you focus on your shots. The sounds, I expect, will be excellent and a lot of fun.

My favorite part of the reveal is in the video when they say, "Stern Pinball has announced..." Well, no, they didn't get any sort of announcement out. How does this keep happening?

Jody...JODY! Wake up and get a few things in order.

That said, can't wait to see the full reveal with feature matrices, pricing, and detailed images on June 6th.

The small LCD might do some really neat stuff. I'd LOVE if they put the trench run targeting computer graphic on there and you had to hit shots to advance down the trench. Final shot switches to the image of the proton torpedoes firing as the Death Star toy blows up. Could be great.

Bill of materials must have been very low on this game, for some reason. It really doesn't have a lot going on. Seems to lean heavily on flow, which I like, but it's really sparse.

Next week.

And this is why Stern needs to do better with their announcements. You only get one first impression. JJP is still trying to rally back from a bad unveiling of Dialed In (so many people think it's a game about a phone still). Technically Stern still hasn't announced this. The Star Wars Facebook page announced it through a video that claims that Stern announced it. So clearly Stern messed up and fell behind schedule. They keep doing this. TWD was "announced" by a DVD paper slip. Ghostbusters was leaked all over the place and by an ad that ran ahead of announcement. If they don't want to be nitpicked, they need to put out more prepared content.

The game will sell. Don't panic. It's a flubbed announcement (again), but things will be set right once people get to play it. It looks like a fun shooter and Dwight comes up with really neat code.

There is 0% chance that it will be worse than either of those unless every switch scores the same, there are no modes, and it says mean things about your mother. Specifically your mother.

It's worth pointing out that the TIE Fighter toy isn't in those playfield pics. The video mentions and shows it. There may be more to show in regards to the playfield.

I wouldn't expect that many modes. I would think it's going to be more like Star Trek where they're repeatable but harder on the second or third pass. I hope you're right though!

Not mine, but I had to share...

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They are REALLY similar. It's Spider-Man/Star Trek again.

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Also, not mine. To be clear, I'm excited for Star Wars, but this is all fun. What if JJP did Star Wars?
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Jody would have to fire himself. He clearly deserves to be fired, but he's part owner, so they're stuck with him. His side of the house is always a mess, licensing aside. The marketing strategy at Stern though...it's real bad. I mean, wow.

Strong licenses can overcome a lot of bungling idiocy in marketing though, so it's not like it really matters all that much in the long run. It just annoys the fan base. I guess sometimes it threatens the fan base too on live streams, but I doubt that ever pays off.

Chewie Frenzy. D'oh Frenzy replaced by constant growls.

I do wish that Luke was a larger part of the art. Should have swapped him with Obi-Wan. Yoda and Palpatine needed much more love too.

Premium is the best, I agree.

Dwight launches his games with pretty good code from the get go. He was pulled off of Ghostbusters too early though. Here's hoping that he gets plenty of time to refine the Star Wars code before being put on the next game full time. Ghostbusters still needs a code refresh.

If it plays like I think it will, I'll be interested in buying one in the secondhand market, most likely a premium. It's Star Wars, the game is going to sound amazing, and Dwight seems to know how to do really cool stuff with lighting. Just wondering if it's going to play too close to AC/DC to really make it feel that different. It's never been an issue to play Spider-Man and Star Trek. They feel pretty different despite the layout recycling.

It's literally a tweaked AC/DC Pro. It's far more similar to that than anything else.

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Come on, man. It's obviously a modified AC/DC pro, just as Star Trek is a modified Spider-Man. That doesn't necessarily equate to a bad thing. It will shoot well, and the code will make all the biggest differences in making it feel different. But there's no denying that he's re-using concepts.

Never Avengers. Blah.

No, I'm not using this as a way to diss Star Wars. I'm just pointing it out. I don't know why you're so defensive about something that is pretty plain to see. It will remind you of AC/DC, I'm sure, but it will probably feel quite a bit different, especially on the Premium/LE models.

The Star Wars miniatures are GREAT models right out of the box. I have a ton of them. The game is a blast to play. There's definitely a lot you could do with them for mods, but they might be pricey unless you can score them used. Wouldn't be hard to add in stuff like X-Wings, Y-Wings, B-Wings, A-Wings, all sorts of TIEs, Millenium Falcon (for the pro), the Slave I, transport ships, etc.. It's all there. Just don't go too far overboard...

I also wouldn't get too hung up on the game not being fully RGB. Ghostbusters only has a handful of RGB inserts, and it's one of my favorite light shows in modern pinball.

Jerry Thompson. He does sound/music. He's pretty dang good at what he does. I think his sound package for Ghostbusters is downright amazing.

I'm sure that it will have both new and original music. The stuff Jerry did for Ghostbusters was extremely on point. I think he's a special talent.

You never, EVER want to put out a bad impression first. Ever. That's literally the worst thing you can do in marketing.

They gave Disney terrible assets to use in the video. They should have used the pic with Jerry, Steve, and Dwight as the main image, and then maybe showed a small clip of the ball in action. CAD drawings and 3D renders aren't really fit for a reveal. Now, it'll be next week when it all comes out the way it should have originally, and that will smooth things out quite a bit. But still, the initial disappointment can never be taken back.

The game will be fun. I don't think anybody should be expecting a snooze fest. And while it's possible to like the art package, it's objectively weak compared to what we're used to seeing lately in pinball. That's somewhat acceptable with lesser themes, but this is Star Wars. They really should have put an extra bit of effort into it.

I have an AC/DC. I think it's the best Stern machine ever created. It's also one of the ugliest. That's ok. I think Star Wars will be just fine and possibly even great, but it will always look worse than it deserves to look.

Wasn't that Lando?

True. They're vastly superior.

My 16" LX200 telescope does fine by me. I can't transport anything much bigger, and I'm too casual to go more hardcore.

Even in gorgeous high resolution, it's going to be a bit goofy. It'll look better, but the composition is just odd for a translite.

Some distributors have sold places in line, essentially. No official orders have been placed.

Hand-drawn art, but it's just a hand-drawn version of the same lunchbox, DVD case, and coloring book figures we've seen for 40 years now. We've seen that image of Han or Luke holding out that blaster since the very first merchandise started coming out. If they were going to draw something, why not draw anything new? I'm super confused by that.

The game looks fun, but it's still a massive disappointment on the art front. Premium looks the way to go still. Pro is lacking too much. The pro is really stripped down by comparison from what is already a fairly lean package.

In Steve Ritchie we trust, but man, can't someone give the guy a decent art package?

So street should be around $5200, $6,800, $8000, right? Isn't street price usually about $1000 off?

I hope this means no more slam to put the playfield back in. That would be really nice.

I would love if they could get Anthony Daniels to do custom speech, but they would have mentioned that by now. Imagine how cool it would be for C-3PO to narrate and comment as you play. Lots of potential with something like that.

I love the gun in Jurassic Park when you need to shoot during play. Fun little thing there.

Dimples are ok, deep pits aren't. Without some level of dimpling, cracking is possible. There has to be some amount of give in the clear.

Star Wars is pretty bare bones. I don't think anybody could possibly look at it and say that it is anything but. I'm still excited about the Steve/Dwight combo, but the bill of materials is laughably small, even at the premium/LE level. Unless it was REALLY expensive to use the Star Wars license, I just don't understand why they've skimped out so much on features.

We're getting some gameplay tomorrow night.

Close enough. They're re-drawn from existing images. They might as well be. If they're going to go through the effort to draw "new" art, why not use new poses? It makes no sense to trace old images again.

Tim Sexton is going to be playing it, yes. It sounds like it's pre-recorded, but it will be actual gameplay.

Yeah, if you Google "Han Solo," the first result is literally that image of him above the flippers.

Ah, well. Gameplay tomorrow night should help forget about some of this nonsense.

It doesn't though. Why would Stern find themselves under restrictions that are clearly not applied to other mediums? I think Stern hides behind that excuse. We see wildly varying versions of Star Wars art that involves the original characters on lots of different products.

Light table trace job with some good inking afterwards.

I don't think it'll suck. Just like Game of Thrones, the focus will shift completely into how it plays once we see that. I expect it to be a real winner, but I wish we could have had nice art on top of it is all.

Mustang is awesome!

That was canceled by Gary Stern unless they are doing their own official stream.

No, no video for now. He allowed pics, but no video.

My guess would be ReplayFX for the first showing, but I'd need to look at the schedule. There could be a sooner date, but I don't think any of the events this upcoming weekend will have Star Wars.

I doubt it. Pinball has grown in the past 2-3 years, but the pricing will still keep things from going crazy. It will be very successful though. No reason to think it won't be one of the best sellers.

Thos LCDs are dirt cheap. Buying in bulk, they're such a minimal cost.

For real though, Stern is probably getting those LCDs for under $5 each.

The Hobbit is objectively worse than GB. Let's just accept that and move on. Star Wars will be better than The Hobbit too.

Nah, man. Like, nah.

There aren't any. The original AC/DC premiums are probably as close as it gets.

This just holds the ball momentarily. It's not a ball lock.

They do a video the same day that E3 opens up? FFS.

I don't know that magnets would improve a Ritchie design unless he designed with them in mind, to be honest. The game is going to be fast and heavily reliant on combos (which magnets would work against), much like Game of Thrones. This is one of those sorts of layouts that needs space to breathe. Sure, I would have loved a design that gave us a bit more meat on the bones, but I still think the game will be fun. I love Game of Thrones (the pro, anyway), and we're dealing with the same designer/programmer team here.

The wait to see more on this game has been pretty rough. Here's hoping it gets shown off better fairly soon.

Clipping video is much easier than creating dot art. It is way faster.

This is why LE should be limited to a time frame, not a set number of orders. People don't have the "luxury" to wait for video if they want an LE, because they are often sold out very quickly after announcement. Give a hard cutoff date where you can choose pro, premium, or LE. Once the date passes, only premium and pro are available. It's still limited over the pros and premiums, but it gets rid of a lot of the preorder circus.

Could be that the Death Star is packed for installation when it arrives for some reason, but I doubt it.

The fact that they haven't shown gameplay is still asinine.

It happened. It ended rather abruptly and hasn't been available since it finished.

Yeah, we really need to see video to see what sort of interactivity is there. Maybe it's all just show. If there's a change to scoring or the rules, that really complicates the decision.

Please, no. That game is a dumpster fire.

They didn't archive it. It was live and it was cut short suddenly. They didn't save the footage.

You really do live in your own little bubble, don't you?

This practice of showing video live with no heads up and then not archiving it up is stupid.

They took existing photo assets and "traced" them to create a hand-drawn look.

It's both. It's good that it's not just a straight photo clip, but it's still the same dang images you've seen on lunchboxes and toy packaging for 40 years now. It's real bummer they didn't get custom art.

The game looks very fun to shoot, the scoring looks wonky as all get out though.

Video clips look great, but Stern's "animations" are brutally weak. Static pictures that drag across the screen are rough. TIE Fighters shouldn't wiggle in space. The Slave I going across the screen looked like cheeseball stuff every time, especially during that hyperspace mode. The fonts, especially the ones that say things like "parry successful" all look horribly out of place with the Star Wars theme.

Aside from that, the video clips and most of the presentation with the menus, the actual playfield layout, and THE SOUND seem to be really good.

This should be a fun one to play, and I expect it to be all over the place.

Oh, and clean this up.

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While I feel like Dialed In has a lot of safe shots, it also has a far more varied shot geometry. There is also a 3rd flipper. Magnets do create some additional chaos, but yes, Dialed In is fairly safe as well.

I watched the entire stream, but I feel the same as you that it wasn't the most fun game to watch. I feel that way about Game of Thrones though, but I think it's a blast to play. I really hope that's what is going on here.

There's no bargain in pinball in the NIB market, no matter where you look. Everything is overpriced. And no way you can stretch the definition of bargain to apply to a Star Wars premium or LE. Come on now. The game is barren and they have stripped out even more than usual on these things.

You can buy two or three great machines on the secondhand market for the price of a single NIB game. Even more if you pick up some pre-90s games.

People, pinball didn't start with Metallica.

I mean, I do too, but I still feel like they're overpriced. GBLE, WOZ Ruby, and DILE aren't exactly what I would call my best days of bargain hunting.

Honestly, depreciation is a good thing. It makes for a more healthy secondary market. I think it's great if waiting a year or two can save you a couple of thousand dollars.

Very cool. Get some detailed pics of that thing!

NASCAR does it more like Star Wars than The Getaway does.

Actually, waiting for that dang animation is the ONLY thing on Metallica that I think gets old.

If that's the case, it makes going pro the logical choice and you don't lose much. We'll have to see though.

Yeah, because it's in a stupid location. I hate that change.

Nice. Here's hoping it has code...

I have an 8-year old and a 4-year old that could only turn on GBLE with it at the end of the pinball row. My wife, who is 5'3" struggled as well. So while it was no big deal to put it at the end, it becomes an issue when you start having multiple games with the switch there. It's a bad spot. It's ridiculous.

Delay the game a few weeks then. For those that are planning to pass on it for home ownership, it sucks that many operators do not update their code regularly or even at all. They really should be sending games out with 1.0+ code on them. And I really think that the license holder would prefer that games go out in a manner that best reflects the license.

Do you know what being an apologist gets you? A worse product. Stop defending incompetence and start expecting better. It's the only way to make Stern improve.

You don't owe Stern anything. Chill with the white knight stuff and realize that critics just want a better product.

Also, if you've ever launched a product professionally, you would be appalled at how shoddy Stern's releases are handled. They want to talk about how they are the most legit and professional outfit in pinball, but they don't want to act like it. That shouldn't be defended nor excused away.

We pay for better than we get. It's a shame.

How about they at least play test something before they ship it? My GBLE was unplayable upon arrival. Obvious things were wrong due to it not being tested that I spent hours fixing. If a casual buyer had received that game, it would have had to be sent back. Then when I get my replacement playfield, I did it all over again, because that hadn't been tested either. Not shipping causing adjustment needs, actually incorrectly assembled or installed stuff.

You think those Star Wars games that arrived without an SD card and code were play tested? Obviously not. That's the easiest thing in the world to catch. "Hey, this game doesn't boot. Ship it!"

What are they doing wrong? They're cutting every corner possible. We get to beta test their stuff and act as their QC department. That's not how this is supposed to work.

I'm as hopeful as anybody for Star Wars, but I'm sure not ever giving Stern the benefit of the doubt anymore. That used to be a reasonable risk, when you only worried about whether the game would be fun or not. Now there are a whole host of possible issues, and people want to apologize for them. Why? Why not admit that they're issues and expect better? What do any of us gain by defending a game being shipped to a customer in a non-playable state?

I've said that Star Wars looks to be fun, and I expected a warmer batch of initial impressions. But if there are issues, why not call them out? What is gained by swallowing a valid complaint?

To be fair, I waited a LONG time to buy a WoZ due to concerns over maintenance. It's not like my skepticism only applies to a single manufacturer. Obviously JJP had to prove their WoZ issues were behind them.

I know of at least 4 that shipped without the SD card with code.

Seriously, how does this happen? The only way it happens is if the game isn't given a play test at final inspection. Because without code, it's not booting. Garbage. I would be livid if my game showed without code, because that would mean that it was up to me to do the final inspection. My GBLE wasn't inspected and I spent the first couple of days owning it with the glass off.

This is absolutely insane. So Disney couldn't possibly be harder to work with. Got it.

No, it's officially Iron Man.

I don't think having a game shipped to you that was totally unplayable is a bad reason for being upset. I literally couldn't play my GBLE due to it being in such a rough build state.

But wasn't the code available online? If so, that doesn't make any sense.

I bought the license approval excuse, but is that legit? If the code is on the website, then why wasn't it in the games? And why was it only some games? Even some early games had code while later shipped games didn't? It all won't matter in a week or two when everything is coming out complete though. It's just such a weird thing.

I was hoping to play one locally this weekend, but it arrived without code as well. Looks like I'll have to find a time next week to pop in, but if not that, California Extreme will be my first real shot at playing. I'm dying to get some good time on the game.

Ok, that makes more sense then. People were saying it was up, but maybe they didn't know for how long.

SPIKE is half-baked.

Dying to play this game though. One week and I'll get to.

Very cool. Checking the video out now. I'll be able to play it in a few days, and I'm getting really excited.

Yeesh, that's surprisingly unfinished. Still looks fun, but it might be a little while before that game is ready to be called complete.

I like moving multipliers as a concept, but it looks insane in action. Maybe they should dial that back and you can set them up during times when the ball is stopped (mode select, before the plunge, etc.). The action button is just way, way overused, especially for how fast the game plays in the first place. All that can be tweaked though.

That seems to be a better idea and could easily be integrated. They could just lock out the ability to move the multiplier while hitting the button for TIE Fighters so it doesn't send the multiplier all over the place during that sequence.

Looked like they kept growing regardless of whether or not they were locked in during Tim's video. I didn't pay close enough attention, but he was getting to 28x and I didn't see him locking/moving during those multiballs.