I’ve said “huh?” more times in the past year than I have in the last 40 +

What was the last Stern game to have more than one celebrity in voice work? Metallica I think...

Yeah, because the first thing anyone thinks when they hear Star Trek is...

Karl Urban?

Or Ghostbusters... Ernie Hudson?
Or Stranger Things... David Harbour??

Things will be fine... besides Mando is a bad choice anyway due to his lack of emotion, inflection, etc. He's basically boring. The team acknowledged that too.

I want some of whatever it is you are smoking...

Hey I’m not an expert on this stuff but what do you call the opposite of “a shill?”

I think the term you are looking for is "heckler"...

Ok,I'm in on a pro for multiple reasons(I'm cheap,Pros are being produced first,Concerned about service issues on the moving upper playfield for route,etc.).Hoping some 3rd party company will offer replacements to upgrade from the plastic to metal on those center ramps.Anybody working on this already?

Well... the premium features are not very interesting... only thing I care are the metal ramps...

Wondering if these will be available in the aftermarket world???

Ghostbusters for sure, stranger things has multiple too. Prob more.

EDIT - I guess you meant original call outs. Ok makes more sense…..

I think he meant original speech. Those games have old clips in addition to the B-list guys they hired for custom calls.

Hahaha hahahaha. No, you are absolutely correct, but...that's not been the case for at least...10 years and as you can see, it hasn't made any difference. People don't care about being guinea pigs as long as they can say they were first!

I think he’s referring to custom callouts.

Initial thoughts after watching the stream:

Great job with the video use in the game. Great clips
Music sounds very good too
Call outs are weak with only 1 person. They also don’t sound natural
Nice layout, looks packed but flows well.
Doll a complete waste
Art is solid
Upper PF looks like it plays like I thought - which is terrible and gimmicky. Two large flippers is over the top.

Pro is no doubt the way to go. Look forward to playing it - just wish it had something special associated with it.

Agree. Static doll Is a horrible idea. Should have had grogu bash toy

I’m not so sure about that...you think the upper PF is too easy with the big flippers? As soon as it increases pitch most players had a couple seconds up there.

The normal pitch playfield with one flipper May turn out to have longer ball times.

It’s a novelty for sure but if you like banzai run’s upper playfield you’ll probably like this, similar style. I think it looks like fun.

The pro I expect will play more like the third flipper area on games like Sorcerer.

I just do not see what is so great about the game. Just watched the reveal. The upper playfield is a complete waste in the right corner. You just knock a few targets for 5 seconds...and the doll in the left corner does absolutely nothing. Is it just the theme? Does not seem to be a fun shooter like a lot of other games. Oh, and I forgot, the LE's going for way over MSRP? If I was going to pay for an overpriced game it would be GnR CE.

Like POTC? Wonka?

I'm talking about voice assets from the show, not more custom callouts. Imagine Ghostbusters without any of the main actor voices clips from the movies. That's what seems to be occurring with Mando and it's disappointing.

Same goes for Stern Star Wars. Imagine that game without any of the actor audio clips from the original trilogy. Again, disappointing.

Mando is boring? LOL, he makes the show, it's about him! A Mando pin without Mando audio clips from the show...wow.

Yes like Pirates but not like Wonka (it has other character audio clips from the movie)

I’m still undecided on the upper pf - if anything looked too quick up there - a lot of theatrics and work to activate it and then over in 1 Sec for most players. But you can get back up there easy enough. Multiball up there looked interesting.

Wonka call-outs and assets in general are weak.

And we’ve already established there are other call outs from other characters in Mando.

It was pretty slick of the reveal team to totally play off as nothing happened, the issue at 38:32 into the stream. One of the bulbs from the playfield came rolling down and they immediately took the camera off the game. This is like in sports when a fan runs onto the field and television does not want to show it lol

We go through some version of this every release. That's what Pinsound is for if it really matters to someone.

Yes they are and that's part of the reason why I never bought Wonka. At these insane prices movie and TV show based pins should come with as close to full assets as possible. The lack of licensed movie actor audio on Pirates hurts that game in my opinion (part of the reason I sold my LE).

I would never have bought GB if it didn't have movie actor audio from the major characters. Same goes for Star Wars when I owned it, LOTR, and Hobbit. Movie actor audio helps a ton with theme immersion and without a game suffers, just my view.

My thoughts...

People who love to talk about 'flow' should be wetting themselves on this game... it has some fast flowing shots and returns. It looks like a really solid shooter... in the realm of Met and GOT. Has some combo focus in the rules too

The stacking looks like there could be some annoying lockouts - but overall the rules look very interesting with lots of different branches to pursue

The screen art direction looks really good. A bit in the style of GoTG, but visually it looks attractive and effective. The styles they made up for the control panels, fonts, etc all look fantastic.

The colored GI lighting use (for red) is really effective.. in both things like ambush and the impossible mode stuff.

Hero mode is pretty funny - neat they are thinking about more different forms of fun for groups

The weapon/upgrade rules look well done

The encounters and mini-PF look very well done... with the exception of... the bonus video playout at the end of encounter seemed WAY too long. One I timed was 15 seconds alone. That's way too long in terms of breaking up the game IMO. Mission start can be long too...

The PF art looks sweet - the video assets look tight

The call outs though really seem flat for a few reasons
- first, the sound of it seemed really flat and lacking dynamics. Maybe its how the twitch setup was... but it really didn't sound high fidelity vs the other elements
- the script is really... boring? Seemed very utilitarian... we didn't get much in terms of character, expression, emotion (humor or fear or tension etc).
- I don't fault carl's performance, but it just seems pretty bland in terms of the script and sound mix

Sound... I guess not super standout at this point, at least from the stream. The gun/target/etc sounds are on-point for the subject matter... but the lack of diversity in the music could become grating over time. The lack of memorable speech clips of various characters is disappointing. I don't expect custom audio from 4 people... but give us the content from the source! Especially after the interviews Brian and Dwight gave, its really sad to see what they have very what they were talking about having access to.

The bounce off from the U shot's return to the cross-over wireform looks worrisome. The cross-over really needed more side guides to counter the bouncing off the side. The slope of the game isn't going to help that kind of ball energy much because it can feed a shot from the flippers almost un-obstructed.. so game slope isn't going to slow that down. The saving grace is that is something they obviously would see all the time in play testing so that leaves hope that this can be countered with better setup.

Pros:l
Layout - fun with lots of fast returns. Uniqueness
Art
Main features (mini PF)
Originality
Rules diversity
Multiplier opportunities without being Star Wars 40x non-sense
Art direction in the screen and original content
Levels of play in the Mini PF
Extra 'play features' like co-op, hero, impossible, cheater to this is the way, etc

Cons:
Writing for call outs is pretty boring
Sound for call outs seems flat
Reliance on main theme song when in main game loop
the minimal character audio performances from show
playfield light shows seem pretty boring besides the mini pf
(insert your grievances about their choice of toys/figures vs what you wanted)

Overall though I think this is gonna be a great players game. Visually it's gonna be impressive... just wish it had more inspiring writing!

flynnibus had a thoughtful review. Not sure I'd have much to add without playing it. I was bummed the kid didn't do more... even via magnets... felt like either an afterthought or Stern reacting to negative feedback about non-animitronic movement, but nevertheless, I think this game will be a hit. Even though I didn't want to, I will probably be a buyer on this title...

You're expressing your view pretty poorly I think. Should there be clips of Mando's speech in the game? For sure! Should Mando been the main custom audio? NO - his character is bad for it.

You beat up on the choice of using Carl... instead of Mando. That points to what they used Carl for - the custom call outs... vs what I think your real gripe is, which is lack of character audio clips from the show. And that I agree with.

The inability for them to use EXISTING character performances is really hurting the potential of these titles.

Do you think that this game (the LE version) is just benefiting from pinflation going on right now? For some reason I think that any decent game from Stern that would have been released would have been in the same situation. OR have people been waiting on this particular title for years?

1) Star Wars
2) Brian Eddy
3) Current FOMO market
4) Continued belief that pins will continue to rise

== Current buying hype

Pinflation??? With new titles, we are in a golden age of pinball. I bought my first machine in 1998. The stuff coming out today from every manufacturer is pure gold. The depth, the code, The toys, everything except the manufacturer quality is superior to the last golden age in the 1990s. Don't get me wrong, I love me some classics... but the stuff today smokes the last golden age of pinball... these will be the games the next generation of collectors want...

Based solely on the stream, this one doesn't seem to move pinball design forward, like GnR or JP did. That's ok, they aren't all going to be home runs. Looking forward to the next release, as always.

I think Carl Weathers is great for custom outs. I just wish there were Mandalorian and Moff show actor audio clips in the game. It just seems really odd not to hear Mando in a game that's based on the character.

Thanks to everyone who tuned in. Personally I’m proud of how the show went tonight. We ironed out a lot of audio bugs the night before.
Aside from a dumb bulb, I think the game played great. I’m taking that very playfield back to my HQ end of day Monday.
Gotta get that 1 on 1 time.

Giving everyone but Mike a lav was a good call

I am at a wedding event and can’t watch the stream. To be clear, are we talking JJP Pirates here with no video footage or voice of the mandalorian? I don’t have time to watch the stream, but I’m not buying this game if there is no video footage and assets from the main guy. Is panzer being a JJP fanboy with hyperbole or does the Mandalorian appear in this game?

hahaha gottem.

I guess I will have to buy one for 14K and view it as an investment for the future

To generalize... there really isn't any clips of other characters talking or snips from the show of people delivering memorable lines. There might be some minor snips tucked in there.. but overall.. its devoid.

I want to be clear here before I call my distributor and cancel my premium order for a premium (since this was represented to me as being full assets): are there no audio clips from the show of the Mandalorian? Nothing with him speaking at all? They gave him the JJP Jack Sparrow treatment as far as voice work and video assets are concerned?

Adam West and Burt Ward in Batman66

Does Burt do custom callouts? I was trying to remember but couldn't recall...

Not true. There is a lack of them at the moment, but there is at least 1 line from Mando and 1 from Katie Sackoff. So they have the rights to use them. They likely just haven't been added yet as Dwight usually does the polish after the core rules are solid.

Lol. In fairness, inflation is a function of supply and demand.... when there is more money than supply = inflation. So yes, LE prices are pumped up by inflation.

Regardless, there is good stuff being churned out across the board. However, I think anyone viewing any pin as an "investment" is rolling the dice regardless of how good the game is...

What are the lines and do you have a time stamp from the stream? I really hope there's callouts from both characters and more coming!

Lol. Definitely more assets then Pirates which couldn't show actors at all. So far there's video footage of Mando but possibly no audio clips of the character from the show. There's now been a report that 1 line from Mando was heard on the stream.

Yes

why would the player beat up a small child?

Yes a JJP fanboy who just bought a NIB TMNT, has made several posts recently criticizing JJP quality, and is now considering cancelling their GNR LE order (due to playfield issues) in favor of another Stern. Lol.

Criticizing / questioning a single game over callouts doesn't mean a person automatically dislikes an entire company.