Stern ain't gonna pay their staff to be there on a saturday

This is why you make friends with people who have games Or play premiums when available.

Or buy a LE HUO...

Been collecting pinball machines in my home for 23 years. I have never bought a game I've never played.

Here's the thing... there will always be pinballs for sale.

Ergo the problem - they set the LE number before they know if they will sell them all or not.

When LEs are considered 'plentiful' - they lose the FOMO effect. When they sell out too quick, they've left money on the table.

So it very much impacts Stern. And the 'if the market corrects...' is what has been happening for many releases. Stern tries to gauge how many will hit the sweet spot of keeping the allure of exclusivity while reaping in as much as they can.

Then you are not paying attention. FOMO is **HUGE** in driving sales up front. Why did Haggis limit not only their sales numbers, but put a very tight window on orders? Same as DR... they are trying to push for a sales frenzy.

Hell, even MOD makers are jumping on the bandwagon to push demand forward.

LE hype doesn't drive actual game value (and it's market value in the long run) - but in SALES in this hobby it has proven to be a very effective way to push interest into front-loaded sales.

This is the key point for people that try to make JJP comparisons. JJP and Stern's product spreads are different. People don't care about the LE number on JJPs because JJP is selling that model based on the feature set more often than not. Stern's LE differentiators have been pretty weak, with art usually being the biggest 'must or must not have' differentiator. People buy LEs because they think they are the 'top end' and the FOMO effect. Balancing that act is an art... Stern's batting average is not great, but they do keep getting back up to swing.

Hence the comment 'top end' - you think it's the loaded features model.. where the vast majority of those things are simple bolt-ons. Like I said in previous post... stern's biggest differentiator of late has been Art.

If those features were on a lesser model - would you still buy the LE?

Everyone knows LE in terms of exclusivity is meaningless in JJP terms.

If anything for this discussion it proves that 'too many' wipes out the FOMO/exclusivity point.

JJP sells LEs based on their feature differentiators - not exclusivity.

are you paying people to do it for your or something?

"value" has never been a LE justifier. The price spread between premium and LE was $1400 on the last releases. $1400 for shaker, art blades, powder, glass, and translite is cheaper for you?

Shop better.

I didn't forget it - you're just buying into their pitch that their laminated translite is the same thing as a screen printed backglass... and it's not.

Again, no I didn't. I did mention powder... but it's usually better to just new hardware then it is to ship it, strip it, and powder. I think you are just aren't familiar with what it actually involves.

of all those games, only METLE had pre-launch hype and was selling out.

Like.. what do spinners and stationary targets on the POTC ship represent from the theme? Pirate ships don't have spinners or lights on their deck, it just looks wierd. POTC ship must not be fun either...

It's just political trolling - ignore it

We finally get a Stern pro without just a bunch of flat plastics and people complain the doll doesn't dance enough...

If the game didn't have the doll - everyone would be screaming 'how can you not have...'

While the magnet trick would have been nice - have people forgotten how big the magnet hand of JM is?

Motion? Bleh... who notices how much staypuft moves in GB?

As long as the doll doesn't compromise other stuff, it serves it's purpose... eye-candy for the street players.

The game finally has a layout where all the shots aren't at the back of the game, is full of dynamics, and finally Stern nails a reveal video. Shows off the game itself AND gives insight into the gameplay/code. Can't wait to see it and their scheme for the multi-media. The outline of the game objectives looks very engaging IMO.

Life size at like 8" tall?

Let all these people put up their ads... and never forget who they were.

Yes... below the child inlanes...

Mandalorian-Pro-Details-Ambient-08 (resized).jpeg

Why? Wouldn't you prefer Stern actually put thought into it vs spamming every game with it like it's necessary?

You'd think yeah? Sure, because it is... it's right on the game's page, right in the PR, etc.

It serves the purpose of having the casual person walk up and go 'oh look.. baby yoda!!' and consider putting a coin in. It will do that job well.

People can't seem to respect there are needs beyond their own when it comes to building products for the general public.

Yes it could have done more... yes there COULD have been other gimmicks - but it still has a purpose. And unless baby yoda stole your quarters, I wish people would just move on already. There is so much more interesting in this game then talking about the plainly obvious crap people want to beat into the ground.

At the end of the day - it's a single gimmick. They went a different direction. It's time for people to accept it they didn't do the gimmick they theorized they would do, and see it as such.

Imagine the amount of bitching that would go on and on if they did a VUK with a magnet grab and it didn't work 100% of the time (Aerosmith, Kiss, ST, Houdini, etc). Or worse... they did it and all it did was grab and drop and people would be complaining it doesn't do enough animation, etc. Point is, everyone is full of ideas, and apparently is upset that reality didn't match up to their dreams of possible.. and want to burn the whole house down over it.

It serves a purpose. Its not the main 'ooh ahh' gimmick in the game. That doesn't make the game a stinker, or Stern cheapskates. There is more to the whole thing than just this one element.

I'm more off-put by the weird hanging target mech and it's cosmetics than I am worried about the static figure in the game.

Put simply - they are a retail operation - they are not targeting the hobbyist or enthusiast markets. They sell to the random retail 'game room' buyers.

Plastic Ramps are cheaper in volume - but have a higher startup cost. Ramp costs also go up significantly as the size/complexity of the ramp increases. Metal habit trails are expensive, but are not as limited in design as molded ramps are.

Metal habit trails hold up better, virtually never show wear, and do not block the views as much as plastic ramps. When your ramps are crossing the middle of the PF, or each other, that's a big deal.

When you look at this game, the ramps were clearly designed with cost efficiency in mind. The ramps are done in sections to reduce their size and increase their part re-use. The Premium and Pro use the same top portion of the ramp, and simply swap out the return portion.

Reality is its more about 'how easy is it to get' vs 'sold out'. Every time there is places where distros have hold back or people are buying for speculation. And games always come up HUO quickly afterwards.

Games like Metallica and Star Trek really were the games that established the 'buy before release' pattern of FOMO.

Nope - but distributors often use 'free shipping' in their balloon game of where you put the discounts.

No - the point of the distributor model is as it was for most commercial gear. The distributor is your purchasing vehicle, they are your parts supplier, they are your service provider. They are the company's representative in your territory and provide the inventory, sales and support for the product. The distributor expects to make money on the margin of product and selling value added services (support, parts, etc). The manufacturer wasn't in the direct business and did not have local presence. The manufacturer would instead focus on supporting the distributors with training, marketing, parts, and vendor support.

That's what 'the olden days' of Betson and others was... and still is for most operating in that model.

Problem is, Stern uses the model, but doesn't actually live by it. They don't do what is necessary to make it successful, by supporting the distributors and making it a viable space to offer real 2 tier sales and support. Instead Stern hides behind not doing direct sales, and lets people who do nothing more than take orders be distributors. It was really bad for awhile before they purged the ranks... where people were becoming 'distributors' just so they could buy games at a discount for them and their friends. They've gotten better, but really they are just doing two tier sales and not making the two tier model work for actual support and services.

Stern likes to reap the benefits... letting distributors be their local presence, stock inventory, handle all the direct sales, etc... but don't require or enable distributors to actually be real value added service providers/representatives.

A batch that probably was a handful of games. Probably motivated more as a the gimmick to drive value to their insider program more than as a pivot in strategy away from distribution.

It's not far fetched to believe they will move to a model where they casually sell direct, but have no interest in actually competing with their distributors. Just do it as a way to convert sales from people that know no better, or to do it for promotional reasons (like the insider access).

Stern has it too good without offering direct sales... they won't want to give up distribution.

Ok, but that also requires ignoring Brian E's quoted statements where he says entirely the opposite.. where the doll was the FIRST thing he placed.

the crazy thing looking back at this is... that people are willing to spend almost 50%-100% the cost of the premium JUST to get the LE? Good lord...

You mean like every 3rd and 4th flipper on playfields?

This is so over played... I thought everyone got their fill in the WoZ threads. I saw it as soon as the promo videos were shown and I was just counting down till people started crying over this.

SMH...I can't believe people haven't connected the dots...

Levi and Tim Sexton are great friends. Tim gets hired at Stern... Levi now has a conduit to hear and see things from the other side of the aisle. He's not a shill, he is just someone that now has a heightened perspective from the other side. I'm sure they probably have some casual insights shared.. or he gets to hear their take on such things. So he gets perspective from people inside the company, even if they never share 'secrets'. With that understanding Levi easily jumps on people who speculate wildly without any real footing.

That's your failure as a parent to not have educated them on great culture

My 18yr old has seen all the great 80s films/series.

You have no geeks if you haven't exposed them to Indiana Jones trilogy, BTTF trilogy, Goonies, Gremlins, Top Gun, etc.

It's the other side... This is why Shadow sanctum wears so badly. You're pulling the hard ball down and across the playfield.

They do have a 'sacrificial layer' - that's the big magnet core and apron they have now

Something stern can (and has) change at any time for any part.

See rising cross for Metallica for instance… lots of examples.

When you look at it closely- it really is the opposite. It’s clear the ramps were built to be modular and should swap right in.

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.

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!

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.

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

== Current buying hype

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.

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

all killer memorable quotes from the show right?? Right??

/sarcasm

Great news for you... you don't get charged for a JJP when buying a Stern Mandalorian... so no one gives a fck about whats not in some other JJP game.

Their intro was about 25mins... after which they played for over an hour.

Maths are hard....

No one had/has stock yet. The first pros go to select operators for the routes... to help get the game accessible and to give the ops something to market. Those will be the first games that hit someone's hands (including distributors).

The game are being built... but have not had first customer ship yet.

You buy blindly (even before the reveal!) you assume the risk that the game isn't what you thought it would be. Stern isn't going to make one type of game - they've mixed it up in terms of their approach to the market. Buyers are bitching because they weren't informed ahead of time. The solution is simple... STOP BUYING SHIT BLINDLY.

'without a loss' -- a risk people knowingly took. They need to own their choices. Not keep stomping their feet that the world bend to them.

Buying a game blindly does not grant you some special status to be owed what you believed something should be. They took a different approach then what some buyers thought they should take (hrmm.. sounds familiar again). If you don't like it.. DON'T BUY IT. If you bought it before you knew what it was... be an adult and own your decison.

We don’t call our qa folks developers…

So much conflict

You mean if stern wants to change the direction of the game. That happens few and far in between

moving... rotation... programming... this thread has it all!!!

Up next...

Is building web content coding? Or programming?

FIGHT!

And a EE could say the same thing about the programmer just writing software to run on a DSP or Microcontroller.. or worse.. SoC... vs having to figure out how many electrons need to accumulate before the current flows through the gate.. or who built the feedback circuit that the lazy programmer emulates with a arduino and layers of software. blah blah blah

There is a huge difference between asking for 'awareness' of where you are in the grand scheme of things... and broadly crapping on people based on stereotypes and stigmas.

Modern software architectures are not due to laziness - they evolve from where people want to spend their energy and the constraints they are working with.

I am happy people are able to take and apply a .NET class with managed memory to do a task verse re-inventing the wheel and creating that many new defects and vulnerabilities... or take an openSSL lib that has had hundreds of thousands of reviewers and auditors over it's time vs some a-hole who thinks he's gods gift to software writing his own keygen because he knows software... but not cryptography.

When I was programming... "High Level Language" meant Fortran! We wrote assembly. No one cares. Appreciate the guy who can solve the problem within the constraints in a reliable, sustainable, time efficient manner. Not think less of him/her because they didn't re-invent the wheel unnecessarily.

Guess that makes you n00b

Everyone who is anyone knows anyone who doesn't use and worship vi is just lazy and a hack!

/s

It was bouncing off after being dropped onto the wireform. There is a rail on the player side of the wireform there, but not on the other side. So fast moving balls were hitting the side rail and boucing off to the top side. This means speed is a factor. It's possible that it's something exaggerated by game setup. Considering the hours they play on the game every day, it certainly shouldn't be news to them if its a real problem. Optimism says they should have it sorted, or that game setup will minimize it.

DLC...

This is the future.. err. the way

Wrong - see examples like the Rising Cross from Metallica. Was available, then they stopped because of timebandit's mod. Other examples too... I think it's in part because Stern really doesn't like making spares so mod buying depletes the supply plus a bit of the 'protect the tiers' thinking.

Obviously - the scenario is completely different.

No balls being dumped onto the ramp midpoint... and ramps with actual sides

Wrong - people were given an expectation from Stern directly... that date has slipped.

There is more to the story then just 'pros'.

For new releases, Stern usually builds a small run of pros first for operators and special uses like launch parties. Don't confuse those pros with the larger run of pros done for most orders. Stern told those early run folks to expect the games to be built end of May and would have them likely this past week. That didn't happen. So it's just chatter about when those first run games will be landing.. Stern is a little behind here for reasons unknown.

Someone already tried by renaming a 30 day old thread….

Again….

Tilt got theirs… i expect starport/helicon will be next.

finally played some today as we setup a pro...

The shots being close are going to be a turn off to some people... but it certainly changes things up. Think shadow...

The left ramp is TALL... you're not getting any freebies up that thing

The laser cut metalwork on the ball mech to the lower playfield is a very nice touch. The razorcrest engines are lit.. which is nice.

Lots more audio call outs then I heard in the original streaming reveal. The game is a real kiss ass... always stroking your ego

The game was handing out extra balls like candy. Didn't focus too much on 'how'.. was just exploring the game. It's gonna be fun I think, but could be a bit divided in the hobby I think. Hit default GC in game 2.. defaults must be generous

Pro cabinet and translight looked great IMO.

If you watched the show - the mode plays fine. By this logic... why did the pirates multiball make it either, it was just one scene, etc.

And playing if you hear plenty of Grogo sounds and references to the child. He doesn't feel 'missing' in the game. He's cooing and he's on the orbit shots and callouts refer to him and the awards sequence all have him. It's a non-issue really. Oh and he's in the ball save animations too.

It hasn't even been a day... you in a rush?

no skip currently - but probably to make sure you don't accidentially pick something.

Sweet

I was thinking the screen that just says 'foundry' before it cycles to the item selection. I don't know if I was able to fast forward that? But I can't say for sure I was trying or not. (0.96)

Any comment about the swinging target? We see on two local examples the peg on the swing arm can actually crash into the PCB components which I assume is the prox switch.

We also saw if we get a shot up the left ramp that doesn't make it all the way to the right return, but rolls into the encounter feed... but encounter isn't lit... the encounter area stays idle with the blue lights and just ignores any switch hit activity in the encounter mini PF. No 'sneaky' action like you'd get if you entered from the playfield level. That felt... lacking. I would think you would could tell we entered the encounter from the opto at the divertor and then tell we were making hits in there.

Encounters are definately the long pole in getting deep in the game. The 4th multiball is pretty easy to get to if you make a point of playing the multiballs.. especially since the center shot is makable from either flipper and has a safe return. Missions are just play well... but encounters.. ugh.. so many trips to the mini PF. 3 levels each is the bruiser. If you have an encounter started, it seems like skill shot sneaky entrances work towards your encounter finishing too, even tho it's not lighting the yellow lights explicitly.

I still can't figure out how the playfield multipliers really work.

It seems the game will spot one for you at times if you complete an objective. But just hitting the 2 boba fett targets will like one.. but can't figure out how to light the others.

And the 2x targets around the right ramp... no idea.

Just because you can start it doesn’t mean it’s worth it.

You want to stack to make it worthwhile.

You fail you gotta re qualify. Multiball i think you gotta hit the shot so many times again. Ambush you fail and again requalify.

We only played one coop game… but foing that makes finishing most objectives pretty easy except encounters

Eta: fail after playing… to be clear

Stranger things isn’t this close. STh has this trait due to the standups around every shot (like ritchie).

Mando has shots ghat are actually low on the playfield.

That game has multiple setup issues. None on that on any of the pros here

You do hit sparky - what you goofs are arguing over is HOW IT'S DETECTED.. ffs people arguing when they don't even know wtf the stuff is.

Default code..

EB lights after starting one mission
EB is also available as an award from the child rollovers
EB is available at the foundry

And got to be several more... the game gives out EBs like candy on default settings.

Sounds like its leaning right?

Have no issues with orbit returns here. (Level and set at about 6.7 or 6.8 degrees). The only one that is risky is the u turn return as it tends to bounce off the side rail at various energy levels.

As much as the “experts” hate on how companies do releases… can’t deny this game is getting dropped into nearly every location and fast. They are crushing it in terms of getting it to the field.

When you look closely it has similar constraints that games like Wonka did, Stern is just doing a heck of a lot better hiding it. You don't watch actors talking live on video, etc. They are using pre-recorded clips, but layering them with other video clips smoothly so that you don't really get distracted by the fact they aren't actually synchronized from the scene. They are doing a better job with the composition and arrangement of the assets they have. The way they are doing freeze frames for the overlays/climaxes/etc.

I believe it's a different kind/class of performance to show them as a combined a/v recording... vs just having them isolated.

Nope - they intentionally avoid it even in cut scenes - this is the whole bane of the problem as it got exposed in Wonka as the worst. This isn't technical short-coming... it's something with the rules of how they use the assets for what they signed up for.

Production run size is likely set before Stern has every game earmarked for promotional activities. They probably just had more games from the run then earmarked... so they goto their big distros to sell like everything else.

'all' is a phrase that can be easily misinterpreted/applied depending on the individual. 'all' of what? Also, having 'access' to 'all' (aka opportunity) is different then actually 'buying all'

In short - be careful of answers given that aren't necessarily followed up with elaborations

This is every game… majority of people want the new shiny thing in their life. Most “keeper” games in collections are not because the game is extraordinarily deep - its because the game is entertaining to the owner.

Wpc games are not deep by any measure compared to modern games but people aren’t rushing to dump their pre-2015 games.

The key is if the game keeps people coming back - like tron portal… or acdc song jackpot cashing… or bsd triple stack.

“Deep” is overhyped. Boring or uninteresting is the thing a game needs to avoid. Mando rules look to has plenty to cause you to chase opportunities. Like getting the multipler stack, etc. its interesting to play… thats the important part

I know you might have a hard time keeping up while trying to keep up all your campaigning- but you should read robin’s post on said behavior
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/alien-pinball-club-by-pinball-brothers-she-s-back/page/2#post-6251803

For the mini pf… you gotta give the game some English (aka nudge) to get the flipper tip on the ball in most slow feeds.

The music gets a bit repetitive right now… but the audio commentary from Carl W improved alot. Now he mocks you a bit and kisses your butt … instead of always kissing butt

Lights when you have enough beskar to buy something

Three targets qualify the mode, which is lit on the inlane (and moveable). Hitting lit inlane starts hunter - you must complete the mode (hit the shots) to complete hunter and light the multiplier.

When encounter has been started - sneaky entries (including from the plunge) can advance your encounter progress. And yes, you can always play encounter during multiballs too.

Yes hunter lights like 3 shots. One might be a build value… but hitting the orange arrows is the objective

Simple - "sales"

Guy tells you he can't get you a game soon.. he fears you will goto another distributor.

Shouldn't have offered full payment for anything early. No need. And Pros coming later is just par for the course. Usually not 4 months later.. for that to happen your distro really put you at the back of the bus I think.

Looks great! but it sure is easier to just take the one screw out of the plunger that holds the divertor in then taking off the bracket

Huh? It's a simple machine screw..it feeds through the black plastic standoff and screws into the coil plunger. It's the only thing that holds the divertor. It was loose I had to retighten it about every 50 plays and keep working itself out.. If you are saying the screw couldn't come out in yours, maybe they started loctiting it.

How about something without the overhead? Seems like that would be a huge line of sight blocker.

Steel is fine - the issue is if you only put 2cm of welds without any structure supporting it... it's not gonna hold.

it really is a case of people with too much ball speed (slope or flipper power). The ball goes a LONG way around the hook.. and the divertor already moves alot which kills energy. Bounce backs are possible, but shouldn't be dominating. The flippers don't need that much juice if it's really happening that often.

That said, beer seal is a simple answer.

Collect enough beskar to be able to buy something

Its only for adding a ball in multiball - were you trying outside of Multiball?

You can see which weapon is active by which square is lit on the left side of display

Save yourself a lot of effort. No measurements except on the level/inclinometer. Start with leg levelers all the way in, back out by hand, counting each half turn so you can repeat the amount on another foot. Your wrist range of motion will give you a reasonable repeatable amount of rotation each time.

I back the fronts out at least a half inch to start and the backs about 1.5. Do this before even putting on the legs. Just count your turns to keep things close enough. Then once assembled , measure the pf for slope and level.

You want to avoid leaving the levelers all the way in because it hinders which way you can adjust.

You eventually find estimates of how many turns you need for each 0.1 degree… say 3-4… which makes it easy to get things close with 1-2 tries.

Hardest part is just getting in and out from under the damn game

Think you should revisit that… because nope

Yes, bug that has been there from the start.

Accept encounters are the long pole in the game... accept that you just need to keep sending the ball up there and on the pro - use short plunges to get as many trips in there as possible.

Then, stop worrying about encounters, and key in on timing a good stack of multipliers, the right mode, and multiball. That's where great fun is, getting your multiplier's up and running, starting a lucrative mode (like mudhorn), light flame thrower, and then start spider multiball... That's when you start smacking the game around like a pimp

Priming the pump with scope, completing hunter, and getting the right multiball to go with your mode... to me that's where the fun is right now.

Did you actually get tgat in your total? There is a bug in how it counts encounter champion score btw. It’s possible for thst leaderboard to be higher than your actual game score

I would consider payoff for finishing a level and surviving the ability to adv right away. Change bonus level to be a timed hurry up after you drain out of the mini after completing a level.

So if i finish a level… and stay alive… keep playing and adv.

When i drain… start a 5-8 second timer and if i get back to encounter its a boosted scoring bonus… boosted more based on how many levels i just finished.

If i miss the timer… no bonus level. You have to make the bonus level valuable here to make it worth it… and you can reward ‘streaks’ here too

This way bonus level is sbout bonus scoring - not progress hindering

No

Expo had signs on Mando saying pending licensor approval... which the others didn't. So doesn't surprise me Mando is behind.