Minneapolis, MN
The only Zeppelin-specific thread I see here is focused on what music the game ought to include. If Beatles is our guide - and why shouldn't it be? - Zeppelin is likely to have ten-or-fewer songs, each of them represented in truncated form. At the risk of sounding unkind, I will wager that this game will *not* shine for its assets. Stern will make its sales quotas with- or without the assets, so what would compel Gary to spend the money to have GNR-level assets?
I'm more interested to hear speculation - or even advance information - on where the game will stand in the Ritchie layout evolution. I mean, with all due respect, The King has been more of an earl - or even a viscount or baron - in the last few go-'rounds. Not since AC/DC or ST have pinball fans really sung the praises of Steve Ritchie's layout designs. Therefore, how reasonable is it to expect a return to greatness for Zeppelin? What shots/features will he recycle this time? Could Zeppelin's layout be curiously reminiscent of "24," say, or Elvis or WPT? What shots/features would do the theme justice? I'm going to assume this game will have an upper PF, just because Ritchie is going to be under pressure to really "bring it" with a such a hallowed theme. He was able to lean on the Black Knight toy as a central feature in BK:SOR. What could be its counterpart on a Zeppelin layout? A lower PF is probably out as including one would be an obvious "bite" from AC/DC. How much is left in the tank for Ritchie? Will he phone it in, or will he come to play?
Another question would be, code. Timballs? Lonnie? Kyzivat/Klyce/Cheng? I realize Dwight was probably still on Turtles when Zeppelin was in development, so he is out. Lyman, however, might have been able to finish his work on E3 in time to join the Zeppelin team, since the rumor was that E3 was finished long before it debuted. Surely Stern hasn't forgotten their sales success in the last Lyman/Ritchie game, AC/DC. Ray-Day is probably still tethered to AIQ. Stern is sharing its code work increasingly among young, staff programmers. For all we know, Zeppelin could be entirely coded by programmers we've never heard of. It's important to remember though that Ritchie isn't a rules guy. He hands all of that off to the coders of his games. I'm also assuming that Elwin's coders wouldn't be on Zeppelin as they, to this point, have no experience writing rules.
The art package, too, is a bit hard to speculate on. Zombie Yeti just finished *two* art packages, so I can't imagine he's on Zeppelin. Franchi did the exquisite Beatles, but I thought his relationship with Stern was strained and that he's actually attached to CGC these days. I think we need to be ready for a relatively unknown artist on this game - Johnny Crap, for example - or perhaps someone we've never heard of. Eric hired an unknown artist to do the art package for GNR. It looks very Yeti-esque and hasn't drawn any complaints at all. Stern might have done something similar with Zeppelin. Freres or O'Connor have styles that I think would be less successful at achieving proper likenesses of the band members, so I would not expect involvement from either of them.
And how about callouts? I have ZERO expectation that any band member will do voice work for this machine, but perhaps the British voice actors who did IMDN would be a good fit.
Lastly, price: will we get Beatles-esque pricing tiers or standard-cornerstone pricing tiers?
Saskatoon, SK
