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Triple Drain Pinball Podcast Episode 68 - Tom is DONE with LEs!
Hosts: Joel Engelberth, Tom Graf and Travis Murie Today we didn't have much time buy we wanted to squeeze in an episode before Chicago Pinball Expo! We dove deep into our thoughts on Stern's latest...
Highlights
- Star Wars (LE) has no features that justify the premium price over the Pro model
- Star Wars Pro's center ramp performs better (smoother, more consistent) than the LE version
- The Magna-save mechanic on Premium/LE is unreliable and requires precise timing; Pro's guaranteed ball save is superior for competitive play
- Star Wars has eight major shots, making it tighter and faster than ACDC (five major shots), contributing to its difficulty
- The Force save mechanic is not approachable for casual/location players; requires knowledge and practice
- Medieval Madness Wizard Edition lost appeal after novelty wore off; lacks depth compared to Cactus Canyon
- Ray Day (code designer) and Andrew (local Chicago software hire) tag-teamed Star Wars code, delivering nearly all 30+ planned modes at launch
- Modern Stern games are not designed with elite tournament players in mind; only Keith Elwin represents elite tournament player designers in current industry
Notable quotes
“I don't think there's anything that grabs you into buying the LE compared to the Pro. I mean, I don't see one feature that's like, hey, that's awesome. I got to grab that.”
“You're 100% success rate. So basically what's cool about Star Wars is there's spinners on both orbits, and when you rip the spinner, you're spelling Jedi.”
“I would definitely say it is a feature that you have to see somebody do, and it's, yeah, it's not a gimme. It's not like it's lit by default when you first plunge.”
“My wife played Star Wars for four minutes and she was done. And it was just, in her mind, it was a whole lot going on. And she's like, I just kept draining.”
“These games have what I say. Yeah. And it's like I hear this like all the time. Like, let's just get this straight out, guys. Like, seriously, these games have to be designed in order to be manufactured at scale.”
“How many elite-level tournament players are designing games? Like, right now, in the industry, right now. Can we start naming them off so we can just put this to bed? It's like, besides Elwin, is that it?”
“That's why everybody loves Godzilla, because it's the mech that's right up the middle people can hit. That's why people love Attack from Mars. Exactly. It's fairly intuitive that somebody within maybe two to three games could figure out.”
Entities
- Pinball Expo· event
- Slaps· event
- ACDC· game
- Attack from Mars· game
- Cactus Canyon· game
- Deadpool· game
- Godzilla· game
- John Wick· game
- Medieval Madness (Wizard Edition)· game
- Star Wars: Fall of the Empire· game
- Triple Drain Pinball Podcast· organization
- Andrew· person
- Brian Eddy· person
- Eric Meunier· person
- Jared· person
- Joel· person
- John Borg· person
- Keith Elwin· person
- Mark Seiden· person
- Ray Day· person
- Tom Graff· person
- Travis· person
- Spike 3· product
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