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The Great British Pinball Podcast
The Great British Pinball Podcast
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The Great British Pinball Podcast Episode 16! - SPECIAL XMEN EDITION

PodcastAnalysis updated 3d ago1 hr 6 min listen
From the creator

Send us Fan Mail Scott and Neil talk about Neil's trip to Chicago including a trip to Stern HQ and PAPA21!

Listen on The Great British Pinball Podcast

Highlights

  • X-Men playfield has significantly more creative shot design and ball paths than previous recent Stern releases at similar price points
  • X-Men uses a tiny mechanical finger (not a magnet) to lock the ball at the left ramp, which is difficult to see but highly functional
  • The game features a ramp mechanism where a finger flicks the ball back down the ramp, blocked by a sentinel hand finger that flicks it back again
  • Seth Stern is implementing customer-centric design improvements, including easier ball insertion on home games without removing glass
  • X-Men playfield feels wider than it looks in photos due to Jack Danger's design choice to move the game sideways, integrating plunge lane into outlane
  • X-Men is the first Stern game in recent memory to create genuinely innovative mechanical magic rather than iterating on known mechanics
  • The game's prototype had no ball sticking issues, lost ball confusion, or mechanical glitches, unlike some other manufacturers' production releases
  • X-Men Pro and LE versions have no significant gameplay factor differences

Notable quotes

“Every shot has got this insane ball path to it. It's just, it's mental. I was like, and also I'm like, where the F did that go?”
Neil McRae
“I genuinely think... in terms of flow I look at High Speed 2 Getaway the Getaway and the ball paths on that... Jack's like created 20 of them in the game because there's so many of these different paths”
Neil McRae
“You won't be forgiven for a crap pinball experience... What matters is the ball and flippers. That's the thing to focus on.”
Neil McRae
“This is the first game, I feel, that they've actually gone and created some magic behind the game.”
Scott Rundell
“I cannot believe that after, because I always thought in my head, right, it's Keith Elwin. he's going to have the bigger bomb, they're not going to give this kind of stuff to Jack. And Jack, when he does his game, it'll be a nice game, but it'll be a bit like Venom... And he's completely, like, blown this one out of the water for me.”
Neil McRae
“It's not, I can't think of a shot that was, you know, a shot that I'd seen in another game. That's what I'm thinking there's a lot in this game.”
Neil McRae
“I'm willing to bank that this game will become the new number one, purely based on the fact that it's got so much in it.”
Neil McRae
“To me, X-Men is probably one of the – It's a community in the UK community... To me, X-Men is probably one of the big franchises.”
Neil McRae

Entities

  • Stern Pinball· company
  • Papa 21· event
  • Pinball Expo· event
  • Deadpool (pinball)· game
  • Godzilla (pinball)· game
  • High Speed 2: The Getaway· game
  • John Wick (pinball)· game
  • Jurassic Park (home edition)· game
  • Paragon (pinball)· game
  • Stranger Things (pinball)· game
  • Venom (pinball)· game
  • X-Men (pinball)· game
  • Great British Pinball Podcast· organization
  • George Gomez· person
  • Jack Danger· person
  • Keith Elwin· person
  • Mark Wehner· person
  • Neil McRae· person
  • Nick Wehner· person
  • Scott Rundell· person
  • Seth Stern· person
  • Steve Ritchie· person
  • Insider Connected· product

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