Episode 11: “X-Men vs. Avatar - FIGHT!” 

I bought the X-Men Limited. And all your insights are spot on! Played Venom and John Wick a few days ago for the first time, and wasn't sure what to expect based on pinside, but after a few games I loved them both!

I cave and got an Xmen LE. Just got my invoice this morning. I had a change of heart after hearing Gary talk about it. I'm praying this becomes a great game. I rewatch the stream a few times, and I have a feeling it will be fantastic.

Although Avatar isn't a homerun IP license for a pin, the developers really did the best they could with it.

I think i would go with X-Men. From what i have seen in the gameplay videos, X- Men has less flashing stuff, and the sound on Avatar was horrible in the gameplay video

Was shopping for a premium 70th Godzilla and then I just picked up a Bond LE new in the box for under 10k. This hobby is definitely a marathon and I have been collecting for a decade. This is my first brand new pin. Let the pins come to you. Don’t chase them - kinda like chasing girls 😆

52 here and love insider connected. X-men looks like it will have a steeper learning curve than average but also rewarding in time with the shots. Not in the market to buy one but looking forward to playing on location.

Gary Stern said in Colorado today that they are changing the music and other things based on the response. So they are listening to people. I think a really good game is going to be the result after about 6 months of code updates.

"Hit'em with the Hein!"? Hey now, Ralph, what a cool reference. You just got a subscriber.

You don’t have to be an Avatar fan to enjoy the game. Played it Sunday at the Belles tournament and it was so fun and challenging. I can’t wait to play it again. Go find and play it.

I dont like Avatar but that machine looks awesome, the fact its 12k is NUTS though. The Xmen game speaks to me more, just need to see final code though.

the improvement in JJP flippers is the capacitors on the I/O board. It’s a lot more powerful and gives the flippers a more snappy feel.

I agree with you about how cool Insider Connected is and the potential for Spike 3 to connect with other pinball players with the same machine to do co-op or competitive events! I have this vision in my head to have a Dungeons and Dragons game where a team of different classes come together to take down bosses online. It would be nice to have other pinball manufacturers to have a feature like this moving forward.

I am actually pretty stoked on Avatar - I wouldn't call it dream theme but I do love SciFi and enjoy the movies very much. This could be my first JJP.

Dude! Thankyou so much for listening. Hope you enjoy the show. We're actually in Western Australia haha George did say that next up we are seeing something we've seen before but in a new way so sounds like it was Metallica that got bumped and we will see it by Expo!

I think hand drawn animations like X-men would be more difficult to produce unlike Avatar which starts with movie clips and then overlays graphics

Jurassic Park LE was $8,800. That was 2019. $13k is ridic (and I have 007 and Foo Fighters LE).

Maybe the Stern game that is a little behind schedule is Predator? I mean there is a teaser when you play "Jurassic Park" that says "Get to the chopper"

I’m 34 and I love insider connected. Im not sure I’ll buy another game without insider connected. Also the LE really should be 12k with a Topper I think it would be a fair price for Stern and us. +2,300 for armor, Topper, better artwork, shaker and signature. Honestly get rid of the other stuff as mirror blades look better and LE’s should have better speakers and sub which I’ll add myself.

Not even a debate. Avatar wiped the floor with them

I’ve decided to preorder the X-Men LE. My biggest hope is that they integrate some of the theme music from the animated series like they did in parts of the gameplay video. I agree that the draining was concerning but honestly, I think they were just screwing around/not focusing on the gameplay that much during the video, which was unfortunate. My first non-Stern was Spooky’s Halloween. I just loved the lighting, the film integration and the music. That said, I definitely had some issues with quality control right out of the box. One of the flippers on the upper miniature playfield was out of alignment. Also, I was disappointed to read that the powder coating had a tendency to wear quickly, so I immediately clearcoated it when I found that out. Then, very much to my surprise, the main PC unit died and had to be replaced by me. Customer support was great for all of these things, but it definitely made me concerned about quality on non-Sterns. I bought a Stern Godzilla premium new and never had any issues with it. Next, I was persuaded to try a Godfather CE by Jersey Jack. It just looked too beautiful to pass up. Once again, there were problems with it right out of the box. After some long drawn out troubleshooting with their customer support, we discovered that two of the color-coded wire connections did not correspond to the wires they were supposed to connect. The Godfather machine is the most beautiful one in my collection, but the shots are not that interesting in my opinion. Also, as you pointed out, the lack of Insider Connected hurts other companies. Another point I wanted to make about the cost of the Stern LE being $12,999 is that that does not include the topper which will undoubtedly be another 1-2K depending on how cool they make it. So if you consider the Stern LE with a $2000 topper, you have the same cost as the CE for the Jersey Jack. Anyway, thanks Ralph for your insightful videos.

I'd rather give Spooky 👻 my money instead of Stern and JJP these days. Customer service is A+ and the features, fit and finish for the price you pay undercuts them both. And now there is Alice in Wonderland, which is a dream theme coming from Dutch Pinball.

i bet 6 to 8 months after release this will be great. hopefully it's at allentown pinfest next spring. Avatar looks really cool! I don't have the $ for real pins so i play them when i can but love the hobby and love all the new titles coming out.

Great stream Ralph! But fyi: don’t complain about Stern LE prices, in Germany a LE costs me 15.500 Euro.

The hype for UXM really deflated while Avatar really inflated. Both themes are meh to me, however I could live with Avatar sitting next to my Alien(s), paying homage to James Cameron. I’ll wait for production and more importantly, I will play them both before buying. Avatar just has way more bang/buck. Please understand that Avatar CE topper would be at least 3K from Stern, which makes that CE at 12K plus the topper. Thanks for the video man and congratulations on your UXM LE!

Another great episode Ralph! My favorite non-Stern's are Total Nuclear Annihilation (TNA) and Labyrinth. I think you'd really like TNA. I'm still in the honeymoon phase with Labyrinth and I'm aware that half of my love for it is pure nostalgia, but I think it's a fun and challenging game outside of that. I feel like Avatar and Uncanny X-Men are both going to be spectacular. Exciting!

Ralph! When i said i wanted you into pinball years ago i had no idea you would turn into the USA version of Neil McRae! What is that now? The last 4 Sterns and all LE'S? Dayum

Cool episode, keep on making this videos!

Hey ralph I’m right with you on the LE buy. We will both be laughing or both be crying soon 😂

We have a Stranger Things and we are waiting for our Labyrinth to come home. I wanted a JJP but I think Dutch or Spooky could win me over. Thanks for what you’re doing broD!

Thanks for saying that about getting used to pins. Its a annoynace of mine when people play a pin with tight shots and say it shoots like crap. I wanna lash out and say no you suck at playing it right now. This happened with Wick and AP's Houdini. Stern in the past sold a home version of Iron Man Call the classic. A stripped down Dark Knight at Costco. And the home pins where Transformers, Avengers, Spiderman (my fav) Star Wars and JP

I’ve been calling them tables since the 80’s. You must be new to pinball.

I canceled my premium. I was really bummed out after seeing the animations, hearing the music, call outs and voice acting. Makes me realize how important music is to me in my pins.

Game is not a drain monster, shoots great.

As always Love your honesty Ralph!!

My first non-Stern, after owning the Jurassic Park and Star Wars Comic Edition home Pins, is Labyrinth! It's fully paid off, I'm just waiting for it to be shipped here to Tasmania. But I am pretty much decided on what my fourth pinball machine will be, and it's Avatar! I'm just like you with the movies, saw the first one and thought it was fine, missed out on the second... but I do really love the world under glass they've created, it reminds me of Flipnic on the PS2. The art style is so fresh and beautiful, and it plays wonderfully from the gameplay footage that I've watched so far, everyone commented on how much they enjoyed it, how well it flowed, and they all lasted a lot longer (casual players mind you) than the pinball professionals playing X-Men.

I have said this on a couple of other videos, but the bottom playfield on Avatar just kills it for me. I don't like Avatar but my wife loves the movies and we where thinking of getting it mainly for her. However, we both do not like bottom playfields. We have Munsters and got a pro for that reason. We had an ACDC and it was a pro also because of that reason. It just sucks to us. I hate being stuck in there and killing the flow of the actual game play. Xmen I soooo can't wait to play that, however, my wife doesn't like that theme! lol. So I am waiting for it to show up at this bar we go to. They usually get pins 1 or 2 weeks after the announcements, so I am hoping they have it by this Friday. I just like how that danger room area is. Yea we like Stern's speed over JJP. JJP plays about 1/2 as slow as Stern. We have Labyrinth and that one plays faster than JJP but slower than Stern. Also I think giving it a shot is Wonka's problem. I believe that is JJP best pin (maybe POTC but didn't have enough time with that one). However like no bar or gameroom has it at least in my area. That game needs a good 2 weeks to a month (depending on how much someone plays) to really see how it is. That one is behind Godzilla to me as best pins I have ever played.

The Avatar presentation was amazing. X-Men not so much.

Ralph avatar looks awesome, I wasn’t impressed with the X-men, something about it I don’t like I don’t know if it is that extra flipper on the left side or what but I don’t like it. I guess I have to play it before I could say I don’t like it. As for your first non stern I would go for looney tunes or a jersey jack pin.

Flipside! Remote multiplayer could be fun. Their score updates on your game’s lcd while you’re playing simultaneously. If you drain first… you wait for them to drain, so you both stay on the same ball. If they had something like Discord, could trash talk/chat while playing/waiting. Tournament points can be kept…. Lots of possibilities. Simultaneous co-op…get credit if either of you hit the lit shot(s).

Excellent synopsis on X men... My thoughts exactly. Also an LE still on the way. I'm also waiting for that special theme from JJP. Have a GnR but need something future wise that hits my theme preference

Overall experience and business release practices, avatar won clearly. Not saying xmen is a total fail. But right now, it looks bad. The music was so awful. To me music is a major major pull in buying and enjoyment. And xmen playfield is awesome ....but you should get labyrinth. Total experience labyrinth checks all the boxes. Its hard tho, gotta learn it.

I can guarantee you anyone cancelling their xmen order will regret it once they play it. List to dons pinball podcast he played it

Avatar at the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown was awful ! Balls getting stuck everywhere sunken playfield was broke 😅 plus its Avatar 😂 if you like Avatar coool 👍

I thought you didn’t have any more room for pins? Btw why are you buying a Stern LE and not a premium? I feel like that is wasting 3k money that you could put towards a JJP CE in the future for a theme like Matrix. I just don’t see the value in a Stern LE at all.

How much does a Stern LE comes up to after you add the missing 1500$+ topper? Pretty damn close to a JJP CE and its built a lot cheaper. Spooky are also pushing amazing games as well, top quality and some of the best craftmanship I have seen for the price. Very excited to see what's next from Spooky.

Even on my favorite table He can beat my best...

Hey Ralph, are you ever going to cover arcade cabinets and multi-cades in the future? Or are you a 100% Pinball channel now?

Dont buy promises of what it could be Buy the complete game once its done

your wrong about the table thing coming from virtual.. argue all you want , love it hate it..., timeline is just not compatible.

When I met Jack about a year before WOZ was released, he showed me Avatar and how disappointed he was by how bare the game was. It seemed cheap to him. I’m guessing he wasn’t a to show that he can do the theme justice.

What happened with JJP's flippers is that they added +$6 worth of capacitors to their pinball boards. They got more electricity to the flippers which were pretty much the same flipper brackets and coils as everyone else. Everyone else had bigger capacitors. JJP's used to ship with "Scorbit" but it was not widely adopted I don't think. I believe someone said they are working on something.

Subbing just because you get triggered like I do when people say “table”!😊