Report: Pokémon Pinball Media Day @ Stern Pinball

Earlier this month, Stern Pinball announced their long-rumored Pokémon-themed table. Having been following this rumor for over a year, I sent a request to their press team to see if I could get into their media day on February 11^th. They got back to me quickly, and with a bit of paperwork, I was signed up to go.

Travel

I decided I didn’t want to do four hours of driving in one day, so I drove down to Elk Grove Village (the suburb just outside of O’Hare where Stern is located) and checked into a hotel for the night. I ate dinner at a restaurant in Des Plaines called “Chicago Sushi”, which despite its generic name actually had the best Japanese food I’ve tasted since my 2023 trip to Japan.

Arriving at the Event

The following morning, I picked up a small breakfast and headed over to Stern’s headquarters and factory. I was curious to find out how much of the audience came from the pinball media and how much came from a Pokémon perspective. It seems like I might have been the only Pokémon-focused outlet, though some of the others had a fair degree of knowledge of the franchise.

First, a Presentation

We (there were a few dozen attendees at the event) were brought into the “Cheetah” meeting room to watch a presentation (no recording allowed) that explained the company, a bit about the Pokémon property (a number of folks were genuinely surprised it had more revenue than the next four highest-grossing properties combined), and showed some video footage of the table.

Touring the Factory

A portion of us (likely ones that hadn’t been to the factory before), including myself, opted to go on a tour of Stern’s machine factory. No recording/photography was allowed here either, but we did get to see all the parts that go into physically building a machine, visible and hidden. The guide also made a point to mention where some of the parts come from, including those from Wisconsin and other nearby states.

The “Pinball Alley” Room

After the tour, we were led into a room that had all three versions (Pro, Premium, and Limited Edition) of the Pokémon table (as well as a few other recent Stern releases). After a round or two, some of the folks who worked on the table (including co-designers Jack Danger and George Gomez) gave a talk/Q&A about the table and some of its features. You can see a brief excerpt here:

That Afternoon

Following lunch, we were each given some time to play the Premium version of the table to get footage of it. It was a bit odd since the sound (except for the replay sound effect) were turned off, but I used it to gather some b-roll footage of the table that you should see in some upcoming videos. Afterwards, I conducted an audio interview with some of the team members, played a bit more, and then ate dinner and went home.

What About the Table Itself?

I figured you might be looking for that. I’ll preface my comments by stating that while I have a fair amount of experience with both virtual and real-world pinball, I do not consider myself an expert in either field. That being said, I very much enjoyed the atmosphere and mechanics of the table. The combination of anime footage, art, and voiceovers gives the table a natural feel and identity, distinct from other pinball machines. The mechanics, while standard things seen in other tables, felt very natural and were enjoyable to activate. I really did enjoy playing it a lot, though I will need to play it again once the Insider Connect collection feature goes live to make a full evaluation.

Other Notes About the Table:

-While all three versions of the table have physical Pikachu, Meowth, and Poké Ball ornaments, the Pikachu and Poké Ball ones only move on the Premium and Limited Edition models.
-There appear to be 182 Pokémon in the game at launch, including most (if not all) of generation one, with a few from later generations (Lucario has a light on the board, and Hopip came up in the grassy area several times).
-Voice acting is provided by Ted Lewis (Giovanni and the battle announcer), Ikue Ootani (Pikachu), James Carter Cathcart (Meowth-audio was sourced from his work on the anime, presumably in part due to his passing last year), and Roger Parsons (the announcer). There also seems to be a Pokédex voice, which I am unable to identify.
-The table will not be localized for other languages, so the graphics, text, and voices will be in English in other territories.
-The table was primarily handled by the Pokémon Company (Japan and International), with little to no involvement from Game Freak or Nintendo. This may explain why it (apparently) didn’t show up in the data extracted from Game Freak in 2024.
-The GBC and GBA games didn’t seem like a major point of inspiration for those on the Stern side, however it’s clear from some of the product features (catching, traveling between areas, etc.) that they were steered in that direction, or that those aspects came up organically.

Overall

I really enjoyed my time at this event, and look forward to playing the table again in the wild. It was also fun to bounce questions off the employees and other attendees. The employees indicated that The Pokémon Company had extended plans for the table, which I hope come to fruition.

Want to Play the Table Yourself?

The table will be shown at the upcoming Texas Pinball Festival in March, and will likely be at the Midwest Gaming Classic in April. The Stern employees I talked to also seemed to be interested in bringing the table to major Pokémon events later this year. Locally, keep an eye on Pinball Map, as tables should start going to retail locations in the next few weeks.

Press access was provided for this event.

Livestream: Pokémon Pinball Ruby/Sapphire (and more?)

In anticipation of the upcoming physical Pokémon-themed pinball table, I livestreamed some gameplay of Pokémon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire for the GBA. Learn more about this game, and pinball in general:

Livestream: Discussing the Music of Pokémon Masters EX w/Pikapi Podcast

Since its release in 2019, Pokémon Masters EX has accumulated a large amount of musical material, ranging from original music to game remixes to anime content. Anne from Pikapi Podcast helps me sort through this mobile game's long history: 

Excerpt: Mig's Rock Star Audition

In this excerpt, Mig Ayesa describes his initial audition for Rock Star: INXS in London. Listen in and find out who he ran into:

 

Poke Press Digest Podcast: Episode 81-Twin Cities Con 2025/Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon Music

The first segment (0:50-9:26) is a pair of interviews from Twin Cities Con 2025*, where I got a chance to talk to the winner of the Smash Ultimate tournament, and interview a video game musician.bg

The second segment (10:29-45:14) is a discussion of the music of Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon for the 3DS. This entry in the sub-series has a massive amount of content, and the soundtrack is no exception. Anne from Pikapi Podcast joins me to cover it, including a game discussion after the outro:

*A press pass was provided for this event.

Links:
Twin Cities Con
Brian Koenig
Pikapi Podcast

Slow Scan TV Information:
SSTV audio an be decoded by a variety of software:
Android
iOS
Windows
Wikipedia

Twin Cities Con 2025: Smash Ultimate Tournament Winner

At this year's Twin Cities Con in Minneapolis, MN, I had the opportunity to interview Caiden "GrizHawk" Stores, the winner of the Super Smash Bros Ultimate tournament. Listen in and find out more about what it was like:

A press pass was provided for this event. 

Report: Twin Cities Con 2025

After visiting the convention for the first time last year, I was excited to go again. Did the event live up to my expectations?

Thursday

Rather than flying from Madison, I took a bus on Jefferson Lines from the UW-Madison campus to downtown Minneapolis (the time is about the same, and it’s much cheaper). Instead of a normal hotel, I stayed in a converted studio apartment a few blocks from the convention center. After picking up my press badge, I ate dinner, and then returned to my room to prepare for the next day.

Friday

This first day of the convention started with me going into the dealer hall and browsing the items for sale. I also noted the locations of the guests I wanted to interview, and attempted to organize those. The first panel I wanted to go to was about the confluence of music scene and cosplay (recall that I sometimes cosplay musicians as Pokémon trainers), however after waiting several minutes past the scheduled start time, a con staffer came in and announced that the presenters had run into a personal emergency and the panel had been cancelled.

One issue I ran into several times over the weekend is that there would be several panels or other events that overlapped. That occurred on Friday afternoon, when a panel featuring Eric Stuart and Dan Green overlapped a panel with Marc Summers, Kirk Fogg, and Dee Bradley Baker, which in turned overlapped a panel of comic book authors (which included Pokémon Baking guide author Jarrett Melendez). Oh, and in the middle of all that there was a panel covering the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: Voyager. In any case, the authors panel was an interesting watch, with them eating chicken (or perhaps its vegetarian equivalent) while talking about the comics they had in front of them.

Saturday

In some ways, this was less busy than Friday, though I did spend a fair bit of time waiting for things to complete. First up was a RWBY panel (featuring Daman Mills, voice of Amethio and Quaxly in Horizions). As is usually the case, I placed myself towards the end of the question line since my question wasn’t about the featured show. Unfortunately, this meant the panel ended before I could ask my question.

After viewing a panel about taking cosplay photos with a phone, I headed over to the board/video gaming area, where I got to listen to guitarist Brian Koening (look forward to an interview with him), and then observe the Smash Ultimate tournament. I checked in periodically to see how the tournament progressing, and interviewed the winner after the tournament ended around 8:30 pm (having started around 4).

Sunday

The first order of business was the combined Nintendo & Pokemon cosplay photoshoot, which included a trio of Eeveelutions, a pair dressed as the Mario Brothers from the 1993 Mario movie, and even a Corbeau costume. I asked that last one about when they started putting their outfit together, and they indicated they had only started within the last week, which was actually impressive given the level of detail.

Following this, Jarrett Melendez had a solo panel where he demonstrated the brownies recipie from his Pokémon baking guide book. Between steps, he would answer questions from the audience, which covered a variety of topics, ranging from what kind of restrictions he was placed under (if there’s a volume 2, do not expect curry croissants), general baking advice, and what kind of materials he gets to work from when designing recepies.

As I had been unable to track down the cosplayers I wanted to interview from the morning photoshoot, I got in line for the Sunday cosplay contest in an attempt to talk to them. Despite the schedule stating that the doors would open at 2:30, we actually didn’t get let in until a few minutes after the 3pm start time. As for the show itself, the Eeveelution group from the photoshoot had made the contest, but seems to have left after not getting picked for an award. I did not see the Corbeau cosplayer anywhere in the crowd.

Other Notes:

-The entrance into the secure area lacked the long snaking queue from last year, in favor of having folks queue inside the dealers’ hall before it opened. 

-Guests seemed confused on the policy/procedure for interviews, despite me indicating who I wanted to interview in my letter of intent.

-The attendees I talked to generally seemed to prefer this year’s event over last year’s.

-The best restaurant I ate at this weekend was definitely “The Brit’s Pub”, which had excellent food and service.

A press pass was provided for this event.