Incubating

I've been sitting on Wet Leg's "pokemon" for too long, trying to time its hatching just right. Turns out the timing worked itself out — Stern dropped a Pokémon teaser just as this newsletter was coming together (more on that below). "pokemon" is off Wet Leg's well-reviewed sophomore album Moisturizer, and besides the thematically perfect title, the video imagines an absurd take on incubating a human-sized Pokémon egg. It's a shiny evolution of Wet Leg's already impressive music video catalogue.

So we were gearing up for the TWIPYs on Saturday. Our regularly scheduled date. But uhhh, we lost one of our co-hosts, Matt. Like, straight up disappeared. Fellow co-host Don is out looking for him now.

We think he'll show up, but just in case, we're moving the TWIPYs to next Saturday, February 14th. More in the video.

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Literally breaking news, so adding this one in at the last minute. Stern dropped a teaser confirming their Pokémon pinball machine is coming soon. Not much to go on yet — it's about 18 seconds — but the egg has officially cracked, and we’ll get more next week.

Our first Score Card of 2026 recaps all the winners from the 2025-2026 IFPA State/Provincial Championships (no small feat to track down for author Matt Owen) plus a quick rundown of the first Stern Pro Circuit event of the year at Starfighters Arcade.

Some people wanted me to write a full article on this. I'm not — here's why.

I mostly see it as an administrative change. One of several since OBX. I get why some people seem upset, depending on where you look — opting out was a way to protest IFPA policy without giving up participation in events, and taking that option away stings. But the practice was starting to be abused by top-ranked players, and it was creating problems with event results well beyond the players doing it as a form of protest.

What's also worth noting is that new board members — people who are well-respected in the community themselves, like Travis Murie, Kaylee Campbell, and Ashley Weaver — all expressed support for the change. That context isn't as clear from the IFPA's own update, but was revealed in additional community discussions on Discord.

As someone who's made a number of, well, vaguely controversial decisions in a leadership position, I'm probably more inclined than most to zoom out here. And the bigger picture, in my view, shows an organization that is making an effort to adapt to player feedback — even if it's slower than some would prefer, and not fully aligned with any one camp. Change is a gradual process. If that process ends here, players will be right to question the IFPA more broadly. I don't get the sense that's how this plays out, though.

Speaking of the IFPA — the OBX Fall Flippers incident made national news with an article on NBCNews.com by Jo Yurcaba. It's great to see this story get more visibility, so let me get that out of the way first.

Now, let me rant for a small moment.

If you're a regular reader here, you know we've been covering this story extensively since day one back in November. So the proud-of-my-work guy in me is a little miffed that NBC can jump in three months later, call it an exclusive, and not even nod to the reporting that helped give the story legs in the first place.

But, you know, we're a bootstrapped pinball publication with not even a fraction of NBC's resources. So I guess it's validating all the same. /rant

Give it a read — it gets perspectives that only someone with a nationally recognized outlet in their title would've been able to secure.

Excited to see Barrels of Fun's Labyrinth get some code polish, including a revamped audio treatment from sound designer Jeff Dodson. He streamed the game with all the new updates last night, too, if you're curious.

On January 31st, Jersey Jack Pinball launched a novel way to interact with a pinball machine prior to purchase: an interactive 3D Game Viewer. It's got an AR component, so you can theoretically use your phone to see how the game looks in a real physical environment (in my testing, I found it a little clunky).

Mostly, I think it's an interesting way to experience a machine pre-purchase, and I'm curious to see if the JJP team iterates on it — it's the kind of thing that would be easy to build on as they get user feedback. When I checked in with the JJP team, they said they aren't making forward-looking statements on future use but are actively collecting community feedback.

Admittedly, this share is a bit of a curio, even for pinball. Camping Trip is a long-term (12+ year) transmedia storytelling project from Ithaca, NY resident Abel Sureshaw. What began as an "indie rock, Pee Wee Herman-inspired concept album" by their folk punk family band the Newman Brothers has since sprouted a fully illustrated children's book, a concept virtual pinball machine, an in-development homebrew machine (debuting at this year's Pintastic), and an in-development live musical theater production. What a concept.

Abel has about three weeks left on a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a vinyl pressing of the album and a physical copy of the children's book.

As an Ithaca College grad who loves pinball, music, cool art projects, and has a toddler at home… I backed the Kickstarter.

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