Magic Girl Pinball

"as someone who's had the unlucky pleasure of owning a John Popadiuk magic girl, if these games are truly NIB, I would stay as far away from these two machines as you possibly could"

Strong warning against Magic Girl pinball machines being sold at Pinball Expo

"And I immediately said, no way. This is not worth it. It's just glorified artwork."

Magic Girl pricing at $45,000-65,000 is completely unreasonable

"They were selling it for fifty five thousand euros... they're charging $35,000 over the price of a base Magic Girl machine to just wake it up and make it a game that is at least playable"

Magic Girl fixed version is overpriced at 55,000 euros despite being made functional

"It is not a good pinball machine. It doesn't matter what you do to a magic girl. It is never worth $61,000."

Magic Girl is not worth $61,000 and is fundamentally not a good pinball machine

"Magic girl is the most beautiful pinball machine that was that has ever been made. There's no denying it. The game is a visual stunner. It doesn't work. It's broken... It is the equivalent of a sexy woman who is just the worst, you know, in every possible way"

Magic Girl is the most beautiful pinball ever made but completely broken and unrewarding

"Let me tell you, from experience of owning one, it is the worst experience after you get over how sexy it is. It is like, you know, it is like wearing a gold jock strap that's too tight for you."

Magic Girl is worthless - worst ownership experience despite sexy looks

"The artwork by Jeremy Packer and by Matt Andrews is still, I think, the best visual pinball game. We have ever seen. And even when you stand over the playfield, you can't help but be an awe at how magical it all looks. And then you flip the game and the legs fall off and the experience is probably the worst pinball experience you can ever have."

Magic Girl is visually stunning but has the worst pinball gameplay experience

"No one needs a shit about magic. I agree. I mean, I don't care anymore either. I mean, I just think like it's really... It's hard to get excited about the Zidware it titles anymore."

Magic Girl is not worth caring about anymore

"I think owning a magic girl was probably one of the most negative periods in this hobby for me because I think I focus on all the wrong parts of the hobby which was rarity having something other people don't have and just having thing something for bragging rights only which I think is the worst way to approach pinball"

Kaneda reflects that the Magic Girl ownership period was the most negative phase of his pinball hobby

"I looked at photos of magic girl the other day on my phone and it's still one of the most visually spectacular pinball machines of all time and why the other pinball manufacturers out there can't accomplish what John did is beyond me"

Magic Girl still visually spectacular despite technical issues

"it's hard to own these machines and feel good about them because you know that for your one machine, there's like 50 guys out there that are pissed off, that have lost thousands of dollars, that hate the fact that Dutch pinball took their money and gave them nothing"

Magic Girl buyers face social stigma due to company controversy

"For those of you who have played Magic Girl, it is the most visually stunning machine you will ever stand in front of. It doesn't function properly. The software and the mechanisms just don't go together. I don't know if they ever will."

Magic Girl sold after 10 months - visually stunning but doesn't function properly due to software/hardware integration issues

"I'd rather have one magic girl that doesn't fully work versus two pinball machines that work but thousands of people have the same exact game."

Magic Girl is a better collectible investment than modern LEs

"So somebody at American Pinball decided that that game was good enough to go to customers. So whoever decided that really doesn't know much about pinball"

Magic Girl shipped with serious defects that American Pinball should never have approved

"if someone gets it working, if John sort of helps us out and gives us the enchanted hair magnets and we get the center mechanism working, I could see Magic Girl easily being worth 50,000 dollars easily if it's fully functioning."

Magic Girl could be worth $50,000 if it gets working properly

"On a scale of one to ten, it's like a three"

Magic Girl rates only 3/10 on quality

"it also seems like such a beginner's attempt and it kind of feels a little bit pathetic that there's so much hype and hoopla around the whole thing. When it's not really even a good game."

Magic Girl is overhyped and feels like a beginner's attempt - not really even a good game

"The true story of Magic Girl is not a positive one... John is a creative mind who bit off more than he could chew who ultimately delivered a product that didn't come anywhere close what he promised and in the process hundreds of people got burned"

Magic Girl is beautiful but a complete failure - John from American Pinball delivered a product nowhere close to what was promised

"You'll see 10 minutes of beautiful lights, beautiful music, beautiful call outs that all connect in a chaotic circus of like of of pinball. There's nothing to shoot for. There's no code that directs you on what to do. It's it's almost in a weird way like it's fun to flip, but there's nothing flipping going on."

Magic Girl has beautiful presentation but no meaningful gameplay or code direction

"this thing is not a celebratory moment this is not uh i actually i actually did something with the media outlet that is going to talk about magic girl and it doesn't paint this thing as being like the greatest pinball machine ever i think it was the greatest pinball failure of all time"

Magic Girl is a mechanical disaster and pinball failure despite its artistic merit

"I think that thread is sucking the life out of pinball"

Magic Girl thread is sucking the life out of pinball

"Magic girl could be the worst playing pinball machine of all time and it will still be valuable because of the story."

Magic Girl will retain value despite poor gameplay due to its story/rarity

"I think I figured out the mystery that is Magic Girl. The answer is pretty much nothing really works on it. The software and the hardware just don't connect."

Magic Girl software and hardware don't connect, nothing really works

"It's like you're looking at John Popadiuk's greatest Creation and failure at the same time and it's it's a it's a collectible piece of pinball history"

Magic Girl is a collectible piece of pinball history despite its flaws

"for as much as I think the game has some mechanical issues, the game's fun the game is fun because the light system the sound the artwork it all works together to make shooting Magic Girl a pretty fun experience it is by no means a complete game though by no means at all"

Magic Girl is fun but fundamentally incomplete - has mechanical issues but the art, sound, and light system work well together

"even though this thing doesn't even play as well as just like your average Stern pro right now because there's nothing in it. There's just something still special about flipping Magic Girl. There's just, it's hard. It's like an intangible experience. It's like riding a unicorn versus riding a horse."

Magic Girl still feels special despite its problems

"the playfield artwork, the quality on it is not top notch. I, I can't, the best way to explain it is it's sort of like pixelated... it just doesn't seem like it was silk screened onto the wood properly"

Magic Girl's playfield artwork quality is disappointing and pixelated

"it is not a game yet. Like it doesn't tell you to do anything. Like there's nothing going on... Like this isn't the game that Apple juice coated. Like this is the very basic game."

Magic Girl's day one code is extremely basic with no working features

"if I have a magic girl I guarantee you it's worth way more than you're all your stones combined and it will be and you will kick yourself that you didn't get in on one"

Prediction: Magic Girl will be worth more than other games combined and people will regret not buying one.

"If you think Magic Girl won't be worth money, you're out of your mind... There only needs to be 27 high-end, wealthy pinball collectors out there that want magic girls to drive the value of one of them through the roof"

Magic Girl will be extremely valuable despite controversy due to rarity and collector demand

"Magic girl could be in over produce convoluted machine where John just tried to put everything in his head onto one game... And the same true will probably happen with magic girl... But in the end, it will probably be overproduced. There will probably be too many layers to the game to truly appreciate any one or two things."

Magic Girl will likely be the Chinese Democracy of pinball - overproduced with too much crammed in, never worth the years of pain

"I don't think we'll ever see a playable one. How's that? I think, I think what's going to happen is there's going to be these really cool coffee tables that some people are going to get. But I don't know that we'll ever get a playable game."

Magic Girl will never be released as a playable game

"Here's the deal. Magic Girl doesn't work. I'm just going to come out and say it. The early reports about the game are that nothing on the machine actually works."

Magic Girl pinball machine doesn't work and is essentially non-functional

"the magic girls are numbered. They're not making more than 25 everybody associated with the project knows that only 25 at most we're gonna be made because that's how many playfields were made"

Magic Girl production is limited to 25 machines maximum, contradicting rumors of additional production

"these machines these machines are really sort of like each hand built one off prototypes"

Magic Girl machines vary significantly between units, showing inconsistent manufacturing

"I mean so many people can just glance at this game and think there's actually magic there and when I first got this magic girl I got really excited... It has this ability to both mesmerize you and frustrate you and make you want to run as far away from pinball as you possibly can. I almost feel like these games are cursed."

Magic Girl has a mesmerizing but cursed effect that makes players do stupid things