Disappointingly not very engaging or informative

I'll step right out and say that I subconsciously compared this documentary to King of Kong and Chasing Ghosts (which are two very good documentaries about the history of arcade games and competition, if anyone is interested.)

I liked learning more about the history of Pinball, but I felt like the documentary couldn't focus enough on any of the topics it covered. I would have liked to hear what the rules of the tournament were; do they all play the same pinball machines? Do the players have their preferences?

KoK and Chasing Ghosts both had very good insights into the competitive atmosphere of arcade gaming and set up the history of the arcade very well, and managed to show the character of each person that was interviewed. But I found that Special When Lit just thinly spread the history of pinball across an hour and a half, and didn't have any depth in any one area.

And then on top of that, there were several moments where the pinball enthusiasts were insulting video gaming, and heavily patronizing its depth and challenge. They obviously had a grudge over how video games drove out pinball, and I feel that could have been an interesting angle to explore. But instead we were taken from that insulting scene to an unrelated scene. Leaving the feeling that they just wanted to make arcade games look bad for driving out pinball, and not much more.

They also ignored the fact that video games have tried to replicate the pinball experience. They could have shown us how close but still far they come, and show us why a physical pinball machine is still better.

It all ended on one of its many notes. I can't even tell you which one it was. What I liked about the two documentaries I mentioned were that they really gave you something to walk away with. Every person was developed as an actual person with an actual life, and not just a talking object in front of a camera. And then we are sent off knowing of the tragedies and triumphs of these people that we would have never had the pleasure of knowing otherwise.

My point is that I would have loved to see Special When Lit do the same; introduce us to these pinball wizards/enthusiasts, not just to what they do (or did briefly in front of a camera.) Or make us want to go out and play pinball, revive it, whatever the direction.

What was the goal of the documentary? Here's what I got: "This is pinball, these guys collect pinball machines, here's a very brief history of pinball, these guys look silly playing pinball, pinball is dying, this guy sounds silly recording pinball, [pinball tournament], pinball is still dying, credits."

All in all, it was fun watching them dance in front of the pinball machine looking silly; I just feel the documentary caught a perfect pass, but dropped the ball.

I'm left with a desire to learn about pinball on the depth that Chasing Ghosts and KoK and other documentaries take us, but sadly this was the only pinball documentary I could find.

Did anyone else feel the same?