This is a great beginner game. If you want a deep, hard game, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a great game for new players, casual players, or kids, this is just about perfect. I am sure they designed it with those players in mind, so I rated it accordingly.
The audio is excellent. Callouts are fine, they are a bit repetitive, but they do tell the player what to do. The sound quality is clean and crisp with adequate of bass and clear treble. Lighting is excellent on this game, and the colors are nice and bright. It has about 10 bulbs above the back of the playfield, so the rear of the game is clearly lit, and the flipper area has 8 bulbs around it too. Replace everything with modern LEDs and its very easy to see and looks wonderful. The cabinet artwork is excellent and it is painted/screen printed on, so it looks very high quality and is colorful and eye popping.
The game is on the easy side (by design). There are some ways to make it harder and more balanced, which may help if you find you need to have it setup more challenging. On my machine, i replaced the upper flipper with a 2" flipper, making that upper playfield more difficult. You can still hit all the shots, but its harder to do with the smaller flipper. Makes me think they could have designed the game that way, but changed it at the last min. Disabling the "quick shot" helps make it harder. Setting the game on full hard in the settings does improve the difficulty. Mine came with longer (williams 28.5") legs in the rear, and so raising the pitch probably makes it more challenging too. I have debated on adding a post near the left ramp, to make the ramp shot much harder. If I decide to keep the game a long time, I may do that, however it would result in a screw-hole in the playfield if anyone ever wants to put it back to stock. Lastly, rebuilding the flippers using system 80 coil stops (longer) limits flipper travel and would make the game more difficult as well by limiting the ability to easily catch so many balls. Setting the adjustable out-lane post wider (or removal) all together, along with limiting the kick back settings or turning it off entirely also would increase difficultly. I guess the point is, with a few small changes the game can be setup to go from "way too easy" to something more like a medium hardness setting for any other pinball machine from the era. Something to keep in mind if you own one.
I am very happy with the game, friends and family love it. If you are an average player like me, have a few other hard games in your collection, and want a fun game to play against your kids/wife or non-pinhead friends with, then SMB is highly recommended!
Monash
Crofton, MD
Auckland
Waterloo, ON
Bologna
