Great early 90's game with a very fun upper playfield . I like a full sized two flipper pinball game wrapped in a functioning lower playfield fully functioning pinball game. Classic 80s low fantasy type setting, with attractive playfield and a decent backglass presentation. It's not quite Paragon but if you like this style and era of fantasy art it's a good original setting that is well depicted.

It's a magna-save game, which is a pet-peeve of mine, I just don't like that mech, I'd rather a kickback at all times, but I understand they were another iteration of pinball mechanisms and an option to demonstrate skill, so I don't alter my rating based on having them. If you're weird like me and dislike them, this game uses them.

Really fun, solid shooting game when setup well. My all time favorite upper playfield by a mile. The timed drops make for a great minigame, and every shot feels fast and tight. The lock shot is just awkward enough to make it interesting. Magnasaves are a cool touch, and definitely a skill to pickup - just as easy to chuck a ball into the outlane as to save it, but feel magic when ya do.

I love the theme, art, and music - but it's absolutely of the "so bad it's freaking awesome" variety, so I get why some hate on them. To me the package just epitomizes the era better than anything though.

While Grand Lizard might not have a ton going for it objectively (reused layout and simple rules), it ends up being a LOT of fun.

Pro’s:

Not sure why the art get’s dogged on by some. Personally, I don’t mind Python’s backglass art. However, it’s impossible for me to say it’s better than Paul Faris’s original backglass art, which looks way better and compliments the detailed playfield much better.

Layout is a lot of fun. Yes, it’s practically identical to Ourslers previous effort Solar Fire, but I think it shoots better then that game, and I’d chose this game between the two.

The ramps, to add on to the layout, are nice shots. Love how they feed out of the lizards mouth.

Sound, while a bit repetitive, brings some intensity to the game (particularly in Multiball).

Rules are simple (multiballs, Bonus Multipliers, Magnets, Upper Drops and Mystery Scores), but the way it’s executed makes this game just a blast to play despite the simplicity.

Con’s:

Cabinet art is really bland. Yes, it’s what Williams was doing at the time, but still.

Sound, while intense, can get REALLY repetitive and borderline annoying after a while.

Ramps don’t seem to have a ton of purpose outside of Mystery Scores. I understand A-B holds bonus, but they could have done more with it.

Overall, one of the top tier system 11 games IMO. If there is one near you, go play it!

It’s a great game for a new player. Timed drop target is fun.Magna-save is a cool feature.

Playfield setup is fine, gameplay was fine but sound and art not to my taste.

This game is a blast! The drums and animal sounds are awesome. I love the 2 playfield areas and multi balls. The art is hilarious and the green lizard head above the upper playfield is perfect. Double magna saves but you need skill to use them as they don't just stop the ball.

Love this game. I miss mine. It (obviously) wasn't bolted to the floor but I did have it for well over 5 years. If it every gets an 2.0 or Arduino upgrade option and adds a MB jackpot or super ramps or something it would be epic. Good tournament game. I bit heavy on the 'keep it at the top' (like Black Knight) but there's like 4 ways and more variety to get it back up.
And the theme? Oh man! Some kind of D&D / Conan/Jungle adventure mash up?!? With a giant ball spitting drangon lizard thing and some kind of rainbow butt monkey army? So sweet! The song can get a bit repetitive for some but it didn't bother me; even if it did, the spinner sound makes up for it. Best spinner sound ever (or pretty close).
One last note regarding the backglass. When I got it I always thought I'd replace it with the original canceled bg (some dude uppercutting a monkey). But I really warmed up to the Angello version. Kind of a Gauntlet (video game) feel to it. Some nice 3d effects on it too. If you look through the playfield art it all tells a bit of a story too. ...or at least it leads you to make one up in your head. Great game!

Edit:
I forgot to mention the magna save. I love how they used it in this game. It pulses instead of hold the ball which adds a different skill than just 'hit it once and hope it grabs it' like BK. Not necessarily better but the variety is nice and it's fun when you figure out when to release it. It takes a bit to get use to because if sloppy you can send it down the outlane. :D

Having the upper flippers normal size means its a dream to play.. you don't just get one shot of a side flipper as the ball flies past. Locking multiballs is straightforward and fun.

Game was okay. I was expecting more it was just meh.

Very much like Solar Fire. The two playfields are almost identical, where as Solar Fire has a raised upper playfield Grand Lizard has nearly identically placed ramps that just drop the ball into the upper playfield. I'd be lying if I said the artwork on either is even descent, both are quite horrific. Grand Lizard's ugliness owing to a last minute redesign. After market backglass are a vast improvement. But for what it lacks in beauty it makes up for in playfield layout. I could play either of the two of these endlessly. There's something almost Platonic in their layout. Lot of fun.

The Magna saves are a fantastic mechanic.

I enjoy the dark fantasy theme and the lizard head plastic is pretty neat. Along with the aesthetic, the sound effects are effective at building an interesting and unique atmosphere to the game experience.

I actually enjoy the more common backglass & plastics on this game. They are cheezy, but endearing. The cabinet stencil artwork is fantastic. A fake flame torch w/fan is a perfect topper to complete the art package.

I will update this review as I play this game more.

A very underrated game IMO. The game play is fantastic. The magnisave is awesome. The jungle sounds and drum beats only add to build on the excitement of game play. I currently have 8 pinball machines in my home barcade. Most of them from the 80’s or 90’s. This machine seems to be the one that people enjoy coming back to again and again. Well, maybe tied between this and Pinbot. It is currently my favorite in my home collection.

This is just a super fun game. Not sure why it doesn't get much love, it deserves to have a higher rating. A very unique theme and fun/fast gameplay. Its also super fun to play with multiple people as you can steal each others multiple balls if someone fails to cash-in. I wish it had the original prototype backglass (this is not Python Anghelos bes work). The light show is amazing and it keeps me coming back for more each time. You can't beat the sound effects of this game. The bongos in the background tend to get a little repetitive... This game will forever be in my collection! My friends and family love it!

Very fun game. I love the theme and artwork. It's a bit simplistic compared to today's pins, but an awesome choice for the era. It is one of my favorite system 11 games.

Hmm, is this game or Jungle Lord my favorite of the 2-level Williams magna-save games? Very fun and doesn't seem to get old. Some players might knock it for its lack of speech but I like it as it is with the jungle sounds.

I find myself getting slightly annoyed with the tight left shot for multiball, which kind of reminds me of the center-left shot by the upper flipper on Demolition Man. It can be a bit aggravating for a whole game to feel like it's dependent on one tight shot like that when the playfield is expansive and fairly open otherwise.

Gotta mention the art. The playfield is fantastic. The backglass, well, you know.

Hadn't seen this since I was a kid (and only once or twice then) till a visit to an arcade in Tarpon Springs, FL. Let's learn to make that one shot and rate this as one of the better, but lesser-known, games of the period.

*Wife approval* Lizards. 0/10.

Considering the era from which this pin originated (older and flat machines just aren’t as much fun), it is a surprisingly articulate and fun game to play. The upper playfield is well laid out and the overall design facilitates nice ball flow.

Ok, after a week of owning the game, I’ll make my first official rating for it. I should note, that I may be a little biased as I’m so excited to FINALLY own my own game! That being said, on with the show!

Knowing nothing of this game before we purchased it, I was very excited for my first play. I read the game tag, scanned the Playfield for shot directions and launched my first ball! I love the jungle theme music, it’s palpable, but not obnoxious- it adds a subtle level of anxiety, but in a fun way! The multiball feature is tricky, but once you get a hang for the left flipper shot upwards, you can lock it down- just watch out for other players stealing your MB.

Magna saves are your friend. Learn to use them. It's a bit tricky at first... knowing how long to hold the button. I usually hit it for about half a second and release... if the ball looks like it's heading to the outlane I'll try it again. It's difficult to time the swinging ball so that it travels back into play after releasing the magnet, but possible.

Challenging System11 game. Unusual for not having any pop bumpers. Very hard to get the extra ball from the top left drop targets, but very satisfying to get the bell/buzzer to go when you do!

I have been a fan of the WMS Sys 7 "Big Four" for a while, so I expected a lot from this WMS Sys 11. I was, of course, somewhat disappointed since Grand Lizard does not really offer the kind of game play that the Sys 7's do. The playfield looks enticing yet cheap, and the shots were clunky and odd. So, overall, GL is worth checking out, but don't get your hopes up.

I'd definitely recommend playing Grand Lizard if you can find it, but it's not at the top of my mid-SS wishlist - needs to be cheaper before I'd even consider buying (goes for around $1.5k as of this writing, Jan. 2017).

My first Pinball, and I really love it!
Fast game with cool light effects, the flashing lizard head is great and the rules are good to understand, but not too easy. The multiball doesn't least very long, but makes huge fun. After changing all lamps to the right Noflix LEDs, the effects are marvelous and the backglass looks really great!! Just believe me :)
Also the magna save is great and funny feature!
I love the grove of the game sound, the jungle beats and n/voices, the game flow and when I start playing, it mostly takes hours till I leave it again 8-)
My first one & I LOVE IT!

It’s hard to say what endured me to this game. A local guy who shops out pins he gets from arcades called and asked if I was interested. I seemed to remember playing GL at an NCO club someplace back in 1987 but had to look up the game on Google because I did not remember the lay out. I thought the design and art were just plain weird, and I like weird. My only "beware" is that I was fairly new to collecting pins a few years ago and was looking for a project pin so I could learn more about maintenance, repairs, and installation. I paid way too much for it (haven't we all at one time or another?). It plays like new, but I'd never get back what I sunk into it. Knowing what I know now I would have made a much lower offer and still would have probably have gone home with it in my truck.

OK. The theme is…a freaking lizard! The pin came on the heels of the seminal Steve Ritchie hit “High Speed” so maybe Williams was trying to do an anti-High Speed to compete? I don’t know.

The play: I love it. Looking at this in the terms of 1985 and the beginning of System 11, then this game is just a lot of fun to play. I think there is just a really good flow to this pin. It’s not super easy, but it is devoid of the complicated rule sets found in machines that came after it. I have mine next to a Ghost Busters Premium, a Walking Dead Pro, and a Metallica Pro and the Grand Lizard gets a fair share of the play.

The upper playfield is a points and specials bonanza when you master it, and you have four different shots to get the ball back up there. On the lower playfield you have a lot of fun things. You have magna-saves that throw the ball all over the place, a suicide pin between the flippers, and a three ball multi-ball feature that launches whenever you trap three balls. And if the person playing with you leaves trapped balls in the multi-ball trench, then they are yours for the taking on your next ball. There are no pop bumpers at all!

The playfield is well done. Good art. The cabinet is OK, and the back glass is fugly. Another glass was created originally but after a delay in production the original artist could not go back and re-work his art to accommodate some changes with the new display (or so I read). Williams pulled in the late Python Anghelo to make a completely different back glass that looks rushed and is otherwise "meh." Python and had done some awesome back-glasses, but Grand Lizard was not his opus. I think if he had not put in the drawings of the girl chained to the lizard (really?) and a high top sneaker wearing hero with a sword leaping to take down the lizard, then it would have been a better fit for the game. Some owners have gone out and gotten the original back glass reproduction.

The sounds: First, you have a background drumming noise and then of course you have the sounds made by the ball on the playfield. There is no voice but the animal call outs work pretty good for the theme and the tempo changes when you get multi-ball. Hey, after all, you’re in the jungle, baby! There is a somewhat annoying bell that rings when you get an extra ball, etc, and I’m thinking of disconnecting it. When I got the game, the drumming back ground music/sound was disconnected. I think it probably wore on some folks after a while and they decided to just disconnect it in favor of playfield sounds only.

On a lot of these GL games the upper playfield is really torn up and decals can be had to re-cover the surface. Mine was not so bad and I am regularly polishing it with carnuble wax to protect it going forward. I did put some mylar over a few places on the upper play field that were wearing down. I decided to replace the sound, power, and MPU boards. I thought new is better than 30 year old components that were starting to show signs of age. (Knowing what I know now, I would have sent the MPU to a recommended vendor like Coin Op Cauldron for repair. ) If you replace the speakers, get the inexpensive ones at MARCO. You don’t need an expensive sound system for this pin. I also changed 100% over to LED's.

*It's been a while since I posted my review. I'm still enjoying GL. I've had to replace a few switches as of late and rebuild the top left flipper, but otherwise it is still a fun game.

I enjoyed playing Grand Lizard and I was considering buying one that was listed locally (just couldn't agree on a price). It had cool art and sound effects but after a some playtime I found myself getting bored quicker then normal. Worth playing and owning for the right price.

My buddy has a real nice one. Background music is neat for its time but really annoying to me. lighting is average. Backglass is awful. Shots are ok. Game play is ok. Not sure why this goes for so much. Just not for me I guess.

One of my favorite games of all time and has been with me the longest out of all my pin. No plans on ever selling it unless I can find a better one. Top 3 System 11 pin and best bang for your buck pin, IMHO.

Love the music and sound package, love the upper playfield and the ramps. Fast, flowy, and lots of drops.

Only minor detraction is that the playfield art doesnt line up with the backglass and plastics.

As a company, how do you follow up High Speed, a watershed pinball game that sold a ton of units? Apparently with Grand Lizard, a game whose layout is a copy of Solar Fire, which was in turn a near copy of Black Knight. It may not be fair to compare this game to High Speed, but how can you not? Everything about this game seems lazy: from the copied layout to the simplistic jungle drum soundtrack to the disconnected art package. Python Anghelo, bless his soul, really missed on the backglass design. The playfield art works, and it is a shame the original “matching” backglass wasn’t used in the production run as it gels better with the overall package and is head and shoulders above Mr. Anghelo’s work. The changes in gameplay make Grand Lizard a step above its copied predecessor Solar Fire, however the game pales in comparison to other early System 11 luminaries like High Speed and Pinbot.