IMO some of the best drop target EM games were made by Williams in the 1960s. Of course at that time they were pretty much the only ones using them.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/60s-drop-target-games-what-are-your-favorites

I'm going to go with Big Deal, Heat Wave, Eager Beaver, and El Toro as four drop target games that are getting the most play of late. I think the more important each drop target is to hit, the fewer you need to make the game challenging and interesting.

Exactly. Where as Heat Wave only has one, it is a very important shot as it's value increases from 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 up to special. And to raise it back up requires hitting both swinging targets.

I'd rather have a game with one or a few very important targets than a bunch that randomly get knocked down.

How many other games have a single drop target that's worth six different values throughout the game?

Sometimes it's all about the rules and how the drop targets are used within the game. Oh, and the difficulty of hitting them.

BigDeal (resized).jpg

That's a really good point which begs the question why would any game have drops that don't reset or can't be reset after being knocked down or a bank completed? I have had a couple that only reset after each ball is over and they got old fast.