Great example of the Pinside echo chamber is on display tonight, so I thought I'd chime in as someone who actually played the game.
I had not been reading any threads leading up to the JJP announcement, but as an operator, I was skeptical of a non-licensed theme. So I went into this with no expectations. I was there in person for the expo reveal tonight.
I think the name, and the theme, sound dumb if you're not standing right at the machine. The execution is awesome. It's basically a Sim City Disaster theme...being broadcast by an action news channel. To observers, the backbox is like watching someone play a video game.
It's a standard width body cabinet. It's fast. Really fast. One of the quickest, least stop & go, titles by Lawlor. Much faster than WOZ or TH. When you watch someone play this game, you want to play it. There were crowds huddling around the games for hours afterwards.
People LOVED the selfie feature. A camera takes pictures of you during certain modes...one of them is a frenzy mode where it takes a picture with every switch hit (and displays them in piles on the LCD screen). I saw people taking pictures of the game taking pictures of the player. People were loving it.
Other tidbits:
In multiball, people are shooting lasers at you (indicated by inserts on the playfield). If one hits your flipper, it shudders a bit and you can't flip for a second or two, and then it comes back. You can prevent this by shooting a ball up at the laser to disable it (and get the super jackpot).
At some points, you are awarded tickets. You earn the reward by literally raising your hand in front of your face and miming that you are scratching the ticket.
This game is not about a phone. It's a sim city destruction theme. The people who watched live gameplay, and played themselves all came away excited about it. I hadn't heard a bad word.
Trust me, it's going to be a big hit.