Well, the game has been in my house for over 4 weeks, has hundreds of plays, as well as went through an intense evening of play during our Launch Party for it. Here is where I'm at with it. I'm leading off with the negatives just to be fair and not seem like a cheerleader, and these are constructive points. I believe ALL the negatives can be fixed or addressed.

The Bad (nothing terrible):
-Definitely not enough light in a zero light room. I added 2 spotlights to the game. In a lineup of all new games, mostly new Sterns, Full Throttle appears dark. This is probably not unlike the issues with WOZ being underlit and how it appears sitting next to a Star Trek. I would hope the goal for any new game would be that it needs zero external light. So the options presently are turn a light on in the room or add some extra lighting. For all the criticism Stern gets about lack of this or that, they do lighting really well. They are the standard and their machines are everywhere so I'd be testing how my game looked when sitting next to it.

-"Did they tell you some assembly was required?" - this was a joke a friend of mine made the day it showed up, since we came across some loose screws, an outlane post that slid around. In addition I've had:
-Start button was registering phantom hits, this went away reseating the connections (likely loose).
-I also had to make some adjustments to the left outlane loop to prevent cheap ball drains from returns from the ramp.
-Motorcycle toy came unscrewed from it's "wheelie" swivel and fell apart. I was able to put it back together.
-Pop bumper leaf switch gaps way too far apart, the pops had no action. Was able to fix this with needle nose pliers.
-Sling shot leaf switch gaps way too far apart. Only fired for strong direct hits. Was able to fix this with needle nose pliers.
-Valentino had a screw attaching him that either broke or fell off or something, so he didn't spin at all (even though his programming is yet to come). I happened to find a spare screw in the cabinet that fit his base and was able to tighten him to his gear so he rotates again (randomly).

None of this was terrible and easily fixed, but could be tightened up at the factory.

The Mixed:
-LCD could use more animation and excitement. The animations that are there are good, the racing for example, but "Ball Saved" is just the text "Ball Saved" that appears, with no flourishments. There is an audio call out "I'll get another bike for you" or something similar, so why not take advantage of that and tie it with an animation.

-Same goes for pop bumper animations, there are none. I think of the pistons firing on Metallica, showing your points, or on Walking Dead the zombies busting the door down or eating that guy. On Full Throttle the pops are important for revving your engine and shifting gears, but all you get is the needle moving up a notch. Maybe even something like an effect of the tachometer "bulging" or popping out, or doing something to highlight your pops and add excitement.

-Things like the bonus count have a nice guitar riff going on, but the text is flaccid and boring. Overall I'd love to see more text effects. The Walking Dead has bodies dropping while the bonus builds, and that is dmd. So why can't we get cool exciting LCD animations for bonus building?

-The initial engine rev when you launch your ball is very loud. I think this is good at a show or location, to bring attention to the machine, but in a home environment it stops me from turning the audio very loud to enjoy the rest of the game, because that rev just fills the whole house. I'd like to see that mixed down, or alternatively add a software adjustment to override it depending on the environment.

-The dashboard that sits on the screen most of the time is kind of plain. Yes, the information it has is good, but it could really be amped up with some more polish. Both in appearance, and effects, like numbers jumping out, particle effects, explosions, who knows. Again if I compare it with an existing Stern DMD, scores on the dmd have a little bit of animation to them, the fonts are animated, there is that line effect that runs through them. All of that adds life to the display.

The Good:
-The game shoots awesome. The geometry is rock solid. I commend Dave Sanders on his first game. He will be a force to be reckoned with in coming years as he matures as a game designer. Almost all the shots can be backhanded easily and all of them flow really nicely.

-Visitors have all enjoyed it and feedback has been real good.

-It is a super fast game, but satisfying. I often think of Tron in this regard, not a ton of modes, all easily started, but you still feel good if you have a 5 minute game.

-1 month later and ZERO critical issues that have kept the game dark or unplayable! For the first machine out of a brand new factory!

-Light show, music and sounds are all excellent and very immersive.

-Game feels super solid, I often will ask pinheads to grab the apron to lift it, just to demonstrate how solid and reinforced it is, and they are always impressed.

-I don't see a lot of dimples, so the wood/clear seems solid. I know much has been said about this in the past, but compared to Star Trek which started showing dimples right away I'm just not seeing them on Full Throttle.

-The glass magazine is a winner. People are caught up with the width of the bezel, but that really has no affect on visibility of the playfield, and it is really convenient to lift the playfield up. Not to mention all the possibilities that will open up for pinheads in tight spaces, now that they don't need 3 feet of clearance in front of the machine. I also like that the magazine saves the glass from grubby finger prints that you normally get lifting glass. Also the protection of not putting a glass edge against the floor when propped up.

Overall:

I'm super happy with the game. I don't mean to make this a huge negative list, it is me trying to be constructive and honest. As I said, just about everything on this list can be fixed and really are minor compared to all the things that could go wrong with pinball.

I took a chance ordering it first, but I was excited to be involved with a new company doing something different. I respected Heighway's business model of not crowdfunding, that he and his investors were confident enough and saw something, that made me hopeful. I also knew if the game wasn't totally awesome, it was the entry point for me with the Heighway cabinet system and I'd be getting more playfields down the road.

Are you using factory balls or did you put new balls in? When I first got my game, I put in silverjets, which became magnetized very quickly by the game and created trough issues. Once I put the factory balls in this problem stopped.

I raised it to 100. The light tubes simply don't throw enough light, combined with the color changing light show, so often they are orange or other dark color, which also makes things seem dimmer than if it was blasting white light.

I added a spotlight at the left ramp exit post, feeding the wires through the slingshot, aimed at the girl and at the bikes, and that helps a lot, throwing light across the playfield.

The AMH "honest review" thread is what inspired me to do this. I'd rather have people value my honest opinion and I think its better for everyone.

The problem I was having was when a ball jumped the outlane gap, it would ricochet against the back of the slingshot and then drain.

The solution was to push the left side ball guide (the one before the jump) up. I removed the plastics, to access the screws, loosened the screws and then pushed up and rescrewed while it was pushed up. When I needed more I bent the ball guide forward, continually testing by dropping a ball into the ramp and letting it roll. It didn't need a lot of adjustment.

I just want to be clear as well, I often deal with NIB issues even from Stern. On TWD LE, the bicycle girl ramp was digging into the playfield and created a gouge, the Well Walkers belt buckle ripped apart, people were reporting the crossbow not aiming the ball properly at the ramps, the drain issues from the pops when not leveled correctly, etc.

Then we look at the WOZ issues, with the light boards, GI lighting, etc.

My ST LE led rail light board blew and needed replacing.

My MMR had the slingshot "gouging" problem, the GI was also dark and needed spots added, as well as a flipper mech fell apart.

So I went into this "eyes wide open" that getting the game first there was bound to be things that slip by. I hoped and expected the support I got would cover it, and that nothing would be terrible, like blowing boards and having the game dark for long periods.

So, despite my little list, these are all minor issues, and easily fixed. The fundamental game, the shots, the speed, the flow, the things than cannot be changed, are all great.

Gerry @ Multimorphic has named his zero light engineering test after me... it is "The Frolic Test".

I had one of these but it was brittle and broke. I see they have a new model so maybe it will hold up better.

I'll do another one at "3 months" or something... just to update on any changes/fixes/software that we've seen, and reliability and performance over that period.

I've been told one is coming ever since I received my machine. No idea when it will arrive though and what will be changed.

I am. I had modest expectations, I hoped for a solid 7 or 8 game, and it is that for certain. Visitors have all enjoyed it.

Since Full Throttle arrived, I've also gotten a Game of Thrones LE, and it is interesting to compare the 2.

Even though GoT has red dots, the rest of the package, the playfield, the backglass, and certainly the light show (both in brightness and intensity) look "newer" than the Full Throttle.

I've been critical of the overall brightness of Full Throttle, and having Game of Thrones show up really solidifies that. And GoT just doesn't have bright GI, the inserts are brighter as well. So it leaves Full Throttle looking dim in comparison which is a shame for a "new" pinball platform.

But Full Throttle is priced competitively... it is cheaper than GoT LE, and around the same as a GoT premium, and I think it is a competitive product.

There's been the odd gremlin, game has frozen the odd time, a connection came loose, and just today my back glass LCD went dark (main playfield still works), so no catastrophic failures leaving the game off. Still waiting for the software update and a care package of fixes, like the shooter lane protector which is still not here.

Overall thumbs up.

I think the inserts are fine on Full Throttle, but could use more GI. Although I do love the GOT light show. Improved with the setting to not flash the GIs and create the blinding effect.

And I'm really speaking more to the point of how the game appears in a lineup of other games. The Stern's with their "Can be seen from Space" lighting really attract more attention.

Rule wise, I think Full Throttle succeeds as a fast racing game. It is not Lord of the Rings, but shouldn't try to be. Tron is not a long playing game either.

Lots of multiballs and ways to press your luck trying to build multipliers. I look forward to the software update and seeing Francesco utilized properly.

Glad to be a part of it. I tried to be honest and objective and not a cheerleader or be perceived as one. My hope was people could trust me in the future for opinions on other games.

Glad to see more full throttles getting delivered and the reviews have been consistently positive. mine has been holding up well all this time I am happy to report.

Well, since this my thread.. we're approaching almost a year of ownership of Full Throttle... here is how we're doing:

-The game has never sat dark during the entire time I've had it.
-Problems I've dealt with are of the minor variety... loose connections mostly.
-Original backbox lcd died, was replaced with large LCD.
-I did get the "speaker hum" issue, but it's been outlined in another thread the solution is to unbundle the speaker wires from the main trunk.
-The game did crash on occasion with version 1.0 software. With version 1.2 I've only seen it crash once (needs a cold reboot when this happens).
-I was just sent version 1.41 to update but have not done it yet.

Overall, in hindsight, in my desire to be the first owner there was high risk of the game not working for periods of time. I trusted Andrew that if something were to happen he would fix me up, but fortunately nothing major (worst was the LCD failure which was simple enough, and there is the playfield screen so the game was still playable at that time) has happened.

I think rule-wise the game could use some retooling, with real world feedback showing that the international race modes are generally avoided. Everyone basically works the multiball stacking strategy and avoids the scoop completely. Country races just seem too high risk for little reward.

But the game overall is fun, shoots awesome, and the mentioned stacking multiballs is a really fun pinball experience. I just think that half the game modes are avoided in general so that could be revisited.

No plastics broken. Why did yours break?