Completely missing this thread, I stumble into Pinball Wizard yesterday as I needed to buy an X-pin display, maybe play some classics... and BAM!
Woo hoo! Full Throttle... TAKE MY MONEY!
Overall, what a fun machine. I'll reiterate the two things that the people who have played this stress to those concerned.
1) It's really, really fast for a widebody. Awesomely fast. Really, awesomely fast!
2) The playfield "glass cartridge" in no way interferes with playfield view.
The side-lit panels were $$$, the layout was fantastic (combos-a-plenty), the sound quality (and soundtrack itself) was on point, and the integrated screen was wonderful. I caught myself a few times saying "you don't have to look up". Also, the skill shot was very fun. Much more fun that "launch at full power and press the flipper until it lines up with the correct top lane" skill shot.
My only gripe, and it was hard to find one, was that the scoop sometimes drained the ball on me. Roughly 25% of the time, out of the scoop this happened. It would come out, hit something on the right, and head straight over to the left drain/inlane. Seeing how KISS fixed this (either via changing coil strength, or adding in a ball save time after eject...?) I bet this won't be a permanent issue.
The Pros far outweigh the Cons for this game. If you're in the area, it (along everything else at PWA) is worth the drive.
Good weather, good times, NFL season starts soon, league at PWA starts in a week, new Full Throttle playable 20 min from my house...