Interesting topic. Ive been devising a software package similar to this in my mind; and since im too busy with work, family, and laziness i pretty much know I will never be able to follow through with this. So, i'll pitch it to pinside and any designers/developers can hopefully run with it because i think it would be fantastic.
The idea is to program a game to have 3 modes of play to choose from; Battle Time Attack, Battle Golf, and Adventure Mode.
Battle Time Attack:
+ Single player or multiplayer game
+ Menu options for 30 sec, 60 sec, 90 sec, 180 sec, 300 sec, etc...time attack game.
+ Rules will be automatically changed for time attack (i.e. multiball easier to achieve, hurry-ups easier to trigger, stacks faster to setup, etc...)
+ Each player gets X amount of time to score as many points as possible. Ball drains will fire balls back into play but can also penalize players such as their end of game bonus. On the flip side - Certain rewards (super jackpot for instance) could add +5 secs to the clock; or a hurry-up cash in to freeze the clock for X amount of seconds.
+ When time is over, flippers die, balls drain, and you collect bonus.
Battle Golf:
+ Single or Multiplayer game
+ This can be a great tool for tutorials.
+ Player Can select between a 3, 6, 9 hole course.
+ Can choose between easy, hard, expert courses or manually customize the course picking from 30 courses of the 3 categories (easy, hard, expert)
+ You can even have a menu options to have people build their own courses, select the par level, and adjust a setting for each course.
+ When you start the first hole, the display will go over the course with a virtual overview of the table and show you what to do. For example:
• Announcer "Welcome to Multiball bay; this is a par 3 course where you need to start the main multiball. To do so, hit these 3 targets then get the ball in this scoop to lock 1 ball. Lock 4 balls and you will get multiball and complete the course."
Or and advanced hole...
• Announcer "Welcome to wizards mountain; This is one of the dreadful mini wizard modes and a Par 4 course where you need to change the red colored shots to white by hitting each shot. But be careful, hitting this shot again will turn it red. Get all 5 shots to be white to complete the course.
Or an easy hole...
• Announcer, "Welcome to Lane alley, this is a Par 2 course where you need to Spell G-O-L-F using the 4 inlane switches"
Overall, you get the idea. A great tool for helping beginners, but also fun for advanced multiplayer games.
Adventure Mode:
+ Single or multiplayer game w/optional Co-Op mode (yay Scott Danesi!)
+ Adventure mode is your Typical 3-ball pinball game
Yes, im a dork 
