This is my figurative .02 not a shot-map comparison:

I got in 2-3 games at GSPF, and the ball times were very short, so I didn't change my already good opinion of this layout from watching a few hours of the streams, but if I had to describe it to someone that has played a lot of pinball, I would say: Imagine the feel of Whirlwind but take out all the drop targets. So the "feel" of it for me (a 1980's drop target player) is "barren". I'm sure if I were playing pinball in 1992, I would have said the same thing about Funhouse -- a layout I'm not a big fan of. Great theme, but where are my drops? Funhouse feels empty and barren to me, even though it has some fun combos and great programming. Feel...

So to me, taking out drops and spinning discs to play Funhouse or Wonka is a small step down in feel from a peak design for Pat. Enjoy your combos! But I'm more of a drop target horizontal bounce player...

Note: the pops held up my ball on several occasions, and I've just never been a fan of Pat's pop designs that hold up the ball (see Whirlwind) where the ball fails 3 out of 4 of the reasons to have pops (scoring targets, draining balls, randomizing movement) -- he uses them strictly for modes, so if you are not in the mode, they are a time suck my book.

-mof

Regarding sounds (versus music or movie clips) -- I couldn't hear the game, so I can't comment further on that.

I walked up to Jack personally at the pinball show 2 years ago, and said the Hobbit doesn't sound like pinball to me (WOZ does!), it sounds like a cat dry-humping a DVR remote which is playing movie clips randomly. I don't know whether he appreciated what I was trying to communicate.

Every shot (or location) should have a unique sound based off every switch (see Whirlwind or Funhouse)... I can close my eyes and tell you where the ball is in those games, based off sounds. To me modern pinballs OFTEN fail with sound, and it's my #2 reason to own a game after layout/physics. I want to control the sounds like a musician plays a keyboard. Everyone has their pecking order of what matters. I'm physics then player-controlled-sounds...

The good news is sounds can be fixed in code -- but I'm not sure if any manufacturer has ever done that before -- so it might not be where they want to put their resources.

I'll go listen to an hour of a stream and try to listen for whether you can begin to imagine where the ball is based on sounds.
-mof

At GSPF -- Oktoberfest and Wonka were side by side, and I found "exploring the shot map" more intriguing on OF. It has more to do on it. Does that make it better overall for my tastes? I have absolutely no idea, and I don't wanna argue it either way. Just reporting first impressions based on a side-by-side look. I was more compelled to play the silly beer game and see if I could make all the crazy shots on that thing, and it certainly had longer ball times to buy time to explore...

Definitely look forward to playing much more of both -- however, I'm a little bummed that it might take a while to see either one again out in SF.

-mof