Apparently not a dealbreaker. Gomez keeps cranking out clunky designs with a LOT more experience. Software saved his latest, Batman'66, but it's a very clunky design. Houdini's shots feel better than BM'66, they're just tougher and require more accuracy to hit well.

You have the base set of disasters in "tiers" and can attack those disasters either by taking whatever's come up or selecting the disaster you want to do next. After half the disasters are done, you get to a mini-wizard mode which is new, called Chaos in Quantum City. Then after finishing the other disasters, depending on how many SIM cards you collect, you get to either Armageddon (the "bad" ending), or Shutdown (the real ending). It's pretty straightforward, and there's not much in the way of side things to do outside of some Crazy Bob awarded multiballs. The drones and spiders are very under-utilized. Over time it gets repetitive, IMO.

Depends on which protectors. If they put on the original JJP try at protectors and didn't get the Cliffies once JJP abandoned their bad design and started releasing with Cliffies from the factory, I can understand the frustration.

My guess is they are the original JJP since this is an early run game that didn't have protectors from the factory. Glad the genuine Cliffies offer a better experience at least!

Ask your location/operator to request the better Cliffy ones from JJP. They do send them out. The JJP designed ones are terrible. Ruin the game.

I like the home user and operator perspectives coming into this poll.

If I were routing games, having a new 9k machine drop off quickly below a Stern would make me cringe. Location matters sure, but No thanks.

I play Dialed In every time on location, will only drop $ in Houdini if i have to in a tournament, its just not fun, modes seem wack and over valued (esp if you start it at 2x which why wouldnt you?), MB undervalued, magnets that throw the ball away way too often. call outs are bad and annoying, just a mess of a game, bad geometry on the shots, doesnt flow or feel smooth. clunky feeling.

Dialed In, great modes/rules, risk reward strategies, game flows like butter, just fun all around despite the theme.

I vote For Dialed in i think it's plays much better than Houdini.

FWIW, This is a very negative way to make the point I made above - the shots do take some time to learn. It’s not that the “geometry” is wrong, it’s that the shots aren’t the standard B/W shots. I like that, but it does take getting used to.

Deleted my original post/rant.

A mess of a game? Harsh review on Houdini. Best stick with those easy flow pins.

ohh, i can hit the shots, but its a bad game, sorry. I am not addicted to flow games, i own a SFII lol, but shots shouldnt punish you for making them.

the right orbit if hit hard shoots around to the left and returns SDTM if you dont nudge/slide the game, that's bad geometry.

last time i played houdini i played about 10 games in a row with an average of about 800,000 points but did not have any fun playing it so meh.

So I went to play Houdini today. Made sure it was perfectly level. I liked the play. Its definitely a fun game but you must be a little better than just a novice player to get some of the features of the game going. I observed a few games on it from patrons at a location I run. They said they enjoyed it but never hit a single ramp or trunk lock shot in $4 spent (5 games total) I can understand how that can be a turn off. We do set the games very easy at this location. The same couple did not play dialed in though, they liked the 90s games that were .50 cents per play.

I will try to watch a little more. Place is crowded at the minute. So I am not trying to be in anyone's business. =)

Trunk lock I can see, but the ramp is not hard at all. How could they get NO ramp shots?

No, that's bad setup or bad assembly. Ours doesn't do that. It goes to the tip of the flipper.

Fair enough. Got the impression you were a "flow or no" guy from your last post.

I agree made shots should not drain at a high percentage. I wonder if that particular one was leveled and pitched properly.

I have only played Houdini a few times so far. Between that and gameplay video I have not noticed that issue, but maybe it's there. Generally a curable thing with proper setup.

I would still probably pick dialed in but the Sim card shot is annoying to me. Nothing worse than a shot on the game that you can't make without a lucky bounce in. At least on my game, the shot was impossible to make with a flipper.

But dialed in is still awesome just nit picking!

I would highly recommend playing both and pick the one you like.

Both look great.

Both different critters. Dialed In is Pat Lawlor turned loose without the bean counters.

Houdini can kick you in the nuts like TZ.

Both great games. Both different reasons.

Not an easy decision if you only get one.

LTG : )

Just simply sharing what I observed.

I sold my Dialed In LE to pay for Houdini and couldn’t be happier with my decision. It’s just a more complex and fun game for me.
That being said, I would like a Dialed In again someday. I think you’d be happy with either choice though.

Yep - I have one on route called my basement! No - I don't. Not sure if you read my posts completely but I was mentioning what I've heard and seen with my own eyes at bars.

I noticed you say Houdini feels better than ____ or ____. You're missing the part where you say that's just your opinion - just like I mentioned with my posts. I appreciate you playing Houdini defender though. Nice.

It's just weird that they couldn't make ANY ramp shots when that's not even a hard shot.

The earnings of Houdini on route are not "my opinion" they are fact. And Houdini earnings in month 5 destroy Dialed In LE at the same point. Other OPs I've talked to had their Dialed In drop off sharply after just a month or so.

Vireland - read my response again and then try to figure out where you went wrong. Can't help you anymore - you're a smart guy. You'll figure it out.

I wouldn't say Gomez is cranking out games. I would say he retweeked an older game and hasn't made a new one in 6 years.

At the location I was at today dialed in had 18954 plays lifetime. Collection cycle was 847 to 505 in favor of DI.

The Houdini call outs are an annoying voice that makes it tough for me.

Dialed in just feels better for me, but both are fun in different ways.

Tomato, tomatoe. Point is, he designs more clunky games than smooth shooters and people keep asking for more. Houdini shoots better than most Gomez designs, and AP did it in a little more than a year, from scratch.

Tomato, potato.
Avengers, Tranformers, BDK....not real popular games people are asking for more of. I mean not for the last 15 years anyway.

...Monster Bash, LOTR, BM66. Some good pedigree mixed in there

Not sure where we're going with the Gomez thing

For people that forgot his birthday recently.

LTG : )

That he doesn't design machines anymore unless it's a refake or child predators (alleged) are removed during production.

Mechanical design on Batman and Batman'66 is poor. Software saved Batman'66. Original Batman was not so lucky. Monster Bash and LotR are his smoothest designs and they were 15+ years ago. All his recent stuff is way clunkier than Houdini dreams of being.

Wow thats alot of plays... how did it look and play?

Back to topic. Placing my vote here again.

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It's my game. It's in great shape.

I think Houdini is magical, if it’s dialed in correctly.

Played DI at a barcade tonight. It was pretty fun. As another poster said the flow is very similar to TAF, which I appreciate. I ended up getting my ball in some ball lock and it never came back. I figured I must’ve lost so I put another dollar in and lost the money. Two people after me tried and it ate their money. They had to power it off for the rest of night. It was sad as it was the newest and best game in the place. I really wonder if the bugs are worked out, I will hold off on buying one for now.

Sounds like a loose opto ... never had any issues in home use and in most cases di is very solid considering how much is in the game.

Bugs are worked out.

Easy fixes if anyone was there to do them. Not the games fault. Crap happens. Refund money to player. Fix game.

LTG : )

Houdini is now gone from my gameroom. I tried to like it, and failed. I can't speak from an op's POV, but I know ops here, and not one is willing to route a Houdini. From a home collector's (and competitive player's) POV, though, Houdini missed the mark. The callouts sound as though the announcer might have been wearing panties. Really effeminate. Like the Ringmaster, but on estrogen replacement therapy.

Someone said DI was Lawlor without the bean counters. I couldn't have said it better. Quality build, (AP's was, too), quality design, quality code (better than AP's, but this was Keith Johnson, so almost unfair to compare).

As goes GGomez, I agree with Vic's assessment 100%.

Dialed In and Houdini on freeplay and in stock at Abel electronics. Come play them both then take one home or maybe both.

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People are laying down serious coin for these games, the bar is set high. I for one want to see how people feel about their experience, even if it’s a bit edgy.

I had a similar experience at my location. IME, comparing Houdini to Dialed In from an earnings perspective, had Houdini on location for a couple of months and it earned about 65% of what Dialed In earned its first two months on location. Houdini didn't get that "second quarter" from casual players and expert players could take it or leave it. Personally, I was able to break a million points on Houdini several times, but found the game more work to play than fun to play.

But did Dialed In hold its earning level after the first month or two? The Dialed In we had fell off sharply after the first month, where Houdini didn't. Other OPs I've talked to have had a similar experience.

Seems like we have two conversations going here. One about the initial question and one about routing the two machines. I own DILE and was going to buy Houdini, that is until I spent about two hours on it at an expo. The game is gorgeous, and I have no gender issues with the call outs; however, I am in the camp that dislikes the geometry/design. Games can be difficult and fun at the same time (shadow anyone?), but Houdini is fun in only in very small and rare bursts. I’m sure I could practice practice practice in a home environment, but the shots just don’t work well. I did put up some great scores, but I did not have much fun in doing so. I’ve seen it on route a few times and have passed. Lawlor is an epic designer in my eyes, and DI reflects that almost perfectly.

$7k v $8k (DI).

Same. And impossible to get good scores without sims.

Funny because sound effects and call outs killed DI for me.

Funny because sound effects and call outs killed DI for me.

Selfies and emojis and the cell phone and the theme killed DI for me. JJPs best layout so far, but worst theme and modes.

Funny, the more I play Di the more I realize they’re making fun of the whole emojis and selfies culture, but I guess it’s not that obvious right away

Anybody who cares about gameplay knows this to be true.

The real question is, does it matter? If Houdini sold well, I'm sure AP will keep cranking out rough draft playfields and focusing on other aspects of the game.

Dialed in clearly plays like it was designed by a master and refined to the point of perfection. Night and day really.

All depends on what you are looking for in a game. If you are enthralled by the Houdini theme, or captivated by the art package, sound, or animations and don't care about gameplay, it's a no-brainer to pick Houdini.

There's reasons for some not to want a Dialed in but gameplay/layout are certainly not among them.