I had about the same impressions (including not feeling qualified to comment extensively on gameplay due to lack of player skill). The build quality seems right in line with the other recent Sterns and I'm in the camp that likes the throwback art. It does seem to be a bit of a drain monster, the games I played with random strangers featured quite a few ball saves.

However I strongly disagree on the dots, they were terrible. I also saw it lock up completely, requiring a power cycle after someone tilted - something to keep in mind if you've sworn off games with incomplete code.