With all due respect, I don’t agree with the geometry argument - true it is not a fan layout and fast shooter like say Star Wars or Monster Bash - but the shots are makeable - I think it’s more that they aren’t your standard Bally/Williams type shots, and are not sort of built into your muscles as a player. They are unusual, which I think it awesome - but I can understand that’s why it turns people off. I guess that’s what they mean when they say it “feels wrong”.

They are also just HARD. The inner lane is difficult to hit, and everybody focuses on that, but you can definitely hit it - many players haven’t discovered that they can backhand it for example. A friend of mine didn’t believe you could master the Milkcan shot - absolutely you can. I can do it on demand, 8 out of 10 times

That said, that inner loop shot is IMO a bit too hard to be the main shot used for multiball, IMO. I play 3 or 4 games every day on my Houdini, and I have many games where I never get trunk multiball. Then when I do - POW! It’s over in 5 seconds.

My 2 main criticisms of the game are not really about the shots:

1) The left outlane is waaaaaaay too open, IMO. I lose almost every single ball down there, and it is very difficult to save the ball via nudge - and forget about it during multiball. Every ball goes left

2) I don’t know quite why this is, but it is REALLY hard to get control of the ball. I’m not sure if it’s the flipper rubber or if I just really do suck THAT bad, but I can never get the ball under control fast enough to barely get anywhere in the modes. I have increased the modes to a 60 second clock and even that’s very very tough

The scoop issue is annoying but fixable and a normal NIB type issue. Same with the shooter lane and the plunger - both pretty simple fixes.

I’m playing with 5 balls, and barely ever get 2 letters, and I have NEVER started a mini-wizard mode. I’m not that bad though - I can get to the wizard mode on a lot of my other games

I feel like this attitude is what keeps shows like “full House” on TV. We would never have had The Wire, The Shield, True Detective ... or Houdini!

Haha, ok you got me there. Arrested Development is another good example - it takes 4 episodes to really get how deep and hilarious that show. My point was that if we resist change, we’ll just be getting Medieval Madness rebrands forever.

Fine, fine !! Lol. Also for the record, I was not implying you are a Full House fan.. more that I am emphatically not

Has anyone in this family ever even SEEN a chicken?

That’s correct- those colors refer specifically to the type of completion made to earn the letter. Stage mode/jail/film/combo

Well, ok so that was a back of the napkin estimate, for that ONE shot; Joe Balcer gave me some tips (slow ball, light touch at end of the flipper), but yeah I can make it pretty regularly

Never works for me - many shots in this game require the very lightest touch of the button to gently hit the ball in. Works for the inner loop too

Haha!

I had a party last night, and the kids, ages 12 and 14 (I think?) were drawn to Dialed In and Houdini, respectively. Houdini was a home run hit, despite being "too damn hard!" . New code is really helping iron out some stuff

Great post - since buying last year, I have since reverted back my game to default settings, except I think I may award extra balls earlier than default. I do think the game is way too hard out of the box, but this also has something to do with it having SO much you can shoot for. I am getting to be really good at hitting the inner loop, and still can make the milk can shot pretty frequently. I have friends who still don't believe you can make that shot consistently (and won a Roger Sharpe bet that I could, on the first shot!). I think my only criticism at all is about the ramp - it is very very hard to hit that ramp consistently, and I do not understand why.

Still, IMO it's too hard to feel like you've achieved anything for most players - perhaps they should allow the stage to be open by default when you start your game, so you can get right into a mode.