X-Men is no fun. There I said it.

Pros:
*It's a great layout.
*The artwork is fantastic.
*A lot of the sound is great. I actually like Beast, Storm sounds like she suffered some kind of closed head injury.
*The animations are great. Very detailed.
*The shots are very hard.
*My passing has gotten way better as I am habitually on the wrong side and there is no way to use the loop.

Cons:
*The code is no fun.
*The scoring makes no sense, how can I beat Sabretooth in one game and score 5.5MM and the next beat him and score 2.3MM?
*The lack of stacking makes no sense.
*The fact that you make a choice right away in the game whether you want to push heroes or villains and no matter which way you go you get stuck having to play a bunch of other modes that push you the other way.
*The targets don't count hits unless you aren't in a mode; however, when you aren't in a mode and you hit one you end up in a mode a lot of the time.
*There needs to be another wizard mode for completing danger room and dark phoenix.
*There needs to be more multiballs. The multiballs are currently stupid. Shoot right, shoot wolverine, shoot left, shoot wolverine. Then you have Magneto multiball which to quote the callout from NGG "Shoot anything." There is no thought that goes into Magneto besides keep balls in play.
*The loop around wolverine behind beast through phoenix provides no ability to pass between flippers. The ball locks in Magneto.
*The scoop hits the slingshot and puts the ball on the right flipper 99% of the time.
*Magneto will drop the ball SDTM on a kickout. There needs to be another ball given.

If this was my only machine it would make me want to quit playing pinball. It has a lot of potential but is immensely frustrating in its execution.

I had people over this weekend. X-Men got played for one or two games by each person, where the rest of my machines got play 10 or more games by each person (NGG continues to get more play than ToTAN and MM?). Each person had almost exactly the same thing to say. It seems interesting but it's no fun.

Different strokes for different folks.

I guess I really posted this in the wrong thread. This wasn't about really being hard. I just think it isn't fun. I've knocked all the high scores off the game from the 1.21 update and score around $35MM on average.

I just don't think this game is fun...it is very poorly executed in it's current form, which I think makes it seem hard, when in actuality I should have more posted this as a 'it isn't a fun game thread.'

The other point is people aren't selling this game in groves at a loss because it is a winner. Right now this game is a stinker. Making excuses for it, only encourages Stern to release poor quality products in the future.

The game has potential but the code is terrible.

Game is 100% level and measured in 6 spots.

The Magneto dropout happens once every three games, but it also may be because of the spinning wheel. I don't pay that close of attention.

I should check if the scoop is bent however. That may be causing it.

It's a Bosch Engineering level, with Laser and displays actual degrees.

I am thinking based on your post that I have a bent scoop though. Everytime it hits the left sling.

Also, I really want this game to become good. I see it having a lot of potential. It is a pinball machine for the more advanced player no question. I have been an X-Men fan since I was five years old and hearing the Juggernaut, Cyclops, Wolverine and Sabertooth callouts brings me back.

The game, mostly because of code just isn't in that great of a place right now.

Yeah, based on this thread it is unquestionably bent. I will take it apart tonight. I have been focusing on fixing older machines though, X-Men should take up the least of my time as it is new, not 15 years old...

So I checked the scoop. Thanks everyone.

Now the issue. According to my laser it is about 6 degrees open to the actual scoop cut out. This is definitely the reason balls are shooting into the left sling. Pretty poor quality control but hey that's life. What worries me is it is a rather sizeable adjustment. Based on a drawing I did on the bottom to square it up, I need to move the near screws about an 1/8 of inch. What worries me is there is not really enough room to make this much of an adjustment without filling in the previous holes and losing some stability. As hard as shots go into the scoop I worry about the law term stability of this project and also the question of why I should be doing this on a new machine.

The other choice is to take it off and bend the scoop but I worry a bit about airballs if I go with this.

Overall, kind of a crappy situation for a new machine.

I was ~1 degree off center at the top but I have since squared it up

I never even thought to check the scoop, so your suggestions led the right way anyway.

Thanks.

I am going to contact them. I am very hesitant to do something to an LE machine that will be noticeable, as in my view it very much negatively affects the resale.

The underside of the playfield looks immaculate and part of the advantage of having an all LED machine is it should look immaculate permanently.

The fact that the bulbs never have to be changed, which creates a huge amount of screw holes on routed machines.

I think there is a difference between fixing something because you broke it or because it came from the factory in shape that should have never left.

That is where I draw the difference. If it was something I did or broke because it had 5000 games on it, that is a different comparison. If that were the case I would have no issue fixing it and making it arguably look worse.

What this amounts to is, I am selling you something that is defective, then asking you to fix it, thus decreasing its value is a different concept.

To be honest the money is irrelevant, it's more the concept behind it.

I don't disagree; however, one is permanent (screw holes), while one is easily cleaned (grime).

Like I said, I like all LED machines because besides the grime, the underside of the playfield stays in basically the same shape forever. If you take your time you can also screw and unscrew without swiss cheesing things, but I have seen lots of machines where this isn't the case.

Alright, had a free night last night so I decided to fix X-Men and play for a few hours.

First, I fixed the scoop, I took it off, bent it with a vice grips and put a Mantis in the scoop hole. Ball now goes on to left flipper 98% of the time, the other hits the bottom of the sling and falls onto the flipper.
Second, I did the post mod, which makes the Iceman shot much easier.
Third, I jacked the game up a quarter of an inch and leveled it in 7 spots, then set the feet. Magneto drops are down immensely.
Fourth I forced myself to the play the game, instead of quitting. I actually enjoy it quite a bit. The shots are not easy but after playing a for a few hours the flow of the game for me has improved immensely. I scored a 121MM in one of the later games.

Now for the things I don't like.

Got to Danger Room. I have no idea what is going on there. It makes little sense and is boring. Not great for something that is hard to get to. It is easy to score points, first one was 33MM and second was 38MM.

I still don't like the early game flow. Going for Dark Phoenix you hit target shots to start the game. I think something needs to be done here, hitting target shots over and over is a bit boring.

Back on Dark Phoenix, I think there needs to be a bit more done to make it reachable. Simplest change would just be to keep health of villians even if you lose.