My Wizard of Oz Review.... (This is a Standard Production WOZ running 1.14 software)
I went to Moosejaw Pizza in WI Dells last night with a friend and got nearly 3 hours of playtime on WOZ.-They had to boot us out as they closed at 11. I have to admit that I was a bit anxious to play it and was nervous as to whether or not I would like the game enough to justify the expenditure since I have a game on order. WOZ is nearly twice the price of any game I've purchased in the past and I have to admit that I was let down with the way proto games played at both MGC and Expo last year. The Expo and MGC games had very little pitch and the flippers were weak and just didn't feel right. The gameplay was slow, the pops and other solenoids seemed weak and it just wasn't a good experience.
Fast forward to last night… I played my first ball and was instantly relieved at how the game played. The game was setup perfectly and the gameplay was surprisingly fast! The back leg levelers were all the way up and the pitch was just where I like it. The flippers and pops were plenty strong and snappy and were able to make all the shots with ease. The slingshots were actually “Too” strong and a couple times sent the ball over the rail and into the shooter lane! I’d actually recommend turning these down a bit. The left slingshot kicker actually found its way on the other side of the slingshot rubber from hitting it so hard.-Christopher you’ll need to pop this back 
For a game that I’ve been hearing about issues such as lights going out, missing sound, etc. I was happy to see that this game did not have any issues. No stuck balls, no lighting issues, and all the switches and features worked as they should. This location was also well lit so I didn’t notice any problems with the GI being too dim (even in lights out mode) and not being able to see well enough. The only minor bug we really encountered was that sometimes the lock mechanism would release an extra ball.-but this was compensated in software.
As far as the gameplay itself goes I was extremely pleased. The game plays like no other game I have played in the past. The shots felt great and it is a challenging game to play. I love the fact that this game is so different from everything else that has been released recently. It seems like most other games are multi-ball centric whereas WOZ is more of a shooters game and you are in single ball play most of the time. This game really makes you work for everything you accomplish. I would say that in over half the games I played I failed to even start a multi-ball and was usually lucky to start more than a couple modes and my scores were typically between 20K-75K for the night. This isn’t a game where you hit the same shot over and over to start multi-ball and can get by on only hitting safe shots during single ball play and only taking risks during multi-ball. I found myself having to aim for stand-ups and roll-overs during single ball play to qualify shots, sending the ball into the pops to hit the capture Dorothy target, and using a lot of strategy and thought to figure out how I want to approach the game. My favorite machine is LOTR and this game is above and beyond that game from a rules and strategy standpoint. The rules actually remind me a lot of TSPP in that there are just so many things to be cognizant of and so many opportunities for stacking. There are also mini-games like Horse of a Different Color and the two outlane ball save modes (TNPLH and Save Toto) which are extremely fun. I also liked the two upper playfields and found them to be quite challenging.-The Witch’s castle playfield I found particularly tough. Here are the positives and negatives from the few hours I’ve spent on the game so far.
Positives
Layout: The game has so many targets and things to shoot for in all areas of the playfield. Hitting the Crystal Ball targets are tough and some targets you need to rely on bounces or pop bumper or sling shot hits to trigger. The collect target under the UR Flipper is also ingenious. The layout is fresh and doesn’t feel recycled at all. I know it resembles TSPP and TZ a bit on paper but it plays completely different from either of those games. It’s just a lot of fun and there is just SO much going on!
LED’s: The lighting and lighting effects on this game are nothing short of amazing! I was able to start the “Lights on” Crystal ball mode a few times and it was really cool seeing the lighting effects. It’s also cool how when you hit certain targets all the playfield lights will “burst” with that color.
Outlane mini-games: A great idea that has never really been done before. I think “Save Toto” was a bit on the easy side. I was able to complete probably 80% of the time that I got it. It would be nice to see an option where the Toto timer was decreased by 5 seconds for each time it is triggered in the game to increase the difficulty. “There’s no place like home” on the other hand is extremely tough! I found this mode to be a blast to play but the list of objectives you need to hit is pretty daunting!
Creativity in the rules: I love that you have to hit varying shots to qualify modes and that there are collect holes and creative ways to start modes. For example… For Haunted Forest modes you need to hit the bumpers a set number of times and then send the ball into the collect hole in the upper left side. To start Twister you need to hit all the rainbow targets and then to start a munchkin mode you need to hit 10 loops around the house. Rescue Multi-ball also consists of several steps to start. I prefer this method over simply hitting a target over and over to start something…I also love stacking!
LCD Screen: Very cool implementation and the animations are top notch! I didn’t find myself looking at it much during gameplay but it is cool to watch while others are playing. It does make games with DMD’s look outdated in comparison though. The Crystal Ball is also really cool but is mostly eye candy as I tend to be too concentrated on the ball vs. looking at it during a game.
Build Quality/Artwork/Fit and Finish: The quality, feel, and artwork on this game are incredible! Not much else needs to be said. You can tell that a lot of thought went into the design and into the build of this machine.
Negatives:
Upper right flipper: There aren’t really any shots that are specific to this flipper and it is largely unused during gameplay other than for the skillshot. It’s also tough to see shots coming down to this flipper with the upper right playfield in the way. This is the biggest flaw in the game design and I hope they find a way to make this flipper more useful!
Rules aren’t intuitive for beginners: I thought I had a pretty firm grasp on the rule-set based on Alex’s tutorial but I still have no idea how Horse of a Different color works. I get that you hit four horse targets and hit the collect target under the upper right flipper but I have no idea how the scoring works. Usually I only get minimal points, but a few times I’ve gotten big points from this and I’m not sure why? I’m also not sure how the hurry-ups work? Even things like how to start EC Multi-ball or Rescue Multiball could be confusing to someone not familiar with the game. The LCD gives you some info on what you need to do but not enough… For a home owner that knows the rules this is all fine but for location players it may be difficult.
What I’d still like to see:
I know Keith and the software team still have a long ways to go and have lots of fun modes, mini-wizard modes, and full wizard mode(s) to add but I would like to see some of these modes be objective based vs. just points based. It’s good to have 2X scoring modes but I like modes where you have to hit sequences of shots to complete them. –I’m sure these are probably coming and we’ll just have to wait for them. And like I said earlier I’d also like to see a way to improve the significance of the UR flipper.
Conclusion:
I admit to being frustrated by the wait for this game and prior to last night I’ve had a few times where I’ve actually contemplating selling my spot and buying a different game (like Metallica) to feed my new pin addiction; but after last night there is no way in hell that I’d sell my spot or the game. I still love Stern games and think they're making kick-ass games. I still want to pick up a Metallica and ACDC at some point but I think it's great to have a new manufacturer making awesome games as well! There's no need to hate on either manufacturer... I think WOZ Is great even in its current software form and I think once it’s complete it’s going to be one of the best games of all time. People that dismiss this game on theme or because it doesn’t have 2 ramps that feed the flippers are short-changing themselves… I think JJP did an incredible job on this game and I think once more people play properly set up production games and the software gets fleshed out that a lot of people are going to want to buy this game. My friend that was with me last night didn’t have any intentions of buying a WOZ prior to last night but after playing it for an extended amount of time he now wants one! If you’re anywhere near WI Dells stop in and play this game at Moosejaw. I plan to head back again soon. Now, my last request to JJP is to hurry up and finish my game 
Boerne, TX
Mississauga
Rowville Melbourne
