For perspective, I owned, loved and regret ever selling WOZ. I was in on The Hobbit, but got out because of the Elaut scandal and rumors about financial troubles at JJP. I count myself as a JJP fan, and I am a huge fan of Keith Johnson's coding. I'm really glad that JJP appears to have stabilized and is now shipping The Hobbit.

I have played The Hobbit 3 times now. Once, early in the code at Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown '15, once recently at the 2Up, and today at Arcade Amusements in Manitou Springs, CO.

It is a beautiful game. It is just gorgeous, perhaps the best looking game since WOZ. Definitely among the top 10 prettiest games of all time. If they had done direct printing cabinets like early WOZs, it might take the #1 spot on looks alone.

However...the playfield is laughably empty. The ball floats around the playfield like I'm playing an 80s Bally or something. I wonder if they did this intentionally as a response to the difficult maintenance of WOZ. If the ball is really slow and there's nothing to hit, nothing can break, right?

Can this shell of a game be salvaged by Keith Johnson? If so, this will (further) solidify his reputation as the GOAT programmer.

The one at the 2Up was having some problems with the Trolls also. Is this a software or hardware problem? I haven't been following the million-post Hobbit thread...zzzzzz....

I played once at the RMPS. I played a bunch of times at the 2up. Maybe 10? I played once in Manitou. The second game today, I got a ball stuck and the manager didn't have the keys. Put the game out of order. So, I guess 12 games total. Not near enough, but certainly enough to express my initial impressions.

Unfortunately, though Arcade Amusements (Manitou Penny Arcade) has been great about getting the newest games lately, they're terrible at updating the code. I may be playing with rudimentary early code. Oh well, I can always count on the 2up having the latest code. Will try to get up to Denver again soon.

I'm definitely still interested in seeing how the code develops. (As you might have surmised from my initial post.)

I'm surprised that my comments were controversial. It seems that the fan-boys and the haters are both out in force.

I'm in neither camp. At the moment, it's not that great. I hope it turns out to be a good game, and I think Keith gives it a chance to be something special.

In my original post, I laid out my perspective, so everyone could look for any potential bias in my review. It would be very interesting if everyone who has posted here did the same.

I had more issues with WOZ than any other game I've had. Once the light board thing was worked out, it wasn't quite as bad, but was still quirky. I think the operators really struggle to keep them working well on location, too.

I agree that this pin is so different from everything else that it could add variety to a collection. Good point.

I don't think the defensiveness phenomenon is unique to JJP fanboys. I guess we'll find out soon, when I post my review of Ghostbusters.

Within reason, shot count is not a very important determinant of how fun a game is, so the counting method is irrelevant.

I don't think the ball literally rolls slower down the playfield. Same angle = same speed. However, I think the wide format and open playfield design leads to more time for the ball to return to the flipper. So perhaps it's slower in that sense...shot to next shot. Just a theory.

I put another $10 into Hobbit last night. I'm trying so hard to enjoy this game...and failing.