San Marcos, CA
Considering adding HW to the collection. Help push me over the top, please. 
For reference, our other pins are MMr, TMNT (Stern), and GB (possibly on the way out).
(Topic ID: 264334)
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Hot Wheels
American Pinball, 2020
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Quoted from pinball2020:If you can, try it before you buy it. The game has several ways to get high scores, there is a theme where you have to stop the bad guy, Draven, from trying to destroy Hot Wheels City with his dinosaurs. There is a racing mode. Lots to do with the game.
It fits the bill for easy to learn, hard to master.
People when they come over are drawn to that still over Avengers:Infinity Quest so that should tell you something. (Or they just aren't into Marvel properties ).
Game play is fast and the lighting / videos create a unified sense of excitement.
Did that help and push you over to get one?
Definitely quite helpful! I'm hoping to play one soon but it's a little bit of a drive.
How tight are the shots? Do you have to be super dialed or can you get into a flow that's a little forgiving?
Any more feedback and insights from owners appreciated!
1 week later
Quoted from Ferret:The shaker is used a lot in this game, lots of tight choreography with the fun animations. The knocker only gets a little bit of use, not nearly as much as on Oktoberfest or Houdini, though we’ll still be looking for places to add some extra knocker effects in a future code update.
Is the shaker specific to AP games or could I recycle one from another pin?
Quoted from brenna98:Your existing shaker likely won’t have the same connector to be plug and play.
Shaker runs on 12v
Thanks for the reply! This is good to know if/when I snag a HW.
Alright, finally got out to a location with a Hot Wheels today and it did not disappoint. It kinda bums me out this pin doesn't get more hype because it's a ton of fun. The shots can flow but also be punishing, and for what looks like a standard fan layout there is so much to shoot for in the code that it doesn't feel boring. The magnet wasn't working, but that didn't bug me. Music and lights are rad, but could use a couple more directional callouts imo (unless I was on old code). Had one game over 900 million and a couple shorties, and I definitely wanted to keep dropping coins.
Other newer pins onsite included LZ (also a lot of fun, but didn't pull me in as much as HW) and Mando (honestly a big "meh" from me but can't really pin down why). Of those 3, HW was easily my favorite, but it could've been confirmation bias because I was excited about it going in.
All in all, this game is firmly on my shortlist now. I'm likely gonna wait and see what we get for the next AP and Stern releases, but I could easily see snagging Hot Wheels and getting plenty of life out of it. Good, good stuff.
1 week later
Games I've finally been able to put more time on over the last two weekends (was just getting into the hobby before covid hit):
Hot Wheels
Mando
Zeppelin
AIQ
Rick and Morty
Wonka
JP2
Of all those, Hot Wheels has been the most fun and left me wanting more. It might not be the most satisfying layout to shoot (AIQ/JP2) or the highest on theme integration (R&M), but the total package left me with the best impression. I clearly enjoy pins where the tone is a little lighter/funnier (own MM, TMNT and GB), so this all tracks. Leaning hard toward snagging a HW for the garage soon.
2 weeks later
Thanks to everyone here for the tricks, tips, and overall good vibes that helped make me pull the trigger on this one. It's a blast so far!Quoted from JagDaniels:OMG ! Good score...
Haha thanks! What are defaults for extra balls? Feel like there may have been one too many but not sure what the previous owner had things set at. LOVE the API Cockpit menu on the whole but didn't see much that would show factory defaults.
Quoted from Ferret:When you're paging through the Settings, values in green are defaults, values in white are owner adjustments. You can also go to Settings > Presets, scroll through the presets, and see exactly what settings are made for each one. (Sorry about the tiny text.) Factory default is the Medium preset. From the factory, Extra Balls are given for score levels ("replay"), 40 cars collected, and 2 Hero Cars collected.
Enjoy!
This is awesome @ferret, much appreciated! The customer service and AP team interaction in here was a big reason I bought this pin. You guys knock it out of the park.
2 weeks later
Quoted from Ferret:We do have some upcoming changes.
Is there anything you’re looking for in the code that leads you to ask? A bug that needs fixing or something?
I have noticed what seems to be a sound bug that I've neglected to report. When I'm in a battle or multiball and get the tach all the way to 10 the RLM music will come on over the top of whatever else is happening (and then sometimes continues through end of battle or multiball). Perhaps it's supposed to happen this way but it doesn't sound like it was intentional. Not a massive problem by any stretch of the imagination, though.
On the whole I think a couple more callouts could up the energy and make the gameplay have some more connection to the overall story, but really these are nitpicks - its an awesome player as is.
2 weeks later
Quoted from CryHavoc:I'm back into pinball after stepping away for a few years and I'm looking to buy. Hot Wheels has caught my eye, but I watched a few gameplay videos tonight and in both of them the ball went to a ramp, then when deposited to the inlane the ball bounced out of the inlane into the outlane to drain. The first time was a video from Dead Flip and I thought nothing of it because that's not unheard of. But then I watched another video of some guy playing and it happened to him more than once.
Is this a common problem with this machine or did I just get lucky to see it in two different videos?
I'll get an occasional right orbit-to-outlane drain under the blue ramp, but that can also be saved by shaking the ball across the gap and back into the shooter lane (all games should have this! Lol). I can't recall filtering from the ramp exit and into the outlane - I'd say you saw a couple rare occurrences.
Quoted from BamBam:Oo! Oo! I know! Make it so that hitting different targets adds random or different competitors or makes events happen, to randomize the way it plays out. Like, you're winning but then you get passed by a cheeseburger car and go down a place, or the triceratops gives you a boost. Here's a video of a Japanese horse racing game where random stuff keeps happening and it's hilarious! I'd play something like that all day! Thanks!
I definitely don't hate this idea. Would almost be like a pinball version of Mario Kart. Maybe the ability to choose between something like this (Chaos Race) and Standard Race by holding in the flipper buttons during attract mode would be great. Instead of Skill Shot at the plunge, just auto plunge up to the magnet and start.
Stretch goal/pipe dream: Versus race mode via some sort of online connectivity.
Honestly, the race is one of my favorite features of Hot Wheels. It doesn't ever seem to get old, and it just naturally helps lead you through the game. Really drives the "one more game" feel when you drain your third ball with the checkered flag flashing, too.
Quoted from pinballonthemark:I am in the process of deciding my next game. I have played Hot Wheels before and loved the game play as well as the full RGB lighting. I can only own one machine and I am looking towards the more affordable route with American Pinball. I am an intermediate pinball player and want to make sure the rules are deep enough that I will enjoy this game for at least a year. Is it easy to get to the wizard mode? Is there a real challenge? I used to own a Game Of Thrones and now it is too easy to get to Iron Throne. Does this game have more in it to keep it awhile? I need your honest opinion from this owners thread before I shell out $7000. There are so many games coming out including the next American Pinball game.
I do like fast games that have great flow and I know this game is perfect for that. How is the resale value? Will I break even selling it later? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
I'm not sure what qualifies as an intermediate player, but I've only been seriously into pinball for about 18 months. I threw down 3.5 billion the first week I had Hot Wheels, but I haven't gotten to the wizard mode yet (I think one or two battles away). It's a long player - I've had several 20-minute games - but you can tweak it to make it a bit tougher. Will it last a year? Hard to say, but there is a ton to shoot for each time you fire it up and co-op mode on the way. It's a good one.
1 week later
My hot take is that this game is too slow at 6.0. I think I am at 6.5 or 6.7, but much higher and I'll have to amp up the flippers and get too many airballs. But I like a little more speed.
1 week later
David Fix said on Kaneda's podcast they could potentially release physical mods for Hot Wheels, and he specifically hypothesized a jump ramp.
A) This sounds fantastic.
B) I stared at my machine for several minutes and, for the life of me, could not figure out where a jump ramp would go that wouldn't impact other key shots. Thoughts?
1 week later
4 months later
Wow, just had an insane game of Hot Wheels tonight.
- Almost 30 minutes long
- New race record by 1 second
- 3 Victory Lap multiballs
- 4th gear
- 7+ billion for a new GC
Did a lot of this when hitting boost at the beginning of Car Chaos, I think that multiball netted about 4.5 billion. Came one battle away from Draven.
I was getting ready to sell this one but I've been feeling it again lately. There's something nice about being to blow a game up, and there are still a couple carrots (Epic stuff and Draven) that I'm aiming for. Might swap it with someone for a bit - I did that before, and getting it back kinda rekindled my interest - so we'll see what happens. It's a fun one for sure.
20220217_215102 (resized).jpg20220217_215120 (resized).jpg 2 weeks later
Looking to sell my HW - if you're in SoCal or just impatient and don't mind shipping drop me a line!
1 week later
Noticed the knocker sound at the beginning of Loop Crash is gone on the most recent code. rosh can we have it back please?
(If it's buried in settings apologies in advance.)
Quoted from jumpyg1258:Did they release new code recently? The latest beta code I have still had the knocker sound.
I'm on the October (?) beta and no knocker.
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