Hey
applejuice here's 3 modes my wife and I thought would be fun.
Countdown: instead of time based, you get "x"amount of times to press the flipper buttons to get as many points as possible. So say 10 flips on each flipper. If you use up all 10 on the right flipper it's dead and then you use the remaining flips on the left flipper until thats dead or the ball drains, whichever comes first.
Sharpshooter Martian Pindarts: use your awesome light programming skills to have a target flash. You get a bullseye if you hit it. You lose points if you hit another target first. The further away the target is from your shot that you miss, the more points you lose. So you could have awards, like the Sharpe Shooter award if you get 3 bulls eyes in a row without missing. Have the targets randomly cycle and stop to keep it challenging. A ramp, then the next one is the side middle Martian in the right bank of Martian targets, etc. You could even use the action buttons, the player "catches" the ball on their flipper and presses the action button to start and stop the cycling once they are ready. (Adds like a fun skill shot challenge stopping the light where you would ideally like it based on which flipper you have the ball stopped on!).
Martian Hangman/wheel of fortune: The game hangman/wheel of fortune, you guess a letter to the word every time you got up the ramp (it holds the ball while you make your guess). You drain the ball player 2 gets to try to solve the word (using the high score initial entry to save on the memory usage).
Added 9 days ago:
For hangman it would be the center ramp you aim for.