Quoted from SimplePin:I've read this entire thread in anticipation of my getting my Premium in August. It was the first pin I wanted to own but a few other machines found their way into my basement first. Now that SW is finally about to arrive I'm starting to have doubts based on all of the negative comments about the game on Pinside and Reddit about how difficult it is. I don't mind a hard game as they tend to keep my interest longer and the rewards are often worth the effort. Is it really as hard and frustrating as everyone says it is? Is it really all about setup and tuning? I wanted this machine to be a keeper as I'm a huge SW fan and I really like what they have put into this game. Somebody talk me off the edge
An early welcome to the club!
This is still in my top 2 games in my collection along with Rush. SW does have some drain monster shots you should not take (left to the red targets, right to the Death Star, etc) or a missed shot comes right back down the middle.
The cool thing is you can backhand just about every shot. You should practice that and it will be more fun.
This is a hand made machine that has very complex geometry for the shots and ball returns. Some tweaking of the ball guides may be needed to avoid some of the cheap drains at launch, from the scoop and orbits. I was working on a friends heavily routed SW and the return from the right outer orbit would go SDTM. It was caused by a tiny burr on the metal ball guide. Filed it off and it returned right to the flipper. The tiniest thing can have a big impact.
Learn the importance of mode selection so you can finish more than one at a time and so you can progress towards the multi balls and destroy the Death Star. Before I knew this, the game was meh to me. This is an important strategy.
Here is a fun strategy that anyone can use to get multiball and have the start to a pretty fun game. Choose Han. At ball start, pick +5 tie fighters. Hit the tie fighter to start the hurry up and repeatedly slap tap the lock bar button to get as many tie fighters as you can without draining. On subsequent balls, pick +5 tie fighters and you will get tie fighter multiball.
Very fun game that continues to be bolted to the floor.