I own both a Shadow and a TAF.

In TAF I've completed the mansion and gotten to "Tour the Mansion" with regularity. Certainly not every game, or every session, but often enough that it isn't shocking.

Shadow on the other hand... it's very tough to get there with the game on "normal" settings. You have to complete each mode, both multiballs, and complete the battlefield. I've made it to the "Final Battle" a handful of times, and only successfully completed it once.

LOTR has a couple mini-wizard modes that are very achievable, Destroy the Ring and There and Back Again. I won't spoil it but TABA is very satisfying and DTR is one of the best modes in pinball. Then LOTR also has Valinor which is the main wizard mode and is very difficult to reach.

WH2O is more difficult to reach but it is pretty straightforward on how to get there and feels achievable.

The Shadow is tough IMO mainly because the mode start shot is so difficult to hit consistently.

JM has a pretty reasonable to achieve wizard mode, Power Down, its a blast to play trying to keep sections of the playfield powered up to max your score.

Tron seems like it'd be easy to get to, but I'm still a bit short.

IMG_0014 (resized).JPG

SM (miniwizard) I have been to Battle Royal, great intro and easy to get to but not a gimme.

Joining the circus on CV is amazing.

Battling the witch on WOZ is pretty freaking awesome. Getting there is achievable for a moderate player, but finishing is kind of hard. Great show during and after.

Look it up on YouTube if you haven't seen it.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/best-wizard-modes
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/what-are-the-best-wizard-modes-ever

BSD doesn't really have a wizard mode unless you count stacking all 3 mb's.
SS is pretty attainable for all skill levels I think.

The argument will be SS is just a mini wizard mode to completing the spider

Portal is kind of a letdown sadly after the the fight you have with be so close to it forever.

The Shadow's wizard mode is just like IJ. If you hit all the shots, the balls drain and you get the killer quote "finally, you have learned to control the pinball".

WH20 does not have one final wizard mode, but it does have the awesome Vacation Jackpot finale.

Lost In The Zone!!

Sperm attack - most difficult?

TOM: Easy to reach
TOTAN: Very easy
WH2O: Vacation jackpot? Moderate
HS2: Moderate
BSD: Triple super jackpot? Difficult, but awesome when made
Shadow: Moderate
LOTR: Insanely Difficult, though has multiple easier mini-wizard modes to get to.
SS: Very easy
TAF: Moderate

Nope. TSPP's mega extreme super duper whatever is the toughest.

I find TOM's grand finale hard to reach, but not very exciting, except for the fact that you got that far. If you keep the balls in play for a while though, you really rack up the points.

I find HS2's red line mania relatively easy to reach, and it's really fun. Good light show and lots going on.

Can't comment on any others.

Theater of Magic's wizard mode is really disappointing. Nothing really shows you did something great and amazing.

I like wizard modes with stages. Really makes it feel like you're doing something special. So Cirqus Voltaire comes to mind. White Water's "wet willies" mode is multi stage. I don't consider the vacation jackpot a "mode" but instead an attainable reward. I consider wet willies to be the wizard mode.

Whirwind's "Mega Door Bonus" deserves at least an honorable mention, simply because it was the first game to have that staple Lawlor "good job! Here's literally everything you can get all at once!" Mode.

I guess the debate goes on as to what the wizard mode is for SS. If its scared stiff, then yes its easy. If its spider multiball, I doubt many people have even seen it.

My definition of wizard mode: holy fak, I actually got a multiball....

Thats how well I play......

Ripley's Believe It Or Not has two wizard modes that are very hard to get to. The main one Atlantis is awesome and very challenging working the temple grid to collect awards during it. You have to complete continent modes to gather RIPLEYS letters and it is tough to do. The mode timers are all like 15 seconds long and don't stop in the pops or anything. Sometimes a single missed shot means you won't complete the continent mode. You'll have to go through all the continents more than once to have any chance of getting there.

Frog Frenzy is the other. You have to get all 6 super jackpots and then light and get the 7th super jackpot. It's super hard because super jackpots only light in MB and while the MB is running. When it's over, the SP turns off. When you get there, it is fun to watch a frog pumping iron, but the mode itself isn't that great, it's just a midnight madness where everything scores 20k kind of mode. You can bring a MB into it though if you do it correctly, which makes it more worthwhile.

Some of my favorites in order:

AC/DC : encore. Phenomenal wizard mode
LOTR: there and back again, best mini wizard mode around.
GOT: hand of the king (mini wiz mode)
SM: super hero, great wizard mode
WOZ: battle the wicked witch. Fun and creative.
TWD: horde. Intense mini wizard mode.
Mustang: drift mode and the main wizard mode (can't think of the name right now) both are great fun.
FGY: tv wizard mode and sperm attack; both are great and creatively coded
Xmen: danger room (love this mini wizard mode)

*2 cents incoming*

Addams Family can eventually become a *bit* boring once you can get there [to the wizard mode] every game or two, but because it's a classic it's not the worst and you might not get TOO bored if you actually play the modes, and if you don't think you'll get to the wizard mode every game it'll add some longevity.

Now I looooooove TOTAN. I think it's beautiful even though people say it "doesn't have finished code". I think that's pretty fun, and I don't *always* get to the wizard mode. It's just a game I like in general, though, so I'm pretty bias there. I just think it's got nice art and it's cool - even with "unfinished code".

SS may get worn out quickly. Personal opinion. Like, I love it, but pretty easy [depending on how the game is set up].

WH2O is a game I don't commonly refer to as one of my favourite games or anything I particularly like but it's actually fun to try finish the map and it's not like you're going to get to Wet Willies every game and finish everything [unless your game is amazingly easy...].

Out of the ones I've talked about I'd say I like WH20 as a game that you can keep playing over and over again and you aren't going to get to do everything in the game every time, so it means you can play it for longer without getting bored.

A game that isn't on your initial list that others have posted about here is Tron. Man, that's a fun game and it just works on so many levels for me. It's always a challenge for me, especially trying to take the shortcut and go straight to Portal without doing Sea of Simulation. It's super fun for me!

And there is my 2 cents!

No one mentioned road show? Alien invasion is awesome to get to! Especially when you have to deal with the taxi guy a hundred times before getting there

STTNG is the best wizard mode -- seven ball multiball, where every shot is worth a multiple of the number of artifacts you collected during each of the 7 primary missions (plus a billion point bonus for every set of four artifacts). It adds a nice element of strategy to the whole game -- do you let modes time out for easy access to a relatively meager-scoring wizard mode, or do you play through the modes for artifacts, and play for a wizard mode worth multiple billions?

Awesome mode, I love the creativity of the code and the idea behind the mode is just genius, would love to see something like this again on a modern pin.

Wth Ripleys, SJP will also light as an award when you get three in a row on that tic tac toe grid. This is how a friend got to Frog Frenzy on my machine without scoring all SJP's during mb.

For Shadow, you have to start all the modes and both multiballs - not required to complete them. You do have to complete the battlefield though. Still very hard to start all modes.

What happens after Portal? Does everything go back to the beginning?

Yes

Yes, it can be an award from the scoop too. Most of the work has to be done in MBs though. I've gotten it before and mainly it was one insane MB I had where I got 3 or 4 SJPs in the one MB that did it for me. Normally, if I start off well, then the SJPs seem to dry up.

Destroy the ring is a great mini wizard mode and is entirely possible to get.

Redline Mania in HS2 is really easy to get to imo. It's still fun going for the 100m super jackpot, though. Shadow is the best in my lineup. It's pretty difficult to get to but not impossible. You don't have to finish any modes other than battlefield. I've only got there a few times but never finished it.

ST has three wizard modes and getting to each one is progressively more difficult. Getting to the first one is not super easy but very doable for average players. I prefer that than wizard modes that are only achievable by ace players. MET is similar with their Crank It Up modes. You feel pretty good if you get to a CUI mode and get a lot of points.

JM "Power Down"
Additional honrorable mention included for "Midnight Madness" mode.

Shortened the list a bit... but this is it!

AC/DC has most probably the best wizard mode in pinball.

Sopranos is my personal runner up... Completing (not only starting) Boss is really tough, but it can be done.

Getting to wizard modes of STTNG (Final Frontier), TZ (Lost in the Zone) or AFM (Rule the Universe) is very satisfying, but the modes itself are more like victory labs than actually a mode.

MMs Battle for the Kingdom is as far as I can remember also quite nice.

Several of the games on your list are in Farsight's Pinball Arcade. That's a great way to get an idea if the play to get there will be interesting to you without owning the game first.

BFTK (MM) is my favorite to play. It is achievable and fun to play. I love to start Royal Madness and then BFTK.

You didn't' ask but RTU (AFM) is more enjoyable to get to than BFTK but just get x points and you Rule the Universe. Its cool the getting multiple super jackpots in a game makes this easier.

Tour the Mansion (TAF) is just mega points so more like a reward than anything you complete. Same with LITZ and Monsters of Rock (MB)

Wh2O is fun to get vacation jackpot but not a wizard mode the way I think of it.

I like Getaway but can't remember if Redline Mania is the wizard mode.

And the early solid state wizard mode (flipping the game) never gets old.

I failed in Encore the one time I was there so can't comment but hard to get to on factory for me.

WCS has one of the easiest wizard modes to reach, and it's a blast battling Germany. Once you do though, there's not much else to do unfortunately.

+1 on Power Down in Johnny Mnemonic and World Cup Soccer's Championship Game. Both really fun and kinda different.

LITZ and The Final Frontier both are AWESOME to get to because the action stops and sets the stage.

I know it's not really a "Wizard" mode, but RANSOM on BK2K is also really awesome. EVERYTHING IS LIT!

Indiana Jones Eternal Life Dr. Jones!

Do it all again! Getting to 2 World Cup final matches against Germany is tough.

Great list. Too bad Cyborg Multiball didn't make it haha; maybe next year.

I owned LOTR for 7 years and never considered DTR a wizard mode. Interesting Valinor made it since I'd bet 90% of the people who voted for it have never played it

I have actually beaten Portal, which you have to do in multiball. It is a ton of shots to all the major shots. The final shot is into the disc for 25 million. I know of nobody else that has done it, but I'm sure there's a couple. So there is getting to Portal and there IS beating Portal. Extremely difficult.

I've also gotten EOL in MET, and gotten to the Wizard mode in X-MEN. I'm still trying to get to Valinor, but working on it. I was ONE shot off the other night.

Yea. TABA is a wizard mode in my book and beats out DTR and Valinor easily hands down. Cyborg multiball is really cool. Don't think it's better than TABA or some of the other and the list; but my favorite by far that takes the cake vs all those on the top 10 is Encore, AC/DC. Such a sweet and thought out wizard mode.

Final Frontier from STTNG was always my favorite.