First pinball machine I bought was the 2 player Space Odyssey. Fun game and will keep you entertained. Sold it as I have limited space for 4 pins at a time and there were others I desired more. Have not played Fantastic since I was a kid when it was new so I don't really remember too well but overall I remember liking it because of the big spin wheel.

Both have weird flippers. Fan tas tic can be fun with the middle pop, but the scoring is pretty random (it has a roulette wheel after all!). Not a fan of the launchers on Space Mission.

Check out the ipdb website for a numerical rating (1-10) and player/owner ratings and comments. Very useful.

I owned a nice Fan Tas Tic, and the best thing about it is the randomness that the roulette wheels adds. Anyone has a chance to win regardless of skill level if you get a lucky spin. Also, it's a must to have that pop bumper between the flippers working 100% - and it's a blast to watch it send a ball around the world, banging it from one flipper to the other on the bottom side!
Picked mine up for 250 with very nice bg and playfield, non working about 3 years ago.

Both of these were great bar/tavern games back in the day.

Neither are my favorites but Fan-Tas-Tic is ugly as sin, has a boring layout, and I HATE roulette wheel games.

So Space Mission in a big way. It's a good game to work on your drop catch if you don't want to always go into the chutes. Very popular game when it came out (williams' best seller) I guess because it kinda can play itself?

I'd go with Space Mission between the two.

My vote...Space Mission. Had two, loved them both!

I like my Space Mission. The ball moves fast and there is that spinner shot. Fun game

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Is it possibly because you are only playing pinball by yourself? I did not appreciate EMs at all until I played some very difficult games with groups of very good players, over 10 years ago. I feel very fortunate that happened. I know a lot of people that refuse to own EMs because the ball times are much shorter.

You said "looking". Have you never actually played one?

I didn’t play an EM pin until I was 26 in 2006. Certainly not what I grew up with.