I've really been working on my game, and it's steadily improving. Control is getting better, as is my accuracy. But it just isn't transferring to my MMr. I love this game. It plays so different from my others. Unlike my other newer games there are no modes, and everything is open to shoot from the start. It flows great...I love ramping out, killing castles and planning strategy for Madness. But I'm just not progressing at it. All of my games seem to end at the same place.

On my three new Sterns, I have had AWESOME games...7B on GB, 700K on ST, and 1.5B on GotG. Obviously these aren't typical. I have a fair amount of good games to go along with the crap ones. More importantly, I feel like I'm climbing the mountain on them.

Every time I start ST I expect to get to Kobayashi, and it happens regularly (EA once). Everytime I start GotG I expect to get to Cherry Bomb, even though it happens less regularly (Immolation once). Everytime I start GB I expect to shit the bed. Thankfully that happens even less regularly.

On MMr, my expectations remain low...get 2nd castle EB...start Castle MB...start Madness with more than 2. Royal Madness isn't even on my radar when I press start (been there a few times...completed it once). How do you get over the plateau. Don't say "sell the game", that's not going to happen. I like the game too much. I just want to start crushing it!

I'm a rules and video junkie. With only four games, I think I've seen every video and read every thread out there for them. I love PAPA on pinballvideos.com...tutorials, gameplay and competitions.

The drop from the right orbit is pretty consistent and misses the sling. Hold the right flipper and the ball will bounce over to the left for a trap. The drop from the left orbit is less consistent, sometimes hitting the sling. I can live catch fairly well when it doesn't. My "bang the side" technique to get the ball off the rail needs some work. My timing of hitting the machine and getting back to the flipper isn't consistent.

I generally try to shoot ramps consecutively, and that gets the ball moving pretty fast. A miss turns into a scramble to slow down the ball. Castle shots often drop to the right flipper for a bounce pass to the left. Otherwise they fall SDTM.

You are right about game length. My MMr games are much shorter than my others.

This doesn't really work on mine. From both sides, the ball seems to catch a little bit of a rattle after it drops in the inlanes. It's just enough to make a rolling transfer sketchy.

I agree with this completely. Right shots to the gate are deadly. My post passing is pretty good, but too often from a right trap I'll shoot at the Castle MB lock instead of passing for another gate shot. That usually leads to an out of control ball again.