Austin, TX
Quoted from sethi_i:But I was meaning to focus on their abilities with regard to completing the final modes of games, not just winning tournaments.
Lots of pinball skills translate interchangeably between single-player wizard mode attempts and competitive play... but certainly not all of them.
Nudge more. A LOT more. Nudge when the ball is in spots that you've never nudged before. Play with players who are much better than you to get better appreciation for nudging. Gameplay videos are terrible for the purpose of seeing just how much and how often top players nudge.
Play one-handed. Seriously, especially if you have pins available to you on Free Play. Playing one-handed teaches SOOOOO much: forces you to anticipate much much earlier with your flipper decisions and nudging decisions, forces you to use the flippers to bounce more than to flip, forces you to slow the game down.
Specifically for wizard mode: use your game rule knowledge to jot down some notes of the sequence/order you want to do things to accomplish the milestones required for the wizard mode goals -- FORGET ABOUT SCORE.
Last: play for "wizard" modes cooperatively. The most fun I've had recently in pinball is going after Reactor 9 destruction on TNA with friends and a few drinks.
