Ah, yes, the most unique pinball machine between Black Hole and Safecracker. From a collector's standpoint, if you were making a museum of pinball, this would be on the must-have list. The vertical pinball takes the mechanical back box animation to its ultimate logical finale, a call out to both pachinko and bagatelle, and is tons of fun. The major flaw of the whole design is the rules and scoring and playfield challenges aren't balanced. Jackpots are incredibly hard, relative to payoff, and the lower playfield (ahem, main playfield) is simple. While I always dig the originality of Lawlor's theming, and the dirt bike maze is well thought-out, I still think that somehow if there had been a different thematic hook to this machine other than another racing game it would have had more staying power. It's a player's machine in that it's not particularly easy to master, but not in the sense that it rewards a balance of skills, and it takes a lot of plays consecutively to get into the game successfully.
I think the analog to this machine isn't, say, No Fear or even Safecracker or Haunted House, but Hercules -- a novelty machine so wonderously weird you really have to put it on your checklist of machines to play, but not one you're likely to pine for when you haven't played it a while. A bucket list machine, not an obsession.
That said, when I start my Pat Lawlor Museum, this will be on the list, for sure.
Pinside rating
This game received 180 approved Pinsider ratings and currently rates 7.741 /10
Marysville, OH
Rotterdam
Newark
