Williams's Flash and Bally's Future Spa red-headed stepchild is here!
The Pros:
10 rollovers, 9 drops, 2 spinners and a bit more give the player lots to shoot for. When this game is maintained as it should be, this is a sniper's paradise. When waxed and maintained, this is one of the fastest widebody pins you'll find. Dual numbered lanes at the top of the PF are challenging to light. Light up the AE targets and knock down the 4 bank of "BALL" for mega points. The double rollover top lanes (ala Time Fantasy) requires flipper and nudging skills to be on point
The Cons:
Constantino Mitchell's art package leaves much to desire. The 3rd flipper feels, well, useless. The ultra-mega-wide layout should offer more to do, but it doesn't. Lighting AE characters is based on the 10 rollovers and feels more like luck than skill. Just a few hits to the saucer gets you to 5x bonus in no time flat. Shades of Supersonic. That red headed girl is EVERYWHERE on this table! Some people love this game, most will feel... meh.
The Takeaway:
Does anyone feel like bowling? Because this 10 rollover in the middle of the PF is telling me that this should have been a bowling themed game. Gameplay doesn't flow and it's not exactly stop and go. This game definitely has it's own character. A great starter pin that when properly maintained, will keep challenging most players.
Update v1:
I love it when a game sneaks up on me and proves me wrong. I recently got to session out a really nice copy of this table and have to say that while it is not a perfect game, when tuned, it is a lot of fun and if the price was right, I'd consider owning one. The 5 lanes at the top (No lane changes!) and the inlane/outlane layout is nudge-tac-u-lar. Hitting the saucer and target to boost the multiplier is good lighting the spinners is even better! Long game play will cover the 10 inserts on the PF and lighting them will light the respective # on the top lanes to complete the AE value. I don't shoot for the PF inserts, but it is nice to get them when they come. While the upper flipper isn't very functional for hitting drops (too much side to side), it can be used well to stall and control the ball to keep it going where you want to down towards the lower flipper. The game I played had dangerous exits from the bonus advance lane on the left as well as the kickout on the saucer on the right. Risk/reward considerations for sure. This best analogy I can give for this game is Bally's Future Spa which came out earlier that year. I like both of these tables and while they are not great, they are both better than most people would take them for up front. This game definitely needs another digit on the display or a modded ROM to take the last "0" out of the score to keep this thing from rolling over with the quickness (can be found on the IPDB page here:
http://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1413). You can still find this game for cheap and considering what pinball prices have been doing for the past few years, that is saying a lot. With 4500 made, this is not a common game, but it is not that hard to find if you look for it. Laser Ball. Straight forward late 70's Williams pinball awesomeness... right here!