quses
Member
It's been a few weeks since I got my W?D and I thought I might post some feedback and follow up. This is a very fun game and I'm enjoying it immensely. I made a few mods to the game to get it to flow smoothly, and I think I found what is a pretty serious design flaw that might explain why so few were put in production despite this really being, IMO, an A-list title from a playability standpoint.
I continue to be really impressed by how much fun this game is. It has the whole package: great sound, great lights, immersive, interactive DMD activities, neat toys on the playfield and lots of random and innovative elements.
For those that aren't very familiar with W?D, here are a few items of note:
* It has three different skill shots methods, with five different types of skill shot awards, and the awards can progressively increase on subsequent made skill shots.
* Not only does the game have a standard "ball save" feature, but you can put the ball back into play after it drains with a combination of skill and luck by lining up the spin slot machine light on the outlane when the ball drains there. It's pretty cool to lose the ball, then get a free spin and have something come up which puts the ball back into play.
* Wagering your existing score: I know of no other machine that can bring your score completely down to 0 from billions of points, OR double it with one shot and make you cross two replay thresholds on a single play - it's incredibly exciting.
* User-controllable game play modes via the ingenious "elevator" ramp, which is one large ramp that inverts the ball and exits into three separate lanes. You can travel up or down floors based on shots and then "exit" on a particular floor to start a particular mode.
* "Equipment" that can be awarded during the game unlocks special features that allow you to get further into the storyline faster and score higher jackpots.
* Several multi-ball modes with tons of strategy in how you want to play the game. You can make big points in a number of different ways by completing cases, or just shoot around triggering the slot machine and going for various random awards.
* The "elevator ramp" is pretty ingenious in how it allows you to take control of multiball mode and get the balls timed properly around the playfield so you're not dealing with all of them at once, but just when you think you've got things under control, the ramp shuts down and you once again go into panic mode trying to control things. The game progressively gets harder the better you do.
* Random awards that aren't really random, but are based on what's going on, so special bonuses are relevant to the current mode or objective.
* Solving cases and understanding "Who Dunnit" is exciting and involved... knowing the back storyline really helps you interpret what the characters mean and there's all sorts of secret clues the game gives you on the video screen you have to be paying attention to notice.
* The slot machine is totally cool and really does feel random. You can hit an extra ball within the first 5 seconds of play if you're lucky, or go into multi-ball mode after you just lost a ball. Sometimes you can pick between different awards. It's a lot of fun.
I'm still learning the ins and outs of the game but I can see why this game has so much appeal. I can also see why some people might not like it. It's a lot different from many traditional games - it has really great flow, but then it will sometimes switch to video mode and stop the game while something is going on. I really like that, but I can understand some people might not. To me, it's the way DMD games should have always been designed. I was initially unimpressed with DMDs when they came out because most of the time you couldn't pay attention them and still manage the playfield - this game has a nice balance of that and gives you time to appreciate what's happening on the display without worrying about losing balls.
However, there is at least one thing I found a bit odd with the game. I would play and every once in awhile a ball would just go "poof" during multiball and shut the whole game down. And I could not shake it out from the machine and it wasn't stuck in any of the below-deck tunnels. It took me awhile before I figured out what was happening. Several times I would have to invert the playfield and suddenly the ball would appear but I couldn't figure out where it got stuck. The last time this happened I had to take apart half the playfield to find the ball. It turns out during multi-ball play, there's a solenoid at the top of the playfield that fires a pin which blocks the path of the upper lane. However if there's a ball on the top of the pin as it lifts, that ball will be launched into the innards of the machine, never to be seen again. I had it happen to me 4 times before I decided to do something about it:
I ended up taking some metal duct strapping tape and making a "restraining wall" above the lane to keep the ball from going up there. I do not know if some machines had something there or not, or if other people have experienced this problem, but it seems to me like it's a serious issue - once the ball gets stuck in between the upper and lower playfield, it doesn't always come out with shaking or even flipping up the playfield. This could be fixed either by hardware or software, but since I've got the latest ROM version, it looks like it wasn't addressed (unless there was some sort of barrier that isn't on my machine). Anyway, I'm hopeful this will fix the machine and it can really be seen during gameplay.
I continue to be really impressed by how much fun this game is. It has the whole package: great sound, great lights, immersive, interactive DMD activities, neat toys on the playfield and lots of random and innovative elements.
For those that aren't very familiar with W?D, here are a few items of note:
* It has three different skill shots methods, with five different types of skill shot awards, and the awards can progressively increase on subsequent made skill shots.
* Not only does the game have a standard "ball save" feature, but you can put the ball back into play after it drains with a combination of skill and luck by lining up the spin slot machine light on the outlane when the ball drains there. It's pretty cool to lose the ball, then get a free spin and have something come up which puts the ball back into play.
* Wagering your existing score: I know of no other machine that can bring your score completely down to 0 from billions of points, OR double it with one shot and make you cross two replay thresholds on a single play - it's incredibly exciting.
* User-controllable game play modes via the ingenious "elevator" ramp, which is one large ramp that inverts the ball and exits into three separate lanes. You can travel up or down floors based on shots and then "exit" on a particular floor to start a particular mode.
* "Equipment" that can be awarded during the game unlocks special features that allow you to get further into the storyline faster and score higher jackpots.
* Several multi-ball modes with tons of strategy in how you want to play the game. You can make big points in a number of different ways by completing cases, or just shoot around triggering the slot machine and going for various random awards.
* The "elevator ramp" is pretty ingenious in how it allows you to take control of multiball mode and get the balls timed properly around the playfield so you're not dealing with all of them at once, but just when you think you've got things under control, the ramp shuts down and you once again go into panic mode trying to control things. The game progressively gets harder the better you do.
* Random awards that aren't really random, but are based on what's going on, so special bonuses are relevant to the current mode or objective.
* Solving cases and understanding "Who Dunnit" is exciting and involved... knowing the back storyline really helps you interpret what the characters mean and there's all sorts of secret clues the game gives you on the video screen you have to be paying attention to notice.
* The slot machine is totally cool and really does feel random. You can hit an extra ball within the first 5 seconds of play if you're lucky, or go into multi-ball mode after you just lost a ball. Sometimes you can pick between different awards. It's a lot of fun.
I'm still learning the ins and outs of the game but I can see why this game has so much appeal. I can also see why some people might not like it. It's a lot different from many traditional games - it has really great flow, but then it will sometimes switch to video mode and stop the game while something is going on. I really like that, but I can understand some people might not. To me, it's the way DMD games should have always been designed. I was initially unimpressed with DMDs when they came out because most of the time you couldn't pay attention them and still manage the playfield - this game has a nice balance of that and gives you time to appreciate what's happening on the display without worrying about losing balls.
However, there is at least one thing I found a bit odd with the game. I would play and every once in awhile a ball would just go "poof" during multiball and shut the whole game down. And I could not shake it out from the machine and it wasn't stuck in any of the below-deck tunnels. It took me awhile before I figured out what was happening. Several times I would have to invert the playfield and suddenly the ball would appear but I couldn't figure out where it got stuck. The last time this happened I had to take apart half the playfield to find the ball. It turns out during multi-ball play, there's a solenoid at the top of the playfield that fires a pin which blocks the path of the upper lane. However if there's a ball on the top of the pin as it lifts, that ball will be launched into the innards of the machine, never to be seen again. I had it happen to me 4 times before I decided to do something about it:
I ended up taking some metal duct strapping tape and making a "restraining wall" above the lane to keep the ball from going up there. I do not know if some machines had something there or not, or if other people have experienced this problem, but it seems to me like it's a serious issue - once the ball gets stuck in between the upper and lower playfield, it doesn't always come out with shaking or even flipping up the playfield. This could be fixed either by hardware or software, but since I've got the latest ROM version, it looks like it wasn't addressed (unless there was some sort of barrier that isn't on my machine). Anyway, I'm hopeful this will fix the machine and it can really be seen during gameplay.