So I went over to Starburst on Sat after hearing that they had a WoF setup.

I was suprised at how much I actually liked the game although I only played it 3 or 4 times and had to handle it with kid gloves as it is in a showroom.

Highlights

There are 5 shots that spell BONUS. The B and the S are outside loops (sort of like the joust shots in MM), the O and the U are ramp shots to the left and right respectively (again somewhat reminescent of MM Peasant and Damsel) and finally the N is off center to the right and it lauches the ball to an upper ramp but more importantly it is what spins the WHEEL which is the visual highlight of the game. The WHEEL visually kicks A$S. The spinning of the wheel is what sets the point value for any letters used to solve the puzzle as in the real game)

The three bobblehead type characters represent the contestants and when they are struck as lit they jump up and down and then make a guess at a letter. There is a display within the playfield (down towards the flippers) the shows what letter has been guessed (there is also speech that does the same thing)

On the left side (mirroring the LETTER N on the right side) is a ball capture that solves puzzles and I believe is also used in different modes. As noted on RPG one frustrating thing is that the puzzles repeat frequently (I had Sacramento CA three times while I played)

The place between with flippers has two gates as well as a post and this allowed the ball to be kept in play in most instances.

The outlanes also have a interesting feature in that after the ball exits the outlane it will pass on one of two gates that might be lit for a free spin (a new ball is put into the plunger and automatically placed into play).

As far as I know the machine was set to factory defaults and played fairly quickly but I don't have any idea of the depth of the rule set.


Squid