Austin, TX
It's a fantastic game, both to play on your own or competing with friends or in a league/tourney.
Why? The layout and rules. There's depth and breadth and balance to this game.
Depth = the nuance of what you can do in each mode and over the course of all the modes, and interaction factors of your mode success that then influences the scoring and unlocking of other features. The Depth here on interaction factors are crazy good. Do I want to qualify/start my mode now, or wait until I'm one shot away from a MB so I can stack the MB onto the mode? The pressure it creates on claiming a Soul Shard (earned by skillful play in each mode) that's on a short timer/hurry-up, with knowledge that it unlocks a Tomb Treasure and dramatically increases my potential scoring in the Wizard mode.
Breadth = at any given time, you have the option of shooting for modes, or two major multiballs, or aggregate # shots to all the shots to qualify a mini-wizard mode and ratchet up a Power Jackpot that can be grown geometrically if you don't cash it in (but you lose it all if you drain before claiming it), or qualifying/starting playfield X, or shooting for Loop Jackpots (while increasing your risk of outlane drains), or going for Combos and Deathblows particularly if you've just claimed an advance Tomb Treasure that makes them worth 5x for remainder of ball, or trying to earn REVIVE outlane drain saves.
Plus, it's got a mode that's all about ripping lit spinners -- one of my favorite things to do in all of pinball.
Balance: Any single mode or multiball can either be crap scoring or ridiculously huge scoring based on how you perform, including the mini-wizard modes.
Layout: the two upper flippers present unique and challenging shots that the player has the option of using them, or letting the ball come back down to main flippers, depending on the player's risk/reward decisions.
I appreciate the mocking/humor and energy in the callouts, too.
I'm not a fan of Iron Maiden's music or the theme, but this pin is fantastic.
