I'd been fairly excited about this for a while. Probably ever since I heard Pat Lawlor was back, and JJP had given him the same 'do what you like' freedom that allowed Twilight Zone to be the masterpiece it is.
My first few games though, like TZ in fairness, I struggled to find the love. It's not immediately obvious what you should be doing. Jim pointed out to me that you need to hit 'bob the builder' (the moving standup) to charge the phone, then shoot under the phone to start a mode. Once in a mode the instructions are fairly clear. The rules for lighting lock shots are similarly not clear, but once in multiball then the screens show what you should be shooting for.
Each mode has you trying to make a number of shots, and if completed in time it tells you a SIM card is available, and blinks a letter in 'Dialed In'. You then need to shoot the scoop from the upper flipper to collect the SIM card. If you drain then you lose the chance to collect it. This sounds like quite a challenge towards the wizard mode, given that even on the best games we only saw two letters collected. There is also a 'big bang' standup target which (by design) is a fairly tight shot. Once hit though it awards big points and immediately completes the feature you were playing (such as completing the mode, or awarding all jackpots in multiball). Really liked the design of that shot though, because missing it quite often sends the ball straight back between the flippers. Very good risk/reward consequences!
I really loved a few features. The 'emoji overload' spams smiley faces onto the screens at an ever increasing rate until you make a shot. The 'selfie mode' was pretty funny, and there is also a feature where a scratchcard appears on screen and you have to wave your hand about to scratch the foil away.
Also loved the way you're 'under attack' in multiball. The game slowly starts lighting those two lines of inserts that point towards your flippers. If the lights reach your flippers before you get the chance to shoot back at them, it cripples your flipper. You can still flip, but the power is drastically reduced.
Looking forward to having the chance to spend a bit more time on it. There were a few good scores set last night (none of which were mine). Jim and Garry ended up battling it out for top score, and on the last game of the night Garry just pipped Jim's previous best with around 1.5M, and went home as the lucky winner of a signed translite!