While everything has its importance in Pinball... the main thing to try to get down
is a great flow.
Games like Theatre of Magic have a fast and fluid ball flow. If you are good.. you
can really get the ball moving all over the place. It gets so fast that it pumps up the
adrenalin trying to keep it from draining as it rockets every which way.
Some people prefer Stop-n-Shots. A game in which the flow isnt very good... but
you have to be more accurate in setting up sequential target shots. To me.. .its just to
slow and boring. However... everyone has different tastes.
A friend of mine had a Space Station. That game has a shot on it thats
nearly impossible to make. Because of it... you would try endlessly to get that
shot.. and jump for joy when it happened (on the 10th+ game!). Games whos shots
are all easy to make can become too boring very quickly. Its nice to throw in at least
one difficult shot in there. (Yet not so difficult that its like hitting the lotto
)
A few ramps are nice to keep the ball flow going.. and it gives you a rewarding
feeling if you make that shot. However... a game like T3 which has a zillion ramps
which all tie into each other is rather stupid. Nearly every shot is a ramp... and all of
them take the ball back to you. Ugg.
Toys are nice... But, they should have a cool function. Not just be an animated
puppet. Medieval Madness has a castle door/drawbridge that actually lowers
when hit several times. This is a great example of a cool and functional toy.
Monster Bash has a Dracula character that moves on a track back and forth
which you are trying to nail him. Excellent toy.
And yeah... I also prefer drop targets to switch based targets. There is a much greater
sense of accomplishment when you see them go down.