Sometimes things just go well together, like chocolate and peanut butter for example. Sometimes you meet someone or see something and instantly know that it’s awesome. That is what happened with Sorcerer’s Lair because on my first game, I reached over 181 million points. The table felt so natural to pick up and play that it was as if I had been playing it for years. A short few games later I was around 400 million.
Perhaps it is due to the large number of ramps and route on the table that it is so easy to play. The goal of the game is to collect Obsidian Stones and defeat the Sorcerer.
For example, there are three stones (targets) that need to be struck to bring up the cellar entrance under the spinning platform in the upper center of the table. In the cellar are multiple challenges to be passed and after the spinning platform rises to reveal the cellar entrance there is also another ramp. There’s a backside orbit (the Forest Loop) with spinners on each and bumpers at the bottom left end of it, each loops makes the Living Tree angrier until it blocks the right ramp which then requires three quick shots to defeat it and collect an Obsidian Stone. There is a right side ramp that, when shot, lights a letter to spell CITADEL and also forks at the top and drops into the upper left corner where a small flipper awaits to put the ball into an alternative path that lights the ball save and extra ball (also the same ramp and path). There is a left ramp (Ghost Ramp) that offers incremental points each time it is shot and is also part of the left orbit/left ramp combo (Elusion Mastery) that, when complete five times, awards an Obsidian Stone and ten times lights the extra ball.There is a left side (next to the Ghost Ramp) Gargoyle ball lock (three for a multiball) which is activated by shooting the center orbit (with the spinner). Finally, there’s the Left Tower Ramp which has a three shot cycle, the third capturing the ball as it disturbs the Sorcerer, the third captured ball begins a special event which offers an Obsidian Stone.
