While trying to grind for the wowozela during the double tickets weekend, I have been relying heavily on Milk Jug Toss because it gives an extremely high amount of tickets at a rapid rate. You can get an average of about a thousand tickets per game during a double tickets event once you get the feel down, maybe a bit more if you’re really good, but I digress. This minigame, as good of a ticket generator as it is, is extremely buggy, and really poorly coded (as most physics based minigames in tower tend to be), and is just plainly not fun.
First up, the timer for ending a game is really annoying. Sometimes all bottles are stationary for 10 seconds before it ends, other times bottles are STILL MOVING and it just suddenly decides “nope you’re not getting 4k tickets LOL”. It’s inconsistent and infuriating.
Second, sometimes, bottles will just suddenly decide to become immovable objects. I understand that them not always falling in is how the game decides to be balanced, but when they’re stuck and hitting them doesnt move them AT ALL it’s really annoying. The ball looks like it’s made of solid wood, and thus should be possibly able to unclog stuckages with a good smack, but it doesnt. It happens inconsistently enough that it has to be an unintentional mechanic.
Lastly, the ball’s hitbox is far smaller than it’s model would suggest. It is extremely common for it to just slip in between the gap of two bottles, even though that should not be physically possible. The entire gameplay loop of this minigame is getting the right angle to throw the ball at, and toppling all the bottles, and so the game is punishing you for playing it the way it’s meant to be played. You could argue it’s to make it less common to get jackpots, but if you have to make your game extremely inconsistent and infuriating to balance it, maybe you should just throw the whole thing in the garbage.
Perhaps playing it so much has made me more annoyed at it’s design than i should be, but I really think this carnival game is a lost cause.