Secret Weapon doesn’t really offer many points AFAIK… its main claim to fame is that you WILL get a Flawless on it.
I think Martian Happy Hour is pretty good for points if you get the combos to blow up the fuel canisters.
But the really huge points in the game (besides Attack Mars) are in Mothership Multiball.
BTW, unless I’m completely confusing something, there’s a weird aspect to the game that setting it to Easy makes it harder to get saucer lights: for the modes, “Easy” means “easier to complete”… but not “easier to get a Flawless”, so you can be left with the jump ramp in your way long before you’re Flawless. (OTOH, getting through modes faster gets you to the Bonus Wave Multiballs faster, which have lotsa points and also saucer lights available…)
Don’t you get more points for avoiding blowing up the canisters and getting credit for them upon completion?
I agree with Big O-Beam as best (both for shooting well AND missing) particularly if you’re going for regular multiball. If you miss early, you get 2M points!
I prefer to look at it less on how many points I’ll get from the modes but more how easy it will be to complete the 3 of them to get to the first Attack wave MB.
I prefer the combo of:
Martian Happy Hour
Alien Abduction
Secret Weapon.
Alien Abduction has some decent points in it since you can change the items being abducted to more valuable ones with the action buttons, but I prefer to just time it out on my way to MB.
Secret Weapon is pretty easy to get through as well
Happy hour takes 6 risk shots to the center in order to complete.
Like Joe said, the MB’s are where the points are at so path of least resistance IMO on how you get there is the red modes for sure.