#127: Pachinko Wars

 

Title: Pachinko Wars

Release Date: 7/17/1992

Developer: OeRSTED

Publisher: Coconuts Japan

It is finally time for the ever popular gambling, pachinko, game to grace the Super Famicom with a game. This one is certainly an interesting one.

Background

The history of pachinko in Japan is a fascinating one, first becoming popular in post-war Japan in the 1950's. Pachinko is very similar to slot machines in that it is based around continual low-cost and low-strategy engagement. Small little plastic balls are shot to the top of the machine, where they tumble through a maze of pegs to hopefully reach prize bins at the bottom, though most will instead fall to the gutter. Prize bins will either reward you with more play tokens or prize tokens. 

Japan has strict anti-gambling laws, and pachinko parlors were able to circumvent this by not offering money as a prize, but instead actual "gifts." In post-war Japan, this started as foodstuffs: coffee, rice, etc, which, if not eaten could also be sold on the usually neighboring black market. Nowadays, winners will instead take their prize to a local pawn store, usually neighboring or abutting the pachinko parlor, which will buy the prizes in exchange for cash. This legal loophole has since been closed, at least partially, as it is not always enforced. 

Pachinko parlors have often been tied to entrenched black market and criminal organizations within Japan, and since it really is gambling it has often been seen as a seedy activity. Still, it is wildly popular and many video game developers, even still, develop new machines for Japanese arcades. 

This game supposes what if secret agents and spies used pachinko parlors as bases for their espionage (this is weirdly not without precedent, as the CIA was known for using the yakuza and their establishments for their own purposes throughout the 60s and 70s- recommend Robert Whiting's Tokyo Underground for further reading). You play as 008 (clever) a salaryman who moonlights as a spy/pachinko master. You are tasked by your boss to infiltrate the enemy organizations and root them out of their pachinko parlors. What a premise!

This game was developed by OeRSTED, a short lived developer who made other gambling games (including a sequel to this) as well as the Playstation and PSP ports of Mega Man 4, 5, and 6. The publisher, Coconuts, likewise made other gambling and Pachinko games, such as the Pachio-Kun series, which also marries a narrative with pachinko. 

Gameplay

This game marries straight up hot pachinko action with a very by the numbers puzzle-adventure game. Each "operation" of which you will play four, features you gambling between two pachinko parlors. The first parlor is your low-stakes parlor where you will bank up cash in order to buy the membership card for the high-stakes parlor, which is where you will have to find the mcguffin in order to clear the operation. 

I played through the games first two operations, and then read a walkthrough and watched the rest of the game on Youtube, as they are very samey. I'll walk you through a very general experience of the game. 

In the first mission, you need to win up to 2000 yen for a membership card to the second pachinko parlor, so you buy 150 balls for 900 yen and get to playing. You then have to examine each machine to see which one has a chance of paying out. You generally look at the prize boxes and see how the pegs are arranged. If the channel is really narrow or you have pegs literally blocking the payout, then choose a different machine. Your goal, generally, is to clean the machine out of balls, with each machine giving you a counter at the top of the UI. 

Once you have enough money for the membership card, you then travel to the second parlor, where all the customers will complain of a ticking sound. It turns out, uh-oh, the rival spy group is trying to assassinate you, and the only way to save the day is to play the machine the bomb is attached to in order to defuse the bomb. The machine, though, has a guy playing it who refuses to get off the machine, and you have to bribe him with his favorite drink, which costs 1,500 yen, so you must play more to buy the prize from the counter. Bank the money, buy the drink, give to the guy, and then play the machine until it is empty to save the day. 

On another mission, you do the same thing, except the membership card is much more expensive. When you get to the second pachinko parlor, you will be informed that there is an enemy spy who is pretending to be one of the women present, and you have to smoke him out. You have to buy the dirty magazine, which costs 5,000 yen, which, when given to the correct woman, will make the spy all hot and bothered, but then you have to threaten him with the right weapon in order to get him to leave the parlor. There are three choices: the water pistol, which costs 2,000 yen, the slingshot which costs 5,000 yen, and the actual gun which costs a whopping 15,000 yen. The only thing that will intimidate the man is a slingshot (the actual gun didn't come with bullets whomp whomp), so hopefully you didn't grind up that 15,000 yen!

If you couldn't tell, the main issue with this game is how grindy it is. You mainly spend your time playing pachinko, and if that doesn't interest you then you aren't going to get much enjoyment out of this game. My issue with pachinko is that it really is just kind of random, and there isn't that much skill involved in the game. The machines also aren't that novel or flashy, and the graphics are very dated for sprite art. I do commend the game for trying to make something interesting about this, but the constant money roadblocks are just frustrating. 

 It also should be said that unless you are a native Japanese speaker, than this game will require a walkthrough to understand the plot. I followed a very good Gamefaqs walkthrough written by RetroSafari. 

Music

Not bad overall, just not that much of it. 

Final Verdict

Again, I appreciate the efforts that the developer took to make this game interesting and work for an a video game player, and I am sure there are those pachinko loving mad-people out there who would dig this game, but I would say that it is a curiosity more than a must-have for those other than the most ardent collectors. This will certainly not be the last pachinko game that we play for this blog.

Super FamiComplete #126: Hook

 

Title: Hook

Release Date: 7/17/1992

Developer: Ukiyotei

Publisher: Epic Sony Record (Japan) Sony Imagesoft (NA and PAL)

Hook is an interesting mutt: it is a licensed game for a 1990's blockbuster film, which in itself was a retelling of the much told Peter Pan story. This game had a host of different video game adaptations for most of the concurrent platforms that each went in a different direction, so let's see where the SNES/Super Famicom landed. 

Background

Peter Pan is one of those works that, since it exists now in the public domain yet continually appeals to children, is regularly resurrected by Hollywood. The original book/play by J.M. Barrie follows Victorian era siblings Wendy, Michael, and John as they are whisked off to Neverland, a world where children never age and are free to cavort and adventure. There, these siblings meet Peter Pan, a flying elf boy who, along with his Lost Boys and his fairy Tinkerbell, fight against a marauding pirate Captain James Hook and his dastardly crew. 

This story has been retold in movies for years, with the most famous incarnation being the 1953 Disney film. In the past few years alone, there has seemed to be a glut of Peter Pan movies. Here are a smattering of adaptations that will make you go "oh yeah that was a thing..."

The new hotness...

The late 2010's hotness

The public domain horror cash-grab.

The lore building pre-quel of course. Would you believe Hook started as an ally?!?

I mean we all know the Disney one but I just love this poster. 

This one was an NBC live show that just couldn't be saved by Christopher Walken. Notoriously bad. 

Hook is often considered one of the most successful of these adaptations. 

Hook was a 1991 Stephen Spielberg movie based around the idea of "what if Peter Pan, the eternal child prankster, grew up into a middle aged workaholic schlub and then had to relearn how to be Peter Pan?" In this story, Peter, never able to forget about Wendy, decides WAY too late to journey to our world to see Wendy, who is now elderly. Peter decides to stay, but subsequently forgets his past as Peter. He becomes a lawyer, raises a family, and then becomes the stereotypical 90's movie work monster Dad who never quite makes it to his son's baseball game. When Captain Hook returns and abducts Peter's children, he must journey back to Neverland and reconnect with his past to save the day.

The casting in this movie was pretty great. Peter is played by Robin Williams, who works extra hard to turn off his immense charm while playing the 90's deadbeat Dad, and then crank the charm up to max when playing Peter. 

Tinkerbell is played by the 90's darling Julia Roberts, who does a pretty good job capturing the lovelorn nature of the mischievous sprite. 

The cast also includes Dame Maggie Smith as Wendy...

Dante Brasco as the new leader of the Lost Boys and owner of a Triple Mohawk pompadour (seriously its a crazy haircut), Rufio...

...and then Bob Hoskins as Captain Hook's sidekick, Smee (god I miss Bob Hoskins).

 Finally, and who I think is one of my favorite parts of the movie, you have Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook, who just shouldn't work but absolutely kills it as a manipulative, theatrical, and menacing Captain Hook.

There is a whole arc where he becomes a surrogate father to the disillusioned son of Peter, and he gets the pirates to play baseball just so he can be at the game for his "son." He then gives Peter's son a little Captain Hook outfit! Amazing.

Overall, the movie is FINE. It is chock-full of nostalgia and kid friendly action, but it can also be a bit boring for an adult. Hell of a kids movie though with some beautiful set design (the crocodile!) and a lot of weird moments throughout that: the Lost Boys eat imaginary paint food, a crazy old man who has literally lost his marbles, and there is a part where they shove a Glenn Close in drag into the "boo box" of scorpions...so it's definitely an interesting watch at least. 

When it came to licensing games for Hook, the shotgun approach was chosen, where for each type of console or platform a different designer was chosen and essentially a completely different game was created. My personal favorite, since it is the only other one I've played,  is the Irem developed arcade beat-em-up that very loosely follows the story of the game. It has some nice sprite-art through being fairly repetitive and by-the-numbers. You fight Captain Hook a bit too much: in one specific instance you fight a genie, which should be cool, except he turns into two Captain Hooks. 

There is also a point and click adventure for the PC, and then a whole suite of various action platformers for the Game Boy, Genesis, and otherwise that are all relatively unique games. 

And this is the category that Hook for the Super Nintendo falls into, this one developed by Ukiyotei as their premiere game. They were a niche developer who only developed a few titles and ports of established licenses and properties before most of its staff emigrated to SNK. Their most unique title is the absolute hidden gem, and second game developed, Skyblazer for the SNES. Skyblazer is an absolutely gorgeous action platformer known for its detailed giant sprites, setting within Indian mythology, and for generally being a pretty good game. You can actually see the through-line from Hook to Skyblazer: both main characters have similar sprites, both feature flying as a key part of platforming, and both have lush and colorful visual design. 

The Game

Hook is pretty by the numbers as far as platformers. You have 11 stages laid out on a relatively attractive world map, and it makes it clear you are retaking the Lost Boys' island home from the pirates inch by bloody inch. The first stage is you reclaiming your place as "the Pan" from Rufio in the Lost Boys' hideout, and you then travel across a whole wealth of environs which are not featured in the movie before ending the game at Captain Hook's ship "The Jolly Roger."

Peter, from the jump, looks like what you'd picture from Peter Pan, though he really doesn't move with the sprite-like grace I'd associate with with eternal boy. He walks at a ponderous pace, and it takes time and a flat stretch of ground for you to build up some momentum to start running. You can jump too, but your jump is also quite slow moving. Every so often, you will come across Tinkerbell, who will fill up your "fly" meter, and allow you to move omnidirectionally and with a bit more speed for about five seconds. 

Peter is generally equipped with a sword, earned after defeating the first boss, Rufio,  which also allows him to shoot energy blasts (you know, that famous Peter Pan super power). If Peter takes damage though, represented by a lifebar of leaves, he then drops his sword and is equipped with a short range dagger. 

The game's enemies are either the Lost Boys initially, but then a mixture of random animals and a horde of different pirate types. There are pirates balancing on barrels, pirates swinging on ropes, big strong men pirates, and then of course your run on the mill scalawags. The game really likes to fill the screen with enemies of various types, slowing the game down even further as you methodically remove enemies since you can't easily avoid them. 

Most of the stages are traditional left-to-right affairs, but the ability to fly means that you will also traverse up and down these slight maze like stages. This isn't as bad as many European or Western studios in terms of platforming mazes, and it isn't like you are searching for specific items, but sometimes the way forward can be a little difficult to parse. There is some attempt at stage variety, like a dark cave where the lights flicker on and off, or an auto-scrolling stage or two, but honestly this game is very by the book. You could tell the developers were trying their hardest to come up with a variety of locations while adhering as best they could to the film. There is a snowy mountain, a treetops level, a rocky cliffside, etc. 

Some stages do end in a boss fight which are pretty darn simple. The first boss, Rufio, just tries to lunge at you, and dies in a couple hits. There are also a bevy of strange pirate contraptions, my personal favorite being the boss of the ice mountain, which is a pirate launching balloon bombs at you that you have to pop at the right moment so they land back on the boss. My favorite boss, just in terms of fun design, is Smee who is made up like the protagonist of Joust: riding an ostrich and trying to lance you with a spear. The final boss, a two phase boss fight against Captain Hook, is a bit of a let down. His first phase is painfully easy, and his second phase just allows him to shoot his hook at you. 

Honestly, this is a pretty blase platformer, but some of the details do add a bit of flair to an otherwise drab experience. You really don't kill enemies, but instead make them inert by disarming them. Each enemy generally has an animation where they have been disarmed and then surrender. Peter, when defeated, turns back into a middle aged schlub and falls to the earth with no magic left. It also really helps that the sprite work and background art is really quite lush and colorful; it doesn't quite save the game or make it a classic, but it really helps make the game stand out. 

The music is quite fine too!

Ads and artwork

Final Verdict

It is okay and apparently a collectors item (I'm going to stop giving prices as that really dates the blog as value lately has really shot up), and as far as licensed games go it is definitely sitting at a comfortable average as far as experience. It just really is nothing special, and just moves a bit too slowly. Next time we will either cover North America's July 1992 adaptation of a board game, or a gambling game!