You’ve got to love Japan. They gave us Pong, Pokemon, and the Wii. Japan is also the home of another game that’s hugely popular there but less well-known in the West: Pachinko. And when I say huge in Japan, I mean a multi-trillion-yen-a-year business with tens of millions of players and parlors practically on every block. Huge.

Needless to say, I’d never heard of it.

Pachinko is more or less a cross between vertical pinball and a video slot machine. The idea is to aim and fire a stream of little metal balls into the top of the machine, where they bounce down through an array of pins and hopefully fall into targets or gates. Hitting the gates earns spins on the video slot and then, if you’re lucky, you might hit the jackpot.

PDAmill has shrunk the game onto a mobile screen with Pachinko Go! Considering how many people are addicted to the real-life version, does Pachinko Go! measure up?

Getting Started

Getting up and running is about as easy as walking into a pachinko parlor. There’s a free trial available on PDAmill’s website, and entering a registration code unlocks the game. Both .cab and .exe files for Pocket PC touchscreen and smartphone are offered.

Gameplay

Just hit the big button. Balls shoot out of the launcher in the upper left of the board in a stream and bounce through the pegs. Your targets are the gates, spinners, or anything else on the field that flash. You can control the balls to some extent by rotating the circular handle at the lower right. This affects the angle at which balls are shot out of the launcher.

For a ten-thumbed klutz like me getting just the angle I wanted was tricky, and sometimes I found myself punching the throttle to stop my ball stream instead of turning the handle. The version I played on my touchscreen PPC did not have D-pad support, which would have been nice. A smartphone version has since been released, and I hope improved hardware control has been integrated for touchscreen devices as well. On the other hand, with some slight adjustments in the size of a few controls the game could be completely finger-friendly.

Just like in a real machine each ball comes out just a little bit differently, and an angle which seems to be working one second may go cold the next. Hitting targets takes skill but is definitely a little bit of an art, and the way PDAmill has recreated the weight and feel of shooting tiny metal balls through a field of pegs really makes the game come alive.

The first time you play Pachinko Go!, only one of the three boards is unlocked. Opening the others takes a lot of balls. You start with 200 and earn more by hitting targets. Manage enough scoring hits and the game goes into a series of timed "fever" modes with a new set of targets; run out of balls and the game is over.

If your luck and aim are good enough to get you through the fever modes, you’ve made it to the bonus round where you can really rack up balls. That thing in the middle of the board that looks like a slot machine is, in fact, a slot machine.

Holding the big red button makes the slot wheels spin. Just like in Vegas, lining up three symbols in a row or diagonal gets you a big payout. The control handle here changes how many balls you stake on each spin.

Pachinko Stores

Balls are currency in pachinko. In Japan, balls can be traded in for prizes (which are mostly ridiculously overpriced, poorly made, and taken around the corner to shops which will trade them for cash at a fraction off their value). Pachinko Go!’s prizes are unfortunately not redeemable for cash, but they do include upgrades to the game including the virtual keys to the other boards.

Each board has its own store, and no, balls do not carry over. Once you’ve finally scraped together enough Mako balls to unlock the Flux Challenge board, you’re back to square one with 200 Flux balls. And prices in the Flux store are higher. Since each board plays different, this setup actually makes Pachinko Go! into three games with increasing difficulty.

Graphics and Sound

The style of the graphics is hopelessly garish and an affront to good taste. It’s perfect. The Mako Magic board seems to be inspired by an anime character, while the other two take entertaining advantage of a couple of the best games in PDAmill’s stable for their design. As usual in a PDAmill game, the graphics are polished and attractive. The deliberately cheesy soundtrack reminds me of noisy slot machines. It’s also a great fit for the mood, even if I muted it after a few minutes. If only real-life casinos had mute buttons, too.

Conclusion

Pachinko Go! is another entertaining, well-crafted release from PDAmill. It’s fun even for people who have never heard of the original Japanese game. With relatively little effort it could be made into PDAmill’s first finger-friendly game, which would increase its appeal even more. Although it probably won’t take a permanent place on most devices — once all the extras are unlocked, replay value isn’t high — Pachinko Go! is an enjoyable way to pass a few hours, and at under $10 the price is right. Pachinko Go! may not be gourmet, but it’s a tasty piece of Japanese takeout.

How to Buy

PDAmill, $9.95 for Windows Mobile touchscreen or smartphone

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