Review: Pachinko Go! by PDAMill

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Pachinko Go! is the latest release from PDAMill, and it has the potential to be one of their biggest releases worldwide, if not in the US.  If you’ve played the real game it is easy to see why.  The game is full of luck, huge pay outs, and the one thing that slot machines lack which is a touch of skill; not to mention the flashing lights, and corny arcade music.  Pachinko Go! is only available for Windows Mobile 2003 or higher Professional and Classic (Pocket PC) right now although they list the Standard (SmartPhone) version as coming soon. Continue on to see whether the game is worth your $9.95 or you can get a free trial (time limited) to find out for yourself.

Pachinko is by far the most popular casino game in Japan where the streets are littered with Pachinko Parlors much the same way that Las Vegas and Atlantic City are littered with slot machine parlors here in the US.  What sets pachinko apart from slot machines is that you have some amount of control over the game and your chances of winning.  You control how the balls are launched, and if you develop the right touch you can get quite good at it.  Unfortunately that is also what makes the game so hard to duplicate in digital form.

Game Play

The object of the Pachinko Go! is to shoot a stream of steel balls from your launcher through the maze of pegs, trying to deflect your balls, into one or more of the activated targets on the board (the activated targets will blink red, blue, and yellow).  This differs from the real Pachinko, but is an interesting twist.  Get enough balls into the series of targets and you are rewarded with a bonus section with spinning reels much like a standard slot machine.  Sounds easy right?? Well, having played the real games in Japan on more than a few occasions I can tell you that it is much more challenging than it seems.  The balls, although generally identical, are different enough and the launcher is inconsistent enough that finding the touch to the game is more of an art than a science.  This is one area of the game where PDAMill did a great job and surprised me quite a bit.  The “weight” and launch force of the balls is actually in the game.

On top of that, once you have cleared your initial set of activated targets you have only a set amount of time to clear the next set, and in Pachinko Go! you have to clear three sets of targets (called Fever Modes) to get to the bonus round.  If time runs out during any of the Fever Rounds you are dropped back into Normal Mode and have to start over on your journey to make it to the bonus round.

The launcher in Pachinko Go! is a handle that you can spin right or left to control how much force is used to launch the balls onto the board.  It has a start/stop button (although it is much easier to play with a steady stream, unless you are dangerously low on balls) to allow you to ‘line up your shot’.  Unfortunately the only way to control the launcher is with the stylus by spinning it.  This made it a bit difficult to control and acquire the touch.  I would have liked to see them support the D-pad or scroll wheel for this.

Goals and Achievements

The balls in the game are your currency and as you get them into the target you are rewarded with additional balls.  You can also replenish your ball count by clearing a target and completing each of the Fever Modes, but the real pay out is when you get to the bonus round by completing all of the Fever Modes.  The bonus round is a standard three reel slot machine where you try to match up like items in a row or diagonally and you are awarded additional balls for doing so.  You can adjust the amount of balls that are bet by turning the launcher handle and you spin the reels by tapping the start/stop button.  Spin quickly though because the bonus round is also timed.

The fun and challenge of the game notwithstanding the real object of Pachinko is to amass enough balls to earn prizes which are referred to as ‘gifts’, and are much like what you get for playing skeeball at Chuck E Cheese (that is: almost worthless for the amount of balls you have to trade in).  Since gambling is technically illegal in Japan the ‘gifts’ are allowed since there is no cash changing hands.  The informed player knows that there is almost always a “special shop” around the corner from the parlor that will buy your “gifts” from you for cash (although at a devalued price).

Pachinko Go! does a fair job at recreating this as well by allowing you to trade in your balls for game upgrades (although at an equally ridiculous price).  These upgrades include game artwork, in-game upgrades (colored balls and spinners), and unlocking the next level game.  Unfortunately I couldn’t find the “special shop” where I could trade in these upgrades for a credit to my PayPal account .

The game starts you off with 200 balls, and you will go through your first few sets of balls relatively quickly as you search for the right spot to hit each of the games targets.  Not to worry though because a fresh set of balls is always available by restarting the game.  Once you do find the touch, and make it to the bonus round once or twice you will have quite an excess of balls and can start to work on getting to your prize levels.

Overall Impressions

The graphics in the game are very well done, and take advantage of being branded to match a few of the other popular PDAMill games (Flux, and Arvale).  Those two must be unlocked by trading in credits/balls won in the first game, Mako which seems to be an homage to one of the characters in the popular Anime series Nerima Daikon that often features pachinko in its storylines.  The music and sound effects… well lets just say that they are true to the actual pachinko games in their cheesy 80’s era Atari way.  I probably don’t have to tell you that I start media player before launching the game and run Pachinko Go! on mute, but then again I usually take headphones with me when I go to a real casino as well.

The only real issues I have with the game are minor, but annoying.  I already mentioned the control issues with the launcher, which was the biggest, but there were a couple of other things as well.  For one the game doesn’t really use a save feature.  If you hit the menu link to exit the game it does save your ball count.  I didn’t realize this at first and found myself confused, after amassing a fair number of balls, at how to save it so I wouldn’t lose my newly acquired wealth.  Secondly, I wish you could transfer balls from one game to the other.  After learning the spots for Mako; I found myself back with the starter set of 200 balls for Flux.  This meant that I would run out quite often and have to restart the pachinko board.  While definitely nothing more than an annoyance it would have been nice to transfer some of my balls from Mako to Flux and Arvale so that I could have a longer time between starts to work on my touch.

The Roundup

Final Take

All in all Pachinko Go! is an interesting, if not completely faithful, take on Pachinko.  It is a well done digital version of the game for those that cannot get to Japan to try out the real thing.  A few minor quibbles aside, the only thing that keeps this from being an excellent game is the control of the launcher using the touch screen, but I hope that when they adjust that for the SmartPhone version they will also send that change over to the Pocket PC version as well.  I give PDAMill credit for taking on this game and the way they were able to recreate the “touch” of the game.  I have no problems in recommending this game for the price.  I’m not sure this is a game you would play nonstop for months, but it is certainly a game that is very fun to play on occasion now and again.  The addition of the in game upgrades makes it worthwhile to continue on once you are out of danger of running out of balls. If PDAMill could see fit to have add-on packs with additional boards that you can buy for a couple of bucks apiece I could definitely see this game doing well for the casual gamer, and for the company.

Best Features

• Multiple pachinko boards available
• Ball and launcher weighting
• In-game upgrades
• Very well done graphics
• Low price

Areas for improvement

• Launcher control
• Ball transfer
• Add-on packs with new boards

The Run Down

• Pachinko Go! by PDAMill (v1.0)
• Windows Mobile 2003 and above Pocket PC only (SmartPhone version coming)
• Trial Available (time limited)
• Full Version $9.99

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