Sankyo Pachinko Fever (PlayStation) - Positives - Rerez

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Slot machines are one of the worst games ever invented by man. Seriously. Throw in a token, pull a plunger and let three random symbols match on a play field. Kind of boring. And I'm not a fan but while doing research on slot machines I actually found that the Japanese have a variant of a slot machine called a pachinko. Pachinko machines are pretty much slot machines but they have kind of a pinball element in them but still kind of boring. But they're very popular in Japan. So popular in fact that Sankyo a company that makes pachinko machines decided to make a series of games called fever and this here is Sankyo Pachinko Fever for the PlayStation. Let's find the positives.

So I'm not much of a gambler to be honest but games like poker and blackjack they make sense to me. There's a level of skill and strategy and style in them that make the games kind of fun. And of course they're gambling and there is that layer of chance but the games are pretty solid experiences. A pachinko really isn't. Basically a pachinko machine is a game that works like this — you feed a large amount of little metal balls into a machine at the chance of winning more little metal balls. You exchange those balls for prizes that in some cases can be exchanged for money. It's confusing and why the hell you'd want to make that experience into a video game is beyond me. But they did. Sankyo Pachinko Fever is a very simple game. You as the player have access to four machines. Each machine offers a different play field and digital game screen. The screen in the center works exactly like a digital slot machine. Match three symbols and win the jackpot. But unlike a slot machine where every token guarantees a spin a pachinko machine only spins when one of the metal balls enters a certain area of the play field. That's right folks it's a slot machine that only works by chance. That is just so stupid. It's like having a slot machine that every so often told you that it wouldn't spin because the token you inserted didn't go where it was supposed to. Each pachinko machine has special features like hidden game modes and whatever but it's still all down to the chance of a ball going into a certain area that you have minimal control over.

Tell the first positive to list is probably the easiest. While many games might offer some kind of difficulty or learning curve this one really doesn't. It's super simple to play. One button to insert pachinko balls into the machine another one to launch them into the play field. Pretty much the only control you have here is how much power you launch a ball at, giving you slight control over where the ball goes in the game. So positive number one is this game is really easy to play.

While the gameplay is pretty boring three of the four pachinko machines offer something kind of cool in the center of the play field and that's the digital screen animations. These animations are usually triggered when you hit a jackpot and they can be pretty crazy. One machine features a spaceship flying through multiple areas and shooting an enemy spacecraft. Pretty simple but pretty enjoyable to watch. Another machine has three characters bowling, when you match all three symbols the characters get a strike. What follows next is a fun bag mixed of animations and gags that goes on practically forever.

This animation could be the worst of the lot though because you have to watch this one guy smell his fingers after he sticks his hand down his speedo and it's on a constant loop. The last machine has a martial artist kicking the changing symbols on the screen trying to get a match. Every so often the character will hurt his foot giving a little change to the animation but the real fun part is when you get close to matching the three symbols at that point the guy turns into a dog (!) licking the center symbol trying to change it again and again. All of the animations of this game offer you a little reward for playing the pachinko machines long enough so because of that, positive number two is cool animations.

While it would have been very easy for the developers to just make a set of machines that could be played on the disk you’ve got to give them a little credit for doing this next thing. The developers actually included a pachinko hall RPG. Sure Final Fantasy it's not but the fact that they added a little bit of a world and additional levels and features to the game does show that the developers were trying for something a little bit more. You have access to different pachinko halls, money management and you can even interact with some minor characters. While it's not in the same level of most RPGs it does give you just a little bit extra for what could have easily been just a simple pachinko machine simulator. So positive number three is the game has a pachinko hall mode.

It's clear that this game wasn't a rush job. It's just focused on something with very little interactivity. It's only a bad game because there's very little game in it. But wow it's hard to find positives about this. I don't even think I can come up with a fourth one. When you load a pachinko machine with balls in the game you can literally just set the controller down and walk away. There's really that little interactivity. It's very hard to really say anything else about the game. In fact the only thing that really happens is when you load a machine with enough balls the controller will just sit there and vibrate rhythmically forever. Is that a positive?

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