Tinkle Pit

Tinkle Pit (ティンクルピット, Tinkuru Pitto) is a maze arcade game that was released by Namco in 1994 in Japan; it runs upon Namco NA-1 hardware and features many of the characters from the company's earlier games (including: the Galaxian flagship, Pac-Man, the Rally-X Special Flag, the Solvalou from Xevious, Mappy from his self-titled game and several others besides, many of whom only initially appeared in the game they were created for).

Tinkle Pit
Developer(s)Namco
Publisher(s)Namco
Designer(s)Kohji Kenjoh
Composer(s)Yoshie Arakawa
Platform(s)Arcade
Release
  • JP: February 1994
Genre(s)Maze
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer
Arcade systemNamco NA-1

Gameplay

Pitt (and Patti) must walk around the mazes, collecting items and avoiding enemies (which include the Heitai from Toy Pop along with the Pookas and Fygars from Dig Dug); however, they have the power to drop their Tinker Balls, which are both invulnerable to the enemies, and move around by pressing the Line button, therefore creating a line between them and their balls. Releasing the button makes their balls come back to them; the enemies are killed by having the balls slam into them. There are also pieces of popcorn which can be picked up around the mazes - and pressing the Popcorn button, Pitt and Patti can throw them at the enemies, and they shall bounce off the walls until they hit one (or evaporate if they have not done so by the end of the stage). Killing all enemies in a maze advances the player to the next stage; however, in the event of one enemy remaining, he will make for the nearest corner of the maze, say "Bye-bye!", and disappear (which shall detract from the "Pursuit Bonus" that the players will receive after they defeat Mao at the end of the game).

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Tinkle Pit on their April 15, 1994 issue as being the twenty-first most-successful table arcade game of the year.[1]

Retrospectively in 2015, Retro Gamer found the game to be strange yet charming, liking its level variety and simplistic mechanics. They blamed the genre's severe decline in popularity and its confinement to Japan as the reasons for its obscurity, and said that it would appeal to Namco fans for its amount of references and cameos to their other properties. Retro Gamer also viewed it as a good example of the transitioning video and arcade game scene of the decade, writing: "If you ever need reminding that the arcade market of the early Nineties was a weird, transitional scene, Tinkle Pit should serve well."[2]

References
  1. "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 470. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 April 1994. p. 25.
  2. Retro Gamer Team (22 April 2015). "Tinkle Pit". Retro Gamer. United Kingdom. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
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