The Street Fighter II Pachislo…. Definitely one of the more unique items I have picked up in recent months. 😀

I actually saw this about 6 months ago, and although I thought it was cool, I am not a big Pachinko/Pachislo fan at all, so I didn’t grab it. It was only after speaking with Candyflip over on Aussie Arcade (he is a big Pachinko fan) that I actually had a bit more interest in looking at it more closely.

Well, I got a chance to head back to this place and take another look. I noticed that the original price tag I saw 6 months ago had been removed (I can’t remember exactly how much it was, but I remember it being around the 13,000yen mark or so), so I asked the guy there how much they wanted for it.

He came back with 3,000yen! Needless to say, for that price I couldn’t leave it there, even if I was just going to take it home and try it out.

Being the Pachinko noob I am, I didn’t even open it up, or turn it on before buying it, so luckily when I opened it up it looked nice and clean inside.

It also came with a nifty little button that bypasses the coin slot, and payout mechanism, so there is no need to pump it full of Pachislo-Coins. I did connect the coin/payout mechs to test them out, and I am happy to report that they worked without a hitch, so if I do want to actually pump coins into it I can.

Much to my surprise the game is fun!

Even though it’s largely electromechanical, and doesn’t have an actual screen like many of the machines have today, there are many tricks that are incorporated to give almost animation like action on the wheels.

You can’t help but want to play it, so luckily I didn’t find this in some dank/dark Pachinko place, otherwise my wife would be far more frustrated with disappearing cash than she already is. 😀

Basically, what you have to do is get certain combinations to trigger fights between charactures, start mini-games, and generally do other Street-Fighter-ie themed activities. Although I have figured out what I should be doing in a few of these game-modes, I am sure I am missing certain tactics on others – might have to try and read a bit about it.

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Videorecording isn’t a strong point of mine, but I took a quick video of the machine in action.

Please let me apologise for the terrible quality, but I had to record it in the dark to get the full effect of the seizure inducing lights – unfortunately that also makes my phone-camera go out of focus occasionally.

*One of the unique game modes kicks in at about 45 seconds, so make sure you keep watching.*

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All up I’m really impressed by this thing. The amount of detail they have put into some of the fight sequences are just plain cool – even more so as it’s motors, lights and gears doing all the work. The sounds are awesome, and once you get started on it you can’t help but get sucked in – now I am starting to realise why there are people lining out the front of Pachinko places at 9am in one metre of snow.

Would I now go to a Pachinko Parlor to sink thousands of yen on these machines? Nope, not on your life, but having one at home is kinda cool. 😀