Pinball Palooza: Revenge of the ‘Gator (Game Boy)

Despite a name that sounds like it could be referring to an action game about fending of angry alligators, Revenge of the ‘Gator is actually a rather cute pinball game that came from the creators of the equally cute Kirby. While its European name Pinball: Revenge of the Gator makes it more apparent what you’re getting with its title, it’s perhaps the Japanese name that gives us a real clue at what’s going on. With a name that translates to Pinball: The Great 66-Alligator Parade, it’s clear that the alligators absolutely littered across the pinball table aren’t seeking vengeance for some unknown slight but are instead enjoying a jolly celebration that just seems to have been expressed in pinball form. The exact number being 66 is dubious due to the fact some only appear under certain conditions and can reappear, but it’s still a nicer spin on a game that isn’t trying to make its gators fearsome.

Revenge of the ‘Gator is a four screen pinball video game, and while that might sound impressive compared to then contemporary video games that usually went for a two screen setup, the Game Boy is a system with far less space and HAL Laboratory wanted to make sure their alligator sprites had the room to be expressive and animated. These small sections of the board all have their own set of flippers underneath some gator-themed targets to score points off of, the player trying to earn as high a score as possible before losing all of their pinballs. If the ball does slip through the flippers or down the drains on most screens, that will just send you down to the next screen below, only the lowest screen ending that current ball’s run. The ball does fall into the waiting maw of a rather large gator when it hits that bottom screen’s drain, so if there was a point that could be said to be where the gators got their revenge, it could be here, since it would be after you’ve nailed them with your pinball quite a few times in the pursuit of points.

The ball itself in Revenge of the ‘Gator can be rather floaty, but it’s something that can be adjusted to. On the other hand, the game is pretty picky on whether or not you had the perfect angle and power to get your ball through the lanes that connect the different sections of the table, and that’s where we get to one of Revenge of the ‘Gator’s major issues. Your ball enters play at the second lowest tier of the table, and traveling between them is an unfortunately rigid process that can be easily reverted. To get to the tier above it, you need to open a door to one of those lanes the game wants you to hit perfectly to properly travel through, and the area of the table above has a set-up that makes it very easy to fall back down, after which everything needs to be reopened. Going down to the bottom tier will force the door closed if you opened it as well, so traveling between regions of the table is often difficult when wanted and annoying when you’re accidentally dropping through. Nudging isn’t present in the game either, meaning you can’t really influence the ball’s path if it’s not near enough to your flippers to do so. The top screen of the table requires even more work to get to and is even easier to fall back down from than the tier below it. Working your way up to a more interesting or valuable screen isn’t a bad idea, nor is making getting to one a challenge a detriment either, but the problem with Revenge of the ‘Gator is how basic most of its four screens are.

Starting from the bottom and moving up, the fourth and bottom screen has some targets on the side, two bumpers in the middle, and a large gator on the right, but its pretty easy to get stuck down here as three almost catfish-like gators sit at the very top of the screen to block exiting the screen. They open their mouths wide and close them periodically, their function mostly being that you can shoot your ball into their mouths if they are wide open and the angle is just right to get moved around the board. Technically, this is a way to get to higher screens without having to slip things around the clustered bumpers on this screen, but they seem to only like the incoming balls to approach them just so, and having to operate in this lower table area is somewhat annoying since it is a little crowded and your doom is just below your flippers. The third screen, the second lowest, is a bit troubling because so little is going on in one of the most valuable and frequently visited places. While you try to open the door on the left, you have a lane on the right that spins a roulette that rarely ever pays out at all, a set of four small drop lanes you can activate for brief ball savers, and a bumper in the center that complicates attempts to engage with any of these. While you do earn points here, the low payouts and promise of better stuff above makes this area feel like the most boring part of the table, one you want to escape rather than linger in and risk falling down and missing your chance to climb.

The two upper screens are interesting in concept but undermined by how easy it is to drop through and lose your progress on them. The second screen, that being the second highest, is covered in blocks to hit on the left and right, the player needing to clear them all away to get to the special areas in the top left and top right. One will take you to a bonus game, and the other will take you up to the top screen, and besides some gators who appear near the flippers and will provide ball savers if they all appear fully grown at once, that’s the extent of this screen. It is a consistent goal to shoot for that becomes easier as you clear away more and more blocks, but leaving this table on purpose or by accident is an issue because of the block clearing process.

The top screen is deviously simple. A middle bumper, two loops in the upper left and upper right, and a plunger on the left to hit. Fish linger in the loops and must be hit to feed them to a gator waiting above everything, the gator eventually getting so fat off fish he comes out of his spot and walks around. The player can then hit him for a single extra ball per play session. The loops and targets here make it pretty easy to have your ball hurled towards a drop below, and when what seem to be flying gators join the action briefly, they might send your ball on an unusual course as well. Really, the biggest issue with this top screen is that, after doing all this work to get up here, there is a very easy hole to hit your ball into that will teleport you to a bonus game that then throws you down to a lower level where you have to work your way back up again and potentially risk being thrown back down quickly even when you do make it back.

Despite being almost a trap on the top screen, most of the bonus games in Revenge of the ‘Gator aren’t too bad, even though they immediately end if the ball slips through your flippers and tend to teleport you to some other location on the pinball table after. Every tier of the table has a bonus game entrance besides the dreaded second lowest one, and each one plays a bit differently. One bonus game involves trying to destroy blocks so a gator loses the ground it was walking on and falls, another involves hitting eggs to hatch them into the strange flying breed of gator, and the bonus stage reached via the top screen has large gators pop out of holes when you roll over them who then need to be hit before they retract back down. Easy points and a break from the small pinball screens of regular play are the best part of these tiny bonus games, but they aren’t substantial enough to really help a game that struggles with spending too much time in areas with little to interact with.

So many static areas of the board with little in the way of rewarding point bonuses or goals to shoot for besides the arduous climb up make Revenge of the ‘Gator a hard pinball game to commit to for a while, but the multiplayer is at least somewhat interesting. Players end up playing opposite sides of a single play area with the goal being to get between the other player’s flippers. Targets on the opposing side can be hit to rob points from the other player as you both try to earn them with central targets to hit, and items like one that makes your opponent lose an entire flipper briefly spice up the battle some. When someone is out of points they lose the match, and it’s a shame that something more wasn’t built out of this battle pinball since it at least has more room to stay interesting and engaging than the four screen table meant for single player fun.

THE VERDICT: Big adorable gator sprites and an interesting concept for competitive multiplayer do give Revenge of the ‘Gator something to boast about, but the four screen table that regular play takes place on really feels a poor fit for pinball. Most screens have very few interesting targets to engage with but the ones available make getting your ball where you want to more of a struggle than a challenge. The bonus game trap of the top screen, the ease with which you slip back to the boring roulette screen, and the pickiness of what counts as properly entering a lane or gator mouth mean you spend more time bothered by the board than going for interesting point opportunities. The bonus games aren’t bad, but they can’t save a game held back by the limitations of providing detailed pinball on the limited hardware of the Game Boy.

And so, I give Revenge of the ‘Gator for Game Boy…

A BAD rating. Revenge of the ‘Gator is often afforded that conditional praise of “good for the Game Boy”, and I went in wanting to like it too. The gators dancing on the title screen are charming and its nice to see such large animated sprites on a system that usually can’t afford to do so, but that’s because when they do indulge in big objects, it limits the space for action. And in pinball, moving around the space is the most important part of the action, and once you look beyond a game that actually makes a visually appealing pinball table on a weak system, you’ll realize how little flash or substance it has. Earning points feels pretty passive even when you’re hitting big targets and the climb to get to better areas and bonus rooms feels like everything works against you. The screens you spend most of your time in are cramped with targets and systems that aren’t really interesting or rewarding to engage with and the better areas are built to throw you back into the lesser screens. Having to make everything a recognizable gator impeded the ability to make more enjoyable screen goals or exciting flashy targets to hit, and while it may be nice enough when you’re coming in fresh, it’s a devotion to style that means the play gets tedious fast as you’re left interacting with very little per screen.

This parade of possibly 66 gators is a pretty poor pinball game that looked good at a time when it had little decent competition, but it’s not too surprising it fell into obscurity. Games that worked in their specific context do deserve some love for bringing a game type to a system as best they could, but conditional statements always feel a little disingenuous. Revenge of the ‘Gator has bland and unrewarding screens to play in and even the task of racking up points feels rather empty, so while it does look nice and can be tolerated for a brief uncommitted pass, it outgrows its welcome when some actual time is put into it, especially if you want to get to the more interesting areas. Perhaps those gators got their vague revenge after all, because the pinball table design featured here certainly seems needlessly hostile.