Revenge of the ‘Gator (1989)

This game represents so many firsts for this website. First HAL Laboratory entry of many! First pinball game, also of many! Not their first cart on the Game Boy though. I believe that’s Shanghai, which is straight up Mahjong solitaire with bangin’ tunes. We’ll get to that eventually, along with the ton of other tabletop adaptations that typified the early days of the DMG, but today is something a little bit faster! And also featuring tunes that bang!

The first thing I did upon switching on Revenge of the Gator (or the far better Japanese title of The Great 66-Alligator Parade), besides watching the adorable gator dance number on the title screen, was tap A to launch the ball. It made its way up, stopped just shy of entering the table proper, and slid back down to the plunger so I could hold the button to give it the oomph it deserved. I immediately realized that even in ’89, HAL knew ball.

RotG offers some incredibly smooth pinball on a speedy, gleefully impossible table. You can tell that HAL was excited by the concept of not having to replicate the limitations of a realistic pinball table because their first attempt resulted in a 4-tiered megastructure, with each tier having its own pair of flippers, as well as 3 bonus rooms that you effectively teleport to and from. Each section is displayed as its own screen – no scrolling, just switching upon leaving the current section – and you’d reasonably think that would be jarring, but it means you’re never missing the action or looking where you shouldn’t.

Digital pinball is all about replicating feel. Convincing our lizard brain that we have in fact smacked a ball bearing is surprisingly difficult! Gator may have been made well before they started putting rumble paks in cartridges, but it still gets damn close thanks to its speed and deceptive generosity. The tips of your flippers are a tad further reaching than your eyes would have you believe and that little bit of extra control makes all the difference. The only area where RotG feels a bit weak compared to the real thing is in some of the fancier pinball maneuvers. Passes and juggles are tricky as you either smack the flipper at full force or not at all, and the ball is constantly jittering just a tiny bit to prevent getting stuck, but that’s a consequence of digital inputs and age more than anything else. Plus, the table is intentionally designed around you blasting your balls all over the walls.

Of course you’re going to get robbed sometimes, that’s pinball baby! The bonus games are especially egregious in this regard, with #1 and 2 having a tendency to fire your ball in only to immediately hit a bumper and careen into the gutter. Hell, sometimes the ball saver doesn’t even do his job! The gator’s head is sloped and will occasionally just allow the ball to slide right off. Ask me how I know! Don’t trust that guy! He’s a little shit!

Presentation-wise this game is charming from head to tail. From its Mambo #5-ass bassline with treble that only kicks in once the ball is in play, to the wacky point conditions involving feeding gators one moment and beaning them with the ball the next, to the gators themselves dancin’ and chompin’; every element of the production feels purpose built to put a smile on your face, so much so that it’s hard to muster any anger when it inevitably munches your digital quarter. None of that praise would save a bad pinball experience, but I think this is great! Arguably better than other pinball games that I’ve already played on the system that we’ll talk about another day! RotG has been my most pleasant surprise thus far and a heck of a debut for HAL on the list. There’s even a sick colorized romhack should you feel compelled to give it a go, and I’d highly recommend doing so.

4/5

…hey, hey kid. You want a Protip?

PROTIP: On the bottom-most section of the table, there’s a gator on the right side that’ll tail whip your ball if you shoot the gap next to it. Lift your flippers before it does so and instead of your ball arcing across the table, it’ll shoot up into the next tier every time. I’m no pinball wizard, but figuring that out sure made me feel like one.