You can turn just about anything a roguelike apparently, but this might be someone’s fave. Indie devs Pangolin Interactive will be release Pop! Pachinko this September.
Pop! Pachinko turns the fun and coin-sucking activity that is pachinko into a roguelike. You’ll be playing pachinko—for the uninitiated, imagine Peggle but you lob down as many of those balls down at once and pray for them to hit the right part of the board.
Like any roguelike or roguelite, there will be fun and crazy synergies to discover from the various unlocks you’ll gain in a run. You’ll unlock balls, charms and upgrades that can turn the tide and make those plonking sensation when the balls hit the peg all the more satisfying. And an assault to the senses. Make sure you can handle the flashing lights thanks to all the little balls plonking simultaneously before committing to play this, just in case.
If you like the number-go-up satisfaction of a good Balatro run, Pop! Pachinko is supposed to hit that spot.
On top of that, Pop! Pachinko makes use of the city-pop aesthetic as well. For the uninitiated, that’s broadly speaking the aesthetic of bubble economy Japan in the late ’80s. That includes the specific style of pop music, with its more saccharine but laid back tone, which weren’t dubbed city-pop in-period or even in-country, but from a recent resurgence from fans outside Japan around the 2010s.
Pop! Pachinko will have a soundtrack entirely made out of city-pop tunes, and a bit of that neon vibes that isn’t strictly out of city-pop. Creative license and all that, of course.
Pop! Pachinko will be out on September 17 on PC (Steam). A demo is available.