'Touhou Pinball' (Japanese: 東方ピンボール, Hepburn: 'Tōhō Pinbōru'), also known as 'Touhou Kukyouki' (Japanese: 東方紅狂気, Hepburn: 'Tōhō Kukyōki'), is a pinball machine created by Drillimation Studios and Williams Electronics. Released in the Summer of 2001, over 10,000 arcade units have been made. The game has also been ported to Microsoft Windows as one of the themes for Visual Pinball.
Gameplay
Touhou Pinball is played in the standard pinball fashion but with a Touhou theme. Set during the events of Touhou 6: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, the player's main goal is to break into the Scarlet Devil Mansion by using the pinball to break open the door and defeat Remilia Scarlet. Points are scored whenever the ball rolls over a bullet and lights it up (grazing), performing a certain attack with the pinball, or engaging in boss fights.
The game also has the function to promote the player to a kannushi (if the player is male) or a miko (if the player is female). In order to do this, the player must achieve the following:
- Defeating Rumia awards 10,000 points and the player is promoted to Shaman Level 1.
- Defeating Cirno awards 20,000 points and the player is promoted to Shaman Level 2.
- Defeating Hong Meiling awards 30,000 points and the player is promoted to Shaman Level 3.
- Defeating Patchouli Knowledge awards 40,000 points and the player is promoted to Shaman Level 4.
- Defeating Sakuya Izayoi awards 50,000 points and the player is promoted to Shaman Level 5.
- Defeating Remilia Scarlet awards 60,000 points and the player is promoted to Miko.
- Defeating Flandre Scarlet awards 100,000 points and the player is promoted to Kannushi.
The game also offers Multiballs for certain tasks:
- Players can use a bomb to throw in an extra ball.
- Extra balls are awarded at 600,000 points, another at 2,000,000 points, and every 2 million points after that.
- If the player succeeds in defeating Flandre Scarlet, an extra ball will be awarded.
Music and voices
The music is a remastered version of the soundtrack from Touhou 6: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, all arranged by Peter Hajba and Susumu Takajima. Most of the game's dialogue and voiceovers were taken from the arcade version of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, with Wendee Lee providing Reimu's voice and Jen Taylor providing the voice of Marisa. Charles Martinet also did the voice of the announcer.
Reception
The game generally received mixed reviews from critics, with Metacritic stating it as "a knockoff of Touhou with pinball". GameInformer also stated that it would be something that pinball fans would enjoy, but a game that serious players wouldn't play.