Tinkle Pit

Overview

Developer Namco released Tinkle Pit on the back of their highly successful 80s maze game series Pac-Man and Dig Dug. Characters in the game feature child-friendly designs, and stages all take place on a single screen. Tinkle Pit makes considerable use of rainbow text and is characterised by a vivid but diverse color palette, with the four initial worlds of the game being themed around a quaint village setting, a toy kingdom, an aquatic area, and a land of confections, respectively.

Gameplay

The game supports both solo and two-player cooperative play, with the goal of each stage being to clear all enemies from the screen. Enemies include the ghosts from Pac-Man and the Pookas from Dig-Dug. Players possess an anthropomorphic ball which they may drop at any time. After dropping the ball, a line will extend from their avatar back to the ball as they walk. The player may then reel the ball it, causing it to zoom at high speed along the line to their location. Any enemy that touches the ball will be cleared from the screen, and the player will score points, even if the ball is stationary when an enemy collides with it. If the player defeats multiple enemies in one reel, each subsequently defeated foe will net them more points than the previous.

A player may also clear foes by picking up one of the glowing orbs in the level and releasing it, causing it to bounce off the walls until it hits an opposing character. When only one enemy is left, it will attempt to flee from the player, stop in place, and disappear. A player may also score points by collecting bonus items that spawn in. Exact items and enemies change with the theming of the current world, and levels end with a totalling of enemies defeated, items collected, and points scored.

Occasionally, a power-up spawns in the centre of the level, which grants the player powers such as increased speed or falling rocks which may crush enemies. At the end of the initial four worlds, the player faces a giant robot boss, which is capable of firing multiple projectiles at once that can travel throughout the maze. The player must have their ball collide with the boss multiple times to defeat it. After the boss is cleared, the game reveals four new worlds. The first of these worlds bears an outer space aesthetic, while the last three are all themed around castles in some way. If the player can clear all eight worlds, they face the final boss, a spell-casting sorcerer, who must be defeated for the game to be cleared.