Tinkle Pit

Tinkle Pit is a maze arcade game that was released by Namco in 1994 in Japan. It features many of the characters from the company’s earlier games (including: the Galaxian flagship, Pac-Man, the Rally-X Special Flag, the Solvalou from Xevious, Mappy from his self-titled game and several others besides, many of whom only initially appeared in the game they were created for).

Pitt (and Patti) must walk around the mazes, collecting items and avoiding enemies (which include the Heitai from Toy Pop along with the Pookas and Fygars from Dig Dug); however, they have the power to drop their Tinker Balls, which are both invulnerable to the enemies, and move around by pressing the Line button, therefore creating a line between them and their balls. Releasing the button makes their balls come back to them; the enemies are killed by having the balls slam into them. There are also pieces of popcorn which can be picked up around the mazes – and pressing the Popcorn button, Pitt and Patti can throw them at the enemies, and they shall bounce off the walls until they hit one (or evaporate if they have not done so by the end of the stage). Killing all enemies in a maze advances the player to the next stage; however, in the event of one enemy remaining, he will make for the nearest corner of the maze, say “Bye-bye!”, and disappear (which shall detract from the “Pursuit Bonus” that the players will receive after they defeat Mao at the end of the game).