Every Konami Game Turned Into A Pachinko Machine (So Far)

texas holdemsite
8 min readJul 17, 2021

In light of Konami’s gradual move towards the pachinko market, here is every Konami video game franchise adapted for Japanese pachinko parlors.

Over the past decade, one-time gaming giant Konami has shifted more of its focus on creating Pachinko and pachislot machines. To that end, they have adapted many of their most beloved game series into some form of pachinko.

In Japan, where both Konami and pachinko originate, open gambling is prohibited by law. As a result, companies have developed pachinko games and parlors as a way of not-so subtly circumventing the anti-gambling law. In the case of traditional pachinko, players purchase a number of metal balls which they feed into the machine. The balls fall down a series of pegs until it lands at the bottom. The ball’s final location determines the player’s reward, which comes in the form of more metal balls that the player can exchange for physical items and (eventually) money. Pachislots work similarly, except they are much less complex and resemble traditional western slot machines in many ways. Both, however, frequently play animations and stories to engage the player as they gamble. In the case of video game pachinko machines, these animations generally follow the stories of the games they are based on.

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In this regard, Konami’s fleet of game-based pachinko are no different from other machines. According to the official Konami site, Konami has been making pachinko since at least the early 2000’s. They’re first foray into game-based pachinko came not long after. Since then, they’ve adapted a total of ten different Konami-published video game series into some kind of pachinko or pachislot machine. However, it wasn’t until the mid-2010’s that people began to notice the company downsizing its gaming division in favor of pachinko and mobile games. Despite negative fan reception, however, Konami has stayed resolute and continues to release game-based pachinko machines. This is every series they’ve adapted so far.

Rumble Roses Pachinko Machines

Rumble Roses is an all female fighting game series inspired by professional wrestling and released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2. A sequel, Rumble Roses XX, would release two years later for the Xbox 360. The series played similarly to other wrestling games in the vein of Smack-down vs. Raw. However, it set itself apart by putting great care into giving the player ways to ogle its roster of scantily-costumed lady wrestlers. It’s similar in many ways to Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball, another series of “sports” games that have a rather shameless appreciation for female anatomy.

Still, it’s hard to deny that there’s a big market out there for what Rumble Roses has to offer. Furthermore, the consensus among players on Meta-critic is that the game play is actually somewhat solid. Regardless of the reason, Rumble Roses carved out enough of a niche that Konami decided to honor the series by making it the company’s very first pachinko video game adaptation. The original game received a pachislot machine in 2006, followed by a pachislot version of Rumble Roses XX in 2008 and an original pachislot machine, Rumble Roses 3D in 2012.

Beatmania Pachinko Machines

Out of all of Konami’s different video game pachislots, their 2008 rendition of Beat-mania an arcade rhythm game stands out as the most unique. Most pachislots work similarly to the average slot machine with three light-up buttons determining when each rotary cylinder stops. Beat-mania, on the other hand, is just as much of a rhythm game as it is a slot machine. The player is tasked with playing through a bonafide Beat-mania track (shown in this YouTube video) while also managing the cylinders. The only problem is that one’s success in playing the machine’s songs doesn’t seem to correspond to their success with the slots. It’s one of few pachislots that actually demands skill from its players, but also never rewards them for it.

Metal Gear Solid Pachinko Machines

Perhaps the most well-known pachislot machine in the west, the Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater pachislot from 2016 is infamous among Konami detractors. Releasing just after the company’s big move away from console game development, the MGS pachislot felt like a kick in the ribs to gamer. This was especially true after Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain disappointed fans with its borderline incomplete story. On top of that, Konami had recently faced heavy backlash for closing down MGS developers Kojima Productions and unceremoniously firing Hideo Kojima, the super-star gaming auteur at the helm of the classic stealth action franchise. As a result, western gamer had become less-than-fond of Konami as a company throughout the mid 2010's.

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The fact that this pachislot machine acts as a soft HD remake of one of the series’ most popular titles does not help either. Fans hail Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater as a work of near-perfection, and were disturbed to see some of its best set pieces and cutscenes newly rendered in glorious, high-definition detail for the sake of a Japan-exclusive slot machine. Though it may only be a footnote in Konami’s fall from grace, this particular machine stands as a final blow to a dying era of Konami’s products.

Silent Hill Pachinko Machines

Like Metal Gear Solid, Konami has had a turbulent past with the Silent Hill franchise. When Hideo Kojima’s joint project with lauded movie director Guillermo Del Toro, Silent Hills was cancelled at the height of its production, it became just another bone to pick between Konami and their fans. Just like the Metal Gear Solid pachislot, Konami’s Silent Hill pachislot emerged around the same time as its respective controversy, this time presenting a reinterpretation of the events of Silent Hill 2. Though it did not see the same kind of attention as the MGS machine, the Silent Hill pachislot serves as another testament to Konami’s growing disenchantment with console gaming throughout the 2010's.

Castlevania Pachinko Machines

The Castlevania series might just be Konami’s most profitable Intellectual Property. As a result, it shouldn’t be a big surprise that the company has created a healthy handful of related slot machines. Their earliest entry in this line is a 2009 reprisal of the first Castlevania similar to other pachislot remakes. Konami would follow this up in 2010 and 2012 respectively with adaptations of both Castlevania 2 & Castlevania 3. Additionally, they created a pachislot associated with the 2010 action game, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Like many game-inspired pachinko machines, each of these examples presents a soft remake of the original; retelling the story of the original through revised cut-scenes that appear as the player gambles away.

The Lords of Shadow pachislot machine originally released in 2017, and is the most recent pachinko adaptation of one of Konami’s classic console series. Though it released during a similar time as the MGS and Silent Hill machines, neither Lords of Shadow nor the other Castlevania pachinko machines bear quite the same sour reputation. Unlike its kin, the Castlevania machines simply did not have as much controversy surrounding them as Konami’s other IPs at the time.

Gradius, Parodious, & Twinbee Pachinko Machines

Of all the things to get turned into pachinko machines, the last series one might expect are Konami’s various side scrolling shoot-’em-ups. Generally speaking, all of these game-based machines follow adapt the plot of their respective titles in some fashion. However, side-scrolling arcade games like Gradius, Parodius (a parody of Gradius) and Twin-bee have never been especially plot-heavy. What little plot there is, is represented in some of these (mainly Gradius: The Slot) through anime-style animations rather than the pix-elated graphics of the original. While there isn’t too much to say about these pachislot adaptations, they’re an interesting example of how Konami finds ways to repurposed its most popular IPs for their growing gambling business.

Contra Pachinko Machines

Before Dark Souls became the most prominent cliche regarding difficult games, there was Contra. At least Souls-likes have a respectable element of fairness in their design; Contra just wants to watch players suffer. In a game where the player only has three chances, the length of one’s survival (at least, until they get good) felt like as big of a gamble as playing the lottery. The only difference is the stakes are monumentally larger. So, naturally, Konami decided to make that feeling more literal by turning Contra into a pachislot machine.

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Contra 3D pulled all the standard tricks for a pachislot game. It acts ostensibly like a slot machine while playing cinematic roughly representing the plot of its source material. In this case, according to the Contra Wiki, the story follows Contra’s two golden boys, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean this time joined by a fem-me fa-tale named Anna Crawford as they combat the devilish Red Falcon Army. In other words, its pretty standard stuff in terms of Contra lore. Granted, lore has never exactly been a major focus of either Contra or pachislot.

Mahjong Fight Club Pachinko Machines

It’d be a mistake to think that Konami would just adapt its most popular mainstream series into pachinko machines. They also do it to their lesser known IPs, such as Mahjong Fight Club. As the name implies, Mahjong Fight Club is a simple Mahjong series that has appeared in numerous iterations across arcades and consoles since the early 2000’s. However, Konami first introduced it to the world of Pachinko in 2014, with the simply named Mahjong Fight Club pachislot machine. A sequel would follow two years later, along with a fully-fledged pachinko machine in 2018. To date, that actually makes CR Pachinko Mahjong Fight Club Konami’s most recent crossover project between one of their traditional video game series and their growing pachinko market.파칭코

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