Original Release: Nakanihon, 1998, Arcade
A Side Pocket clone that adds some gals undressing for your enjoyment
Real Break Billiards Academy (Arcade, Nakanihon, 1998)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Guide
Review by: Master-B
One of those odd strip-off arcade games that somehow made it from Glorious Nippon to Europe, Real Break is actually a pretty solid Side Pocket clone. It’s at least as fun, has good production values, and adds some little bonus touches to the gameplay like the Hyper Ball and the “Lucky Ball” rearrangement that helps you along if you struggle too much on a particular table.
You choose from straight pool or nine-ball rules, and you’re provided with a number of lives (burned by either failing to sink a ball, failing to contact the next sequential ball first in nine-ball, or scratching) to make it through the entire game. BUT, there’s also a minimum score required to clear each table, with bonus points racked up in the same manner as Side Pocket; sinking sequential balls, multiple balls on one turn, etc. Completing the table but not clearing the high score burns one of your lives, then sends you back to start it over with the required total reduced by 500 points.
And of course, you got the ladies. They’ll pose in lingerie for you once you complete the table, and occasionally offer up a “bonus pocket” to hit that not only grants extra points, but gives you a little boobie or bum jiggle animation. The game doesn’t seem to have nude content, however; all I could find was this tweet (and another forum post about it) indicating that nudity was available via a secret debug code easter egg only.
After you get through a few gals, the mandatory table clearing scores become so high that you either have to be practically perfect on the first try, or replay the table a bunch of times to bring the score down (which I’m sure was intentional to suck in those quarters). Up to that point it’s fairly fun to play for its own sake, though, at least on par with the assorted Side Pocket games.
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