Original Release: Data East, 1988, Arcade
Data East built this off prior release Side Pocket, basically just adding stripping girls to the mix along with some new music and slight rule changes
Pocket Gal (Arcade, Data East, 1988)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Guide
Review by: Master-B
Data East repackages Side Pocket under a different name and adds stripping girls to it (and some relaxing samba music). The gameplay is essentially identical, with the same solid game of 2D pool, but it’s much more frustrating.
There are only four girls to run through, so the difficulty (cheapness) seems to have been ramped up to drag out play and pull in more quarters. You absolutely need to knock a bunch of balls in sequential order, or at least go on big consecutive runs of potting one, to get enough bonus points to convince the lady to strip off and move you on to the next level. Otherwise, you get a “middle” score that earns you a mere bra and panty shot, and you’ll have to try again at a second table with the same girl.
You do keep your point total as you move to the next table if you don’t quite cut the mustard to advance … but the insidious thing is that, as soon as you continue with a fresh quarter, your score resets to zero! That’s the main thing that makes this title more frustrating than its source material, and can very easily get you stuck in a doom loop with the first girl. This also means that if you lose all your lives in the middle of the first table, it’s probably just better to restart rather than continue.
Maybe it’s just because I’ve played a bunch of Side Pocket ports for Golden Quarter in recent months, but I found I had even less patience than usual for this game’s bullshit.
Links
KLOV listings / nudie pics
Videos