Arcade Archives: The Hustler

 

This week's Arcade Archives release is... The Hustler (Konami, 1987), also known as Rack'Em Up.

Arcade Archives (previous-gen consoles)

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Arcade Archives 2 (current-gen consoles)

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Only the Japanese ROM (The Hustler) is included despite the the Western digital storefronts using the English ROM's Rack'Em Up title. For this reason, whenever this happens now, we'll primarily refer to the game with the Japanese title so you're not confused as to which game you're actually getting. No special Preference Settings this time either, and the very obvious Paul Newman and Tom Cruise stand-ins haven't been edited at all (thanks to electricboogaloofunk for pointing this out and also providing a clear shot of the two that The Hustler clearly based its graphics off! There's also this tweet from blast68k highlighted by ohfivepro that points out The Color of Money was called The Hustler 2 in Japan, making it even more blatant) 

Oh hey, remember when Video Hustler hit Arcade Archives and I said you should probably wait for the 1987 follow-up, The Hustler? Well, here it is! This is very much in the same vein, an arcade adaptation of pool with both nine ball and rotation games available, and it shares a lot in common with its 1981 counterpart- the aiming technique similar to Champion Golf on the SG-1000 where you aim at the corners of the table so knowing where rebounds will go is much trickier than something like Side Pocket or Pocket Gal and having three shots to pocket the next ball each time you pocket one before you lose a life. However, as well as being closer to real pool rules (albeit with the disclaimer in the manual that it may not be 100% accurate to the rules in real life!), the presentation has been given a huge boost. Massively improved graphics and sound,, little cutaways to your player taking the shot (and not just the same angle every time either, and even different characters for both players), a jazzy soundtrack that perfectly sets the atmosphere... It's not just for show either, there's a 3D behind-the-cue-ball view to the side as well which is very helpful for lining up your shots and it's visually impressive for the time. This won't be a release for everyone, and I think I generally prefer Data East's billiards games, but I was quite surprised by this one, especially the presentation side of things, so give it a look if you want an arcade-style pool game and Video Hustler's a bit too basic for you.