Hokey smoke — Data East’s 1993 Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends brings the beloved Jay Ward cartoon to the playfield with a wonderful mechanical backbox bit: Bullwinkle pulls from his hat either Rocky, a rhino, or a lion, each pull shaping your next move. Designed by Tim Seckel with Kevin O’Connor art and a Brian Schmidt score, this confirmed run of 5,500 is a bright, fast, family-friendly machine stuffed with cartoon charm and a surprisingly deep multiball game.
The scoring rewards a combo-minded player. The simplest winning creed is to keep it stupidly simple: combo the ramps until you’ve outscored the table, then combo them some more. For the bigger swings, complete the light pie by hitting the BOMB standups to light Tri-ball, with the completion pattern shifting for each Tri-ball, and start it on the right ramp. During two-ball play, completing the hat trick on the left targets adds the third ball back, and you can do it repeatedly within one multiball. The left orbit lights the jackpot, a second shot lights the double, and you collect on the right ramp — completing the light pie then lights a hundred-million right-ramp shot. The Hat Trick is full of treats: pulling Rocky the rabbit gives an extra ball, the rhino opens up consecutive orbit scoring, and the lion lights the right ramp for fifteen million.
Rocky and Bullwinkle is a joyfully accessible machine that still hides real depth for the player who learns its hat tricks and jackpot sequences. It’s the rare licensed game that’s as fun for a kid as it is for a tournament regular. Combo the ramps, work the hat, and ride the moose and squirrel to a monster score. And now, here’s something we hope you’ll really like.