Banzai Run Pinball Review!

Here's one of the final videos I took on my last visit to my buddy Dave's basement arcade. His newest game he got for his collection is a beautiful Banzai Run from Williams that was released back in 1988. This game was co-designed by Larry DeMar and Pat Lawlor, his first design with the company. Pat had worked on a few prototypes before finally settling with the game's Supercross setting.

The game is well known for it's two tier playfield and it's also the game's major setback. There's A LOT that can go wrong with this game and for that reason it's very hard to find out in the wild. Even when I visited the Pinball Hall of Fame two years ago two of the workers where having a debate of whether or not they should even power the game on because they knew they'd be spending more time fixing it then operating it. I chimed in saying that even if they had the game on one dollar for three balls I'd still play it. For a game like this that's really hard to find and play one that's in good condition I'll pay a little extra to play it, same goes with other notorious games to fix like Haunted House and Black Hole.

Since the game came out in 88' it's pretty simple. Your goal is to become king of the mountain by defeating the other four racers in the game. On the lower playfield you need to complete four groups of target banks. Then if you can hit the ball at the top a little biker magnet will take the ball into the upper playfield. You then have to complete all four shots to "defeat" the other racers. If you're able to do that you can earn the game's two ball multiball mode. You might think it's only having two balls might make it lame or easy, but keep in mind, if you get into multiball BOTH playfields are active! I've only seen people get the jackpot a handful of times, but if you wanna see how it's done make sure to check out the video PAPA Pinball did with Bowen Kerins who makes it look REALLY easy!

Thanks for checking out the video! For all our friends in the US we hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving!