Big (Not-so) Sweet Land - Introduction
Recently, Dear and I has been frequenting the arcade, specifically, those with a prize machine known as Big Sweet Land. This machine is a brainchild of Namco and bears testimony to the ingenuity of the Japanese.
How it works
Basically, Big Sweet Land is just like those traditional coin pushing machines. The difference is that, instead of putting in coins or tokens to push other coins out, you scoop - by means of a mechanical arm - sweets/boxes of confectionery from a rotating conveyor belt to push other sweets/boxes of confectionery out.
This allows players to choose their prizes. If you are into the boxes of biscuits, you will want to go for them and attempt to scoop them. On the other hand, if you prefer some other item on the conveyor belt, you have the freedom to scoop those too. This result in a variety of strategies that players employ, as in waiting for the right moment to scoop and scooping the right item. Compared to just dropping a coin and hoping that it will push other coins out, Big Sweet Land offers more of a challenge for the non-casual players.
Simplicity is also another aspect of the machine. For a credit, all you need to do is to push two buttons, labeled prominently as 1 and 2. Button 1 lowers the mechanical arm and allowing the scoop at its end to dredge along the conveyor belt. Players have no control over how long the arm will be left in the lowered position and the arm will return to its initial position after 2 seconds, bringing with it any items that the scoop caught. They, however, do have control over when to release the contents of the scoop with a single push of Button 2. Again, when to push the button presents another set of difficult choices to make and sound strategies to use.
The added fun factor
"OK, so you win sweets. What's so great about it?", I hear people retorting. No, wrong. If you are playing for the sake of sweets, then I would suggest that you make your way to the nearest convenient store and grab a pack of Mentos or whatever - your money is better spent there.
Unlike coin pushing machines, players not only stand a chance to win the items they scoop, there is also a jackpot prize, typically a soft toy or some other item that is substantially bigger than a puny candy. The game operators claim that the soft toys are limited editions and can only be obtained via the machines. So, want to know how you can win that oh-so-cute Winnie the Pooh bear? Read on then.
If you bothered to observe the mechanical arm, you will notice a series of horizontal bars, positioned into a vertical column. These bars will light up as you play and when you reach the top of the vertical bar, which is a bar labeled "JP", you win the jackpot prize!
OK, perhaps I oversimplified earlier on. The bars will but does not always light up. There are 21 bars (I think) and to get to the top is no easy feat.
At the end of the platform where the items drop off, there is weight-sensitive lever. It is round in shape and has a sticker on it which says "Checker". Whenever an item falls off the ledge and lands on the Checker, it will activate a mini-roulette that is displayed on the mechanical arm.
The roulette have seven options and range from 1, 2, 3 to JP. The numbers represent the number of bars that will be lit. Apparently, everyone will hope for 3, thus making the way to the top a lot faster and less painful. The truth is, more often than not, you will tend to land on ones. The reason is simple - there are four ones, meaning more than 50% of the spins will be one. There is only one of each for 2, 3 and JP.
Oh yes, the JP. It means you win the prize outright. But don't bank on that though, you have to be real lucky. Then again, I have witnessed people winning the jackpot prize outright and beaming from ear to ear. It depends a lot on your luck, I guess.
IMPORTANT!! A point to note here is that the roulette will not spin unless preceded by a scoop and release. That is to say, if the mechanical arm is in its initial position and somehow, the Checker is trigger, either by chance or other means, the roulette will not be activated. In other words, for the roulette to spin, you will need to first spend a credit, i.e. to scoop and release.
Scaling the sweetened ladder
Scaling the corporate ladder can get real boring and pointless if there are no intermediate rewards. Come on, who would be motivated to work harder if it means working for 20 years without no pay increment, no addition fringe benefits and no window office? This applies to Big Sweet Land as well. To win the jackpot prize the normal way, i.e. no JP spin on the roulette, can take a long time and a wad of cash. So, to keep players interested and motivated, the game uses a simple yet effective way.
Starting from the bottom bar, at every interval of 5 bars, there will be a bonus. There are 3 types of bonuses, namely A, B and C.
After lighting up 5 bars, you will reach level A. It will rain sweets - literally. A vertical cylinder mounted at the side will be activated and the sweets contained within it will be dispensed out. Most of the sweets will (and should) land on the platform, effectively saving you a couple of credits to scoop stuff.
After another 5 bars, you will reach level B. The plastic wings that are hinged to the platform will spring up, packing whatever is on the platform closer. This allows items to be pushed with greater ease, hence allowing more items to drop out. The wings will revert to their horizontal position after a while - I hazard it to be a minute or so.
Level C can be attained after lighting up 5 more bars. This bonus is a combination of A, B and another action. First the plastic wings will pop up. Then from below the mobile platform, another plaform will be extended out, proudly displaying the words "Bonus push" or something along those lines. The extended platform pushes the bulk of the items out and the action of bonus B comes into play, raining sweets on the decimated platform.
Alright! I shall conclude here. In the next post of this series, I will discuss some of the strategies to maximise winnings.
Here's how it looks like:
How it works
Basically, Big Sweet Land is just like those traditional coin pushing machines. The difference is that, instead of putting in coins or tokens to push other coins out, you scoop - by means of a mechanical arm - sweets/boxes of confectionery from a rotating conveyor belt to push other sweets/boxes of confectionery out.
This allows players to choose their prizes. If you are into the boxes of biscuits, you will want to go for them and attempt to scoop them. On the other hand, if you prefer some other item on the conveyor belt, you have the freedom to scoop those too. This result in a variety of strategies that players employ, as in waiting for the right moment to scoop and scooping the right item. Compared to just dropping a coin and hoping that it will push other coins out, Big Sweet Land offers more of a challenge for the non-casual players.
Simplicity is also another aspect of the machine. For a credit, all you need to do is to push two buttons, labeled prominently as 1 and 2. Button 1 lowers the mechanical arm and allowing the scoop at its end to dredge along the conveyor belt. Players have no control over how long the arm will be left in the lowered position and the arm will return to its initial position after 2 seconds, bringing with it any items that the scoop caught. They, however, do have control over when to release the contents of the scoop with a single push of Button 2. Again, when to push the button presents another set of difficult choices to make and sound strategies to use.
The added fun factor
"OK, so you win sweets. What's so great about it?", I hear people retorting. No, wrong. If you are playing for the sake of sweets, then I would suggest that you make your way to the nearest convenient store and grab a pack of Mentos or whatever - your money is better spent there.
Unlike coin pushing machines, players not only stand a chance to win the items they scoop, there is also a jackpot prize, typically a soft toy or some other item that is substantially bigger than a puny candy. The game operators claim that the soft toys are limited editions and can only be obtained via the machines. So, want to know how you can win that oh-so-cute Winnie the Pooh bear? Read on then.
If you bothered to observe the mechanical arm, you will notice a series of horizontal bars, positioned into a vertical column. These bars will light up as you play and when you reach the top of the vertical bar, which is a bar labeled "JP", you win the jackpot prize!
OK, perhaps I oversimplified earlier on. The bars will but does not always light up. There are 21 bars (I think) and to get to the top is no easy feat.
At the end of the platform where the items drop off, there is weight-sensitive lever. It is round in shape and has a sticker on it which says "Checker". Whenever an item falls off the ledge and lands on the Checker, it will activate a mini-roulette that is displayed on the mechanical arm.
The roulette have seven options and range from 1, 2, 3 to JP. The numbers represent the number of bars that will be lit. Apparently, everyone will hope for 3, thus making the way to the top a lot faster and less painful. The truth is, more often than not, you will tend to land on ones. The reason is simple - there are four ones, meaning more than 50% of the spins will be one. There is only one of each for 2, 3 and JP.
Oh yes, the JP. It means you win the prize outright. But don't bank on that though, you have to be real lucky. Then again, I have witnessed people winning the jackpot prize outright and beaming from ear to ear. It depends a lot on your luck, I guess.
IMPORTANT!! A point to note here is that the roulette will not spin unless preceded by a scoop and release. That is to say, if the mechanical arm is in its initial position and somehow, the Checker is trigger, either by chance or other means, the roulette will not be activated. In other words, for the roulette to spin, you will need to first spend a credit, i.e. to scoop and release.
Scaling the sweetened ladder
Scaling the corporate ladder can get real boring and pointless if there are no intermediate rewards. Come on, who would be motivated to work harder if it means working for 20 years without no pay increment, no addition fringe benefits and no window office? This applies to Big Sweet Land as well. To win the jackpot prize the normal way, i.e. no JP spin on the roulette, can take a long time and a wad of cash. So, to keep players interested and motivated, the game uses a simple yet effective way.
Starting from the bottom bar, at every interval of 5 bars, there will be a bonus. There are 3 types of bonuses, namely A, B and C.
After lighting up 5 bars, you will reach level A. It will rain sweets - literally. A vertical cylinder mounted at the side will be activated and the sweets contained within it will be dispensed out. Most of the sweets will (and should) land on the platform, effectively saving you a couple of credits to scoop stuff.
After another 5 bars, you will reach level B. The plastic wings that are hinged to the platform will spring up, packing whatever is on the platform closer. This allows items to be pushed with greater ease, hence allowing more items to drop out. The wings will revert to their horizontal position after a while - I hazard it to be a minute or so.
Level C can be attained after lighting up 5 more bars. This bonus is a combination of A, B and another action. First the plastic wings will pop up. Then from below the mobile platform, another plaform will be extended out, proudly displaying the words "Bonus push" or something along those lines. The extended platform pushes the bulk of the items out and the action of bonus B comes into play, raining sweets on the decimated platform.
Alright! I shall conclude here. In the next post of this series, I will discuss some of the strategies to maximise winnings.
posted by hg @ 11:49
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