Mario Roulette

Mario Roulette
Developer	Konami
Release date	December 13, 1991;
Language(s)	Japanese
Genre	Arcade

Mario Roulette is a Japan-only medal game developed and manufactured by Konami and released on December 13, 1991, being one of the first medal games from the Super Mario franchise. The machine weighs 40 kg and is 450 mm wide, 530 mm deep, and 1.285 mm tall. It has a 14-inch color monitor (made by Toshiba), consuming a total of 80 W of electricity. The machine accepts coins of 10 and 100 yen, and it is capable of storing 1,000 coins of 100 yen. Each machine cost around 320,000 yen. Illustrating the machine were some artworks from Super Mario games, primarily Super Mario World. The graphics and music are based heavily on Super Mario World and the gameplay of its bonus game.

Gameplay

File:Marioroulette Screenshot.jpg

The title screen of Mario Roulette. It is similar to the gameplay of Super Mario World.

Mario is the main character that appears mounted on Yoshi throughout the game. During the attract mode, a cutscene shows Mario mounted on Yoshi traversing a scenario like on the title screen, showing the name of the game after a few seconds. An instructional video is then shown, where Mario explains how to play. After this, there is a demo of the game in action, and then it goes back to the title.

After the player inserts up to three medals (a kind of currency that is often exchanged for prizes or to play again) out of the game title screen, the game begins. The more medals the player wagers, the higher the prizes. The game consists of a wheel with eight black squares, showing an icon of an item. The items are Super Mushrooms, Cape Feathers, Stars, and the Fire Flower. These symbols are turning beside one at the center beside one that is in the center and stopped at first. To make them stop, the player must press the only button on the machine. After the player presses the button, the icons stop spinning around, showing the items that were shown, and then the icon in the center begins to randomly select the icon that is at the center, requiring the player to press the button again to stop it.

If the symbols match the center to form lines, the player wins, and the screen flashes the symbols that were made to win with green "Win" marks. Mario strikes his victory pose as the bonus clear music from Super Mario World plays, and then a screen with a picture of Mario striking a victory pose in a yellow circle on a blue background with the word "COIN" and the number of prize winnings appears, and the player receives them. The number of prize winnings depends on how many lines of the same symbol are hit and what symbols are there, with greater winnings if the same symbol is lined up. If the player cannot align the icons correctly, or stops the center icon on a picture that shows Bowser, the player loses the round. Mario dies with the death music for the former, and all squares turn into Bowser with some ominous music for the latter. If the player gets Princess Peach, it acts as all symbols, the "princess rescued" theme plays, and Mario strikes his pose. Then, a cutscene is shown, saying "BIG BONUS" with the invincibility theme playing and Mario hitting a block that makes coins come out of it. After ten coins, it comes back to the "COIN" screen. The number of medals won with Peach is far greater than a normal win.

After the player wins and loses, the game returns to attract mode for them to play again.