Point Blank

Retro Coin Op Synopsis

“Non-violent gun game” sounds like an oxymoron, but somehow Namco managed to pull it off with 1994’s Point Blank. Even more amazingly, the company turned that non-violent gun game into a sizeable hit.

Point Blank was actually over 50 mini-games in one, each testing the shooter’s speed, accuracy, quick-thinking skills, logic, or any combination of the four. Dr. Don and Dr. Dan, two characters who looked suspiciously like the Bizarro half-kin of Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie, were your guides through this marksman’s paradise, often getting a little too close to the action for comfort.

The mini-games had a little bit of everything—police academy-like tests with cardboard cutouts of thugs and innocent victims, Whac-a-Mole variations with bomb decoys to punish itchy trigger fingers, accuracy tests with one bullet and a limited time to pull a William Tell, mayhem levels with unlimited ammo and dozens of targets, fields with targets that had to be hit in sequential order, and even a charging Chevy Camaro that could only be stopped with a hail of gunfire.

With so many choices, Point Blank had something for everyone, and in many arcades, it felt like everyone wanted to play at once. The cabinet held two guns to appease the masses, and Point Blank fostered two-player competition by forcing the shooters to battle each other for points and glory.

Point Blank 2, released in 1998, offered even more challenges, giving players another good reason to return to the arcade and hone their target-shooting skills. And even without the slime-spewing aliens or rotting zombies, they came.

Arcade Machine Release History

1994 - Point Blank
1998 - Point Blank 2

Arcade Game Sub Categories

puzzle/maze
shooting

Machine Manufacturer

Namco

Other Arcade Game Links

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