AridHills's ratings

The Hankin Shark is a surprisingly enjoyable game to play. Made in 1980 by the Australian company it is a super widebody machine. It is a single ball and single layer game which makes it simpler to play than modern games. It has double in lanes which lead to four flippers, three pop bumpers in the rough center of the play field, a double and two triple drop target banks, a spinner leading to an auto kicking ramp/lane and ‘the grotto’ which has two rollovers and a central static target. There are a number of other scoring rollovers at key places.

The shots themselves are reasonably simple. The challenge is hitting the double and top triple drop downs to spell shark and to light the various shark inserts to start racking large bonuses. Although it sounds simple, the two outlanes are brutal )far worse than the centre drain). This makes for often short ball times as it bounces from target to pop bumper to outline while you grit your teeth…
The centre drain isn’t too bad except when shooting the horseshoe shaped ‘grotto’ in one direction. It generally spits it out aimed straight at the drain. Again, usually when you think you’re doing really well… hubris…
Although it’s not rules heavy I find there’s a sufficiently complex set of shots needed to start scoring big that it’s still engaging in that respect. Once you hit some of those bonuses the playfield starts to light up like a Christmas tree which I love.
I’ve been told the game feels too floaty and slow - while the super widebody adds some travel time and the game itself doesn’t whip the ball around at light speed I’m fine with that. It makes a nice change of pace to more modern pins and I don’t feel it’s excessively ‘slow’.
The playfield art is absolutely amazing. I’m not sure what the artist was on but it must have been good. It’s essentially divers, sea serpents, angler fish and sharks all looking angry and dangerous. Words don’t do it justice. The lighting inserts work in well with the art. The back glass is a bit meh in comparison but I’m not looking at that when I play so it’s not an issue.
The sound is purely electronic beeps and chirps - it predates the 80s sampled voices so you get the electronic version of the chimes in an EM. I like them when I’m playing but it would be as annoying as anything if you were in the room with them not playing long term. I’ve yet to work out if there’s a volume on the board to turn them down.
For me it’s an engaging game. I’m currently going back to it again and again. It’s fun and not too serious with decent replayabilty. It’s probably not one I’ll keep forever but that’s mainly because at some point I’ll need the room for something else rather than any intrinsic issues with it.
Definitely work playing if you see one in the wild… and with only 200 ever made it’s definitely a rarity.

Disclaimer: I grew up reading Judge Dredd and it’s one of two or three favourite genre/settings.
I love playing Dredd - it’s a fast looping game without ANY pop bumpers. If you need pop bumpers in your games this one isn’t for you. What it does have is 6 looping shots, a subway and 3 habitrails. And a planet with crane magnet.
It’s a game which generally has fast flowing ball movement. It has a number of game/mission modes as well as a 4 ball multi ball mode. The modes are all fun and achievable but challenging to do well in. The multi all requires some effort to achieve but again is achievable and then requires specific shots while in multi all to capture the four dark judges. This lasts until you’re back to the one ball but you can get the multi ball again and again (in theory anyway). There is a super game option which costs more credits (but if it’s free play who cares, right?). This starts with a two ball multi ball and you can get a six ball multiball which is insane.
These two game types and different modes give plenty of playability. The DMD animations are well done and are accompanied with appropriate sound effects, particularly during game modes. These coupled with the sound really make the games. The artwork on the playfield and can are directly out of the comics and are bright, inviting and are obviously fitting to the theme.
This is for me, a keeper of a game with enough depth to play over and over.

This was the first pin I bought - I remember playing it after school in the 90s (not why I bought it but you know, nostalgia...). I've had it for nearly two years at the time of writing this and I still enjoy it (and my daughter has told me I'm only ever allowed to sell it to her when she's old enough to buy it). Rescue 911 was themed after a TV show I never saw but it's not really important as the theme stands without needing to have knowledge of the show - it's about game modes which are some form of emergency response. Be the paramedics who deliver the baby on site, rescue people from flood waters, chase and shoot at the fleeing robbers type thing.
So play quality first: If you like a game with loops and orbits, this is not the game for you. There are no orbits. The game is a very in/out game which I know isn't attractive to some. If you're a person who likes fast looping action stay away. This is a game which is more in/out - into the heliport for the chopper to pick the ball up, into the pop bumpers and then out, up the ramp onto the top flipper for a try at a hidden hole or a less hidden hole which kicks onto the habitrail and into the left inlane for examples.
There's a timed skill shot - once you've worked out the interval you can generally choose which bonus you want - advance X, 10mil scored immediately or a skill shot which awards 20mil if you get it right.
Its easy to get into game/mission modes initially - shooting the heliport can be done by either flipper and the ball funnels in easily. The bail is then raised and the helicopter flies over the playfield to pick it up. Agains, some people really hate the break in gameplay, my family like it - it gives you a moment to think about what you're aiming to do and so on. The helicopter is the big draw in the game - if you're looking at buying the game make sure the helicopter is working as its a major pain in the butt to fix if it's not. It's also a pain to get adjusted correctly, but once it is, its great fun as you can drop the ball at strategic points for the game mode you're on. Game modes are all about saving lives which are generally made by making a variety of different shots in timed conditions. Some of these also have the potential to score big points if you've managed to set up your pop bumper bonus up high. One of the modes gets you an extra ball, two are 2 ball multis the first time through and they're generally fun although the scoring can sometimes seem unbalanced.
There are two ball locks up the top of the field which generally can only be got using the top right flipper, one of which is quite difficult to get and awards a sliding scale for each successive ball you lock. On locking two balls the game enters a three ball multiball where if you can get balls into that difficult top lock you score increasing jackpots - if you can do this the score climbs very quickly. There are a number of other ways to increase one's score - the pop bumper values can be increased to 500,00 per hit and even to 3mil per hit for timed periods using either the EKG targets or by hitting the two drop targets and then the spot target behind them.
Getting the ball up the right ramp outside of rescue modes will usually score you a random medi-alert which is a bonus of some sort from extra lives saved (give end of games bonuses) to awarding points to drastically increasing the pop bumper value or advance bonus to x5. If you manage to flick the ball up the ramp from the left inlane you advance the 'hook and ladder' feature which is a persistent in game feature, when active it will start either a two or three ball multiball and every target and bumper hit will score 3mil to a maximum of 300mil.
Saving lives is meant to be idea of the game and each mode gives you the chance to do that. When you save 20 lives you get a 30 mil hurry up, at 35 an extra ball hurry up and at 50 you enter life force mode which is very stressy - the heart beat gradually speeding up as time runs out is guaranteed to mess with you. 300mil for that if you make it. At 100 lives saved there's super life force which is worth 1 billion - nope haven't done it.
As i've said the points scoring can seem unbalanced and there's no denying if you manage to get some good random medi-alerts you'll score a stupid amount for very little, but generally it plays fairly evenly with multiplayer so that it comes down to the usual skill/chance issues. All in all, I find the play fun and challenging, particularly as a number of the high value shots/areas can drain pretty easily.
Artwork: I like the playfield art - it's bright and clean (well the original is, my playfield has seen better days) and fits the theme. It benefits from LEDS and that was just about the first thing I did - if you don't like them as GI that's cool, you'll still be able to see clearly, but I think it just makes the colours pop. The cab and translite are good if not exactly stunning - they fit the theme. I've got red and blue flashers behind the amulance light bar which adds to it.
The DMD animations are okay - some are better than others and other machines have much better ones but they're not bad - they're geared towards whichever mode you're playing or are text scoring etc.
Music is again okay - it's not bad and there are decent other sounds, including the crying newborn baby and of course sirens which are well done. All in all the sounds assist with the theme and game play. Its also possible to tell from them what mode you're doing if you haven't noticed the DMD or playfield lights telling you.
Finally, if you've got a working revolving dome light, it goes off for a variety of reasons which again adds to the ambiance. It might irritate some but I've spent nearly thirty years around emergency lights of one sort or another now and to me it just adds to the feel.
It's a game that I have no intention of getting rid of and which I enjoy. If you play one with a working helicopter it's a lot of fun. Having your ball fly across the playfield on rescue missions is one of the coolest things about it.