Found 10 ratings (with comment) on this game

Punch the Clown is a ticket dispenser's dream game.

The Pros:
Psychotic clowns populate this design. A short and sweet layout means that this is not a long lasting experience. Quick and done fun. The drop targets that hide the messenger ball and the standup at the top of the playfield add the only dimension to this game. The center standup and loop make this fast design even faster! This game is so dangerous to play, that it doesn't even need outlanes! I would like to take a moment to talk about the artwork. It is AWESOME! Everything that a clown pinball game should be. Python Angelo would be proud!

The Cons:
The purpose of this design is to offer a quick and fun game to play to dispense out tickets at check e. cheese or dave and buster's. There is no depth to it. It's just bang it around pinball fun for the kids. The ruleset means that this game just keeps on spitting out tickets the longer you play it. Teaching kids how to gamble! This game is a children's gateway pinball gambling drug. Thanks PUNCHY!

The Takeaway:
A novelty game for a novelty setting. Play it. Enjoy it FOR WHAT IT IS, and get on to another game. But who knows... If you can live on tickets, Punchy the Clown might just be the game for you! Sit this game down next to Safe Cracker, Caribbean Cruise and Night Moves. Your midget-pin collection will be the envy of every tiny pinball game enthusiast in your time zone!

I like P-I-E!

this is a simple redemption game & its so small requiring most adults to hunch down in order to play it however it has more going on then you might expect I enjoyed playing it so much at a show I kept coming back to it over & over ....... something about shooting the drop target clowns teeth that I found satisfying

Bullet points:
*The rules are pretty simple. But that's to be expected from a redemption game.
*The light show is bright and annoying.
*This game is fun. It's got a lot of goofy action packed into a pretty small package.
*This pinball machine is very different. I like things that are different. I'd love to play this game in a tournament some day.
*You're playing on a giant face! It's almost Python-esque.

Punchy the Clown is clearly designed to be more of a casual/children-oriented game. The playfield is well-populated with things to hit, but there is plenty of open space, and the rules are fairly straightforward and simplistic at their base. For example, spelling PIE in the top lanes occurs simply by hitting the rollover switches three times; it does not matter which lanes are hit or lit. However, the game does reward adding skill into the mix - completing the bow tie horseshoe is contingent on hitting the shot repeatedly, and spelling PUNCHY in order reaps greater rewards.

Great theme but can be quite frustrating. The massive clown face shot in the center really ends up being a death shot. The auto plunge is a nice feature but makes it difficult to play with more than one player.

I was offered the machine at a fair price, and I couldn't let it pass.

It took me awhile to get the flippers to function properly, but once I started playing it, I just had to put another credit on it, and play it again. It really is a game that draws you in. The shots are challenging, but achievable. and with no outlanes, still a hard game to keep the ball in play.

"Hi Kids, I'm Punchy the Clown!"
"Get Ready!"

An AGC rare "kids redemption game" with adult pinball novelty (non-X rated kind).

Game is a little smaller overall in size than SafeCracker with a wider backbox, but not nearly as tall.
40 inches in length overall, 2/3 of the size of a normal playfield, but same width.
Putting the legs at the lowest level for kids makes that game playable by even a Snow White dwarf.
Literally, two feet off the ground.

If you turn off the ticket dispenser the game is a whole lot more fun, and will play properly as a "pinball machine".

Very good variety of shot selection with the drop targets and a bit of challenge (throw pies, dunk tank, ring the bell, cannon, Punchy).
Ruleset is very simple to follow, "have fun hitting stuff with a pinball".
Achieving good scores does require skill and fast reactions.
The basic importance is the score multiplier with the "P-I-E" rollovers (which hold over from ball to ball), and then simply keeping the ball in play, which is harder than most people realize if you play "bat the ball".
People that have actually played the game will understand what I am saying here.

The one hard challenge shot set is to get to hit Punchy's targets in order to score the jackpot, as the drop targets are very hard to hit individual unless you know how to backhand.

Outstanding artwork across the game (backglass, playfield, cabinet), and very well integrated plastics (especially Punchy and his mouth of teeth).
Alpha numeric display for scoring, no animations unfortunately.
Extremely high quality STEREO music and sound.
Manufacturer quality is still rough, as the cabinet is prone to cracking, and the playfield longevity has to be somewhat "babied" both in mechanics and electronics, but is not that unreliable overall.
You can make adjustments to most mechanisms to "dial them in" and common factory issues.

Punchy the Clown edges out AGB and MC in terms of artwork, but not in game play.
Predominantly a good game for AGC collectors, and not really a suitable candidate for the average collector because the cost of obtaining a superb example is not really worth it even for "family fun".
You are simply not going to find one that is unblemished now, as many of the small production were routed.
However, one good thing about this game, is just like SafeCracker, it can fit in places that normal pinball machines will not squeeze into overall.

I bought Punchy the Clown due to the rarity, to have something unique in the collection. It's doubtful that a large percentage of the original 103 survived the past 20 years. My first impression was that PTC wasn't a good game, it played like an absolute turd, and that I'd just wasted my money. I was certain that it wasn't a keeper. Fortunately, that impression changed.

The main issues were with the kicker arms, as they were woefully inaccurate. The ball launcher would only hit the left lane about 5% of the time, and the cannon hit it's mark about the same amount. I suspect these arms were supposed to have plastic caps, to better guide the ball, but these were missing. Of course, the rarity of the machine means that replacement parts are pretty much non-existent. I was able to do some "creative engineering" with hot glue and plastic to fix these issues, and then properly gapped all the switches. This made a night-and-day difference in the game play. However, I can certainly understand how somebody who plays this game, in a non-dialed-in state, would consider it horrible.

To look at Punchy the Clown, it obviously looks like a kid's game, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Sure it has the small cabinet, clown theme, ticket redemption, and is lacking outlanes, so it can't be that hard, right? Wrong! I would almost have to consider it child abuse, to make children play this game. It's a hard enough pin, that I can't imagine any child wanting to play it more than once. The rules are simple, but that doesn't make it easy.

Once I had the game dialed in, I began to appreciate it as being very challenging, rather than just bad. Still not a child's game though. Even though the outhole is the only way to lose your ball, it seems exceptionally greedy, and can make the game frustrating, much the same way as Pinbot's outlanes. Of course, this makes you adapt your play to suit the game. I keep it set on 5-ball, as that's the only way you have a shot at getting on the leader board. Surprisingly, the more I played it, the more I liked it, and found it to have that "one more game" quality. Now, it easily gets as much play as any other game in my collection.

Sure the theme isn't for everyone, the rule set is limited, and it can be hard as hell to get the ball out of the lower playfield, but it has a certain simple charm to it. When I hosted our league night, I was pleasantly surprised that others found the game as appealing as I do. For the time being, at least, Punchy the Clown is a keeper.

I agree with Betelgeuse's review. I would add that Punchy the Clown is surprisingly difficult for a game aimed at kids! Because the cabinet is small, shots must be taken carefully as you often have very little reaction time. There's a lot of gameplay packed in this smaller form factor. It's an attractive and genuinely fun game that will offer surprising challenge for skilled players, and it held my attention much longer than I expected. Definitely give it a go if you can find one of these very rare Alvin G's!

A novelty pinball in downsized cabinet, mainly intended for kids to play. It can be pretty fun and has the same feel as a full size game. I like the inner loop shot under the clown face and the 'dunk' target. The audio quality is pretty good with some quirky sounds and callouts. The game is bright and colorful and suits the theme perfectly.