REFERENCE: ALL ABOUT TIN PIN SLAMMER
Shuto Dan is the three time champion 'Slammurai' of a children's pin game called Tin Pin Slammer (Tin Pin for short).
How to play
Tin Pin works somewhat like marbles but with some extra mechanics that don't exactly fly in the real world: In your attempts to 'slam' up to three other players' pins (using the badge sense of the word) off a platform (though I think that a predefined area like a circle drawn on the ground would do fine), you can make use of your pins' special abilities called whammies.
These are:
Stinger: Your pin temporarily grows bigger, more solid, and manifests spikes which temporarily paralyzes an opponent's pin upon contact. It cannot move while in this state.
Sledgehammer: Your pin temporarily manifests a hammer which spins around the pin; the head temporarily paralyzes an opponent's pin upon contact.
Dive Bomber: Your pin leaps into the air, apparently becoming invisible to the other player(s), and, you guessed it, temporarily paralyzes an opponent's pin should it land on top of theirs.
Helping Hand: Your pin can be saved from being knocked out of the playing area if you're fast and accurate enough (without adequate control, it's very possible to simply knock your pin further away).
Aside from Helping Hand, the whammies work in a paper-scissors-rock fashion: Stinger beats Dive Bomber, Dive Bomber beats Sledgehammer, and Sledgehammer beats Stinger. The number of uses of each whammy and how long the paralysis lasts depends on the individual pin.
Points, known as PP, are assigned in a few ways:
Stunning an enemy pin earns one point.
Slamming an enemy pin out of the arena earns two points.
Slamming an enemy's last pin out of the arena steals said enemy's points for your own.
The game ends either when there is only one player with pins still on the field or after a certain amount of time (I will check this). Whoever has the most points (this is often whoever still has pins to play with) is the winner.
One's pin deck can have up to six pins.
A toy worn on the arm known as a Solid Slammer can be used to initially launch the pins (I think: they are noted as taking damage somehow in rough games of Tin Pin).
How (I think) it works
TWEWY never even attempts to explain this in either continuity, so the fan theory I'm going with (adapted from one posted on TV Tropes) is that the pins' movement and whammies are controlled with very low level telekinesis. (This theory mixes both continuities somewhat, as in the main continuity, pins are largely used for psychic manipulation of elements and objects. Though I originally thought the pins were remote controlled with the Solid Slammer, a launcher for pins, as the remote, it is explicitly stated that Tin Pin can be played without one. In the words of the main continuity's Shuto: "You could play Tin Pin NAKED, man!")
That said, Shuto's psychic ability is completely limited to Tin Pin and he does not recognize it for what it is. He just thinks he has mad skills at Tin Pin.
In addition, Shuto's Solid Slammer, designed by Sho Minamimoto and affectionately named Omega Kaiser, acts as a mental brace; because he so strongly associates playing Tin Pin with wearing Red Kaiser as a lucky charm, he has trained himself into always playing with it even though he knows intellectually that it doesn't really do anything, and as such his playing probably wouldn't be as good without it.
In action
Images
The top half of the screen displays the points in the top left corner and the amount of pins each player has remaining, the timer in the top right corner, the whammies left to use in the bottom left corner, and a map of the field (the player's pin is displayed in red). The bottom half is where the action happens!
In this screen shot, the green pin is using Sledgehammer, stunning the blue one. The green pin earns a point for this.
The centered pin has just used Stinger, stunning both the other pins on screen.
The above screenshots were lovingly ganked. The below were taken with my cellphone; apologies for the lousy quality.
This is Omega Kaiser, Shuto's Solid Slammer made for him by Sho Minamimoto (Dr. Pin) out of Ken Doi's plans for the prototype Solid Slammers.
These are the six prototype Solid Slammers that Ken Doi made.
This is Shuto's original Solid Slammer, Red Kaiser, shattered by Rhyme.
How to play
Tin Pin works somewhat like marbles but with some extra mechanics that don't exactly fly in the real world: In your attempts to 'slam' up to three other players' pins (using the badge sense of the word) off a platform (though I think that a predefined area like a circle drawn on the ground would do fine), you can make use of your pins' special abilities called whammies.
These are:
Aside from Helping Hand, the whammies work in a paper-scissors-rock fashion: Stinger beats Dive Bomber, Dive Bomber beats Sledgehammer, and Sledgehammer beats Stinger. The number of uses of each whammy and how long the paralysis lasts depends on the individual pin.
Points, known as PP, are assigned in a few ways:
The game ends either when there is only one player with pins still on the field or after a certain amount of time (I will check this). Whoever has the most points (this is often whoever still has pins to play with) is the winner.
One's pin deck can have up to six pins.
A toy worn on the arm known as a Solid Slammer can be used to initially launch the pins (I think: they are noted as taking damage somehow in rough games of Tin Pin).
How (I think) it works
TWEWY never even attempts to explain this in either continuity, so the fan theory I'm going with (adapted from one posted on TV Tropes) is that the pins' movement and whammies are controlled with very low level telekinesis. (This theory mixes both continuities somewhat, as in the main continuity, pins are largely used for psychic manipulation of elements and objects. Though I originally thought the pins were remote controlled with the Solid Slammer, a launcher for pins, as the remote, it is explicitly stated that Tin Pin can be played without one. In the words of the main continuity's Shuto: "You could play Tin Pin NAKED, man!")
That said, Shuto's psychic ability is completely limited to Tin Pin and he does not recognize it for what it is. He just thinks he has mad skills at Tin Pin.
In addition, Shuto's Solid Slammer, designed by Sho Minamimoto and affectionately named Omega Kaiser, acts as a mental brace; because he so strongly associates playing Tin Pin with wearing Red Kaiser as a lucky charm, he has trained himself into always playing with it even though he knows intellectually that it doesn't really do anything, and as such his playing probably wouldn't be as good without it.
In action
Click to viewImages
The top half of the screen displays the points in the top left corner and the amount of pins each player has remaining, the timer in the top right corner, the whammies left to use in the bottom left corner, and a map of the field (the player's pin is displayed in red). The bottom half is where the action happens!
In this screen shot, the green pin is using Sledgehammer, stunning the blue one. The green pin earns a point for this.
The centered pin has just used Stinger, stunning both the other pins on screen.
The above screenshots were lovingly ganked. The below were taken with my cellphone; apologies for the lousy quality.
This is Omega Kaiser, Shuto's Solid Slammer made for him by Sho Minamimoto (Dr. Pin) out of Ken Doi's plans for the prototype Solid Slammers.
These are the six prototype Solid Slammers that Ken Doi made.
This is Shuto's original Solid Slammer, Red Kaiser, shattered by Rhyme.