Pac-Man
Pac-Man Fever...
By Ryan GennoMarch 23, 2006
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Pac-Man
(c) Atari |
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...I'm going outta my mind.
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At least they managed to make the maze basically the same as the original.
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Finally! After getting a rather blocky,
ugly, and overall disappointing version on the old Atari 2600 this
Pac Man is actually a fairly very good arcade port that's almost
plays like the famous arcade original. Pac Man is the original
1980's legend that took the video game industry to a whole new level.
Pac Man's creator's, Toru Iwatani, actually got the idea for the
legendary character by eating a pizza with some of the slices missing,
he wondered what if the roles were reversed and the pizza itself was
hungry? Pac Man is born!
The objective in the game is simple: you are a little round yellow
creature named Pac Man, and you must complete the level be eating
up at the dots on the screen while avoiding the 4 pesky ghosts Blinky,
Pinky, Inky, and Clyde, that are trying to hunt him down. The 4 ghosts
each act differently like Blinky (Red) is the aggressive guy, Pinky
(Pink) is the sneaky one and is quite smart, Inky (Blue) can scare
easily if you look at him and is not too smart, and Clyde (Orange) acts
randomly and is the dumbest of the four but he can still get mad. Blinky
and Pinky are the ones to watch out for because they always seem to know
where Pac Man is on the board but as Pac Man moves from
level to level they all get more cleaver. As you finish each level the
game gets slightly faster each time and it here's were the real fun
starts.
Thankfully for our brave hungry hero that he can eat one of four corner
flashing power pellets so he can become the hunter now on the those
rotten ghosts and eat them for points but only for a short time, be
careful after the ghost have been eaten because they can easily
regenerate themselves thanks to the center gate and they are going to be
pretty angry. The now eatable dark blue ghosts even give you more bonus
points as you eat more than one. As you eat each ghost the points you
earn are doubled so it's 200pts for the first, 400pts for the second,
800pts for the third, and a huge 1600pts for the last but you should
also know that the ghosts will run away after you got that power pellet
so eating them all is not as easy as it sounds and in the later levels
the time you have to eat the ghost gets shorter and shorter.
There are a few differences though. The big noticeable change is the
screen is a little on the wider side now so it fits on the TV screen
better. Also the game play feels a lot faster near the beginning so it's
much tougher now. Another reason the game feels so hard is because of
those stupid non-centering controllers make it extra difficult to move
Pac Man around corners or even changing directions is a chore.
What the game lacks in controls it definitely makes up for in
presentation. Gone are the bland designs of the 2600 version, they are
now replaced with the more arcade-like black and blue mazes. It isn't
all good though, the 4 ghosts are all one single colour and have no
eyes. The game even has those cool in between game intermissions
complete with background music. Pac Man for the 5200 even sounds
like the arcade game because even the cute waka-waka is still here.
Other then a few alternations the game still has all cool Pac Man
trademarks like colourful graphics and cute sound effects all right
here. Pac Man is still kind of fun though even with the odd
controller, but be aware that this is a little on the hard side now and
it may be for everyone.
Game Data |
Scores
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| Title |
Pac-Man |
Graphics |
65% |
| Publisher |
Atari |
Sound/Music |
65% |
| Genre |
Action |
Gameplay |
50% |
| System |
5200 |
Control |
50% |
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Overall |
63% |
)