|
|
Game Information
|
Preview
|
Review |
Screenshots
|
Forum |
»Classic NES Series: Pac-Man
"Even Pac-Man Fever has its limits."
Other than such characters as Mario or Pikachu, Pac-Man is one of the
best-known video game characters of all-time. He has appeared in more
than 100 iterations of his franchise (most being alternate versions of
the same game, but still). And Namco has brought the (NES version of
the) game that started it all to the Game Boy Advance under the Classic
NES Series label. But no matter how great the earlier games are, $20.00
is too much for such a simple game (and it’s not even Ms. Pac-Man!).
In Pac-Man, you must eat all of the pellets in the maze
without losing all of your lives. In these levels, four multi-colored
ghosts roam around the maze, each with their different personality that
makes them act differently in the maze; the blue ghost is bashful and
won’t go after you too often, while the pink ghost is highly aggressive
and pursues Pac-Man far more than the other ghosts. If any one of the
ghosts touches you, you will lose a life and the level restarts
(although the pellets you’ve eaten are not there). However, there are a
couple of advantages in this four on one situation; the first is the
four large pellets in the corners of the room. When Pac-Man eats one,
the ghosts turn a unique blue color, slow down, and attempt to run away
from Pac-Man for a short period of time. The second are the “warp
points” on the left and right side of the maze, which anyone can use,
but Pac-Man can go through them the fastest. Once you have eaten all of
the pellets, you proceed to the next level, and every four levels, the
difficulty will increase (this is common in many arcade games, where
the levels will just continuously loop).
The visuals are exactly the same as they were in the NES version. Four
multi-colored ghosts chasing after a hungry all-yellow pizza trying to
survive long enough to eat all of the round dots. Outside of little cut
scenes in between a certain number of levels; there is nothing more to
the visuals than that. And the audio is even worse – even though it’s
come to be what everyone expects to hear from a Pac-Man game -–namely,
the sound of the ghosts moving and the “Wokka Wokka” sound Pac-Man
makes while eating pellets – that is the only reason I scored it the
way I did; it‘s not bad, it‘s just “weak”, so to speak. Other than the
sound of the dark blue ghosts, Pac-Man’s death, and the interludes
between some levels, there’s little to the audio whatsoever.
As one would expect, Pac-Man carries a lot of replay value. I can clear it a few times in one game, but die after a while. But even then, Pac-Man
is a fun game to replay even if you can’t clear it once. So whether you
are someone who can’t clear the first level or someone who can reach
the infamous 256th level (the “split-screen level”), this game has a
lot of grab. Even the fact that it exists on a compilation isn’t enough
for me to bash the game’s replay value ALL that much.
Overall, if it weren’t for Pac-Man Collection and the high price, Classic NES Series: Pac-Man
would have been a great game for arcade fans on the GBA. The one thing
that saved it other than being fun in its own right is that Pac-Man Collection lacks a save function. However, if I were to choose between the two, Pac-Man Collection is significantly superior solely because of this inclusion of Pac-Man Arrangement.
Article by: Alttp
Posted on: Nov. 30th, 2006 |
|
|
|
Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| Good, but like many other Classic NES/Famicom Mini games, serves no purpose (already exists on the now $10 Pac-Man Collection which has the awesome Pac-Man Arrangement). |
 |
|
|
Graphics |
| Simple, but to a fault. |
 |
|
|
Sound |
| No background music to speak of, just "Wokka Wokka" (although the fact that no one really hates the "Wokka Wokka" saves it from a three or less). |
 |
|
|
Replay Value |
| Pac-Man was MADE to be replayable. |
 |
|
|
Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
