While I wasn’t that big of a fan of the original Pac-Man as I was of Ms. Pac-Man, I do like the ladies, I still decided to pick this game up when it was released day one because I figured why the hell not. If I was going to get Ms. Pac-Man I might as well get Pac-Man. I also got Dig Dug, but that’s another blog. Anyway, not having much experience in the Pac-Man world, I decided to give it a try. Keep reading to find out what I thought about Ms. Pac-Man’s other half.
Unlike Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man doesn’t tell the same or even a similar story in the cut scenes that happens between different rounds. This was a little upsetting because even though after a while the Ms. Pac-Man scene got repetitive, it was still something. After the third cut scene, it’s the same thing over and over again. Pac-Man first gets chased by the ghost before following him back, in the second cut scene the ghosts rips a little piece of ghost flesh off of himself, and finally in the third the patched up ghost is chasing after Pac-Man before coming back without his skin at all. Kind of gross, but whatever. Not only are the cut scenes bland, the map is as well. Compared to Ms. Pac-Man which has a changing map every so many levels, Pac-Man stays with the same map for every single level.
While the non-changing maps did allow me to learn better patterns and learn the ins and outs of the map, I did miss the challenge of learning a new map every so many rounds. After a while playing the same map over and over again became boring even though the amount of time you had before the ghosts changed from blue back to normal changed. Other than that it was basically the same wash, rinse, and repeat formula of Ms. Pac-Man. While I’m not spending thousands of hours playing it, it was fun while it lasted.
As with Ms. Pac-Man I didn’t experience any game breaking bugs or glitches which is also a good thing. Unlike Ms. Pac-Man though, I didn’t run into any of the same controller issues that I had making me know for sure that it was the game and not my controller that was acting all weird. Moving Pac-Man around the map, whether you were using the left stick or the d-pad was responsive and caused less running into edges and less dying which is always a good thing.
The Arcade Game Series is sticking with the same pattern throughout each of the games that they released which is the original graphics from that game, which is cool because it’s retro, along with the side panels of the screen representing the actual arcade machine that the game comes from. As with Ms. Pac-Man I really enjoyed this style of graphics and I didn’t find the sides to be distracting or have the need to make the board bigger to eliminate the side graphics.
Since Ms. Pac-Man had trophies, why shouldn’t Pac-Man! Pac-Man comes with 21 total trophies, including a platinum, that are similar to Ms. Pac-Man with a couple of different trophies as well. All trophies are pretty easy to get, but there are some trophies that will offer you a challenge and take just a little bit of time to actually get. It’s not an impossible trophy list though and there really shouldn’t be anything standing in your way of getting the platinum.
I was also a little disappointed that this game didn’t have good old fashioned couch co-op. I feel like with this series of games, something like this would have only enhanced the whole experience instead of making it just a one player thing. Competing for high scores with friends is fun and this series could have really capitalized on it. There is a leader board but that will not be discussed because my high score was just atrocious.
Overall I give this game a 4 out of 5.
What’s Great:
+ Good old Pac-Man!
+ No game breaking bugs or glitches, and better controls than Ms. Pac-Man
What’s Not so Great:
– Story and cut scenes are more repetitive than Ms. Pac-Man and after a while it gets a little boring.
– Missed opportunity for couch co-op, huge opportunity missed.
Even though I still like Ms. Pac-Man better, this was a fun game while it lasted. Will it stay on my system so that I can play every once in a while, no, but it was well worth the $3.99 price tag that it came with. If you’re a Pac-Man fan I would say that this is a game that can’t be missed since this will probably take you back to the good old days of the original Pac-Man before it was turned into something that’s completely different like “Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures”. If you’re not a Pac-Man fan I would probably say to give this one a pass for now since it will probably go on sale or be free thanks to PS+ at some point in the future.
1 Broke Gamer Girl 