Pac-Mania (Arcade) Review

Not much to say here... here's my review of Pac-Mania!

***

STORY

The same as Pac-Man.  The ghosts want to kill you... and that's it. For any arcade game, it's an easy 5/5. 

5/5

GAMPLAY

This is the same game as Pac-Man, except it's better. Pac-Man comes with the ability to jump over ghosts, which comes with its benefits and problems.

By the time you get to the third world (and yes, there's worlds) ghosts are granted the ability to jump and increase in number. Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde are joined by a purple ghost (I always thought it was Sue from Ms. Pac-Man), along with up to two green ghosts (Funky) who can jump half as high as Pac-Man and up to two black ghosts (Spunky) who jump just as high as Pac-Man. The Spunkys in particular can catch you off-guard when you jump over a group of ghosts and he jumps up and kills you.

There are also two powerups added to the game. They appear randomly along with the fruit. The pink pellet is a super-short acting Power Pellet that grants double points if you can catch a ghost while its active. The green pellet increases your speed, which I find hinders me more than it helps.

All in all, it's a lot more complicated than Pac-Man while still maintaining the original idea.

5/5

GRAPHICS

This game is beautiful. It looks like 3-D graphics when it isn't. This also helps a lot when playing the game because it is easy to see where you are MOST of the time. Sometimes I think I'm going to eat a Power Pellet just before a ghost and yet the ghost hits me first.

4/5

MUSIC & SOUND

The score is phenominal. The port of the game on Pac-Man Collection shortens the tracks, which is disappointing, but most ports get it right.

The soundtrack for Pac-Man Park was actually my cell phone ringtone for a short period of time!

5/5

PLAYABILITY

Unlike Pac-Man, this doesn't feel repetitive, since there are multiple worlds to eat dots in and the changing number of ghosts make each maze feel different.

5/5

IMPACT

No emotional impact, but none was expected.

This SHOULD be a revolutionary game, but it isn't for some reason. I guess it doesn't matter since it improved on arguably the most revolutionary game of all time.

5/5

TOTALS

5 + 5 + 4 + 5 + 5 + 5 29 / 30 97 %