Mac-Man

"Ooo! A Pac-Man clone for your Macintosh!"

OPENING STATEMENT
This is the most blatant clone of a game I have ever seen in my entire life. Everything about this game is Pac-Man. And the developers of Mac-Man do not even try to hide this fact. I’m surprised they have not been sued.

GAMEPLAY--8
Well, if you have ever played one of the many versions of Pac-Man you know the just of it. You take your, err, Mac-Man around to eat the yellow power pellets, while trying not to get caught by the four ghosts. There are four tiles that turn the ghosts blue, and then you can eat them. This game is basically a maze game. Each level is completed once Mac-Man has eaten all of the yellow pellets.

GRAPHICS--8
These graphics are colorful to say the least. All of the colors show up brightly against the jet black background. Everything is drawn clearly, and drawn well. The pellets are easy to see, and you can always tell which ghost is which due to the wonderful coloring. Although they are cartoonish and not detailed, and Mac-Man STILL does not have eyes, this is a wonderful job.

MUSIC--N/A
SOUND--6
There is not music in Mac-Man. How sad. I would kind of like to hear what they copied from Pac-Man. But, there are sound effects, and they fit right in with the early eighties techie theme. There are many beepy and bleepy noises, and not much else. Those bleepy noises are of good quality, but they get to be the most annoying noises you ever heard.

CONTROL--9
This control is great. It was better in the arcade, in the real Pac-Man, but this does just fine. Mac-Man responds instantly to your controls, and the buttons are all perfect for their respective duties. The arrow keys are not as good as the arcade controls, but they do just fine. Controlling in the mazes becomes second nature as you go along.

FUN--8
This game loses something in the xeroxing from the arcade to the Macintosh. There was something about the original Pac-Man, that this Mac-Man clone cannot pull off. Pac-Man had that aura of, well, being Pac-Man. This game is like an Elvis impersonator. It’s fun for a while, but you realize how much more fun it could be if the real thing was there. Even with that said, Mac-Man is a fun game. You progress through it level by level, eating all of the pellets on your way. You would think this becomes a chore, but it does not. The only problem I have with Mac-Man is that the game never ends. There are unlimited versions of the last level, and you just have to keep playing and playing it, unless you choose to quit.

CHALLENGE--LOW TO MEDIUM
This game also is easier than the arcade. And for those who do have a problem getting to the final stage, on the menu there is an option that allows you to cheat. Without even entering any codes or anything. I, personally, thought this was one of the dumbest things I have ever seen in a game in my life.

The ghosts do not follow you more and more as you progress as you do in Pac-Man. Instead they seem to constantly go on about their own business, only chasing you when you get with in three or so pellets of them.

REPLAY VALUE--MEDIUM
This game did not make me want to play it again and again nearly as much as Pac-Man did. I still played through it a few times, but I was not ‘called’ by the game to go over and play it some more. You still will play it a few times, but not constantly.

PROS
*Fairly accurate representation of a classic.
*Literally, there is no limit to amount of levels.
*Macintosh only game.

CONS
*Nothing sets it apart from Pac-Man.
*No storyline.
*Cheating is to easy to do.

CLOSING STATEMENT
Mac-Man is not much more than a blatant clone. It does not try to be. If you cannot get to the original Pac-Man and you have a Macintosh, Mac-Man is worth a try.

OVERALL--6

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/12/01, Updated 07/18/01