Ms. Pac-Man

"A much better port than the original was..."

Christmas morning, 1988. I had received my first game system, and as you can most certainly guess, I was ecstatic. I had been playing games five years previous to that on my brother's Atari before he moved out. Then, on Christmas, I got Atari 2600 in a time when Nintendo was putting up one hell of a fight against Atari. I got two games with my beast of a system: Desert Falcon and this one, Ms. Pac-Man. Although enthralled, I didn't immediately like Ms. Pac-Man. Being only 8 at the time, I pretty much dismissed it as a ''chick game'' and played Desert Falcon half of the time. After a long time of owning the game, I finally began to appreciate the work that went into it. Before long, this game would stand the trials of time against every other game I got. Although this wasn't my favorite Atari 2600 game, it was probably the one I played the most out of my collection. Much more work seemed to be put into this one to bring it closer to its superior (but not by much) arcade cousin, especially after the way the original Paccy turned out on Atari. If not for that, this game probably wouldn't have spent as much time in my Atari.

More Ghosts and More Pellets...
Different name, old concept, great gameplay. In Ms. Pac-Man, you play as the female counterpart of Pac-Man as she chomps her way through several different mazes. Each maze has a certain consistent number of ghosts, depending on the variation you set the game on. You can have 1-4 ghosts in the game. Unfortunately, this doesn't have the cut scenes showing the two meeting up after a certain amount of levels as the arcade version does.

It's the same basic principle as regular Pac-Man. You chomp up little pellets that are set up throughout the level while being chased by ghosts. If you're in trouble, you can eat a power pellet and gain the ability to eat the ghosts, thus causing them to go back to their little square in the middle of the screen and reclaim their bodies. After you've eaten all the pellets on the screen, you progress to the next level. Periodically, a different food item will appear and bounce around the screen (i.e. a strawberry, an apple, a pretzel).

The simple concept actually keeps the game on one, consistent, addictive binge of level by level action. It didn't matter how many times I did each level, there was always the element of suspense as you tried your damndest to get away from the ghosts. Having 4 only added to the excitement (and challenge), making the game even more fun to play. The great gameplay within such simplicity serves as some genius work on behalf of the concept design and the developer. What's better is you're not saving the world, nor are you trying to save any maidens (or men in this instance). You really don't have a major purpose or reason for the rhyme of Ms. Pac-Man venturing through a maze full of ghosts; At least not one to really worry about.

Graphics
Take a look at the original, then this bad boy. What do you see so different? Better graphics! In fact, a major graphical improvement. The design is all around better! Ms. Pac-Man looks a lot rounder than the original Pac-Man. The levels also look significantly better than before. Let's not forget the color. The color was a major touch up from just having near two-tone colors to having different colored ghosts, fruit bonuses, even Ms. Pac-Man had some color variations showing on her lipstick and bow. This added life to the simplicity, giving more genius to the design. The blandness that was the original Atari 2600 Pac-Man barely shows through in the sequel. At least we can all be happy that Pac-Man's legacy didn't die with that blocky, quacking SOB (reference to other review; shame on me!).

Sound
Does anyone remember the noise Pacy made in the first game? That ever-annoying QUACK QUACK QUACK that we could all live without. Thanks be to the gods of gaming (or at least the developers) that they took out the quacking. The pellet munching sounds much more appropriate in this one. What little music in this game also isn't too bad. The opening music isn't quite as heart-warming as the arcade game, but it is certainly nice. You also have the music that plays when you eat a power pellet. This isn't anything extremely special, but it does capture the proper ''hurry up!'' type of mood properly.

Final Word

This is everything a sequel should be. If the original is missing anything, where the original (at least the Atari 2600 version) was missing quite a bit and had lots of room for improvement. Those improvements were made here. It's seldom that we see a company actually capitalize on their earlier mistakes. How long did we play the same Mortal Kombat engine before they finally realized, ''Hey! It's the same game with different characters and new fatalities!'' The same can be said for Rampage. While they did try to add new elements to it in the PlayStation generation, it didn't really spice the game up enough to make it playable more than one time through.

Many could say that Ms. Pac-Man is your average banal sequel in comparison to arcade Pac-Man. Yes, the concept is the same, but the gameplay seems to live on. It's one of those flavors you can have a couple times before you finally get sick of it. Applause to the developers. May they have long lives and still genius ideas, even in retirement.

FINAL JUDGMENT
Graphics: A major improvement. Actually, some of the best for Atari 10/10
Sounds: Decent sound effects. The music at the start of the game is a bit corny, but not too bad. 7/10
Controls: Works very good. Not too stiff and not too over-onsive 8/10
Plot/Storyline: N/A
Gameplay: Constantly kept on your toes while avoiding those ghosts. A very good time waster, especially once you get good at it. 9/10
All Together: 9/10

Perks
*Addictive
*Decent challenge factor
*Big improvement over the first
*Good conversion from the arcade

Downers
*Still not as good or heart-warming as the arcade version

Hilarity: Two words: Floating eyes.

Recommendations
Atari fans just might like this game. If you liked Pac-Man, I think you'll enjoy this game a lot.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/30/01, Updated 01/13/03