Jr. Pac-Man

"Are We SURE This is an Atari 2600 Game?"

I gave the game a 10, but in reality, this game deserves about a 30. Seriously, this is THE BEST game for the Atari 2600! If you have a 2600, and you don't have this game, you're really, REALLY missing out!

The concept, like in all Pac-Games, is simple: you are Jr. Pac-Man, and you have to eat all of the line segments scattered throughout the maze. The maze is BIG, though, and you will have to scroll up and down through the level to see it all. Also, there are four ghosts that want to make things difficult for Jr. Pac-Man: Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Tim (Clyde's apparently vacationing). If any of these ghosts touch Jr. Pac-Man, he loses a life. If he loses all of his lives, the game is over. However, Jr. Pac-Man can temporarily eat the ghosts, rather than the other way around, by eating a large, flashing line segment called a power pill. The ghosts all turn blue and get funny facial expressions, and Jr. Pac-Man can eat them for 200, 400, 800, and 1600 points respectively. However, they don't stay blue very long--eventually, they start to flash, which means they're about to turn back to their normal colors and become lethal again. The power pills last less time each level that goes by... heck, by level THREE, the ghosts flash immediately upon eating a power pill... yep, the ghosts don't stay blue as long as they did in Ms. Pac-Man, so get used to it! One upside, though, is that you get 6 power pills in each level rather than 4, like his parents' got. You'll be needing them!

Also worth noting are bonus items that bounce around the maze from time to time, such as bicycles, balloons, and mugs full of root beer. They're not as innocent as his parents' bonus fruits though--when these things touch a line segment, they make it larger, and these, though worth more points when eaten, take longer to eat, thus slowing Jr. Pac-Man down--dangerous when you're being chased by ghosts! Also, when a bonus item touches one of the 4 corner power pills, they both explode! No more bonus item to eat, and perhaps worse, no more power pill to turn the ghosts blue! To avoid this, try to eat the bonus items as soon as they appear!

Graphics (10/10): I'll bet many people who have been playing their Atari 2600s for years, upon first playing this game, were in for a pleasant surprise--these graphics are GOOD! Not just good for an Atari 2600, but good for many later video games for even the NES! True, it wasn't arcade perfect, but you can't really expect that much from the 2600 now. Jr. Pac-Man's beanie actually spins around, the ghosts eyes look in the direction they are moving, the ghosts eyes look pretty cool (which appear after eating a ghost).

Sound/Music (10+/10): If you thought the game LOOKED good, you haven't yet heard what sounds come from this game! The sounds are ALMOST arcade-perfect, and the few sounds that aren't identical are still very similar, so you can tell they tried as hard as they could to get the sounds dead-on! The ghost siren, PERFECT! The power pill music, PERFECT! What's really sad is that the sounds on this Atari 2600 game are BETTER than the sounds for Ms. Pac-Man on the Game Boy Color... SIXTEEN YEARS LATER, and the old Atari 2600, usually made fun of for awful sounds and music in many a game, sounds better than a similar game made for a system 16 years later! If that's not truly amazing, I don't know what is!

Control (10/10): Move up, down, left, and right, that's all you do. The control feels fine, so long as you're using a joystick that's in good condition.

Fun (10/10): This game is a jolly good challenge, harder than Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, but to ease things, you can start on any of the first seven levels, AND you can change the number of ghosts from 1 to 4 (funny, when you play with only one ghost, it's Tim, the easiest of the four ghosts as it is).

Overall (10/10): This game just proves what the Atari 2600 is capable of. Which is nothing by today's standards, but was something unique back in 1983!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/14/01, Updated 07/14/01