Pac-Man

"Peck peck peck peck peck.....Zzzzzzzzzzzzz"

Warning: This is going to be a boring review. *waits for reader to click another link*
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Still here? Amazing. I recommend reading other reviews on the site, they adequately describe this game. *waits for reader to click the ''reviews'' link.*
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STILL here? Oh well, be ready for an extremely boring analysis on one of the oldest and most boring game on the planet.......

Gameplay : 5

You are a yellow, round little thingy. You have sight capabilities, and can open something equivalent to a mouth for about a fraction of an inch. Your main diet consists of delicious, bright, yellow, squarish little dots lining a maze. 4 ghosts, locked up in a box and released as soon as the annoying music finishes, chase you around with no sense of direction, for reasons since long forgotten. On occasion, you will encounter a large dot at the 4 corners of the maze, which grants you magic powers, enabling you to maintain your looks while causing the ghosts to turn pale and run from you in fear. You may indulge yourself in these rare, wondrous feasts of ghostly flesh only for a while, as they slowly lose their fear and turn back to normal colors. Upon consuming a deep fried ghost, you spit out their eyes - mainly because they taste terrible, whereupon the eyes miraculously find their way back to their box, regenerate their bodies and come out looking for blood.

Yup. That's about it. Yawn. No ''fruit'' below the box (a miserable yellow square). There are 2 holes at the sides of the maze which magically teleport you to the other side, and gameplay basically consists of avoiding the ghosts and munching dots. Mmmmmmhhhhhh... dots..... While entertaining for a while, it starts to get boring after a few levels. While this was an era way back in the 80's, this arcade port was boring to play even then. Levels didn't vary - they were exactly the same throughout. Ghosts basically get faster and faster while you remain at a snail's pace, eventually forcing you to concede defeat and admire those lovely words, ''game over''.

Graphics : 3

As for graphics, it's bad. Basically, there are only 3 colors, black, blue, yellow. Ghosts are indistinguishable from one another. In fact, they are exactly the same color as you are. Even the dots are of the same color. Wonderful world packy lives in. While I am aware of the Atari's limitations, I've seen games with better graphics on it. Like pitfall. And the arcade version of this game looked far better, with different colors for the ghosts, a higher resolution and a better looking maze.

Sound: 4

There's only one piece of music, and it is horrible. Huh, what does it sound like? Something like :do-do-do-do-do-do-doo-doo-doo-doo-do-do. Yeah, great huh? As for the sound when he eats a dot.....peck. Yup. peck. Nice ring to it eh? Ok, it sounds bad. Real bad. Oh, and the sound when he eats a ghost? Bruuop. Don't ask about his death cry. It's the worst.

Replay : 4

There's nothing to motivate you to keep playing. The stages are the same throughout, there's no music, the sound's horrible.....well, I don't need to continue, do I?

Controls : 5

The controls aren't that bad. However, the Atari joystick sometimes has problems telling old packy to move right when you want to. I found that the response wasn't sharp, and was slow. Overall, controls are a little stiff.

Final thoughts:

Ok, I did play this a lot back then. Mainly because I had nothing else to play. However, it pales in comparison to the arcade and other Pac man games, which at least looked batter and had stage variations. The other pac man games are a lot more fun and I strongly urge you to stay away from this version.

Overall : 4

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 11/15/01, Updated 11/15/01