Pac-Man

"An almost perfect arcade port!"

Pac-man was a craze of the early 80's. We all know that the Atari 2600 version was just plain bad. The Atari 5200 is great! The graphics are arcade perfect (if the ghosts had eyes) and pac-man looks in different directions (unlike 2600 version). Even the cut scenes are there! This game is just awesome! There are all the levels that were in the arcade pac-man, and there is a 2 player mode to boot! Where you and a friend can go back and forth, seeing who will get the higher final score... that is, if you actually have 2 working 5200 controllers. (which is no easy feat! believe me!)

Graphics: 9.8
Arcade perfect, if only the ghosts had eyes. The dots are circles (not dashes like in 2600). Pac man has more animation. The game is really a shocker when it is seen. Trust me. Atari must have really taken pride in making this excellent game!

Sound: 8.8
There is all the sound effects that are present in the arcade version but the arcade had very few sounds and so does this version. There is the music when it says ''Ready'' and in the cut scenes. If only there was a bigger variety of sounds this would have been a 10! How many times can you listen to the stupid noise pac-man makes when he eats a dot?!?! Also after you play for a while, you will learn to dread that annoying noise when the ghosts run away.

Gameplay: 9.5
The game is really cool (but you know that!). You go around eating dots and avoid the ghosts, if you get a super dot the ghosts become blue and you can eat them. The game is simple and fun. I just wish there was a variety in the levels, all of them are layed out the same! The game is pretty adicting, trying to beat your last high score, or your friends high score.

Replay: 9
It's pac-man! The game is just awesome! The difficulty level you can select helps. 2 players is the best but it is hard to find somebody with 2 working 5200 controlers. If only there was level varietion like in Ms. Pac-man! Well it's an instant classic none the less. The games fun helps the replay very much.. i guess what I'm saying, if you don't like pac-man, you won't like this game, but that's a given.

OVERALL: 9.3
a great Atari 5200 classic.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/26/01, Updated 03/06/01