Ms. Pac-Man

"It isn't arcade perfect, but so what?"

There really isn’t any question that Ms. Pac-Man is one of the most popular and successful games of all time. It’s longevity in the arcades is renowned, and it’s hard to think of a major gaming system that has not had some version of Ms. Pac-Man on it, from the Atari 2600 right to the Playstation, N64, and Dreamcast. Some versions are more accurate than others, with the most recent systems providing the closest representations via emulation. Still, I really love the SNES version of the game, produced by Digital Eclipse and Williams. While it isn’t the most authentic Ms. Pac-Man you’ll ever find, it’s too much fun to care.

The gameplay for SNES Ms. Pac-Man is the same as it’s always been: you guide Ms. Pac around various pastel-colored mazes, eating dots and avoiding the four ghosts. Power pellets make the ghosts edible, and fruit and other goodies come dancing across the maze twice a stage for your consumption. What’s been added to the mix is the Pac Booster, an option that will make Ms. Pac move at super speed, either with the press of a button or all the time. Little lines appear behind Ms. Pac to indicate that she’s in Booster mode, which is a nice little touch. I’ve got to warn you: once you start using the Pac Booster, you’ll never want to go back to normal speed. I honestly can’t remember the last time I played the game without having it on all the time; it’s just too much fun not to. Setting the difficulty level to Crazy and turning the Pac Booster on results in one frantic experience, so I highly recommend it. The only downside of the Pac Booster is that Ms. Pac becomes quite a bit more difficult to control, so you may go flying right into the arms of a ghost unexpectedly, even though these ghosts don’t have arms.

Other additions for Ms. Pac-Man include a variety of new mazes to conquer. The manual claims there are 36 total mazes included, and I’ll just have to believe that since I never sat down and counted them myself. You can choose to just play the four original arcade mazes, as well as either the newly designed big, mini, and strange mazes. The strange mazes contain some rather bizarre designs, some containing dead ends and others with big empty spaces. The bonus fruits also change into other, more valuable things on the later strange levels. One problem that the designers encountered is the size of the mazes vs. the size of a TV screen, and the result is that every level has some degree of vertical scrolling. The mini levels have the least, and the big ones obviously have the most. It’s a compromise you learn to live with.

The standard single-player and alternating two-player options are available, and there are also a couple of two-player options for simultaneous play. Two players, one as Ms. Pac-Man and the other as Pac-Man (to help avoid confusion), can either compete or cooperate. In competitive play, when one player eats a power pellet, the other player is slowed down and cannot eat any ghosts until the effects wear off or until the weakened player eats a power pellet. In cooperative play, this doesn’t happen, and there is one total score for both players. In both modes, bumping into one another will cause each Pac to fly off in the opposite direction. These are pretty cool extra game modes, and they help add replay value to the cartridge.

Graphically speaking, this game looks pretty good. The visuals aren’t 100% like the arcade version, but the mazes are the right proportions. The changes aren’t too drastic, unless you’re some kind of ultra purist. The sounds in the game are identical to the arcade, which is something I really appreciate. From the opening tune to the ghosts getting eaten, it all sounds just right, and even the music for the bonus intermissions is perfect. Well done, Digital Eclipse.

I’m actually a little worried that I like this game too much. Playing the authentic version of Ms. Pac-Man just doesn’t seem as fun as this one now. The variety of options and modes makes this a great purchase for any fan of the classic or anyone who can appreciate life’s simpler pleasures.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/00, Updated 09/28/00