Ms. Pac-Man

"A rather boring and forgettable port of a classic arcade game"

I think it's pretty safe to assume that everybody who visits this site has played a version of Pac-Man one time or another, whether it was the original or Ms. Pac-Man. It's a timeless series. It, of course, originated in the arcades, but was ported over to home consoles and PCs innumerable times. This version, for the Super NES really falls into a more mediocre section. Sure, it's Ms. Pac-Man, a classic, but some of the changes are just way out there and don't do much for the game.

The premise of the series has always been simple. Collect all the dots on the map and move on. Of course each level is populated by the persistent ghost crew of Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Sue (who was originally Clyde). These four will try and hurt you on your way. If you touch them you die. You can collect Power Pellets, usually in the corners of the map which turn the ghosts blue, which now allow you to eat them yourself. Talk about payback. The game is controlled fairly well with the D-Pad, but it doesn't quite substitute for a good old joystick.

The original arcade version of Ms. Pac-Man expanded upon the original Pac-Man game in several ways. One was the fact that it actually added some semblance of a story. While there is no actual dialogue, but they show animated sequences dealing with the meeting of the two and their eventual offspring. After a while though, they just keep repeating. Honestly, I don't think this really adds much to the game at all, but it's certainly a somewhat interesting diversion. Also changed is the fact that the fruit powerups that once stood in place in the original Pac-Man now move in different directions (and make a tremendously annoying sound as they bounce on the walls).

Of course as hinted in the title, the main character is a female complete with a ribbon and make-up. Why did they change this? Apparently this was done to attract more female gamers to the arcades, where it was becoming a righteous sausage-fest. Not that things are any different today, but whatever. It should also be noted that this original arcade version of Ms. Pac-Man was not billed as an official Namco sequel, and instead created for the US market by the US publisher Midway. Midway was apparently a little ticked off at Namco for waiting so long to release the true sequel to the game (Super Pac-Man). It's interesting too because it seems that Ms. Pac-Man is far more popular in America today. Most of the machines you see around are actually this game and not the original Pac-Man.

Anyway, the game looks rather nice for an ages old arcade game, and the port to the Super NES is rather faithful. Still, Ms. Pac-Man is leagues away from pushing the Super NES to its graphical limits. It's colorful and has many things moving. Of course it's on an all-black background. The sounds are also nice too, the dying sound the perpetual beeping as the pellets are picked up. These are some classic sounds people. The music while nothing special by today's standards are fairly catchy and are among the most recognized of all videogames. They also hold together nicely on the Super NES.

For the Super NES, it appears Williams was given a large amount of leeway in adding features to it. Some of these features are weird. One is the Pac-Boost which puts lines on the back of Ms. Pac-Man and it makes her move much, much faster. This definitely does affect the levels and tends to make them easier. Also added is the Co-Op mode where two people play at the same time as two characters (one Ms. Pac-Man and one Pac-Man himself). This is perhaps the best of the additions made, but this can only last so long. There's a competitive mode as well where the people go together but they can bump into each other and knock each other flying. The object of competitive mode is to get higher points than the person you are playing with; in Co-Op you have a pooled score.

The port also adds three different sets of mazes in addition to the already established arcade ones. They are Big mazes, Small mazes, and Strange mazes. The first two aren't much different than the arcade ones. They just fittingly change in size. The Strange are appropriately strange. Some of them sort of work, but others are just weird like ones with tons of black space with no walls in the area. It makes it difficult to move in. They do offer a change from the original formula, but they are way too different and seem almost broken.

In conclusion, this is really isn't a very noteworthy port at all. The additions it has are either minor or feel broken. That being said, it's still Ms. Pac-Man, a classic game, and if you see this used for rather cheap I wholeheartedly recommend it. However, back in the day this port was ultimately forgettable. Watch out for the strange mazes.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/20/05