Pac-Land

"Seems to be mainly for children"

Why do I say this game is probably just for children? Read below and you'll find out.

Gameplay 4/10: The game was only hard because of the controls. You jump using the d-pad rather than the buttons. The I button is to run foward and the II button helps you slow down and run the other way. If you barely tap the buttons at times you'll fall off a cliff without realizing how hard you hit the button. And for those of us who are used to maneuvering with the d-pad will get angry when they tap it to only jump onto a ghost. The ghosts come at you in different ways and pac-man has only one weapon which doesn't show up a lot: the energy ball. Yes, touch it and the ghosts, like in the original pac-man, will become helpless. It's so easy, yet with the controls, it's really hard. Not only do you have the ghosts coming at you in formations that are sometimes impossible to avoid, you have a timer PLUS some purple ghost right behind you waiting to touch you and kill you.

Story 6/10: Pac-man has to save a princess. Wow. Where have we heard this before? There are about 3 levels per trip and in the 3rd stage of a trip, pac-man gets these shoes that let him sort of ''fly''. And he goes back to Ms. Pac-man and Baby Pac. That doesn't make sense. Pac-man is trying to rescue a princess fairy and yet he goes back to his family and the end of each trip.

Graphics 6/10: Basically I've seen graphics about the same on older systems. The graphics are good, don't get me wrong, but it's still the same stuff we usually see.

Replayability 3/10: You get infinite continues and you usually die alot because of the poor controls. So the only way you might want to replay this is to see if you can die less per stage. Other than that, I don't think I'll be going back to this game for a long time.

Buy/Rent 4/10: If you're a die hard Pac-man fan and just have to have this no matter what, get it. Otherwise, don't waste your time. The original pac-man where he eats the dots is far better than this.

Why do I say this is a kids game? Basically, many of us remember the old pac-man eating the dots. Now that's the pac-man we all love. This game just blows the entire thoughts of pac-man out the window. With infinite continues this game will tell children that even though they lost all their lives, they can go back and try again! Other than that, teens on up will want to slam/throw/break their controls/game/tv/console because of the frustration of this game. I did, and I haven't felt that way about a game in years!

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 10/13/01, Updated 10/13/01