"A classic, sure. But is it worth buying?"

Nintendo's Classic NES Series was designed (in my opinion) to give newer gamers, like myself, a chance to experience some of it's most famous Nintendo Entertainment System games, and some not so well known (how many times have you heard the word Xevious?) Now, Pac-Man, while not being famous as a NES game, is one of the most famous videogames of all time, dominating arcades and inspiring countless pieces of merchandise. So, how does it hold up on the GBA?

Pac-Man's gameplay is very simple. You move Pac-Man with the d-pad, around a maze, which is full of pellets. Eat all the pellets in a stage, and you advance to the next one. In your path are ghosts, who chase you, but can be countered by eating a power pellet. Four of those power pellets are placed in the corners of the maze, and consumption of them turns the ghosts blue, they now run from (and can be eaten by) Pac Man, although the effects only last a certain amount of time. You can also gobble up random fruit for points. Each stage makes the ghosts tougher, but the maze doesn't change. That's all there is to it.

The gameplay is, at its core, solid, but gets repetitive, with playing the same stage, with the same characters, over and over. It is best enjoyed in short spurts, playing a few stages at a time, rather than extended play, like with an RPG.

The graphics and sound, as you would expect from a NES/Arcade game, are, to say the least, dated. Although the character designs posses an old school charm, Pac-Man is still, a yellow circle with part of it cut out (resembling a pizza with a slice missing), with the field of battle a set of lines with dots in-between.The sound is simply different beeps, no orchestra here. In both fields, the GBA is capable of much, much more.

There is a two player mode, but it consists of people taking turns, no simultaneous play. Aside from that, and saving high scores, there are no extras. If you really like the gameplay (I believe there are 256 stages), and are content with that, and nothing new, this will suit you fine. If you crave anything innovative, or simply something you didn't experience in the 80's or 90's, you're out of luck.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/08/05