Pac-Man

"Let's see Billy Mitchell get a perfect score in this version of Pac-Man."

The story how Pac-Man came about is an interesting one. Imagine sitting down for a meal and getting an idea that could both make you a lot of money, plus make video game history. That happened one day twenty-five years ago to Toru Iwatani, a young man charged with creating a new video game character that would not only appeal to men, but also to women, who really at the time didn't play videogames. After looking down one day at his pizza, he noticed that one piece was missing. That was how Pac-Man was born. The concept to the original Pac-Man was very simple. Your goal was to eat the pellets that litter the game board as well as the many kinds of fruit. You also have to deal with four ghosts that are always chasing you. By eating a power pellet, you can then eat the ghosts. A simple concept that has been played an estimated 10 billion times by people all over the world! Numerous sequels have been made, including the famous Ms. Pac-Man, which I just played a few days ago for the first time. Anyway, Pac-Man has also gone into the realm of Mobile phones as well. While a little smaller than the original, Pac-Man for your Mobile phone is a very good game.

The original concept was simple. The gameplay in any Pac-Man game is to eat pellets and collect fruit. You sometimes even eat ghosts if you eat a power pellet. That's your goal on each level, to eat the all of the pellets while avoiding the ghosts. You rack up points by doing this. After you complete each level, the speeds of the ghosts become much faster. I play Pac-Man on my Verizon Wireless LG VX8100 phone. Although you can use the number buttons to move Pac-Man, I prefer the D-pad instead. There are also three difficulty modes; easy, normal, and original. They are all the same except everything is slower in easy mode.

There are some differences between the original and your Mobile version. First, the screen is smaller, but thankfully it fits perfectly on your screen. In fact, the game on your screen has the exact same detail as the original! The sound is a different story. The classic Pac-Man song is the same as the original, but the sound Pac-Man makes when he is eating pellets is gone. When you get killed by a ghost, the sound is the same, but your phone vibrates as well.

There is of course a ton of replay value with Pac-Man. There is the goal of simply trying to beat your high score. Each game is also pretty quick, when you have a few minutes to burn. All in all though, Pac-Man on your phone is a great game to play when you got a few minutes.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/06, Updated 10/23/06