Have you played Pac-Man? It's the new Arcade Archives game everyone is talking about.
And naturally, it's on PlayStation.
¿Have you played PlayStation today?
This entry of the Arcade Archives was much of a surprise. Not just because it's Namco's debut on Hamster's series, it's because Pac-Man is among the first three games that Bandai-Namco Entertainment released on the Arcade Archives series along with Xevious and the obscure The Genji and the Heike Clans, which is an unexpected move because they can release these by themselves by re-establishing the Arcade Game Series like they did with Dig Dug, Galaga and Pac-Man.
While everyone on this planet is familiarized with Pac-Man's gameplay, this review will talk about its Arcade Archives release. The Original Mode, unlike the many titles of Arcade Archives that allows you to play either Japanese or International version, Pac-Man only has a single option. The first thing we notice is that the game is more based on the japanese Puckman version. That can be noticed on the ghost names as Oikake/Akabei and Kimagure/Aosuke, but the game calls Puckman as Pac-Man like the Midway release. Its like "What happened here?" ¿Does Namco censored what it could be the potential japanese mode in order to avoid the [EXPLETIVE]man vandalism-joke that led to its rename as Pac-Man? Ironically, the manual calls the ghosts with the Blinky, Inky and Clyde names of the US releases, making this game a bizarre mix between japanese and american versions.
Like all the games featured on Arcade Archives, Pac-Man features Caravan Mode and Hi-Score Mode, Hi-Score Mode gives you the option to play on Endless Mode or Perfect Play Mode, the difference between them is that the game ends in level 256, which is the ultimate challenge for the Billy Mitchell level players. Caravan is your 5 minute mode where you have to reach the highest score possible before time reaches zero or losing all your lives. The fact that the timer still runs during the stage 2 cutscene rather than stopping is a testimony that Hamster hasn't fixed that. Compare that with the Time Attack from Thunder Force V: Perfect System where time stops during the boss introduction/transformation cutscenes and resuming after them.
The trophy value is small compared with the Arcade Game Series release, as the Arcade Archives release only covers the Bronze, Silver and Gold points, Mark High Score, Record Score and Hi Score Player, while the Arcade Game Series has 21, and if we compare the price of both, the Arcade Archives version is a steal of 8 dollars while the AGS release cost 4 dollars, half the price of Hamster-BNGI release, Namco really shot itself on the foot on this one.
Do I recommend this game? Well, unless you're a hardcore Pac-Man fan then pick it, otherwise stay with the Arcade Game Series release of the game, which is the same thing but cheaper and with more trophies.
Hope Namco's entry in Arcade Archives could be the trigger of future arcade relases. If they could bring us shmups like Fighter & Attacker or NebulasRay, that would be interesting.
I've could gave this review the Happy Lea score, but the $7.99 price tag
and the fact that Namco already released Pac-Man once killed that.
