Today we'll take an old school trip to the vintage days of arcades as we check Arcade Game Series: Ms. Pac-Man.
Honey! Don't you know? I'm more than Pac-Man with a booooow!!
The bootleg that got Namco's blessing and became official. One of the things that made Ms. Pac-Man more unique than the original Pac-Man aside from its bootleg/unauthorized origins was the improvements in the core gameplay. Anyone who is familiar with Pac-Man will probably memorize the ghosts patterns, making the game too easy and allowing the player to play for hours. If that's your idea of playing Ms. Pac-Man, better throw that plan out of your head. The AI of the ghosts is much more of a random nature making them completely unpredictable, forcing you to be more evasive and learn when to consume a Power Pellet (Power Pill for the Atari-age gamers) for the sake of survival rather than score reaching. Speaking of score, the Fruit is no loger static on the middle of the maze, now it bumps all around the place, making you to take even more decisions. ¿Take the risk and grab the fruit, or let it disappear and stay out of the ghosts reach? would be one of the most common split decisions you'll be making in this game.
Being part of the Arcade Game Series gives you the option of activate a Stage Select option allowing you to start on a stage where you left off and even save the game before quitting. Although that will cost you the chance of entering the Leaderboards, but what really matters in this PS4/XBOX port is the achievements and trophies which are the meat of the sandwich here: 20 XBOX Achievements and 21 PlayStation trophies, being "Picky Eater", "Om nom nom x4" and "Perfect" the toughest ones due to the improved AI of the game. The stage related ones can be obtained even with the Stage Select option enabled.
Pac-Child arrived just the other day.
Came to Pac-World the usual way.
Since we're talking about a direct port of the arcade game, we have the game's graphics and sound as they were back then, with the exception of the tiny Namco logo on the title screen replacing Midway's. Honestly, I think there was enough space for both logos, especially since it was Midway who came up with the idea of this game (after picking and reworking Gencomp/General Computer Corp.'s Crazy Otto) and to be fair, they deserve some credit even if Namco is today's rightsholder. Speaking of Midway, the game utilizes the artwork of Midway's cabinets rather than Namco's "in-home" artwork like in the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 Namco Museum releases.
Take my (Pac)Breath Away
If you're looking for some good old arcade nostalgia for the whole family, then give this game a try. Also, check the documentary The History of Ms. Pac-Man from our pal PatmanQC.
The "Lea Scale" is positive again.
