Now available for the Game Boy Color:

Reverend Shoebox's Review
9/24/00

BACKGROUND
Rejoice, brethren! The holy priests of Namco, in an ongoing effort to keep the classic Games of the Man of Pac alive, have brought forth into the world a new portable adaptation of the game that gave a bride unto the great yellow one! It's Ms. Pac-Man for the Game Boy Color! And for those of you who haven't yet purchased Nintendo's latest pathetic attempt to revamp the outdated 8-bit portable game system that just won't die, it also plays on the original Game Boy and the Super Game Boy (that ugly little grey thing that lets you play Game Boy games on your SNES.)

This game has actually been out for months now, but I just now got my review copy after relentlessly badgering the good folks at Namco. It should be available even as we speak at every store in your area, with the possible exception of Taco Bell. If you visit a store and find they don't have this game, feel free to grab the manager by the shirt, shake him violently, and scream "BRING ME THE PORTABLE INCARNATION OF THE BRIDE OF MY WONDEROUS HUNGRY REDEEMER!" The First Church of Pac-Man will not pay your bail money, but we might send you a postcard if we have time.

The most important thing about this game, from a historical and twisted spiritual perspective, is that it also contains a bonus game: SUPER PAC-MAN! This is the first time this game has ever been released on a portable system. I believe this is also only the second time that it's ever been officially released for ANY home system, the first being for the Playstaion in Namco Museum vol. 2 (A prototype was made for the Atari 800 home computers back in the early 80's, which I'm lucky enough to have a copy of, but it was never officially released.)

I will now begin lovingly picking apart both of these games. I will try to avoid pointing out every flaw with Trekkie-like precision, but as I've mentioned before, I'm more an obsessed fanatic than a game reviewer.


The yellow one's beautiful bride in classic black-and-white and ravishing color


THE FEATURED GAME: MS. PAC-MAN

This is NOT an emulated game, and it is NOT by any means an exact clone. It is, however, a very good adaptation of the arcade classic. The graphics are smoother and more rounded than the original, the "chomping" animation is slower and shows more detail, and the characters and fruit seem bigger. The detail and colors look excellent on the GBC screen, and the gameplay, though not perfect, definitely seems right. The intermissions, though a bit choppy and not exactly like they were in the arcade game, have also been preserved.

The best thing about this game is the 2-player mode. No simultaneous play, unfortunately, but in this mode the 2nd player gets to play as the original wonderous circle of hunger himself (drum roll...) PAC-MAN! So if you've ever wanted to see Pac-Man chasing bouncing fruit through the Ms. Pac-Man mazes, Rejoice!! This is your day! Namco was also nice enough to force a pause between player one's turn and player two's turn so that the current player must press start to begin, thus eliminating the situation where your sister loses a life and tries to hand the Game Boy over to you but just then the car goes over a bump and she drops the Game Boy and it slides under the car seat and Dad refuses to pull over so you've got to stick your hand down there and blindly rummage through years of empty soda cans and McDonald's bags and that green sticky melted-lollipop-ish substance that somehow always manages to accumlate under car seats and when you finally find the Game Boy and pull it out you find that your character has already been killed and your sister says "Okay, my turn!" and you have no choice but to spit Yoo-Hoo into her hair.

The worst thing about this game is, as is always the case when Pac-Man games come to portable consoles, the control. Maze games were never meant to be played with little control pads, and it's very easy to lose a life simply because you tried to go down a corridor and missed. This game desperately requires a joystick, and unfortunately I don't believe there is such a thing in the world of Game Boy. Maybe this is something one can eventually get used to, but I think I'm going to try gluing a chopstick to my system's control pad.

The priests of Namco were nice enough to offer two maze views in this game; regular view and "1/2 maze" view. The regular view shows all of the detail wonderfully, but unfortunately has a scrolling screen, meaning you can't see all the ghost monsters at once. This is a big problem when you try to use the side tunnels. The "1/2 maze" view shows the entire maze at once, but you lose a lot of the detail with this view and it's a bit harder to make out the players without one of those screen-magnifier things. This is due to the unfortunate limitations of the Game Boy's screen, and the simple fact that it's SMALL. A small observation: Namco could have made more of the screen visible in the regular view simply by eliminating the giant chunk of wasted space on the right side of the screen which simply shows the score and the number of lives you have remaining.

As for the sounds...it's obvious that Namco TRIED to make them sound like the original arcade game noises, but they just DON'T. I'm guessing that this is once again due to the system's limitations...the Game Boy's sound hardware has never been impressive.

All in all, despite the shortcomings mentioned above, this is the best portable adaptation of Ms. Pac-Man I've ever played (with the possible exception of playing the Genesis version of Ms. Pac-Man on the Nomad, but does that count?) Despite the system's limitations, the 1/2 screen option is a great compromise between visibility range and detail, and seeing Pac-Man on the Ms. Pac-Man screen gave me tingles in places I didn't know could tingle.


Behold, the King of Hunger has taken a new form!

THE BONUS GAME: SUPER PAC-MAN

I've already discussed how important it is to me that this game has finally been released for a portable system, so I'll shut up about that now and simply discuss the gameplay. For those of you who have never played Super Pac-Man (you should be ASHAMED of yourselves, you cretins!) it is a very bizarre Pac-Man sequel with very different gameplay. Rather than dots, this time the righteous eater of all is simply after fruit...and all the fruit has been locked behind gates. Fortunately, Pac-Man can open the gates simply by eating keys (don't try this at home,) and in addition to four power pellets, he also has two Super power pellets available per screen (often called "Steroids" by sinners, blasphemers, and Marioists) which allow him to temporarily become (Bum Bum BUMMMMMM...) SUPER PAC-MAN! Super Pac-Man is basically a double-sized Pac-Man who is invulnerable to ghosts and can break down gates.

Again, this is not emulated, and it's not an exact clone...but it is an EXCELLENT adaptation. Even the ghost movements (including that weird "googly-eyed" state they enter every once in a while for some unknown reason) seem right, and the intermissions have once again been preserved. There's also a "Super Speed" button you can use to speed up while you're Super Pac-Man. I don't recall ever seeing this in the arcade game, so I'm gonna assume this is a bonus feature.

Like Ms. Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man has both a regular view and a "1/2 screen" view available. The first thing Namco did right with this game was to take away that stupid block on the right side of the screen showing your score and the number of lives you have. This means you have to pause if you want to see this information, but who cares? More maze visibility is a good thing. Unfortunately, Namco put the stupid block BACK on the screen in the "1/2 screen view," and therefore this view is useless, since it makes the maze so small that you can't even make out the gates.


How can one open gates which one cannot see?

In general, I am very happy with the Super Pac-Man adaptation...it is an excellent adaptation of this lesser-known form of the Man of Pac. Even the sounds are close to the arcade sounds in this one...it is really a rather well-researched and well-written adaptation. But fix the damned 1/2 screen view, Namco!!

CONCLUSION

I've put these games under a microsope, and I'm aware that the average player wouldn't bother. But it is my holy quest to make certain that all incarnations of Our Blessed Hungry Redeemer are worthy tributes to his shining yellow glory, which touches us all as we eat of the dots and fruit of life. The imperfections I have discovered may make some believers turn away, and such is their choice. I personally recommend this release despite the flaws, as overall both games are among the best portable Pac-Man games I have ever played.

Namco obviously plans to continue bringing portable salvation to the masses as time marches on, and this release is proof that the classic games of Pac-Man will continue to grace every platform as long as the High Priests of Namco live.

Go forth, my brethren, and buy this here game.


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