PAC-MAN FOR NEO GEO POCKET COLOR


Review by Cary Woodham

(With picture captions by Reverend -=ShoEboX=-)
10/10/99

Title: Pac-Man
Format: Neo Geo Pocket Color
Publisher: Namco
Number of Players: 1
Price: $24.99
ESRB Rating: E for everyone
Reviewer’s score: **** (four out of five stars)

The Neo Geo Pocket has had it tough, being the new kid in the Game Boy dominated handheld games market. It’s sad, too, because the Neo Geo Pocket is technically a better system, with 16-bit processing, more colors, and the big plus for me - a bigger screen. But unfortunately, SNK’s marketing isn’t all that hot, and neither are most of the games. It’s a good thing our round yellow hero Pac-Man is here to save the day!


Portable salvation reaches a new level

That’s right, you can play Pac-Man on the Neo Geo Pocket! This should be a landmark for Pac-fans because for the first time ever, players can enjoy a very close rendition of the original arcade game on a portable system. Everything about this game is almost just like the original quarter-muncher, right down to the pixels in the maze. You can even see the famous "character/nickname" ghost screen.


The enemies of our redeemer are few and edible

Speaking of which, here’s a secret. Take the cartridge out of the Neo Geo Pocket and then turn it on. An options menu will come up. Turn the language selection from Japanese to English. Put the Pac-Man game back in and you can see the Japanese names of the ghosts! You’ll also be able to see the Japanese text in other games, too.


A joyful message announcing the return of our round yellow savior and an epilepsy warning...all on the same two-page spread.

Anyway, I’m going to start this review rather unorthodoxically by commenting on the instruction booklet. For Pac-fans, this is almost worth the price of the game alone. You get really nifty drawn art of Pac-Man on every page (I prefer 2-D drawn art over 3-D renders). My favorite is the one on the first page where Pac-Man holds up a sign that says "Hi! I’m back!" Namco finally got the ghosts names right, too. You may remember that in the Namco Museums, sometimes they’d refer to the red ghost as Clyde. Well, the instruction booklet for this game has them correct again, except that Pinky is female, which I never quite understood.


Pinky for the 90's - Out of the closet and on the attack

Like I said before, this is a very close rendition of Pac-Man (if I have to explain the gameplay rules to Pac-Man, then you don’t belong here). I’m sure it’s not emulated, so patterns won’t work, but it’s still fun. I guess my only gripe is that some of the sound effects aren’t perfect, but they’re close enough. One interesting thing about the play control is that the Neo Geo Pocket has an analog stick, so Pac-Man comes with these little plastic things that you put over the joystick to make it a 4-way directional controller. I’m not sure how it works, but it does. The game comes with three of these plastic things, so if you loose them you’re out of luck I guess. You can choose a scrolling or full screen maze, so you either have pixel by pixel accuracy or the ability to see the whole maze.

So, how does it stack up against the Game Boy Color version of Pac-Man? Well, with the Neo Geo version, you’re getting a very exact Pac-Man game, but that’s all you’re getting. The Game Boy version isn’t as accurate, but you also get the bonus puzzle game Pac-Attack, so you’re getting more for your money. So, in most cases I’d recommend the Game Boy one, unless you’re a Pac-Man freak like me and you have to have them both. Either way, you’ll never be hungry for fun again with Pac-Man!

Cary Woodham is a freelance game reviewer for the Dallas Morning News and an avid Pac-Fanatic.
Reverend -=ShoEboX=- is a big scary man and you should not let him near your pets.



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