Now available for the Game Boy Color:
Reverend Shoebox's Review
9/27/99
BACKGROUND
First of all, this is the first game I've ever played on the
Game Boy Color, so I have to say a couple of words about the system.
It's decent. The screen is VERY sharp, the unit is very light, it
only uses two batteries, and the concept of the "infrared game link"
is wonderful to me. But it DOESN'T HAVE A BACKLIT SCREEN!! What kinda
cheap crap is that? I've got three other color systems (a Lynx,
a Game Gear, and a Nomad) and they're all backlit. What's wrong
with you, Nintendo? It's a good 8-bit portable system...and any
competition it might have had has already been pushed into
premature obsoletion by the tyrannic rule of the original Game Boy.
But I've certainly seen better.
Now, onto the game.
THE GAME
It's Pac-Man! The wondrous ever-hungry yellow mouth of justice
all of us know, many of us love, and some of us have a frighteningly
obsessive spiritual attachment to. This is an adaptation of the
original arcade game, complete with intermissions. It plays on the
Game Boy Color, and also on the original Game Boy (it even plays on
the SNES's Super Game Boy adapter, although you don't get full color.)
If you have a friend with the same game, you can link up and challenge
each other to a 4-level contest...whoever has the highest score (or
is still alive) wins. But wait, there's more! Pac-Man: Special
Color Edition also comes with a bonus game: The tetris-ish puzzle
game Pac-Attack. I'll discuss Pac-Attack in a minute.
Let's pick at the classic.
My first major gripe about this version of Pac-Man is that it has a
scrolling screen, despite the fact that the screen shown on the box
is a FULL screen. I don't know if this is avoidable when you're
dealing with a playing field as small as the Game Boy's, but it's damned
annoying. It's hard to tell where all the ghosts are or where that
last dot is when you can't see the whole screen at once. *
So far, the Atari Lynx version of Ms. Pac-Man is the only portable
Pac-game I've seen that manages to fit the whole maze on the
screen, and they sacrificed graphics to do it. My second gripe is that THIS IS NOT
AN EMULATED VERSION OF PAC-MAN. It's pretty good, but it's
a REPROGRAMMED game. Purists won't be happy.
It's somewhat easier than the original, and your favorite arcade
patterns won't work. My third gripe is that the sound isn't true
to the original, although I guess it's pretty close, given that we're
talking about Game Boy hardware here, and my final gripe, which is
not a particularly fair one, is that playing Pac-Man with a Game
Boy "joypad" rather than a joySTICK is just plain WRONG!!!
Now for the game's good points. First of all, the color is fantastic.
Second of all, the intermissions are RIGHT, and are a lot of fun to
watch. Third of all, even though this is a reprogrammed game, it's
still GOOD. I enjoy it. But I think the most important thing about
this game is the fact that it EXISTS. Every game system needs a
Pac-Man adaptation, and although this one isn't perfect, it plays
like a good clone and it's definitely worth getting so you can
play Pac-Man on the road, in waiting rooms, at work, or during
funerals.
THE BONUS GAME
Included as a bonus, as mentioned earlier, is Pac-Attack, which,
in case you've never played it, is a tetris-inspired puzzle game
starring Pac-Man and several red ghosts. This game was previously
released on its own for a few home systems, and never did particularly
well. I have the Genesis version, and I think it's a lot of fun.
Shapes made up of blocks, ghosts, and a Pac-Man drop from the sky,
and you stack them up. Completed rows of blocks (with no ghosts in
them) disappear and give you points. If you drop a Pac-Man, he will move in
whatever direction he's facing and eat any ghosts in his path. It
takes a few minutes to get the hang of how Pac-Man moves, but once
you get this, it's a very addictive game.
Pac-Attack has two modes; "normal mode," in which you're simply trying
not to fill the screen, and "puzzle mode," in which you have to eat
a certain number of ghosts to progress through 100 set levels (with
a password save.) I personally recommend the puzzle mode after you've
gotten the hang of normal play.
CONCLUSION
I realize that I judged this version of the Game of Games harshly.
So will other Pac-Man fans. But the truth is, despite its failings,
it's definitely worth getting. Having Pac-Man on your Game Boy Color
is like portable salvation. Wherever you are, whatever you're
doing, the yellow one is in your hands...and he's actually YELLOW,
which is certainly a plus. And Pac-Attack, the bonus game included
with barely a hint of the fanfare it deserves, is a must-have
if you don't already own it for another system.
Here's hoping for an emulated handheld Pac-Man game in my lifetime.
-=Reverend Shoebox=-
* CORRECTION
A day after putting this review up, I was informed by loyal Pac-fan
Dustin Friend that you -CAN- in fact play a full-screen maze in
this version of Pac-Man. From the Pac-Man "one player or two player"
selection screen, press the joypad to the right. This will cause a
"1/2" symbol to appear. Then press start, and you'll be playing
full-screen Pac-Man! This is mentioned in the instruction booklet,
but I didn't see it. Ah well. This is yet another reason why I'm
not a professional game reviewer.
Back to the 1st Church of Pac-Man