The year of Pac-Man’s 30th anniversary, however, aside from the fact that Google had a game that you could play Pac-Man Logo game earlier (which was fantastic), I’ve yet to hear of any celebrations coming from Namco. We’ll listen to more regarding it at E3. There are rumours of Sonic’s creator Sonic working on a Pac-Man 3-D platformer, as well as rumours of a brand new Pac-Game named Pac-Man Rebirth; however, nothing has been officially verified by Namco. Therefore, I decided to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man by creating a (possible) blog series.

I’m one of the huge Pac-Man fanatics out there. I’ve been a fan of Pac-Man since I first encountered it at the Kroger food store at age 5. I have many boxes of Pac-Man products I’ve collected and a sizeable Pac-Man arcade machine in my garage. I could write entire dissertations on everything Pac-Man, including the merchandise, the animation music and every game. But it’s going to take way more time reading and more time composing. Therefore, I decided to stick to the basics and discuss the most important games. I’ve compiled my top five most-loved Pac-Man games, five honourable mentions, and five of my least disliked Pac-Games. Perhaps in the future, I’ll be able to discuss other Pac-Man items; however, for now, I’ve picked my top five:

Favourite Pac-Man Games

Here are my top Pac-Man games, arranged in order:

Super Pac-Man

Strangely, this is my top choice. Some argue that it’s not one of the best. However, I enjoy how fun it is. Pac-Man isn’t eating dots in this episode anymore. All the things are food items like bananas, apples, fried eggs, hamburgers and so on. However, later on, Pac-Man eats even more bizarre things throughout the levels, such as mushrooms, coffee cups, and even shoes! It’s also loud! It creates a considerable racket. It’s also a great way to get your kids involved. Pac-Man is so giant when he transforms into Super Pac-Man that he doesn’t even get inside the maze’s borders!

However, the thing I love more about Super Pac-Man is that I’m very good at playing it. I had plenty of practice with it at the local Wal-Mart near my home a few years back. I’m aware that it’s easy to excel in Super Pac-Man. If you can remain super-sized and massive throughout the entire maze, you’re already a master. However, it becomes more difficult later, and you’ll have to use other techniques. So, yeah, I think I’ll bring you all to this point. Bring it!

Pac-Man: Championship Edition

The newest Pac-Man game was released through Xbox LIVE two years ago. I will admit that this was the deciding factor in my purchase of an Xbox 360. It mixes retro ideas with new ideas, such as changing mazes and races to achieve a high score. It’s fantastic, and having the original Pac-Man maker Toru Iwatani in the game to help with input is likely a big help, too. I would like to see an endless game that didn’t have a timer, but that negates the point of how the game was designed.

Pac-Man Arrangement

In the days of my college years, gaming from the past experienced an upswing, with MAME being released as well as retro gaming collections such as Namco Museums. Namco Museums on the horizon. The arcade was the place to be when Namco launched a line that included Namco Classics Collections, which included three games you can play in both original and “Arranged” forms.

The first game had different versions arranged by Pac-Man, The Xevious and Rally-X. The game was called Pac-Man Arrangement. You got new mazes, improved graphics, and more power-up options. The best part is that ghosts have powers as well! In conjunction with a new yellow spirit called “Kinky.” (Poor choice of names There, Namco), the ghosts can gain additional abilities to aid them in catching Pac-Man! Blinky could develop bull horns and take aim at you, Pinky could get rabbit ears and would be able to jump close to your body, Inky would get a mirror image of himself, and Clyde will scream out dots that could slow your speed. I love that ghosts received the same amount of attention as Pac-Man, and that’s how I would like it to be.

If you’re interested in the Arranged titles, You can play a few at the Namco Museums on the PS2 (unlike the PSP arrangements). The games you can play include Pac-Man Arrangement, Dig Dug Arrangement, and Galaga Arrangement. You can also play the Xevious Arrangement with PSOne. PSOne Xevious 3-D/G+ game. The only games you aren’t able to enjoy are our Rally-X Arrangement as well as Mappy Arrangement. I would like to see players play Mappy Arrangement in the future Namco collection. It’s a lot of fun.

Pac-Mania

The game came out in 1987, in arcades, a tense three-year period between Pac-Games! That’s why I was incredibly thrilled when I first discovered it. It’s a 3D isometric Pac-Man game that lets you run over ghosts. I enjoyed the upbeat music and the 16-bit graphics, which were excellent for their time. The NES version was quite decent for its time.

Ms Pac-Man

This is among one the top choices for most people. The possibility that you’ll play it in arcades is evidence of its excellence. A sequel that’s better than the first. It’s interesting, considering that it began as hacks by some college students from the US! The arcade version that came out originally is fantastic, but I also love the home versions of 16-bit consoles, such as that of the Sega Genesis and SNES (and the scarce Tengen version for the NES). The game added a variety of mazes and modes while keeping the core of the game.

Diamonds in the Dots

As an avid Pac-Man fan, there are a lot of games from the series I like. While I have my favourite games, other games did not make this list of the Top Five (like Jr. Pac-Man, for example). Several Pac-Man games are different from the rest and have something in their characters that makes them unique to me, even if they’re not my top choices. These are:

Pac-Man World

It’s a PlayStation game that was created for the 20th anniversary of Pac-Man. It’s a standard 3-D platformer that’s a romp in its day and still quite good. The thing that makes this game unique for me is that it was the first game I had the chance to watch every step of its production as a game critic. When I started my first freelance gig on behalf of The Dallas Morning News, at the time of the first E3 I attended, it was shown the name Pac-Man Ghost Zone. The following year, it was renamed Pac-Man 3D before eventually changing to World. It was a long time in the development hell!

While there, I knew many members of the team responsible for production. I enjoyed talking to them about Pac-Man and other things. After the two first games, some went to Capcom’s US division, creating games similar to Maximo! When Pac-Man World 2 came out, I was dismissed from the paper. I requested that the team not mail me a copy of the game because I wouldn’t have the chance to read it. I’m sure they knew that I was pretty upset about it since they sent me a game regardless, and the entire team was on it outside the box! Isn’t that great of them?

Another great thing about Pac-Man World is that Tommy Tallarico created the music for the game. You can say what you want about the guy, but he was a master at developing great Pac-Man music appropriate to the game. I’m glad that they brought him in time and again in Pac-Man World Rally. I met Tommy Tallarico at Video Games Live in the past, and he shared an exciting story of how he came to perform the theme tune of Pac-Man World with Dweezil Zappa!

Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures

When Sonic was famous during the 16-bit era, EVERYONE needed a mascot platformer. They were generally dull and unoriginal. When Namco created a mascot-themed platformer that was their Pac-Man, I was amazed by its uniqueness. It was a mix of Lemmings and also a point-and-click adventure. Pac-Man wasn’t directly controlled. He moved by himself and was distracted by the screen’s objects, including food. You had control of a slingshot, which you could aim at things to attract the attention of Pac-Man. Pac-Man could be pretty moody also, and you needed to be aware of his mood to force him to perform specific actions. An angry man is more brave and reckless, whereas an unhappy Pac-Man is more careful about his surroundings. If you saw ghosts, it is possible to shoot an energy pellet at Pac, and he’d eat the ghosts. If this game were released through Virtual Console, I would install it immediately. Many people were not fans of this game, and I see why. However, I still loved it for the game’s purpose. Additionally, the artwork reminded me of my previous Pac-Man colouring books. Also, playing the game in the past made me want to gather all of my Pac-Man products and put them all in one spot.

Pac-Man Vs.

The game was initially released and played on Game Cube for four players. Shigeru Mishimoto, the creator behind Mario and Zelda, created the Pac-Man game. He’s a substantial Pac-Man player, too. At the same time, many were critical of this game since it was a major showcase at the time’s E3 for GameCube/GBA connectivity that didn’t go so well, but it’s still a great multiplayer game. One player is Pac-Man and scores points by eating ghosts and dots, and the other spirits are trying to get a hold of Pac-Man to allow them to score points. The person who scores the highest first is the winner. Later, they developed a remake which is a remake of Pac-Man Vs for the Namco Museum DS game, and it’s well worth the cost of the game alone. Much less cumbersome than the game was for the GameCube.

Pac-Pix

Although many would claim Kirby’s Canvas Curse was the first game to tap into the DS potential, it’s Pac-Pix. It was necessary to draw Pac-Man using a stylus to consume ghosts. It was an amazing and unique game. Even Miyamoto stated that he wished he could have thought of it! While at the E3 event where the DS was being shown for the first time at an exclusive show of the brand new DS. The room we were in to play games was packed, and I could only play one game. It was good that Pac-Pix was the game I got to play! When it was released in Japan, it even came with specially designed Pac-Man styluses that came with it. One of my friends imported one for me.

Namco Museums vol. 1-5

The games aren’t necessarily Pac-Man games; however, these PSOne favourite games did include Pac-Man games. There was a Pac-Game in each collection, and the museums with 3D had Pac-Man as the guide, and there was a wealth of information and artwork on Namco’s round yellow fellow. These games also inspired me to rekindle my passion for Pac-Man and Namco’s love for Namco.

When I was a youngster, I always dreamed of an arcade that featured rooms that were themed around video games and museums. Seeing the interactive 3-D exhibits was an excellent method for realising my hopes. It was a fantastic experience.

Worst Pac-Man Games

There are some genuinely excellent Pac-Games on the market but some terrible ones. Here’s my least favourite of them all:

Pac-Man World 3

Pac-Man World was reasonably good. The sequel was also decent. However, the third movie they released for the 25th anniversary of the game was just plain awful. Pac-Man gained strange powers, such as the ability to discharge electric current from his hands. The show also featured Pac-Man, an empathetic voice more appropriate for Dilbert. Dark urban slums and ghost world levels did not seem to fit with the Pac-Man theme in any way. Also, the poor camera angles and bad save choices rendered it completely inaccessible. Namco has an outside team playing this game, and the lesson is to be cautious when managing your most well-known brand.

Pac-Man All-Stars

As for other teams creating terrible Pac-Man games, At the beginning of the century, Namco licensed its most popular games to other companies like Hasbro to allow them to develop games that featured Namco’s top properties. Other than Pac-Man: Adventures in Time and Ms Pac-Man: Quest for the Golden Maze, the other games made under this license could have been better (see Galaga: Destination Earth or Dig Dug Deeper).

Pac-Man All-Stars lets you pick Pac-Man, Ms Pac, Jr. Pac, and Prof. Pac as you play in an arena, trying to find all the dots. That’s all there is to it. It’s similar to one Mario Party game, except this was the only thing there. It isn’t very good.

Pac-In-Time

Another game that was made by someone other than Namco. It was not at all a Pac-Man game in the first place. In Europe, the PC game was based on a furball-like character. The company that has since gone out of business, Mindscape, was looking to bring the game to the US, and with Namco’s approval, they changed the furball’s name to Pac-Man. The game has nothing to do with Pac-Man in the end, but the poor control of play is a significant reason why this game is challenging.

Pac-Man Fever

Even though it’s the same name, you don’t get to hear the hit song with the same title within the Mario Party clone. It has Namco characters like Pac-Man Asteroth and The Ridge Racer lady, which is quite remarkable. However, the mini-games do not have anything to do with Namco classics, giving an uninspired feel to it. An outside company also developed it.

Pac-Land

It was the only game on the list of least favourites that Namco created. It’s a 2D platformer released in arcades around a year before Super Mario Bros. You can’t say that SMB is the very first 2D platformer, but it is possible to say that it was the first game to be able to make things work! Many of my friends are fans of this game, but I didn’t like the button-only controls. Namco might try to hide the fact, but Pac-Land is an adaptation of the animated series. The same theme music and everything else. The Midway version in the US also changed certain graphics to look more similar to the Pac-Man cartoon!

Pac-Conclusions

This is the only thing I’m thinking about at the moment. If I ever write any other Pac-Man celebration blog posts this year, What would you like to see me write about? Let me know which ones are your favourite and least beloved Pac-Man games! –Cary