Pac-Man Collection:

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The Pac-Man series of games have always been a favorite of mine.  Granted, I’m not any good at them, but I always have fun while I am playing them. 

I use my portable games quite a bit, especially when I travel, and I always bring my Pac-Man game cartridges with me.  The Atari Lynx had a version of Ms. Pac-Man that was decent.  More recently, the NeoGeo Pocket had a very good version of Pac-Man. 

Those games have been replaced now by the Pac-Man Collection (PMC) created by Mass Media and published by Namco for the GameBoy Advanced. 

This collection features four different flavors of Pac-Man:  the original Pac-Man, Pac-Mania, Pac-Attack, and Pac-Man Arrangement. 

Let’s look at each of the four games: 

Pac-Man is arguably the most popular arcade game of all time.  It spurned multiple arcade sequels, many home console versions, a cartoon series, and even a Top 40 rock & roll song.  Everyone has played Pac-Man, and it needs no introduction.  (I just gave it one anyway, so deal with it.)  In Pac-Man, you must move your hungry character around a maze eating all of the dots.  Four ghosts will try and stop you.  If you touch a ghost, you die.  In each maze, there are four power pellets.  Eat one, and you can temporarily eat the ghosts for bonus points.  Eat all of the dots in the maze, and you will start in a fresh maze with even faster gameplay.

Pac-Man Click to enlarge   Pac-Man Arrangement Click to enlarge

The GameBoy Advanced version of Pac-Man in this collection is almost perfect.  Since the GBA screen is so small, you have a choice of playing the game in two different modes. 

• Full-screen mode -- all of the action can be viewed, but the maze is shrunk down to microscopic proportions.
   

• Scroll mode – the game is translated "pixel by pixel" from the original coin-op.  However, the maze can’t be squeezed onto the whole screen, so the action scrolls up and down depending on your position in the maze.  Hitting the “L” or “R” shoulder buttons moves the camera to the hidden area of the maze so you can see what is going on elsewhere.

Wow!!  This game is just about identical to the original coin-op.  I am unable to tell if this has been emulated from the original arcade ROMs, or if this is a recreation.  Regardless, the game is virtually identical to the original.

Pac-Mania is the second game in this collection.  Released in the arcades in 1987, it takes the traditional Pac-Man action, and presents it from a pseudo 3D three quarters perspective similar to the arcade game Zaxxon.  Gameplay is very similar to the original, with a few minor changes, such as the ability to jump over the ghosts.  The mazes from the original Pac-Mania coin-op were larger than the screen, so scrolling was required.  Scrolling is required in this version as well, but since the GBA screen is so small, your viewing area is smaller than it was on the coin-op.

Pac-Attack is just like Tetris, but the game also uses Pac-Man characters alongside the colored blocks.  The object of the game is to assemble groups of blocks & Pac-Man characters that drop from the top of the screen.  If you can create lines of blocks at the bottom of the screen, they disappear, making room for more falling blocks.  The addition of the Pac-Man characters adds an interesting twist to traditional Tetris gameplay.  Ghosts will appear in the blocks.  If a Pac-Man block touches a Ghost block, the Pac-Man will come alive, and eat the surrounding ghosts, creating a hole in the blocks you just assembled.

Pac-Man Arrangement is a real joy.  This game, in my opinion, is the single best update of Pac-Man that I have ever seen.  It is a BLAST to play.  All of the basic rules you know from the original Pac-Man game are here, but the action is much more lively.  The mazes are made up of multiple colored blocks, and they vary from round to round.  There is also a fifth ghost in this game named Kinky.  This ghost has the ability to meld with one of the other four ghosts to create a new mutant ghost with special powers.   The four mutants include a “bull” ghost with horns that charges Pac-Man, and a pink bunny that hops around the maze.

The mazes in Pac-Man Arrangement change from round to round, and even include paths that go uphill & downhill.

Since the ghosts in Pac-Man Arrangement have some new weapons at their disposal, so does Pac-Man.  Some mazes feature teleporters that will instantly move Pac-Man to another part of the maze.  “Dash” icons, when touched, will send Pac-Man through the maze at blinding speeds.  Any ghosts he touches will be knocked silly, and be incapacitated for a few moments.  Sometimes, a power-up item will appear in a maze.  Eat it, and you will temporarily gain a new weapon against your foes.  Power-ups include splitting Pac-Man in two, and trapping the ghosts inside of a bag.

Pac Attack

All of these games require precise four-direction movement.  The joypad on my GBA is pretty stiff, and I had no problems manipulating Pac-Man in any of the games.  I’ve heard from some other people that they have had some issues, but all of the controls worked just fine for me.

What’s wrong with PMC?  Well, a few things come to mind.  My first issue has to do with the screen on the GBA.  The original Pac-Man series of games used an arcade monitor turned on its side.  Because of the size of the GBA screen, Pac-Man, Pac-Man Arrangement, and Pac-Mania cannot be presented in an exact full screen "pixel by pixel" mode like the original arcade games.  The answer to this is very simple.  Add an extra mode that allows you to play with the GBA turned on its side.  The Atari Lynx offered this many years ago with games like Gauntlet, and I am surprised no one thought of it for this collection.  It would allow you to play these games in their original perspective without shrinking everything down so it is difficult to view.

Another complaint is that the games have been altered to only allow one player.  Pac-Man, Pac-Man Arrangement, and Pac-Mania all could be played with one or two players.  The original coin-op games were never true "head to head" games, so I certainly didn't expect to see options to link up to a second GBA for multiplayer games.  However, the coin-op games allowed one player at a time to take turns to see who could score the most points & advance further in the game.  Sadly, those options have been removed.

Pac-Mania

Another way that the games have been modified include the starting options for Pac-Mania.  In the original coin-op, you could select a starting round, so you wouldn't have to start on the first level if you are an advanced player.  That option has been removed.  Also, Pac-Mania seems to play slightly slower than the original arcade game.  It isn't enough to complain about, but it is noticeable.

My final complaint is the use of the word “collection.”  When I see that word, I expect that most, if not all, of the Pac-Man games will be included in this game.  Unfortunately, they aren’t.  Previous classic collections from Namco have included more games than the four presented in this cartridge.  I would have liked to have seen more.

Granted, Ms. Pac-Man is included in the Namco Museum cartridge for the GBA.  Since Namco has already included it on another cartridge, I didn’t expect to see it here, but it would have been nice.  Also, Baby Pac-Man was a videogame-pinball hybrid that would be impossible to recreate on the GBA.  With those two exceptions, all of the other flavors of Pac-Man should be here.  Where are the other games like Super Pac-Man, or Jr. Pac-Man?  I’d love to have Jr. Pac-Man on my GBA.  How about some of the “hacks” of Pac-Man?  Hasbro Interactive included the “Tubes” hack for Tempest in their Atari Arcade Hits #1 collection, so there is some precedent for including unofficial modifications to the original coin-op ROMs.  Where is Pac-Man Plus?  Where is Hangly Man, or Pirahna?  Where is Pac-Man with the maze upgrade ship?  There should be plenty of room on the cartridge for these games.  I’m surprised & disappointed that some of them were not included.

Conclusion:

I had a lot of fun playing these games, and anyone who loves Pac-Man should run out and pick up this cartridge.

Namco & Mass Media have done a decent job of keeping the games faithful to their original coin-op versions.  Previously, I gave Namco & Mass Media a bad rating for the Namco Museum collection for the Sega Dreamcast.  At that time, I felt that they did a bad job of bringing Namco coin-op games to the Dreamcast.  Thankfully, they have done a much better job this time around.

While there are some slight differences & changes (mentioned above), some small things have been retained.  For example, you have the option of entering a configuration menu and altering the "dip switch" settings for the game, just like you would with the arcade games.  You can adjust the amount of lives per game, bonus levels, etc.

The configuration menu even includes some "tips" for playing each game.

I also would have liked to have seen an option for playing these games with the GBA turned on its side, so you could play all of the games in full screen mode.

All in all, this is a good (yet entirely too small) collection, and you will have a lot of fun playing these games.  I just wish there would have been more than four games included. 

For more information,
visit the Namco web site