Pac-Man Collection
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| Released on the Game Boy Advance on July 13, 2001 by Namco, and developed by Mass Media and Infogrames, Pac-Man Collection features multiple, diverse entries in the Pac-Man series. |
Like most folks born in the late 70's and early 80's, some of my first video game experiences involve 1980's arcade hit, Pac-Man. Pac-Man's concept is as simple as it is strange when you start to over-think it: you play as the titular yellow circle character, wandering around a maze, trying to eat all of the maze's pellets, while avoiding ghosts, and grabbing fruits for extra points.
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| I just noticed all of the blue, ghostly Pac-Men for the first time while captioning this, and now I'm a little creeped out. |
If you grab a "power pellet," you can eat the ghosts, but the power pellet's effect is only temporary, and the ghosts quickly reform and start chasing you again. Eat all of the pellets in a maze, and you move on to the next maze...which looks exactly like the last maze.
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| Is this purgatory?! |
Top-down view. Black background. Blue walls. Yellow pellets. Yellow Pac-Man. Blue, pink, red, and orange ghosts. Same maze. Every time. The ghosts get faster. The power pellets last for less time. But it's basically the same thing over and over again. This didn't bother me when I was a young child. I loved the iconic aesthetics of the game, and its easy to understand gameplay. However, when I got a little older, and could actually get past the first few screens, I didn't really feel a drive to progress further into the game. Thus, I have fonder memories of Pac-Man as a phenomenon than I do of actually playing it.
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| The fact that the ghosts are just real ghost actors playing fictional ghosts always blew my mind. |
With that said, I'm not sure if a year of my life has passed without me playing just a little bit of Pac-Man. I'll always have a special affection for the little yellow dude, and I'm always up for a quick session, so I was pleasantly surprised when a Game Boy Advance I recently purchased came with a bonus copy of 2001's Pac-Man Collection. Turns out, this compilation, featuring four different Pac-Man games, is the ninth best-selling Game Boy Advance game of all time. I can see why. Beyond nostalgia, Pac-Man Collection translates well into very fun, quick slices of handheld gameplay.
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| Speaking of slices, Pac-Man is always going to remind me of pizza, as pizza parlors or bowling arcades that sold pizza made up most of the environments where I played it as a kid. Also, Fleur de Lis is still the best pizza place in Baton Rouge. |
That first Pac-Man game is here, just as I remembered it. For me, as I've said, it's good for a few minutes of fun, but always gets stale after a short while. I will say, this version most definitely feels arcade perfect. The controls, sound, and graphics are spot on with 1980.
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| Just like...wait, what is this? |
1987's Pac-Mania, originally released in the arcades and on a few consoles, puts Pac-Man into an isometric perspective, ala Marble Madness. The graphics here are smooth and eye-pleasing, though the levels themselves don't deviate in appearance too much outside of color scheme changes. This game--the only one in the collection with this feature--allows Pac-Man to jump over ghosts, or really just whenever the player pleases (Which for me was a lot. Apparently, I like making Pac-Man jump). The overall gameplay style, though, is exactly the same as regular old Pac-Man, which will please purists who aren't bothered by the jump feature, but will do little for those who quickly tire of Pac-Man's basic premise. I should also mention, the isometric view at times obscures a north-moving ghost when you're moving south--making for a quick, surprising, and nearly unavoidable collision. Pac-Man as a series most definitely works best viewed top-down. Thankfully, Pac-Mania offers infinite continues, though the level you game over on resets itself, and you have to start it again from scratch. Thus, even with the infinite continues, getting through the whole thing is still a time-consuming challenge.
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| But hey, at least you can spend most of that time jumping over ghosts! |
1996's Pac-Man Arrangement is my favorite game from this group. It's the newest of this bunch, originally arcade-only until its appearance here. I do remember enjoying this one a lot back when it was in the arcade. Again, there's not a huge deviation from the formula of eat pellets, avoid ghosts, snag fruits, move on to the next level when all the pellets are eaten. The major pros for this one are an extremely pleasing graphical design, with the game featuring six visually distinct worlds, and cool little gameplay additions, like levels that feature dash and jump pads, which give the player more options for getting Pac-Man around the level.
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| Plus, the ghosts are given a lot more personality. For example, "Blinky"'s personality is now "chase you while wearing boxing gloves." |
The only shortcomings for Pac-Man Arrangement are an easy difficulty--infinite continues, which allow the player to start exactly where they were in a level make progressing extremely easy--and a short overall length--you can get from start to finish in 20 minutes. The short length is a bummer, as there's a lot of ingenuity packed into this little game. There's even a final boss...YES, A BOSS IN A PAC-MAN GAME! That boss fight is so fun, I was genuinely hoping it was only the boss of the first part of the game, and was quite disappointed when the credits started rolling as soon as I beat it.
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| NEEDED: More of this! |
And finally, there's 1993 16-bit title, Pac Attack. Pac Attack is a puzzle game in the vein of Tetris and Columns. While I know this game has its fans and detractors, I find myself in the latter camp. I think the controls are clunky, the gameplay unintuitive. Try as hard as I might, I just couldn't find a way to have fun with this one.
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| Other than admiring the graffiti |
Overall, even though I like some of these games more than others, this is a fun little compilation, with, outside of Pac Attack, tight controls, and spot-on production values. Pac-Man Collection could have probably included a few more Pac-Man games (I'll join the chorus that Midway's Ms. Pac Man should most definitely be here--it's likely missing because it wasn't a Namco production). The amount of value here is certainly solid, though not quite as high as it was 20 years ago, when this compilation was released. I had fun with Pac-Man Collection, and I'll likely pick it up again, though I wish it saved your high scores--a strange oversight that hampers replays value. For big Pac-Man fans with a Game Boy Advance or compatible DS, this game is still a must have, though. For everyone else, Pac-Man Collection is a nice bit of diverting fun.
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