"Pac-Man" - NES/Famicom

----- Introduction -----

You know, there's really not that much to say about Pac-Man that you don't already know, but let's give it a quick introduction, anyway.

The original Pac-Man was a 1980 arcade smash-hit, that feature a little yellow guy running around in a maze of dots, eating them and collecting bigger dots to eat the blue ghosts. You know that.

What you might not know is that there had been a whole host of attempts to port this baby to home computers and consoles since 1980, including the famous horrible 1982 port for the Atari 2600 that contributed to the game market crash of 1983 in the US (in Japan apparently this was called by the much, much cooler name: The Atari Shock).

"Becoming a Public Enemy Overnight with Tod Frye"

Namco presumably saw an opportunity to port their own game, and do a little bit of a better job, to this newfangled Famicom system in 1984. They'd already done a pretty good port for the MSX in January of the same year, so they must have felt pretty confident.

I was thinking in my head that I remembered this being a basically arcade-perfect port of Pac-Man as a kid, but I realized two things while playing it and looking between the two:

One was that it's not, it actually looks much more NES-y than my memories of Pac-Man in the arcade. The other was that after I looked it up, the arcade version of Pac-Man... doesn't look nearly as good as I remembered for some reason. I think I was thinking of Ms. Pac-Man.

Oh well, let's try our home version and see how it is!

To be fair, it can't possibly be any worse than the other ones.

----- Playing the Game -----

The whole purpose of Pac-Man is to navigate the maze on the screen, eating all the dots, eating ghosts when you're powered up, and sometimes eating the fruit in the middle of the screen. Not really worth explaining in 2019, but just for completion's sake we'll call it done.

I've never been very good at Pac-Man, so I wasn't expecting to get very far (and I didn't, I got 5 stages in before I died).

There's a difference between being passionate and being skilled, okay?

From what I can remember, all the of arcade behavior here remains in-tact. I recently watched a really interesting video that explained in-depth the AI of the ghosts in Pac-Man, and I had never noticed it a single time before while playing the game, but I can confirm that the intended behavior of the ghosts seems to be in full form here in the NES version. Which makes sense I guess, since it's a Namco-official release.

In general, the game looks pretty great for an arcade port, and... well, I don't know what to compare it to, but definitely looking at all the other ports of Pac-Man up to 1984, this one is most certainly the best one.

[Groans of displeasure] (Source: Retro Core)

So anyway, if you couldn't get to the arcade in 1984, this seemed like your best bet.

----- Review -----

It feels borderline silly to review Pac-Man but anyway, let's have a go at it.

Innovation: No...

Does the game show anything not yet seen on this system/ever before?

It's not really fair, because technically Devil World is derivative of Pac-Man, but in this case it came out before Pac-Man on this system. Pac-Man's plenty different, but the general idea of the maze game had been done on the Famicom, even if Pac-Man did it first in the arcade.

Spitting Rage: A little

Does the game make you want to tear your own organs out of your body?

Getting cornered in Pac-Man is always an annoying feeling, but it's hard to be upset at a short arcade game that repeats so frequently (after all, it only has one level...).

Intuitive Design: Good

How easy is it to intuitively understand the game?

I don't think the design of Pac-Man could be more intuitive.

Satisfying Gameplay: Pretty good

How rewarding does playing the game feel?

Getting the last dot in the level always feels good. Avoiding ghosts is sometimes satisfying when you feel you've outsmarted them, and it's fun to get a power pellet and get your revenge. Overall, it's a pretty fun game (imagine that, given its success).

Game Depth: Puddle

How deep/long is the game?

Eat dots and run.

Sound Design: Good

How's the sound?

The NES port sounds pretty good, and is honestly pretty true to the arcade sound-effects, other than that they've been totally NES-ified (they're not as bright and chirpy, they're more classic-Nintendo farty... which I actually like, but what do I know, after all).

Graphics: Fine

How's it look?

The Famicom games coming out around this look significantly better by this point. I mean, did you see F-1 Race? That faux 3D thing is totally the future of gaming!

Personal Chord: Not really

Does the game have that undefinable "something" for me?

I have to level with you: I've really never liked Pac-Man very much. I think that may be a hand-me-down from my father, who always said how he preferred Ms. Pac-Man, and how Pac-Man was inferior. Maybe I started to think so too. I think it's an important part of gaming history, but I definitely don't have any desire to rep Pac-Man personally.

Should You Play: Yes, if you can't play the arcade one

Is there a reason to even bother with this one?

It's a good port, but why would you play this if you can play the arcade version of Pac-Man? There's really nothing the Famicom version has to offer to you that you can't get there, a little bit better. So go there instead-- it's 2019, for Christ's sake.

But yes, if you're trapped in 1984 eternally at any point, I'd say this is a good replacement for having to go to the arcade to play for quarters.

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