Pac-Man

Neo Geo Pocket

Review by Matt Paprocki

Namco

Maze

Graphics: 6

Sound: 6

Gameplay: 9

Overall: 8


Hey you! Yeah, you! The one person in the world who's never played Pac-Man! Over here! See, I'm doing my good deed of the day by describing Pac-Man to you. See, everyone else on this site either knows Pac-Man and loves it, or knows Pac-Man and hates it. You on the other hand, the completely out of touch loser of a human being, has finally found some type of a light to guide you into the realm of pop culture.

Pac-Man is a simple game. You'll control this yellow dot thing with a piece taken out of him for a mouth. You'll be eating your way out of these mazes and scoring points while doing so. You must keep in mind however that there are ghosts out there looking to track your ass down and shrink you, much like the Wicked Witch of the West (should that be capitalized?). It's not all that easy, compared to how it sounds.

This conversion of the game is a good one, incredibly accurate down to the finest of details. Even the music and sound effects have been replicated flawlessly. The option is also there to play it either in the full frame mode (in which you see the entire playing field at once) or the scrolling mode (which lets you zoom in on the action but you'll never be able to see what's coming to you).

Included with this game are these little rubber things. No, no, they don't do THAT. They're used for the controller, pervert. They fit easily over the NGP's joystick like d-pad and prevents you from hitting the diagonals. In theory, it works. In execution, it doesn't do the job flawlessly and you'll still get caught in a corner once in a while or wander aimlessly instead of turning. A minor annoyance, but one that must be mentioned. (Collectors, take note! The game is not truly complete without these three thingies!)

It's a shame there isn't a few other modes, or even a graphically enhanced edition of the game inside this little piece of plastic. Nearly every other versions of the game released over the years have had some kind of extra, why not this one? Anyway, Pac-Man is an undeniable classic and a great addition to any long road trip. And to you Mr. Out of Touch Loser, pick this game up in any form... except for the 2600 version. That one doesn't count.

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Last updated: Monday, September 26, 2005 05:32 PM