Ms. Pac-Man

The Good
The original Pac-Man was an arcade milestone. Reaching a level of popularity in its day that only Super Mario Brothers can rival. Toys, a cartoon and a cereal were all spun off this game and soon it got its sequel. Mrs. Pac-Man did what every good sequel should do and improve on the great game play of its predecessor.

The real strength of the original Pac-Man was the intuitive game play. Anyone can walk up to the game and know how to play. What makes this game better than the original was the design of the mazes. There are more mazes here and their design is improved over the first game.

The graphics are also improved over the regular Pac-Man. As silly an idea as it is, but the lipstick and bow make for a better game graphic to watch than the plain chomping disk of the original Pac-Man. The cut scenes (if you can really call them that) are cute. Divided up into stuff like "Act 1 They Meet" they also are an improvement over the original.

The Bad
The real weakness of this game is the repetition. Like all early 80s arcade games the levels repeat after a while only to have the enemies be faster the second time around. This makes the game only of interest for short periods of play. This not a game you will sit and play for hours like the folks did in 1983.

The Bottom Line
This game is a great short distraction which suits the portability of the Game Boy well. Since there is no real way to "beat" the game all you can do is try to top your high score. While this might not make the game interesting to play for a long gaming session, its perfect when you want to just play a quick game or two while waiting for the bus or for next class. Unless you happen to catch a 21st century strain of Pac-Man Fever.

The Good
Ms. Pac-Man had good graphics, sound effects and gameplay. It used the same trick of PC-Man: one CGA palette ingame, two for congratulations at the end of each level.

The Bad
There was only a problem: controls. They were sometimes confusing, making the game harder than it really was. And, like Pac-Man, it wasn't converted to Colecovision.

The Bottom Line
Ms. Pac-Man was good, but Pac-Man and PC-Man was better. If you have an old PC and collect games, get it. But if you don't do, choose if you get it or no.

The Good
Ms. Pac-Man is the sequel to Pac-Man, the first game to include a central character where the user is free to navigate around the maze in any direction. What sets Ms. Pac-Man apart is that she wears the same things that normal women have on their faces - eyeliner, lipstick, a bow, and a beauty spot. Although this game shares the similar gameplay to its predecessor, it is far more superior, and anyone who is playing this game for the first time will notice the differences.

For example, there isn't the one maze, but four of them. Each maze has different colors and is structured differently, with two pairs of escape tunnels in different positions. The mazes did not change in Pac-Man, and it was boring for me just looking at the same maze for long enough, so looking at different mazes is refreshing

The fruit that you can get wanders around aimlessly through the maze instead of remaining static in the center of the screen, and you have plenty of time to get it before it goes through the escape tunnel and disappears. I like how getting the fruit is a bit of a challenge as it is likely that you guide Ms. Pac-Man around the same corners rather than where the fruit is heading, and you have to look for short-cuts so that you can get to it quicker before the ghosts stop you.

One big difference is that Clyde has been replaced with Sue, but I have no idea what was wrong with Clyde. There are new intermissions. I only viewed one of these, since I haven't completed level five yet. The one I viewed has Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man being chased by two of the ghosts. The two of them meet up later then fall in love. The funny thing about this intermission is that Pac-Man hasn't got any eyes. It is possible that Pac-Man looks like this through the remainder of the game.

There are new sound effects, including new start-up music and new death sound. One sound effect that I enjoy listening to is the sound effect that plays whenever Ms. Pac-Man manages to get a power-pellet – it is just like Pac-Man, but changes to higher notes to indicate when the ghosts are returning back to normal.

The Bad
I can't really think of anything bad about this game.

The Bottom Line
Ms. Pac-Man has the simple objective as its predecessor – gobble up all the dots in the maze while avoiding the ghosts. There are slight changes to the game, including the layout of the mazes, the fruit wandering around aimlessly, and the replacement of Clyde with Sue. There are new intermissions and new sound effects. These differences do not stop gamers from enjoying the game's success.