|
|
Silverback Reviews
 |
7800 Rank: 9th Best Overall
Best Official Release
Genre: Maze Game
|
 |
|
I Am Woman... Hear Me Roar! *BuRp* |
Pros:
This IS Ms. Pac-Man: The Best Maze Game of All Time
Cons:
Compared to the Atari 7800's Pac Man Collection, This Version May Lack "Legs" |
It Was at This Point, That Pac Man Started Rethinking Recent Life Decisions |
|
Overview: Some younger gamers seem to think that Atari games and other early arcade games are so easy that they offer no challenge.
I experienced this first hand when I had an Atari party with friends, family and their kids. We spent the evening playing various games, including Ms Pac Man. The kids' over confidence created some humorous moments of pure panic and horror. They weren't able to escape their ghostly opponents, they weren't able to utilize their power pellets effectively, and they weren't able to score anywhere near what us old timers are able to. At the end of that night, it was pretty nice to hear these kids talk about how cool Ms Pac Man was, and how they were going to practice and come back for some redemption (they lied). I think this alone should be proof enough that the Atari 7800 version of Ms Pac Man was well made, and it survives the test of time. There's a lot of different ways to play Ms Pac Man, and she's available on almost every console that's been released since the 7800, but it may be worth going back to the source. After all, GCC who was the original developer of the arcade game itself, created this version, so it has to be as close to the original vision as possible........... right?
Graphics: Ms. Pac Man looks really good! (Don't tell Pac Man I said that...) And that's nice to see after that dreadful orange thing that was called Pac Man for the 2600. Luckily, they had some real talent working on Ms Pac Man's development and it shows. I'm sure somebody could point out every way that this version is visually inferior to the arcade game, but it looks just fine to me. The dots and power pellets are round, the ghosts don't flicker like mad, the mazes are familiar to the arcade game and most of all, Ms Pac Man has all her girlish charms intact.
Sound: The TIA chip is actually very capable of reproducing the sounds of Ms Pac Man faithfully, and does a good job of doing so. There's nothing here that I find grating on the ears and there is nothing here that sounds out of place. That's rare when using the stock audio of the Prosystem. The audio is not groundbreaking but it didn't have to be. They needed to replicate the arcade machine as close as possible, and they did a fantastic job!
Gameplay: GCC nailed the gameplay and ghost AI as you would expect the original developers of the arcade game to do. Everything just feels perfect to me. If you are unfamiliar with Pac Man style maze games, the object is simple: eat all of the dots on a board and don't die. If you consume a blinking dot, you can momentarily eat your tormentors' bodies (hot) and put them in time out for a bit. Simple enough. So simple in fact, you don't even need a fire button to play. If you are less experienced with the game, you can drop the difficulty down to teddy bear level, but that really only provides one extra level of sickening, slow gameplay. Not sure if that's gonna help anything. I suggest just starting at the default difficulty and play until you "get gud" as the kids would say. I always preferred Ms Pac Man to Pac Man, simply because of the maze variety. Remember, the original Pac Man just reused the same maze over and over. Variety is the spice of life, my friends! There's a reason why Ms. Pac Man is remembered so fondly in gaming history, and this version embodies everything that made it a classic game and adds some well executed flavor for good measure.
Interpretation: This is a stellar interpretation of the game that includes all of the arcade mazes AND intermissions! You can grab a swig of Crystal Pepsi while simultaneously learning about Pac Person mating habits between set changes.
Value: If you're not interested in Pac Man or maze games in general, then you probably won't be interested in playing this one for long, either. But the arcade version of Ms. Pac Man is the best maze game ever programmed... and this port is outstanding. If you're not interested in Ms Pac Man then you're probably not a fan of old school video games, and if you're not a fan of the old school, son... well, why are you here?
Overall: They did Ms Pac Man on the 7800 so right. It feels good to play, it feels good even with the Pro-Line controllers, it looks good, too. That's right, Ms. Pac-Man feels good! (Don't tell Pac-Man I said that, either, please). And having the developers of the arcade game working on this port didn't hurt. After experiencing this one with the next generation of gamers and seeing them enjoy it like they did, it confirms my initial assumption that this port was something special. The only reason not to get Ms Pac Man for your 7800 collection, is because you already have Pac Man Collection from AtariAge in your collection, which includes this version of Ms. Pac-Man. Hell, get it anyways. You can get the original Ms Pac Man cart (loose) on ebay for like 15 to 20 dollars shipped, and it's worth every penny of it!
Other reviews of Ms. Pac Man:
Video Game Critic: A
CV's Atari 7800 Panoramic Froo-Froo: 4.5 out of 5.0
The Atari Times: 7 out of 10
JoseQ's Emuviews: 6.6 out of 10
Phosphor Dot Fossils 100%
Tomorrow's Heroes 88%
VideoGames101 75%
The Atari Times (by Darryl Brundage) 90%
Funkmaster V's Unwanted Second Opinion: If one has to wonder how important or good Ms. Pac Man is/was for the Atari 7800, all you have to do is research the Atari 7800 homebrew scene in the double aughts. Ms. Pac-Man was the experimental guinea pig, sliced open again and again, that budding homebrew developers honed their craft on for years. Look it up, there are at least 25-30 graphical hacks released. Some are horror themed, some are based on an obscure French cartoon, some are based on games that were released in the 80's, like UKI's computer game Baby Pac-Man and even Crazy Otto. The Rikki & Vikki's and E.X.O.'s of today exist, in large part, to this simple, classic, smooth translation of one of the best arcade games of all time. Girl Power!
Additional Info: I would like to take this time to thank Atari Age for allowing the use of these screenshots for this review.
This review was graciously written by Atari 7800 Forever contributor Silverback.
| | |
|
