Everybody’s played Pac-Man. Everybody knows Pac-Man. Everybody’s aware of Pac-Man. Pac-Man is everywhere, man. Even on the Neo-Geo Pocket Color. And I’ll be honest; the fact that Pac-Man was available on an SNK-developed system surprised me to say the least, since I don’t recall the standard Neo-Geo console having that many (if any) third-party games. And while that stance may have lightened up over the NGPC (with a Sonic The Hedgehog game having been released on the system as well), it was a matter of too little, too late for the system since SNK soon went into bankruptcy… but I’m sidetracking here. Let’s talk about the game.
The first thing that is immediately noticeable about the NGPC version of Pac-Man is that you can choose to play a full-sized version (which scrolls the screen) or a FULL VIEW version (which fits the maze onto the screen) of the game. In all the versions of Pac-Man on portable systems I’ve played prior to this release, I don’t recall such a feature existing as you would just play the full-sized version with scrolling. Regardless, it’s a nice option to have for those who want to see the full maze as was intended.
The next thing you’ll notice is that just about everything you’ve come to love about the original Pac-Man arcade game has been splendidly ported over to this portable format. The sound and graphical quality is up to par with the NES version of the game, which itself was a very solid port of Pac-Man. Nothing seems to have been dropped or replaced during the conversion and while there is no multiplayer capability, it’s not much of a major loss. No, they did a really nice job with this NGPC port… I have no real critiques about it. It’s very well done.
If anything, my sole complaint with this version of Pac-Man is that I have to use the NGPC’s control stick to guide Pac-Man through the game. Don’t get me wrong; I like the control stick when in use for games such as King of Fighters or Samurai Shodown, but it really doesn’t do Pac-Man justice. Oftentimes, the response time is somewhat delayed when I want to change directions and it’s real easy for your thumb to slip and cause you to change direction unintentionally… and this usually happens result in me colliding with a nearby ghost and losing a life. The stick tends to get slippery at times, but I suppose this is a minor complaint.
Overall, Pac-Man on the NGPC is a solid port of an arcade game that has seen its share of excellent ports as well as not-so-excellent ports. If you have a NGPC hanging around and don’t have this game, then it’s definitely worth a purchase even if you have any of the eleventy-million ports out there. For those who don’t have a NGPC, they used to sell them with six games for a few bucks. I suggest tracking down the bundle if possible.
As far as Pac-Man goes, it’s a great port. Recommended.
BREAKDOWN
Graphics: 9/10 (looks great in full-screen mode, looks near arcade-perfect in full-sized mode)
Sound: 9/10 (all the classic sounds nicely converted and preserve)
Gameplay: 7/10 (solid conversion of the arcade game hampered by NGPC’s control stick)
Challenge: 8/10 (easy at first, but gets harder quickly – a shame there’s only one maze)
Replay Value: 7/10 (Pac-Man is great fun)
OVERALL: 8/10
dtm666 