Arcade Maze Game Review: Super Pac-Man

The Midway Manufacturing Company licensed a conversion kit named Crazy Otto from General Computer Corporation to create Ms. Pac-Man, the first sequel to Pac-Man, the popular maze game it licensed for distribution from Namco. Six months later, Namco released its own sequel, Super Pac-Man. The latter was heavily overshadowed by the former, and for good reason, yet Super Pac-Man still remains a fascinating game in its own right.

While Ms. Pac-Man enhances the features that made Pac-Man such a fun game, Super Pac-Man deviates from the original by introducing features that weren't as well received by the general public, yet adds a new layer of strategy to the usual gameplay. It takes two non-essential elements from the original game and re-purposes them to make them part of the core gameplay. The first is keys, which were originally used as the most valuable of the items which granted bonuses in the original Pac-Man arcade game. Here, they unlock doors which are needed to collect all of the fruits in order to finish each level. The second is the giant Pac-Man form, which was originally seen as a joke sequence in a cutscene in the original game. This form allows Pac-Man to go through doors to eat the fruits within without needing the keys to unlock the door first.

The rest of the formula of the game is similar, yet noticeably different. Pac-Man needs to eat all of the fruits, rather than pellets, to progress. The fruits add points while the only pellets are now the larger pellets which give Pac-Man his larger super form and also allow him to eat the ghosts that chase him around the stage. When not powered up by the large power pellets, Pac-Man will lose a life upon being touched by a ghost.

There is another major difference. There are still three levels between stages, but the game doesn't have cutscenes between stages. Instead, there are now bonus stages in which Pac-Man has to clear a maze within the time limit while entirely in his large super form.

The sound effects from the original game return, along side new sound effects for the collecting of keys. The opening music also returns, albeit in a slightly faster and higher pitched form. The most memorable music of the original two games in the series came from the cutscenes, however, and without these the music is a bit lacking compared to the other games. The early 1980s Pac-Man games, however, were never were music-heavy due to the restrictions of their time, so this isn't too much of a loss.

Super Pac-Man is a game that takes most things about previous Pac-Man titles and tosses them out the window for something new. The basic eating and chasing mechanic is still there, making it feel familiar, but the addition of keys and the reduction of edible items due to the larger fruit graphics and fewer item placements makes it feel strangely unfamiliar at the same time. This makes it a bit of a less accessible title than its immediate predecessors, but it is still an excellent example of an arcade maze game that is well worth playing at least once.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Ms. Pac-Man Review

Pac-Man Plus Review

Arcade Maze Game Review: Pac-Man Plus

Pac-Man Plus is a weird game. It is a conversion kit that acts as an upgrade for the classic arcade maze game Pac-Man. 

Two arcade games in the Pac-Man series were developed between the release of this game in 1983, not including the two Pac-Man pinball tables. Both Ms. Pac-Man by General Computer Corporation and Super Pac-Man by Namco were quite different than the original game. Pac-Man Plus, created by Bally/Midway, is simply Pac-Man with faster, more aggressive ghosts and some other tweaks.

The music and sound effects are identical between the original and Plus iterations. The part that makes this an upgrade, is, above all, slightly altered graphics in comparison to the classic game. The maze layouts haven't changed except for the fact that they are now green rather than blue. The ghosts are now shorter with closer set eyes, and strangely, now are apparently fruit since they have stems with leaves on their heads. On the subject of fruit, the items that appear periodically in the center of the maze have now been changed to other items.

The aforementioned items do have a use beyond a point bonus this time around. When they are collected, ghosts will become invisible signifying the ability for Pac-Man to chomp them up. If Pac-Man eats a ghost in this state, its point value is doubled. Pac-Man's other method of eating ghosts, the power pellets, now are a bit wonky. Occasionally, eating one will cause weird effects such as turning the maze walls invisible or only turning a maximum of three ghosts blue rather than four. The latter will lower the possible point chain and will disrupt the usual ghost pattern.

Pac-Man Plus is essentially nothing more than a more difficult game of Pac-Man. The graphics have been tweaked, though the music and sound effects are identical to the original. The biggest changes are the fact that the ghosts are faster and nastier. The ability of the bonus item to make ghosts vulnerable with double the point value is a welcome addition to clear the maze and rank up points. This is especially needed considering the weird power pellets which occasionally reduce the amount of ghosts that were turned blue, which in turn lowers the amount of points that can be collected. Pac-Man Plus isn't really a must-play compared to the first two Pac-Man games. It has been ignored by Namco and its licensees, undoubtably for this reason, until Arcade1Up began adding it to its lineup of games in some of its home cabinets. If you have access to it, give it a try, but there is no need to go out of your way to track this one down.

Final Verdict:

3 out of 5

Super Pac-Man Review

Pac & Pal Review

Arcade Platform Game Review: BurgerTime

BurgerTime is a static-screen platform arcade game developed by Data East and manufactured by Bally/Midway in North America and by Data East elsewhere in the world. It made a name for itself in the glut of arcade game releases in its release year of 1982 by having a fun and unique premise.

The game follows a chef named Peter Pepper as he jumps on platforms to complete giant hamburgers. Each time he steps on a part of a burger, from the bread, to the tomatoes, to the lettuce, to the beef, it drops a little. Once the entire part of the burger is completely stepped on, it drops down a level. If there is another part of a burger underneath it, that piece will also drop down. The goal is to get the entire burger or burgers completed at the plates at the bottom of the screen, which will switch to the next level.

There are hot dog, egg, and pickle enemies that aim to stop the running chef. He can climb up or down platforms to get away from them while also working to complete burgers. That's not the only tool he has, as luckily, Peter Pepper can eliminate an enemy if a dropped burger part drops on top of it. He also has a small supply of pepper which will temporarily stop enemies once he shoots it at them.

Since it is an arcade game released in the early years of the arcade market, it has a limited range of sound. There is the usual beeps and boops that are used as sound effects, which are used in this game when a piece of a burger is stepped on or when it falls, when Peter is caught, and when pepper is thrown. Like many games from around this time, there is a little jingle that is played when a stage has begun a peppy tune that plays throughout an entire level.

BurgerTime has a fun concept that is easy to pick up and play, and, like all arcade games of the time, increases in difficulty as the game goes on. The sprite work is fantastic, especially the fun little animations of Peter Pepper and the food-based enemies. The sound 

isn't a big name these days compared to other games of the time such as Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., or Pac-Man, but it is a bonafide classic that still remains fun to play over forty years later. The sound effects are used to good effect, and the short tune at the beginning of levels is fun. The short length of the main song loop and the lack of song variety can be a bit annoying to modern gamers, but it surely was a great draw get players to the cabinet in the halcyon days of arcades. The rest of the game was, and remains, strong enough to keep players interested once they are pulled in.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5