Very good, in spite of one irritating flaw
Written: Oct 08 '04 (Updated Oct 08 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very good arcade translation; accurate graphics and mazes; new twists to the game
Cons: The scrolling screen is a major flaw
The Bottom Line: Very accurate translation of an arcade masterpiece, and a couple of unusual twists are thrown in, to boot. The scrolling screen, however, is a problem.
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| HawgWyld's Full Review: Ms. Pac-Man for Nintendo |
Everyone's played Ms. Pac-Man, right? After all, it was the best-selling video game of all time in the arcades as 115,000 Ms. Pac-Man machines were sold in the U.S. alone (according to the folks over at All Game Guide, at least). For those not familiar, the game is pretty basic in design as were all the great arcade games from the 1980s. Simply put, the player guides a character around which is little more than a yellow circle with a mouth and a bow on its head (Ms. Pac-Man is a girl, after all). While zipping around the maze, the player is to avoid getting caught by ghosts, but can turn on them by eating a "power pellet," thus gaining the power to chase the ghosts. The mazes vary throughout the game and each one is cleared when Ms. Pac-Man eats all the dots in them (she's a hungry little critter, seemingly).
Now, there are versions of Ms. Pac-Man for virtually every console system out there, including a great version for the Atari 2600. By the time the game was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System by Tengen in 199, the game was close to a decade old. Obviously, Ms. Pac-Man had grown a bit stale, so some changes were in order when the NES version of the game was released.
And, the changes implemented here by Tengen are pretty darn good. First of all, you've got the game modes. The player can choose traditional ones, of course -- single player or one in which two players alternate turns. But, things get very interesting when one chooses either cooperative or competitive modes for two players. In both modes, Ms. Pac-Man is guided by player one while Pac-Man is controlled by a second player. In competitive mode, the two players can render each other helpless for short amounts of time. This makes for some heated conversations as one player is left wide open for a ghost attack because he can't move for a few seconds. In cooperative mode, the two players simply try to clear the mazes out as quickly as possible. Ms. Pac-Man was always fun, but the multiplayer aspect of allowing two players to either help each other out or go head-to-head makes it even better.
There are some various mazes available here, too. You've got "arcade," "big," "mini" and "strange." The flaw in this game is contained here. If you choose any mode but "mini," you're treated to a scrolling screen. Yuck! Anyone familiar with Ms. Pac-Man knows the game is supposed to take place on one screen so the player can see what the ghosts are up to at any given time. A lot of the strategy in the game involves luring ghosts to one area or another, and it's kind of hard to do that if you can't tell where one or more of the four beasties is lurking. It's even worse to be trying to outrun some ghosts, hit the point where the screen scrolls and run right into a waiting enemy. That's not cool at all.
Of course, the problem with the scrolling screens has to do with the difference between the Ms. Pac-Man machine and an NES hooked up to a television set. Simply stated, the arcade machine had a vertical screen, while a television set has a horizontal one. The only way to approximate the Ms. Pac-Man machine at home would be to turn your television set on its side. Since that's simply ridiculous, the scrolling screen seems to be the compromise. Frankly, I wish they would have scaled the screens down so they'd fit on a television set because this scrolling business stinks (the same problem hurt Lode Runner on the NES, by the way). Perhaps the screens couldn't be scaled to fit because of some hardware limitations of the NES. Who knows? I just know it's annoying and hurts an otherwise fine game.
As I said, however, there's no scrolling with the "mini" screens, so those are fine if you're not hung up on arcade accuracy. Speaking of arcade accuracy, the graphics here are perfect, complete with the "cartoons" between certain levels. The sound is accurate, too, as is the control. Nothing to complain about in those areas at all.
Back to the subject of mazes, the "big" and "strange" ones are welcome changes of pace (if you can put up with the scrolling, that is). As the names imply, the "big" mazes are considerably larger than what you might be used to while the "strange" ones feature odd configurations.
There's one other small detail worth mentioning that is great. The game allows you the option of turning on an accelerator, meaning Ms. Pac-Man's speed is boosted when you hit an action button. That's very handy when trying to outrun ghosts or eat them quickly after grabbing a power pellet.
All in all, this is a very solid translation of the game, and the programmers are to be given some credit for adhering faithfully to the game as far as the mazes are concerned. The "new" features add a new dimension to the game, too. It's too bad about the blasted scrolling, however.
Bear in mind, this review refers to the Tengen release of Ms. Pac-Man. Namco also put out a version of the game for the NES in 1993.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
HawgWyld
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Member: Ethan C. Nobles
Location: Benton, Ark.
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About Me:
The oxen are slow, but the earth is patient.
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