I normally only write reviews for games that I have a satisfying understanding of. This one will be an exception, I spent a solid evening trying out the various games in this collection and am going to drop some impressions. Let it be stated that I gave some of these games barely any chance. I have nothing that could be mistaken for mastery in any of them, and no interest in pursing it.
Anyway, I enjoyed checking out this collection. It didn't sell me on Pac-Man as a franchise, but it was quite interesting to try each game. I love game compilations, they're a treat to explore as a game designer. Trying new games is my favorite part of gaming, so compilations like this appeal to me quite strongly.
The first thing to talk about here is the framing that Pac-Man Musuem+ presents. You have a little arcade that you can customize, each game exists on a machine that both costs coins to play & rewards coins from play, and you can spend coins on a gacha for new decorations. I'm pretty narrowly split between "I sure don't care" & "this is actually a pretty neat idea and I can respect it". If this was a game I had any intention of ever revisiting I could start to see the value add, meanwhile it's hard not to get annoyed at the unlock popups after exiting a game.
I love the idea of creating a system that gives meaning to inserting new credits into games, although this implementation doesn't have enough punch to meaningfully succeed at recreating the context of spending coins in an arcade. I don't think that experience is something the developers needed to have tried for here, but I've definitely gained an interest in playing a game that does successfully emulate that context.
The first open of the game is a little rough. You're bombarded with pac-man-machine sounds and have like a dozen popups to go through. The arcade tutorials are reasonable, the "you've unlocked some holiday wallpaper" ones shouldn't be allowed to appear literally right after you've read through the tutorial.
I was excited that each game had a history blurb. Unfortunately they didn't put anything interesting in there. They're all pretty much rehashes of the game description. This was an awesome opportunity on the museum side of the experience, so that feels like a bit of a shame. Video game history is so interesting, I'm sure there's plenty of cool stuff to learn about all these games.
Now I'll go through my impressions of each game included in the collection
PAC-MAN
I've never really found PAC-MAN fun, I'm pretty apathetic to it. It's probably some before my time "you had to be there" thing. I dislike how the game incentivizes camping power pellets so that you can bait some ghosts and gobble them up. Yeah the ghost AI is cool, but it's not enough to make the game feel dynamic to me.
SUPER PAC-MAN
I don't like the zoom-zoom-invincibility-power-pellets. The gates & keys are interesting. It's especially funny how they set up situations to trap yourself. There's probably some potential here, I can imagine a pac-man where the state of the maze is a huge component of what the player has to keep track of. This is not that hypothetical pac-man, and super pac-man is only hypothetically fun
PAC & PAL
This one was a pleasant surprise! I quite like the card mechanic that directs you to a random objective on the maze. This is a step closer to some of the dynamism that I feel is missing in PAC-MAN. Then they play to PAC-MAN's strengths by introducing another AI agent for you to keep track off. Unfortunately PAC & PAL lacks the depth that would make me want to keep playing it, but this is a solid start to reaching pac-gameplay that's more my style. I'd happily take a galaxian blaster over a power pellet any day.
PAC-LAND
Got filtered by that lake jump. I actually have no idea how to get past it. I do like the troll level design (like the log bridge), but that feels like going a step too far.
Not a fan of repeatedly slamming the stick right to buildup speed, but that would probably feel better on a arcade machine joystick. Otherwise it's neat idea.
PAC-MANIA
"Let's give Pac-Man a jump" - a statement dreamed up by the utterly deranged. Maybe Pac Mania ends up using this jump well, but from what I played this drains the little game essence pac-man had. This is basically the equivalent of the parry plague that many modern action games suffer from. Who cares about positioning when you just have to time your answer to enemies correctly?
PAC-ATTACK
Awesome to see a puzzle arcade game here. This is a pretty interesting take on the genre, especially since it doesn't have a concept of color groups. I am intrigued by the nuances of ghost placement and consumption, if i were to return to any game in the collection it would be this one.
PAC-IN-TIME
I got softlocked in the first level. Didn't give it any more chance, and thus don't really have any thoughts on it. I like how this collection added English translation subtitles. One of the items made me question why I was playing this when i could have been continuing my Saint playthrough in Rainworld.
PAC-MAN ARRANGEMENT Arcade version
This could have been the best one, but the ghosts are a menance to society. They move so fast that it doesn't really feel fun to avoid them or fair when you get caught. That's a huge shame, because the presentation, vibes, and variety are excellent. They do a great job of both staying true to pac-man and remixing it cool ways. In theory the BS ghosts are counterbalanced by the helpful stage gimmicks, but in practice my deaths didn't feel enough like skill issue.
PAC-MAN ARRANGMENT Console Version
This is like PAC-MAN Arrange, but they violently ripped out its soul. The ghosts aren't frustrating anymore, but the presentation isn't nearly as charming. This one just isn't very interesting, despite changing the one thing that ruined the former game
PAC-MAN CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION
The fruit and pellet reveal system is nifty, but the game felt pretty boring.
PAC Motos
...
PAC 'N ROLL REMIX
Kinda fun, although it's too fast for my tastes. I'm fairly certain the ludicrous speed is the point, but it doesn't stick the landing for the experience to feel good.
PAC-MAN BATTLE ROYALE
I've actually played this before in an arcade. Too bad I don't remember how that experience went, must not have been very memorable. It's a decent setup for an arena experience. The escalating speed, bounces and ghosts that drift in & out of the forefront of your attention all work together well. That said, this game is smoked by its competition in the same genre. I don't know why I would want to play this if I'm in a scenario where I have nearby friends to fight.
PAC-MAN 256
Huh i didn't know the Crossy Road developer made a Pac Man game. I'm sure this game has caused a lot of money to change hands. It's pretty cool to experience the game without the monetization being the central parasite on your attention. It seems well designed for what it is, but i don't find what it is very interesting
-
The cool part of playing a compilation is that many of these game I would have never otherwise tried, even if a game misses for me I can still enjoy the process of quickly checking it out
Anyway, I enjoyed checking out this collection. It didn't sell me on Pac-Man as a franchise, but it was quite interesting to try each game. I love game compilations, they're a treat to explore as a game designer. Trying new games is my favorite part of gaming, so compilations like this appeal to me quite strongly.
The first thing to talk about here is the framing that Pac-Man Musuem+ presents. You have a little arcade that you can customize, each game exists on a machine that both costs coins to play & rewards coins from play, and you can spend coins on a gacha for new decorations. I'm pretty narrowly split between "I sure don't care" & "this is actually a pretty neat idea and I can respect it". If this was a game I had any intention of ever revisiting I could start to see the value add, meanwhile it's hard not to get annoyed at the unlock popups after exiting a game.
I love the idea of creating a system that gives meaning to inserting new credits into games, although this implementation doesn't have enough punch to meaningfully succeed at recreating the context of spending coins in an arcade. I don't think that experience is something the developers needed to have tried for here, but I've definitely gained an interest in playing a game that does successfully emulate that context.
The first open of the game is a little rough. You're bombarded with pac-man-machine sounds and have like a dozen popups to go through. The arcade tutorials are reasonable, the "you've unlocked some holiday wallpaper" ones shouldn't be allowed to appear literally right after you've read through the tutorial.
I was excited that each game had a history blurb. Unfortunately they didn't put anything interesting in there. They're all pretty much rehashes of the game description. This was an awesome opportunity on the museum side of the experience, so that feels like a bit of a shame. Video game history is so interesting, I'm sure there's plenty of cool stuff to learn about all these games.
Now I'll go through my impressions of each game included in the collection
PAC-MAN
I've never really found PAC-MAN fun, I'm pretty apathetic to it. It's probably some before my time "you had to be there" thing. I dislike how the game incentivizes camping power pellets so that you can bait some ghosts and gobble them up. Yeah the ghost AI is cool, but it's not enough to make the game feel dynamic to me.
SUPER PAC-MAN
I don't like the zoom-zoom-invincibility-power-pellets. The gates & keys are interesting. It's especially funny how they set up situations to trap yourself. There's probably some potential here, I can imagine a pac-man where the state of the maze is a huge component of what the player has to keep track of. This is not that hypothetical pac-man, and super pac-man is only hypothetically fun
PAC & PAL
This one was a pleasant surprise! I quite like the card mechanic that directs you to a random objective on the maze. This is a step closer to some of the dynamism that I feel is missing in PAC-MAN. Then they play to PAC-MAN's strengths by introducing another AI agent for you to keep track off. Unfortunately PAC & PAL lacks the depth that would make me want to keep playing it, but this is a solid start to reaching pac-gameplay that's more my style. I'd happily take a galaxian blaster over a power pellet any day.
PAC-LAND
Got filtered by that lake jump. I actually have no idea how to get past it. I do like the troll level design (like the log bridge), but that feels like going a step too far.
Not a fan of repeatedly slamming the stick right to buildup speed, but that would probably feel better on a arcade machine joystick. Otherwise it's neat idea.
PAC-MANIA
"Let's give Pac-Man a jump" - a statement dreamed up by the utterly deranged. Maybe Pac Mania ends up using this jump well, but from what I played this drains the little game essence pac-man had. This is basically the equivalent of the parry plague that many modern action games suffer from. Who cares about positioning when you just have to time your answer to enemies correctly?
PAC-ATTACK
Awesome to see a puzzle arcade game here. This is a pretty interesting take on the genre, especially since it doesn't have a concept of color groups. I am intrigued by the nuances of ghost placement and consumption, if i were to return to any game in the collection it would be this one.
PAC-IN-TIME
I got softlocked in the first level. Didn't give it any more chance, and thus don't really have any thoughts on it. I like how this collection added English translation subtitles. One of the items made me question why I was playing this when i could have been continuing my Saint playthrough in Rainworld.
PAC-MAN ARRANGEMENT Arcade version
This could have been the best one, but the ghosts are a menance to society. They move so fast that it doesn't really feel fun to avoid them or fair when you get caught. That's a huge shame, because the presentation, vibes, and variety are excellent. They do a great job of both staying true to pac-man and remixing it cool ways. In theory the BS ghosts are counterbalanced by the helpful stage gimmicks, but in practice my deaths didn't feel enough like skill issue.
PAC-MAN ARRANGMENT Console Version
This is like PAC-MAN Arrange, but they violently ripped out its soul. The ghosts aren't frustrating anymore, but the presentation isn't nearly as charming. This one just isn't very interesting, despite changing the one thing that ruined the former game
PAC-MAN CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION
The fruit and pellet reveal system is nifty, but the game felt pretty boring.
PAC Motos
...
PAC 'N ROLL REMIX
Kinda fun, although it's too fast for my tastes. I'm fairly certain the ludicrous speed is the point, but it doesn't stick the landing for the experience to feel good.
PAC-MAN BATTLE ROYALE
I've actually played this before in an arcade. Too bad I don't remember how that experience went, must not have been very memorable. It's a decent setup for an arena experience. The escalating speed, bounces and ghosts that drift in & out of the forefront of your attention all work together well. That said, this game is smoked by its competition in the same genre. I don't know why I would want to play this if I'm in a scenario where I have nearby friends to fight.
PAC-MAN 256
Huh i didn't know the Crossy Road developer made a Pac Man game. I'm sure this game has caused a lot of money to change hands. It's pretty cool to experience the game without the monetization being the central parasite on your attention. It seems well designed for what it is, but i don't find what it is very interesting
-
The cool part of playing a compilation is that many of these game I would have never otherwise tried, even if a game misses for me I can still enjoy the process of quickly checking it out
Takes some of the lesser known pac-man games, or at least ones I didn't expect, and let's you play them however you want. I wish the lobby and some mission were more produced, but it's more than a decent collection if you are interested in Pac-Man history.