I always felt a weird connection to the PAC LAND stage in smash 4. since the game dropped i remember endlessly people complaining about how shit the stage was for nebulous "gameplay reasons" when i played on it over and over just cuz i loved the vibes of it. the strange 2d/3d perspective, the ms paint looking line quality, the flat colors and lack of detail on anything, the fairy that looked like she belonged in a different game. had them bumpin ass namco tunez too, smoked the fuck out of the music in the rest of the game (99% of smash songs that arent just original rips are bad dont @ me). i think its fair to say that pac land's prolly my favorite stage in smash history, nothing really spoke to me as much as it did. no idea how i went so long without playing it since i fucked with everything it had going on already but here we finally are.

game fucks. love everything the game has going on visually. pac man's hat and long nose! the ghosts riding around on pogo sticks! the door to heaven! the victory screen of pac man having a nice chill on his porch! hes got a fuckin pac table!!! it all feels so warm, so happy, so pleasant, and it comes with one of my favorite of the ol' namco tunes. gameplay takes a bit to get used to, namely the strange jumping mechanics but once you get the hang of it its real sweet weaving between obstacles making a mad dash to the exit. basically everything i could ask for in an early 80s arcade title. dunno if i like it as much as my beloved mappy but def up there as far as namco goldies

played the tg16 version because it lets you control pac with a d pad instead of having walking buttons(?) like the arcade does. port's basically arcade perfect with a very good enhancement so i dont think i really missed much.