Puckman

The original Pac-Man is one of these games that needs no introduction, It is one of the most iconic video games of all time, It is one of most played video games of all time, It has been ported to like every gaming console in existence, Everybody and their grandma know what Pac-Man is!

So the 7/10 rating I am gonna give this game might seem a little low for such an iconic classic title, but believe me, the only I'm giving this game a 7/10 is just because I think that there has better Pac-Man games released throughout the years.. like Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Man Arrangement, Games that took the Pac-Man formula and took it to its full potential that I think are better than the original but still, The OG Pac-Man is a classic, and It is still a blast to play today, Even though it feels kinda limited, especially after playing newer titles in the series that have developed and again, took the Pac-Man formula to its full Potential, But if we're talking about this game for what it is, It is still pretty great!

7/10.

Edit: Uh, Do you know something?! I don't even know what am I talking about, It's the original Pac-Man, come on! 8/10.

Pac-Man was one of the first extremely popular arcade games, and a major influence, if indirect and unwitting, on every computer game that followed. The reasons for its appeal are simple, it is colourful, cheerful and enjoyable; in short it is good, clean fun. Graphics date; fun is timeless. But the real key to its appeal is that it was the first video game to feature an actual character; this is the sense in which this game has paved the way for all which have followed. Pac-Man's anthropomorphic and aesthetic (i.e. "cute") qualities were particularly appealing to female audiences; this was the most popular game among girls at the time, and some sources suggest since. The after-effect was that the character itself became something of an icon; the character was the centre of a merchandising blitz. Pac-Man seemed to capture the public imagination more than any genuine cartoon character did; you could even make a claim for him being the Mickey Mouse of the 80s. I am a big fan of the Pac-Man phenomenon and have a book (Deborah Palicia's ["Pac-Man Collectibles") which details some 160 pages of related merchandising. There was everything from Bedsheets to a US Top 10 Record ("Pacman Fever" by Buckner and Garcia) and from Pasta to an animated cartoon series. It's fascinating how far such a one dimensional concept has spread. The most telling item is an advert for the game "Super Pac-Man" with a hero who "fights a never ending battle to eat row of fruit"! A lot of talented and creative people have worked on keeping this simple concept and character popular for nearly three decades, and millions more have enjoyed it.

Rated E.

Pakkuman or Pacman is one of the greatest early games ever.This game was released in 1980 yet the graphics and gameplay are simply excellent.The graphics are just as good if not better than other games that came out in 1980 but Pacman is most known for its addicting gameplay.You control a little pizza like thing and you must eat as much yellow dots as you can and watch out for the ghosts.However you can eat a special something which turns you into super pacman or something and enables you to eat your ghost enemies.But this only happens for a period of time.Pacman is a very fun and good arcade game and I recommend it.You can probably find a cheap imitation somewhere on the internet.Most of them have the same premise.

8/10

Is it just me or is Pac-Man a metaphor for taking too many ecstasy pills? Think about it, you've got some happy little face stumbling around in the dark munching as many pills as he can get but when things go bad he's chased by ghosts all over the place until he can get more pills. Either this is really subliminal subtext by designer Toru Iwatani or it's just an amazing coincidence and I'm reading far too much into it.

Either way Pac-Man is like THE biggest ever arcade game, which is quite amazing since many more advanced and technologically superior games came out after this. And it has one funky little theme tune!

There are very few people out there that have never played Pac-man. I know I played it, whether it was putting coins in an old arcade cabinet or playing the Atari 2600 version I played this game a lot. Pac-man would spawn other arcade titles such as the also famous, Mrs. Pac-man, Super Pac-man and even Baby Pac-man. Each would have differences to the original from the subtle such as a few small differences in the maze and the character like in Mrs. Pac-man to the extreme like in Baby Pac where part of the arcade cabinet was a pinball machine. This one was pure simplicity, in a world now full of first person shooters, one learns to appreciate simply going through a maze avoiding the evil ghosts who dwell within.

The game play, as I have stated is simple. You guide Pac-man through a maze. Your objective every time is to clear the maze of dots which you eat. During your travels to eat the dots, you must avoid the deadly ghosts as they try and get Pac-man, seemingly knowing where he is at all times. However, you can turn the tide when you gobble down a special dot that allows you to turn the table on the ghosts and eat them. They do not stay gone, but it can turn the tide in your favor allowing you to grab the last few dots.

The Atari 2600 version of the game is a much weaker animal than the arcade cabinet. I do not really know why it has become so scorned recently, because despite its inferior graphics it still plays nearly the same. They may have been able to smooth over the graphics a bit better, but none of the games from the arcade ever remotely looked like their counterpart on the Atari. I was more disheartened by Donkey Kong as it left out a screen of play in it. So while it does not look like the arcade, it was still a nice way to pass the time. Let's face it, all the arcade cabinet does is play one game, of course it is going to look better.

There have been many spin-offs and such of Pac-man during the years. At his height he had his own cartoon and at one point at the Six Flags in Georgia he even had his own play land (later turned into a looney tunes play land). There have also been other games, there was one in the arcade that was based around the cartoon and was more of a Super Mario type game as you guided Pac-man on a side scrolling quest. I even viewed a short film that was rather humorous as it was from the ghost's perspective. For such a simple character, he has chomped his way into many forms of media.

So there you go, in the game you guide your character through the deadly maze. It takes virtually no knowledge to pick up this game to play it and only minimal skill to do fairly well. As you go, the ghosts become increasingly more difficult to dodge, but even the least skilled gamers of the world can make their way past a board or two. Sometimes it is the simplest things that are the most fun.