Puckman

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.

Pac-Man is the kind of game that never gets old, even over forty years later. Almost every time I see an old-fashioned Pac-Man arcade machine, I play it.

One day while eating pizza for lunch, Toru Iwatani looked closely at the pizza missing a slice, and just like that, he decided on the appearance for the game's titular character. After that, Pac-Man changed the gaming industry and made Namco one of the greatest arcade video game companies in history.

Although action is involved, namely eating ghosts, Pac-Man deliberately lacked more overt violence present in other arcade games released in 1980, like Berzerk and Defender. This was so the game would appeal to a wider audience, including women. And it paid off tremendously.

The game has a simple but challenging formula where you must navigate Pac-Man through a maze and eat all the dots while evading the four ghosts Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde; each one having their own unique movement patterns. You have the chance to use a power pellet to make the ghosts vulnerable so you can eat them, bump up your high score, and buy yourself some time to collect any remaining dots or snack pick-ups that inrease in value overtime, like cherries, apples, and oranges. But since the ghosts have pre-established routes and there's only one level, you could rack up an impressive high score if you remembered the ghosts movements and the layout of the map.

Pac-Man introduced new concepts for video games like power-ups and smart enemies that actively pursue the protagonist through the maze. The game had funny and iconic sound effects, like Pac-Mans "wakka-wakka-wakka" sound as he gobbled up dots, and his death noise; a high-pitched whining sound followed by a little splat. Any true gamer knows these sound effects.

Pac-Mans success introduced a new era of arcade games and even today, people find it fun 45 years later. You can even play it for free on Google if you ever get bored.

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.

NOTE: I'm writing about the Atari VCS (a.k.a. Atari 2600) version, which is not to be confused with the original arcade game.

I can understand the Pac-Man craze that came about following the game's release. After all, it was the first video game in which you controlled a creature with an actual identity as opposed to Random Space Fighter #259. But I would have thought that Atari would at least show our yellow friend a bit of dignity.

The entire maze is etched in a puke-brown color on top of a blue background that hurts my eyes. Couldn't they just make the background black?! The ghosts flicker a lot, and some of the most irritating noises in the game world are pumped through your television speakers. The only saving grace is that the Pac-Man "eating" sound and the sound when he dies have been injected into miscellaneous techno songs and stuff, as well as an episode of "Aqua Teen Hunger Force".

Stay away from this and stick with the far superior arcade game or even the (excellent) NES port.

This is the game that started it all, it truly was the first in video game franchises, icons, and just everything, without this little guy we wouldn't be where we are now. "Pac Man" was more than just a game, it was a phenomenon as it has become a staple in the 80's decade.

This guy just like in the maze was just everywhere and going places, there was a board game which was fun, a cartoon show from Hana Barbara which was also fun, multiple video game ports, the old VDF color handhelds from the 80's, stand alone games "Pac Man Championship Edition 1 and 2". He even referenced in the visual media, "The Simpsons", "Tiny Toon Adventures", "Futurama" and featured in the underrated film "Pixels" to this day there is almost not one place without an arcade cabinet of this game.

I mainly got into the Pac Man series playing ports of the game and after those I was hooked on the game franchise for life. It's such a simple concept where it's basically just a chase in a maze, but this simple concept turned out to be the most brilliant. Though also kind of strange as you are simply cute flying or floating yellow head that is constantly moving chomping a bunch of dots that are point rackers. And you are chased by multicolored ghosts, each of them with different speeds and go all kinds of directions.

Yeah strange but fun and they are characters in video games after all it doesn't mean they have to be realistic or even human. This is also by it's nature a scoring game as you play the same maze over and over but as you get further the game gets a little more difficult as the ghosts get a little faster and change their maneuvering patterns. Anyway, the concept and gameplay is simple and yet there is a lot to it. What I like about this and the other Pac-Man games is the fact that you use your head to beat your ghost opponents.

The overview design of the maze is finely designed, the fact you can see overhead put you a step ahead of them because you'll be able to know when the ghosts are heading your way and with that brief knowledge being prepared to outmaneuver and even hide from them. Really like those warp holes, which not just take you to the other side of the maze but can slow the ghost's momentum which give you time to get away.

Then of course you have the power pellets which I always love which always give you home court advantage where you powered up and are able to give the ghost the chomp down as they all turn blue and in a sick state and are just moving as slow as zombies making them easy targets. But of course, this only last briefly, there is a risk reward factor because you really don't want to be around when they change back color.

There is also the fruit that always appears in the middle of the screen next to the base, it's pretty much extra credit as you gain a few more points eating them. But even that has a risk reward factor as the fruit only appears briefly and the ghosts move to the middle sometimes as well, so get it while you can. Even like how after a series of levels there a little cut scene is even, which is basically a skit comedy and I thought those were really cool even like that frantic music, sort of your halftime show only it's actually good.

Overall, a solid start to the series thought personally this ranks number five on my list in the series as I like the sequels even more as they have a little more to them much like how I feel about the "Friday the 13th" franchise, but that's me. For old and young games this is a timeless classic that continues to chomp into our hearts.

Rating: 3 stars