Pac-Land

This game is another under the radar gem, it's not one of my favorite entries in the franchise but I still have fun with the game. This is truly a unique entry, you have to understand this was a time when with most video game franchise of yesteryear sequels/spin off games had no rules, you could just about do whatever you wanted with the next volume without anyone stopping you. And from how far the franchise went they decided to take it in a whole new direction and I personally felt it was the right direction at the time.

The game is actually a licensed game based on the Hanna Barbara cartoon adaptation, which I thought was cool and kind of trippy when you think about it, the very company that had it's franchise adapted into an 80's cartoon, makes a video game adaptation based on it; man rap your head around that one.

In this game instead of the usual maze craze fare, they decided to make it a platform action game. It was Pac Man's first platform action game and of course not the last as there have been several others overtime, personally I felt the character worked just as well in the platform action genre. Sure this game isn't as good as Mario but it's not trying to be let alone the fact this game came one year before "Super Mario Bros", this game it's a different kind of beast as it does its own thing.

I really love the graphical presentation which is part of what drew me to this game. It looks and feels like an 80's cartoon come to life, the back grounds are well detailed, designed and colorful making this colorful cute world from the show real.

There are different sections you have a city, desert, forest, my favorite is the castle which has a platforming maze. Even like the character animation with Pac Man whom like the cartoon show is wearing the red cowboy hat and boots, while the ghosts have the 1920's gangster hats on. I really like the facial expressions we see like Pac Man always with that cute cheerful face and the rest of the ghosts with their all so serious frowns.

Really like that the game has the theme song from the 80's cartoon which is the right fight for the game. The gameplay is good, the control might seem a little strange at first as you have the joystick for jumping and both buttons you have are the directional but you get use to it and actually strangely works well. The movement is based on momentum as you press left or right twice you can speed up your character, and as Pac Man runs he builds up more speed and you can make bigger jumps but are effective for the springboard in areas of the game. You can also slow down and stop by simply pressing backward. But doing this can disrupt the flow of your movement as it would take a while to once again build it up again, so move carefully.

The platform action isn't the typical kind you still go from point A to B, but you can't jump on heads and expect enemies to disintegrate. Just like in the Pac Man games the ghosts have power over you where you have tried not to get tagged by them. And you have to constantly move forward as the clock is ticking so you can't afford to waste a minute.

The ghosts they constantly try to get you anyway they can, it's funny seeing them do different things like being on planes and dropping little ghosts, driving cars to run you down, jumping on pogo sticks to bop you, some flying UFOs, their bag of tricks is a big selection and you have to get past each of them.

There are power ups like the Power Pellet which of course allows you for a brief time to chomp away at them and a way to earn extra points. When you get to the end of the level section which is the fairy land, the head fairy makes your boots magic where you traverse back and can constantly run and jump, but stay and even go as high as you want.

Overall, this is a solid edition in the series for anyone that a fan or even a rookie of the Pac Man franchise is worth

Rating: 3 stars