Ms. Pac-Man

The Good
Ms. Pac-Man is the sequel to Pac-Man, the first game to include a central character where the user is free to navigate around the maze in any direction. What sets Ms. Pac-Man apart is that she wears the same things that normal women have on their faces - eyeliner, lipstick, a bow, and a beauty spot. Although this game shares the similar gameplay to its predecessor, it is far more superior, and anyone who is playing this game for the first time will notice the differences.

For example, there isn't the one maze, but four of them. Each maze has different colors and is structured differently, with two pairs of escape tunnels in different positions. The mazes did not change in Pac-Man, and it was boring for me just looking at the same maze for long enough, so looking at different mazes is refreshing

The fruit that you can get wanders around aimlessly through the maze instead of remaining static in the center of the screen, and you have plenty of time to get it before it goes through the escape tunnel and disappears. I like how getting the fruit is a bit of a challenge as it is likely that you guide Ms. Pac-Man around the same corners rather than where the fruit is heading, and you have to look for short-cuts so that you can get to it quicker before the ghosts stop you.

One big difference is that Clyde has been replaced with Sue, but I have no idea what was wrong with Clyde. There are new intermissions. I only viewed one of these, since I haven't completed level five yet. The one I viewed has Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man being chased by two of the ghosts. The two of them meet up later then fall in love. The funny thing about this intermission is that Pac-Man hasn't got any eyes. It is possible that Pac-Man looks like this through the remainder of the game.

There are new sound effects, including new start-up music and new death sound. One sound effect that I enjoy listening to is the sound effect that plays whenever Ms. Pac-Man manages to get a power-pellet – it is just like Pac-Man, but changes to higher notes to indicate when the ghosts are returning back to normal.

The Bad
I can't really think of anything bad about this game.

The Bottom Line
Ms. Pac-Man has the simple objective as its predecessor – gobble up all the dots in the maze while avoiding the ghosts. There are slight changes to the game, including the layout of the mazes, the fruit wandering around aimlessly, and the replacement of Clyde with Sue. There are new intermissions and new sound effects. These differences do not stop gamers from enjoying the game's success.

The Good
Do you know that there are two versions of Ms. Pac-Man? One was created by Namco, and this is the version that we saw in the arcades. The object is to guide Ms. Pac-Man around a maze of dots and gobble up each one, while on the lookout for four ghosts that make her progress difficult. If Ms. Pac-Man eats all the dots, then she goes on to the next maze. Another version was created by Williams Entertainment, which shares the same gameplay but adds extra features, and this is the version that this review is based on? So is this enhanced edition of Ms. Pac-Man any better? Well, yes and no.

Before you begin gameplay in the Williams' version, you have some options that can alter gameplay if selected. One of these options is the maze selection. You can either play the mazes that were found in the coin-op version, or play Mini, Big, or Strange. There are advantages in using each maze selection. For instance, in Mini, the mazes are not that long, allowing you to finish each maze in under two minutes. In Strange, mazes have a unusual layout, and will be unfamiliar to gamers who already know what the original mazes look like. So selecting different mazes provide some variation on the layout.

There are three difficulty settings to choose from: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Crazy. Just for fun, I played the game with the Crazy setting. On this setting, the ghosts run around the maze much faster than Pac-Man as soon as they are outside their hideout in the maze's center. Ms. Pac-Man can get that speed with the Pac Booster, which can be triggered by pressing a button, or by having it “always on”. With this, anyone can finish a maze in under one minute.

One more feature that is worth mentioning is that two players can play at the same time. One as Pac-Man and the other as Ms. Pac-Man. Each player is supposed to work against each other rather than join forces, to be the one with the more points.

Personally, I do not mind the extra features, as they provide a bit of variation on the game play. The graphics are more cartoony than Namco's versions, and the sound effects are enjoyable to listen to while you play. The intermissions have a lot more animation to them.

The Bad
While the extra features are a nice addition to Ms. Pac-Man, some elements may ruin the look and feel of the original. For instance, all the mazes are too big to fit on one screen, and you have to move Ms. Pac-Man off-screen to gobble all the dots. The score is not present at all times. It is only when Ms. Pac-Man moves to the top of the maze that it is displayed. There could have been an option of displaying the maze and score ass it was in the original, but no such option exists.

The Bottom Line
While both the Namco and Williams version of Ms. Pac-Man both share the same gameplay, Williams' version goes one step further by adding extra features by allowing you to select different maze types and difficulty settings. You also have the option of using the Pac Booster and letting two players play simultaneously. Although some features destroy the game's look and feel, you may like a bit of variation as you play. The game has nice graphics and sound effects, and the intermissions are more detailed and have got the extra animation that was not present in those of the original.

The Good
Ms. Pac-Man is one of the best retro video games I've ever played on my Commodore 64 package. When the seller wanted to bundle some games in my package, he thought "Well, let's throw in Ms. Pac-Man to see if that will work!", and that's how it got started!

The game is an exact conversion of the original Arcade release from 1981. All of the elements are there, and the sound is also emulated through the C64 SID chip. With my red joystick that came with my Commodore 64 package, I was able to learn the controls of the game as if it were a real arcade machine, but more compact.

Gameplay is pretty excellent, even for retro gaming enthusiasts, and I really did get a lot of play value on this, which is the main reason why some people should be getting a used retro gaming package of the highest-selling computer of all, the Commodore 64!

The Bad
Some levels are difficult as you progress through the game, but that's normal in this conversion.

The Bottom Line
Only retro gaming enthusiasts who want some arcade fun would go for Ms. Pac-Man on their used Commodore 64 packages! Highly recommended!