April
15, 2003
Just
as every home movie collection is never complete without Citizen
Kane and Lawrence of Arabia, no game console is complete
without a version of Pac-Man. It remains, simply, one of
the essentials that everyone should be familiar with.
Pac-Man
Collection is the fourth classic game compilation on the Gameboy
Advance. Namco's first effort was a port of its Namco Museum.
That cartridge was wildly uneven, perhaps owing to the small screen
on Nintendo's handheld. For their next attempt, they chose instead
to focus on games from the Pac-Man series. Personally,
I think this formula works, but Namco commits the same crime as
everyone else: there simply are too few games.
Included
in the package are the original 1980 Pac-Man, 1987's Pac-Mania,
1993's Pac-Attack, and Pac-Man Arrangement, from
the 1995 Namco Classics arcade. This is a fine selection,
but there are some terrible omissions; given the scrawny size of
these old games, there is simply no excuse not to compile them all
together. The only justification is money, money, more money. It's
so easy to charge another twenty dollars for the old cash cows;
the corporate bean counters must feel guilty for not thinking of
it sooner. The consumer, err, gamer, gets stuck with the bill. Such
is the way game companies repay their fans' loyalty.
Why
not include all the classic Pac games? It would be perfect
to show the progression of the series in its heyday. Pac-Man
is, after all, the first genuine pop culture icon of the computer
age. Why not remind the world of the wonderful extended family Torou
Iwantani birthed all those years ago? Show us Namco's own Super
Pac-Man, Pac-and-Pal, and Pac-Land. Show
us Midway's unofficial games, starting with Ms. Pac-Man,
the legendary hacker classic; Baby Pac-Man, with the miniature
pinball machine; Jr. Pac-Man, whose scrolling playfields
are perfect for a handheld; Professor Pac-Man, the little-seen
trivia game; Pac-Man Plus, the black sheep of the family.
Compared
to that legacy, Namco's decision to include these three sequels
seems somewhat tame. Of course, this collection is fine, but it's
like listening to only a handful of songs from the White Album.
The
original Pac-Man is, naturally, the best of the lot. You
have the option of playing in full-screen or with a scrolling playfield,
but since the Advance is so small, using full-screen is unpractical.
Everything is a perfect copy of the original arcade, from the ghosts
to the fruits to the intermissions. Even twenty years on, I still
love moving that little yellow ball around the maze. It's easily
worth the cost of the full cartridge for this game alone.
There
is, however, something that puzzles me: have some frames of animation
have been cut? This isn't something that affects gameplay, and goodness
knows the animation is spot-on. But the musical rhythm is just off
by half a beat.
Of
the other games in the Pac-Man Collection, Pac-Attack
is a fine puzzler in the Tetris tradition. The premise
of dropping blocks littered with ghosts is clever, and the real
joy comes from setting Pac loose on a long string of blue ghosts,
causing chain reactions to the blocks. Even though the game is a
glorified novelty (there's no real variety in blocks, and thus no
deep strategy), Pac-Attack was a fun game when it appeared
on the 16-bit consoles, and is still good for short bursts.
Pac-Mania
is a spot-on translation of the 1987 arcade, Namco's first official
sequel that stuck to the original formula. The catch is that the
game is presented in an isometric angle, with a 3D Pac-Man and army
of ghosts chasing around the different mazes. This game was largely
overlooked in its time, which is a shame. The pacing is a little
slow, and the ghosts are dim-witted, but munching through the brightly
colored landscapes has its charms. I also have to mention the music,
which remains as catchy as anything I've heard today.
Finally,
we come to Pac-Man Arrangement, the best and the worst
thing about this compilation. This version originally appeared in
one of the Namco Classics arcades from the mid '90s, which
offered their earliest hits with updated bells and whistles. This
new Pac features a score of wonderfully painted mazes, dots that
float and shimmer, and a Pac-Man who bounces and floats with a swift
glee. This feels so modern, so fluid; even the classic Pac
maze is included. If I could just play that board over and over,
I'd never ask for another thing again.
Then
Namco proceeds to wreck everything. Do you know the feeling you
get when a really great movie is ruined by a tacked-on "happy
ending?" That's exactly what happens to Pac-Man Arrangement.
First, the game cannot be played forever. After about 20 boards
or so, you face off against a final boss, and then the credits roll.
What nonsense is this? Were the suits convinced that no one would
notice their game without the conventions of modern games? Gamers
today are coddled. Publishers are so afraid of turning off customers
that they hold you by the hand at every step. This isn't Tomb
Raider, and the point isn't merely to see the sights and then
leave; high scores are meant to be broken, and I want to play as
long as I want. The final insult: unlimited continues. Who needs
skills when you can press the Start button and win anyway? This
fault alone destroys the Arrangement; it defeats the whole
point to playing.
Perhaps
it's time for the hackers to go to work. After all, it's been two
decades since they first hacked Pac-Man, and the result
was the greatest video arcade game of all time. With a little bit
of tinkering, someone could recapture that genius. |
