Pac-Man (Namco) - NES


I am not sure there is anyone on Vizzed.com who does not know what Pac-Man is. The arcade classic still is very popular today even if it is a 31 one year old game. This game was ported multiple times with the same map, same characters just different consoles and in some cases graphics. Today I am going to be look at the NES port of the Namco masterpiece. I will point out now that I am comparing the game to other games on the NES so do not be surprised if some of the game ratings are lower than you expected. I hope you enjoy reading on...


Graphics 6/10
As we all should know the NES had a 8-bit processor, so graphics and more importantly file size was limited. The games were relatively simple, not quite as so as the likes of the Atari but yet the video game industry was far off HD quality graphics and gameplay. PacMan was a very simple arcade game. The sprites were single coloured apart from the fruit and the dreaded enemies of the game, the ghosts. Making a compatible port for the NES was a piece of cake, everything was put into the game without any obvious change. Unfortunately that is where I think Namco and Nintendo went wrong. The NES was far beyond the power of the original arcade machine so there was certainly room for an upgrade. Just take a look at the beauties of Super Mario Bros 3 and Mega Man 2, those games had perfected the graphics of the NES and could be mistaken for not being playable on an 8-bit console. Comparing that to the basic single colours of PacMan and we begin to feel a little disappointed that nothing was enhanced.


Sound 7/10
Again we can compare the games sound to other game on the NES but for me it is not about the quality or the music on this game. Not because this game has no music and limited sound effects but it is really how it makes you feel. Games have Iconic soundtracks or sound effects, such as the 1-up (1-man) sound effect in the Super Mario Bros series or the theme of the first level in DOOM. When you hear that certain sound or song you can instantly ressemble it to the game. The same applies for PacMan, when you hear that iconic "wah woh wah woh wah woh" sound that Pacman makes when he eats all of those yellow biscuit looking things or even before that when you start the game you just know that person is playing Pacman. There are many children, adults and teenagers which will all know that sound. 31 one years on from it's original arcade release people still recognize the game.


Gameplay 10/10

Who'd of thought a game so simple like pacman could come to be this addictive. The game just plays exactly how you want it to, I really can not complain about anything about the games gameplay. I tried going into nitpicking mode but I could not even find anything to complain about so this section of my review is going to be really positive.
Most games strive for the movement experience to be perfect since in most games it is one of the starch requirements of a good quality game. Travelling in Pacman is an enjoyable easy. You do not travel in Pacman the game lets Pacman do all of the work, though your job is to direct his path because Pacman is just going to walk forwards forever if you don't stopping.
There is also a certain fast feel you get from the game which you rarely see in modern games. Pacman just feels very fast pace, all of the action is happening now and you just can not stop it from coming. It may not as fast as sonic the hedgehog games because they are fast in a literal way, this just makes you feel fast and you need quick reactions to play it. It sort of reminds me of the original DOOM game. DOOM is quite easily the fastests First Person Shooter ever made and it is because of the same feel you get from Pacman even if they are very diverse.
Difficulty wise this game increases in it and can increase fast for the newbs to this game. Not long ago when I first started to really get into this game, I could only manage to reach level 4 out of the endless many. Now having come back and back to this game I have exceeded to level 9. In modern games level 9 sounds really bad but lets face it there is not much challenge in Pokemon and Super Mario 3D Land. Each level you progress the AI of the ghosts will be harder to compete against. The ghosts get fast and faster leaving you to be in the hands to make the correct decisions. Also the time in which you can eat your foes decreases each level as well making your life as Pacman even more tough to endure.


Overall
I can really see this game continuing to be famous, I am not sure the people of 5 generations after me will not know of this game. Not necessarily this port but the PacMan concept in general. The graphics and sound may be rather shocking negatively especially for this console but that is easily overruled by the stunning gameplay. There are not many games around that I have enjoyed as much as Pacman and the same does apply to many true retro gaming fans. I hope this game lives on after my death bed because it certainly deserve the right to.



Thank you for reading my review. If you enjoyed it please remember you can rate it. Also if you want to give me feedback or future games that I should review then please feel free to, they both help me out a lot and I do appreciated it.
Have a nice Day!!!

You did a really nice job on this review man! You had a lot of detail and you covered everything the way you need to. You are one of the people who knows how to review correctly, so this is the type of thing that I expect, this was somewhere above my line of what member's reviews should be like.

I have done a review on this game, and it was mostly like yours, just it seemed as though people didn't like it. I don't think that will be the case here as this is a really well made review. Keep this up and I will keep reading.

Wow, what a nice review! You made this review pretty attractive looking with your category separations and the italic part at the end. You also went into an amazing amount of detail! You talked about other games a lot in this review but you made up for it with your comparisons of those games to Pac-Man.

MechaMento : Pretty good review, except that you for got to enter the rating for the overall game at the end. Nice and long for a game like that, good job! Good job also keeping it positive, whilst giving it a lower review because you know the nes could have had more!