Review - Arcade Game: Puckman Pockimon (Pacman and Pikachu?) We all love the classic games, like Pacman, and Pokemon, two entirely different games. But, have you ever wondered what it would be like if Pacman and Pokemon came together by probably just a man living in his mother's basement going by the name Genie? That thinking is what brought this game into existence. Oh, boy...
This game is obviously a ripoff of Pacman. Pacman and Pokemon in the same game? Sounds awesome, right? It does sound like bread and butter, believe me, I got so excited when I saw the title screen, but this game is nothing but Pacman with better graphics and the ability to play as Pikachu if you're the second player.
With that said, this game was actually released in the year 2000, the same year as a hidden diamond like Penguin Brothers! Unfortunately, that's the only way those two games are related. Enough yammering, though, let's just get this over with.
Graphics - 7I have to admit, while everything else about the game is bad, the graphics aren't actually that bad of an eyesore. While the background of the maze is most of the time gray, the title screen is pretty colorful.
The title screen is Pacman - er, excuse me, Puckman - with Pikachu on his back. They're apparently running from the four classic Pacman ghosts, along with a shoddily drawn Caterpie and I think a Snorlax.
It's to be expected that a game, even a bootleg, to have at least halfway decent graphics by the time it's the year 2000. Graphics don't make a game good, however. You could have a game with shoddy graphics but it also has an amazing story (Like a certain game I won't mention but love)
There's also a really weird thing about the game that I should probably mention: After you clear a stage, during the time between loading the next stage, you always get a picture of a different Asian woman.
Out of everything that Genie could have picked, they picked photos of women. Why not use pictures of Pacman, or even a different Pokemon? The game is called Puckman Pockimon! The Pockimon part should be more than just the title screen, the second player, and a couple of the enemies.
Sound - 3There isn't really much sound, like what you would expect in the original Pacman game - which was made in 1980! This was made two decades later, so you would expect there to at least be a bit of music, right?
Nope. Just the sound of Puckman and Pikachu eating pellets and dodging ghosts, along with Pikachu's mortal enemies in this game - Caterpie and Snorlax. If this had been released in 1985, or even 1990, this game would have been great if they had changed the characters a bit.
But no! It's the year 2000, I expect some kind of quality from games by this point. (Looking at you, Big Rigs, and Superman 64...) For that, I give the sound a 3, barely above my rating for E.T.
Addictiveness - 2I guess I might play this game when I'm bored out of my mind or something or if I'm doing it for my YouTube channel. Any other time than that, and there's no way you can convince me to play it, even if you gave me a chance to kiss Mettaton if I played this game.
If you didn't want to read that paragraph just now about the addictiveness, then here's a "too long; didn't read" summary for you: Unless you're extremely bored I do not recommend playing this game.
Story - 1
There are so many things that need to be explained in this game, that a story is needed in order for someone to understand why this game has so many weird features. Why is Pikachu here?! Why does he function like Pacman?! Why are Caterpie and Snorlax so evil?! Who knows?!
I have decided that I would create a story about this game to answer all of these questions for you! I call it "The Backstory of Puckman Pockimon" Really unoriginal name, I know.
So, once upon a time, there was a little Pokemon called Pikachu. He loved living in Viridian Forest, everything was so peaceful! He even had a baby brother, named Pichu. Pichu was so cute, every Pokemon who saw him would be instantly jealous.
Two of these Pokemon were Caterpie and Snorlax. The two of them devised a plan to get Pichu's cuteness so that some trainers would adopt them. When Pikachu wasn't looking, they kidnapped Pichu!
Because these two Pokemon were smart, they had created a rift which would throw Pikachu into an unknown dimension. When Pikachu came to rescue his brother, the pull from the rift sucked him in!
However, this rift became so strong that Caterpie and Snorlax had been sucked in, too! Pichu was immune to the rift because his adorableness broke it after the evil schemers fell into it.
When Pikachu woke up, he found himself in Pacman's world. Pacman saw him, and he explained his troubles to him. Pacman told him, "Don't worry, Pikachu! At the end of the Ghost Maze, you are allowed to have one wish for anything! You can wish yourself back home! I'll help you navigate the maze, too!"
However, the duo wasn't going to give up that easily! They bribed the ghosts in the Ghost Maze to lend them their powers so that they can stop Pacman and Pikachu! There was a catch to their newfound powers, though: they had to stay in the maze for it to work and, if either of them found a Power Pellet, they too would be affected by it.
There. That's my story. It's not one of my best, but I'll stick with it. Of course, this is not canon, so this doesn't count towards the story rating.
Depth - 3There's nothing to do here. You eat pellets, avoid ghosts, and every four stages, there's a bonus stage with an amount of time and it's impossible to eat all the dots with the time you have.
Difficulty - 5This game is hard, believe me. However, what takes away most of the difficulty is the fact you have a "Continue?" screen. When you
insert a coin you can pick up where you left off, and there's no penalty for dying, unlike with the original Pacman, where you lose all your progress when you die.
Overall - 3.5Unless you're looking for a bad, hidden bootleg game to play for nostalgia purposes, please just avoid this game altogether and spend the time you waste playing this game doing something better - like playing PaRappa the Rapper.
Another thing I should probably mention: THIS GAME IS BROKEN. Seriously! Once you hit a score of 500,000, the score completely freezes and anything you eat won't add to the points! What's the point of having a score system if you're just going to make it stop at just over 500,000?!
Graphics
7 Sound
3 Addictive
2 Depth
3 Story
1 Difficulty
5
User Notice 
-1.png "Puckman Pockimon (set 1) Title Screen")
-2.png "Puckman Pockimon (set 1) Screenshot 1")
-3.png "Puckman Pockimon (set 1) Screenthot 2")
