Forums > Submission Feedback > JoeTheDestroyer's Pac-Man review

The 2600 version of Pac-Man is the only one I've ever played. I didn't realise there was a difference. Well, that accounts for why so many people speak fondly of Pac-Man while I think it's kind of crap.

'There would be tears and there would be strange laughter. Fierce births and deaths beneath umbrageous ceilings. And dreams, and violence, and disenchantment.'

People stood in line for ages to buy the 2600 Pac-Man port.... and then they stood in line to return it. The game was a massive success, even though it also had more returns than any other game to date. It was a crushing disappointment to arcade fans.

Nice review -- I liked how you named Pac-Man's deformed brother "Poc-Man".

//Zig

Unlimited Zig Works!

[begin New York accent]

Eh. I've played woiss Pac-Man clones.

[end New York accent]


There has always been something I've always pondered about the reputation of this particular version of Pac-Man. Would this game -- without changing the core mechanics -- have been more tolerated without the Pac-Man branding?

"I reject your reality and substitute my own."
-- Adam Savage

Thanks, zig!

Good question, qxz. I think I still wouldn't like it, but perhaps wouldn't have been so hard on it. And by 'less hard' I pretty much mean a 3/10 vs. a 2/10.

Interesting bit-o-trivia: A lot of people blame the videogame crash in the early '80s on this rendition of Pac-Man, as well as ET.

The only thing my milkshake brings to the yard is a subpoena.

For me, this was weird. The A2600 Pac-Man was the first version I ever played, so I didn't know better and had a reasonable amount of fun with it...until my parents bought me the more faithfully rendered Ms. Pac-Man and I never played the original again. Jr. Pac-Man was also good, but I preferred the one-screen maze where you could see everything in front of you over that game's taller ones that didn't fit on one screen.

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

Overdrive wrote:
For me, this was weird. The A2600 Pac-Man was the first version I ever played, so I didn't know better and had a reasonable amount of fun with it...

Same case with me. The Atari 2600 rendition of Pac-Man was literally my first experience with the brand, and I also enjoyed playing it. Of course, this was before the NES came to be, and the inevitable conversion of <Pac-Man to said system.

"I reject your reality and substitute my own."
-- Adam Savage