Pac-Man Review

By Chris Pickering Published 25 October, 2007

Getting your five a day?

Version tested: Retro

Though munching pills and shaking your booty to repetitive music might be quite a common Saturday night out for today's youngsters, who's to say that we might find ourselves staring at a few less bleary eyed alleged young adults if it wasn't for the 1979 release of a little title known as Pac-Man.

Gaming's most recognised icon might have starred in his own cartoon series, but it was the pill-munching, ghost-gobbling gameplay of the initial arcade title that helped carry the gaming world into a new frontier.

Starring the little yellow chap named in the title, things here are of a certain kind of simplistic but astonishingly addictive brand,that leaves you constantly craving more. Even when you've just died for the umpteenth time.

Meandering through the angular maze, chomping those nourishing little dots that covered every inch of the gaming field, Pac-Man had to frantically gobble up the lot before the ghosts managed to cheekily trap him in a corner: the only goal required to progress to the next stage. But grab one of those larger, flashing dots towards each of the screen's four corners, and Pac-Man becomes more powerful than Jeff Minter himself, and you get the chance to turn things completely around and send those annoying ghosts back to their central pen with a single bite.

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Regularly heralded as the 'most popular game of all time' Pac-Man might not have been drenched in graphical splendour, but its sheer addictive nature meant it was one of those titles you couldn't ever forget. Let's just be happy that we didn't end up with its original title, Puck-Man. Just say it out loud and you'll discover why.

Now if only I could leave it alone and go out and have a boogie myself .

10 / 10

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Comments (3) Latest comment 5 years ago

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  • MasterControlProgram #1 5 years ago

    "might not have been drenched in graphical splendour"

    Questionable... for 1980, the cut scenes between levels were top class.

  • StringBeanJean #2 5 years ago

    So bored of references to pacman saying the whole 'munching pills...repetitive music...darkened rooms' thing.

  • Killerbee #3 5 years ago

    Apart from a Pong clone off one of those boxes you plugged into your TV, this was the first proper "computer" game I ever played. Or rather, a blatant rip-off clone of this called "Haunted Hedges", but it sort of adds up to the same thing.