Review Preview

Hey, vizzed members! This time I’m reviewing, surprise, another Pac-Man game. But instead of a game featuring Pac-Man, this is Ms. Pac-Man for the Game Boy. As the title of the review says, I’m positive this version was heavily based off the NES version (the one by Namco, not Tengen). I’ll be pointing out its similarities in the review, but also focusing on what makes it great and unique. Enjoy the review!

GRAPHICS

8/10

I rated this an 8 because just about everything looks well-done. There isn’t an ugly strawberry in ½ mode like in the Game Boy version of Pac-Man. It looks nice in Ms. Pac-Man! There’s one thing that bothers me though. As I mentioned in my review of Pac-Man for the Game Boy, all the ghosts are the same color so you don’t know which is which. It takes some of the fun out of avoiding the ghosts. Namco could have made them black, dark gray, light gray, and light black.

Even Ms. Pac-Man’s bow doesn’t look terrible in ½ mode. If you don’t know what ½ mode is, I’ll describe it in the
difficulty section.

ANIMATIONS

10/10

I rated this a 10 because everything looks well-done here too, and it wouldn’t matter if it was in color or not for the animations. Ms. Pac-Man bites down all the way to eat the dots, the ghosts blink soon enough before they return to normal, and the cutscenes are animated well.

It amazes me how Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Man open and close their mouths so much. How does that not tire them out? And Ms. Pac-Man’s bow never falls off her head. :o

MUSIC

6/10

I rated this a 6 because the lack of songs is lame. But seriously, 2 songs are missing! Normally it would be that each act/cutscene has their own song, but that isn’t the case here. The “They Meet” song plays for all of them. It sort of fits for all of them, but if you played the original it wouldn’t seem at all right. Why, Namco? Why did you have to be lazy and bring the ratings down by neglecting to add the full soundtrack?

Onto the positive: all of the music that is there has a calm feel and the notes sound right. The theme that plays when you start the game is fun to listen to while you’re either waiting or trying to remember the controls. When Ms. Pac-Man loses a life, the song is so low-pitch and basic that if you’re like me, it’s funny. And the cutscene song, while overused, gives the scenes a fun and light-hearted mood.

SOUND EFFECTS

7/10

I rated this a 7 because one sound effects is horrible and shouldn’t be in the game. This category is where the title really comes into play. If you recorded the sound effects from this version and the Namco NES version and played them back one after another, you’d notice it sounds pretty similar. That isn’t a good thing, folks. In my review of that version, I talked about how wrong those sound effects are, compared to the original game. Here, they work better, but not much better.

The dot-chomping sound works well here and I don’t think it could be improved that much for a Game Boy game, so that’s one I accept without complaints. When Ms. Pac-Man eats a ghosteater pellet, I cringe if I have the volume up too loud. That sound is just obnoxious and it would be better if that sound didn’t exist and the usual background noise just kept playing.

Speaking of the background noise, that doesn’t sound half-bad, even when the fruits are bouncing around the maze. One thing Namco improved from the Namco NES version is that Ms. Pac-Man’s dot-chomping sound still plays when a fruit is bouncing or a ghosteater pellet is activated.

Finally, the extra life sound is beautiful! It isn’t the irritating alarm-clock-style beep that the Namco NES version had. Instead, it’s an exciting sound that I’m sad I don’t get to hear more than once in a session!

ADDICTIVENESS

10/10

I rated this a 10 because I could easily play this game for a while each time. All the different modes make this different from other versions and cool to play more than once in a session.

STORY

N0nexistent/10

There isn’t a story, but this category is still in the review because I like to be original with what I say here. The cutscenes tell little stories but the game itself doesn’t have one.

DEPTH

10/10

I rated this a 10 because I could never beat all these levels! It has many types of mazes. Also, it has several different modes: 1 player, 2 player, scrolling maze, ½ mode, arcade mode, and hard mode. Each mode makes the game even better and more fun. Yes, even hard mode since I’m a Pac-expert. Guys, don’t laugh. Pac-expert is a real thing.

DIFFICULTY

10/10

I rated this a 10 because hard mode is brutal and all the different mazes can be difficult to get used to! Once you’re used to the first maze, on comes the first cutscene and you’re slapped into another one that’s entirely different. Also, you have to keep track of 4 ghosts or else you might get ghost-corner’d (there’s that running gag, back again) by more than one ghost.

The maze setting you choose can actually affect difficulty. Not choosing ½ mode makes the game harder because you have to scroll through the maze and you don’t know where every ghost is.

OVERALL (not counting story)

8.7/10

How in the world did I get the same rating I did for Pac-Man for the Game Boy? How strange, and I promise it’s a coincidence. Although it has similarities to the not-too-great Namco NES version of Ms. Pac-Man, it’s way better in terms of gameplay and basically everything else. I recommend it to anyone who wants a Pac-Man game with more to it, and to people who want multiple ways to increase difficulty!

Thank you for reading my review and have a nice day!