To be honest, I only played two pacman games before. The original game and pacman's adventure for the playstation 2. Not really sure if that was it's actual name. Well, I think it wouldn't fair to be come up with a conclusion just from playing two pacman games, so I'll use same amount of the mario games I've played. The classic mario game for the super nintendo I liked more because I felt it had more to offer me. And mario sunshine gameplay compared to that particular pacman game for playstation 2 was better in my opinion. Overall, I have to say I'll go with mario.

PacmanandMariofan : If it's alright with you, I would like you to reply to this thread at some point.

Just like you, I've played way more Mario games than Pac-Man games, especially if you count hacks. I used to like Pac-Man more, mainly because when I started playing Pac-Man, I had little interest in Mario. (Hard to believe, isn't it? )

But now I like Mario a lot more than Pac-Man. I still play both game franchises but I feel more productive when playing Mario. There's just so much more to do in a Mario game usually. I can play a Mario game for hours on end without even getting a game over, but when I play Pac-Man I get a game over within 20 or so minutes.

By the way, I made a thread just like this before, but it died out from inactivity quite a while ago, so thanks for reviving this topic and summoning me to this

I think it's a very strange comparison to make considering they have very little in common besides both having been huge franchises. Thing is Mario is still going fairly strong being one of the system seller franchises for Nintendo while Pacman is mostly limited to things like mobile ports/remakes of the original or the ghostly adventure games which aren't near as popular as the recent Mario offerings. So I'd say purely in terms of how successful they still are, Mario is the clear winner.

In terms of personal prefence? Well I do enjoy the original Pacman a lot but I'd have to go with Mario. Simply because there's just more games to choose to from. The titles are fairly consistent in quality and there are Mario spinoffs that cover nearly every major genre out there while Pacman games fluctuate a lot in how good they are and don't really have the same variety. Not really a fair comparison though in my opinion.

Zlinqx : Now that you bought it up, It does seem unfair in some way to be comparing them like this. Especially in terms of genres. But like the sonic vs klonoa thread I made, this one was entirely random. It just came to mind and I acted on it really. I should be more thoughtful about comparing video game characters from now on. Zlinqx, do you think this thread should be closed due to the odds being unbalanced in pacman's favor? It does appear that way to me now.

Final Weapon : While it may be unfair, it's not against the rules or anything of the sort. If you're interested in seeing what people have to say about the two franchises in comparison (because there can be interesting things to be gained from that aside from just which is more popular) then I don't see the harm in it. It's all about increasing activity and having a discussion. If that's not the case though and you really want it to be closed, I can do that for you.

I'll have to go with Mario for this one. It's a huge franchise, and it always offer us awesome games. Since 1981, it is still successful. Plus I don't get tired of Mario that easily. In fact my interest is back to it. As for Pacman, well uh, I only played the very first game lol, so can't really say. 

I'm going to go with mario simply since it's a whole franchise, while pac man is just one main game with a bunch of other games that are barely any different aside for a few. Mario is pretty much everywhere, tons of different games and then even the games that aren't about Mario but still have him in the game are all awesome so that's why I'll pick mario over pac man.

I do have to agree that it's pretty unfair to PacMan that we would compare two games that are in no way related or even in the same genre.

It's like if I asked you to compare Call of Duty to Pitfall.

Although I love PacMan and find those games to be some of the most influential games of the early 80s if not THE most, I can't really compare them to mario. Mario is head and shoulders a more engrossing franchise just due to the nature of the games.

Mario hands down. Its better in every single aspect. Thats my opinion.

Pac Man. He was on the scene first and got us all to love video games. I remember when every store would have at least 1 arcade machine,I would gladly play Pac Man.

Why? Even with the most recent games,Pac Man is about the same objective,eat dots,avoid ghosts,and getting that power pellet just before a ghost can get you. It is easy to pick up and play and you do not need to be a video game geek to love it. It is just pure fun.

I prefer Mario but I do enjoy playing Ms. Pac-Man

Oldschool777 : I personally play Pac-Man to relax while playing a game especially after sessions of Super Street Fighter II, so I'm voting it, and as you say it's a simple pick up and play game.

Thank you Luigi,Pac Man is deceptively harder than it looks,you have to think ahead and be prepared to make a split second decision.

Though Mario certainly has a lot more diversity and uniqueness from game to game....I'm going to have to say Pac-Man.

Sure, it's more or less the same thing from installment to installment, but I find the overall simplicity of Pac-Man makes it far easier to get hooked on than Mario. Plus there's the Pac-Man World games if you want something more sophisticated.

As much as I love the Pacman Party games I'm going to have to go with the plumber on this one. I love Italian plumbers outfitted in red that have a chance to save a Princess. I also have a thing for underdogs as well in video games and I feel Pacman should stop bullying those cute ghosts.

I will admit that Pacman is fun and very addicting, it's also got it's place in video game history, though I will have to go with the red hatted plumber in this one since I usually get more enjoyment out of his games than Pacmans.

I've actually never been a Pacman fan, like, I never have. I've always found that Pacman games are just too hard and don't really like them. All you really do is run around an collect dots while trying to stay alive.

I do however actually sort of like the Mario game series, even thought it isn't one of my favorite it's one that I can put up with. Because Mario games has so many other games such as super Mario Sunshine, I don't feel like there is even a small competition for me by any chance.

Only Pac-man I have played is the first one, and I got bored pretty fast when playing it, well there is only one stage that you do over and over again... So It's Mario for me.

Mario has much more to offer by leaps and bounds. Even the 3D platformers with Pacman don't come close to what the Mario games are. For every generation, Mario has blown Pacman out of the water. This is all opinion though. I don't want to deal with any Pacman fan hate