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Hey vizzed, welcome to another Pac-Man game review by Pac! This time I’ll be reviewing Pac-Mania for the NES, which is in my opinion one of the best versions of the game. It was released by Tengen in 1990. You start out with 5 lives! It’s different from most Pac-Man games because this one is 3D and Pac-Man can jump over ghosts! Alright, time to get my fingers jumping around the keyboard like Pac-Man does in these mazes. BOING!

GRAPHICS

9/10

Wow, for an NES game these graphics are detailed and vibrant. The title screen just screams, “Check this out! You won’t be disappointed!” It’s funny because of the ghosts’ facial expressions, and it’s colorful. The Pac-Mania logo is large and the Pac-Man style 3D block letters pop out at me instantly. The letters in and below the logo have a cool taste in colors, including the shadows. Pac-Man himself is to the left of the modes below the logo.

One thing bothers me about the title screen is the C shaped like a Pac-Man. It doesn’t have the 3D red border/outline the other letters do. It looks so plain. I’m thinking that was intentional to make that Pac-Man stand out as his 2D self, but it doesn’t look good in my opinion. Even the dot to the right of him has that red border. Come on, man.

The title screen has another thing that pops out at me: the scrolling white rectangles to the left and right of the mode select. They give so much life to the title screen, and it’s cool to watch. I like that Inky is staring down at the C shaped like a Pac-Man with a frown on his face.

The world select screen is simple but in this case, that’s much better than having so much going on. If you’re playing this game with a friend, you wouldn’t want your friend to sit there while you admire the visual beauty of the game like a nerd. It gives you a zoomed in visual of each world, which helps you recognize which one it is if you have played Pac-Mania before.

The worlds themselves have a simple but likeable design also. You don’t want them to have too much going on or you might become distracted from your job of avoiding the ghosts. The first world, Pacman’s World, has a Lego-like design. The 2nd world, Pacman’s Park, is a 3D remake of the maze from the original Pac-Man game! It has a Pac-Mania logo that stretches through the walls on both sides of the maze, near the tunnels. The 3rd world looks more 3D with triangular prisms instead of just walls. The 4th world, Jungly Steps, has a more complex design, intended to look like steps hence its title.

The maze colors alternate with every maze, which in my opinion should have happened in more Pac-Man games. What’s even cooler is that after you complete the first cycle of mazes, some of the mazes are different and weirder colors than before.

Finally, Pac-Man and the ghosts. I like Pac-Man’s 3D look that fits in with his environment. The ghosts are the best part, though. There are so many colors for the ghosts, instead of the usual 4. My favorite is the blue ghost because his eyes go up and down quickly, implying he’s crazy.

ANIMATIONS/CUTSCENES

10/10

Honestly, whether I compare them to the original or not, I think these animations and cutscenes are spot-on. The animation is smooth and the cutscenes are entertaining. The ghosts look natural when they move. Again, the blue ghost has characterization with his darting eyes. When the fruits pop up, they just appear instead of fading in which fits for a Pac-Man game. The mazes fade out nicely when you complete them and the transition screen from world to world also has a cool fade-in and out. The credits are short and sweet.

SOUND EFFECTS

9.5/10

The sound effects in Pac-Mania really add to its exciting feel. I always enjoy hearing Pac-Man jump over the ghosts, especially when I have to do it multiple times in a row. The dot-chomping sound reminds me of the original Pac-Man but this sound is cooler. Because it’s a high pitch normally, but after chomping a ghosteater pellet, the pitch lowers. I like the sound that plays when you select a mode/world since it’s short, simple, and fitting.

The fruit target/special item appearance sound is higher pitched which alerts me that it’s there, even without the text that comes with it. One of the best sounds is when Pac-Man eats a fruit. It sounds very close to the fruit-eating noise from the original Pac-Man for the NES. Another really great sound effect is when Pac-Man chomps a ghost. It’s high-pitch, which is always cool to hear on an NES game because of the 8-bit sound. It also increases in that high pitch without sounding off-key.

I enjoy hearing the pause sound effect once in a while, but it’s terrible compared to the rest. It’s just a squeak. It’s funny the first time, but annoying after that. That squeak is the reason this category isn’t a 10.

MUSIC

10/10

When the game loads and the title screen appears, I just sit there and listen to the music before playing the game. It’s the same song as most of the cutscenes before the worlds, but I don’t mind that since it’s so catchy.

The songs utilize the NES instruments very well with a variety of pitches. As I mentioned with the sound effects, I like and am impressed by the high-pitch sounds in this game and the music is no different. The music in the mazes is mostly relaxing, which helps me enjoy the game more instead of feeling like it’s too intense on the harder levels. But the music that plays in levels 4 and 5 is upbeat and fast. I’m glad that’s there to give the soundtrack a little bit of variety.

Other than the mazes though, the music is all fast-paced and fun to listen to. Excitement constantly flows through me whenever the ending/high score music plays!

ADDICTIVENESS

10/10

All that I’ve mentioned above combines to make Pac-Mania’s replay value significantly high. The graphics are appealing, the sound effects are very likeable, and the music is worthy of dancing to. Also the actual concept of the game, jumping over ghosts and clearing 3D mazes, doesn’t become old unless I’m playing this game for 24 hours

STORY

0/10

Despite one cutscene having a giant ghost in it chasing Pac-Man, that isn't the final boss. There is no final boss, once you beat the last level there's just victory all day and all night long.

DEPTH

10/10

This game contains 19 levels. For a typical Pac-Man game, that’s nothing. But for a game like this with 3D mazes, multiple types of mazes, and so many ghosts, that’s more than enough. The first world only contains one level. The 2nd world through 4th world all have 2 levels in each world. Once you complete those 4 worlds, the game is over and you just get some bonus levels, right? That isn’t the case. You have to play through all 4 worlds again, but this time there are 3 levels in each world. I’ll talk more about the worlds in the difficulty section.

Another thing this game has is power-ups. The ghosteater pellet counts even though it’s in many other Pac-Man games already. But there are 2 new ones: the red dot, which is a bonus ghosteater pellet that makes the score value for each ghost higher, depending on how many ghosts you eat when that powerup is active. The maximum amount of points you can score for each ghost is 7,650 which is a mega-great deal compared to the regular 200!! I don’t want to sound like those annoying TV commercials, I’m just saying.

The other powerup is a green pellet, which is a speed boost. This comes in handy for when you want to eat more ghosts and rack up more points. Most importantly, it’s useful for when some ghosts can jump because with more speed, you have a chance of jumping over their jump!

DIFFICULTY

8/10

Like most good video games should, Pac-Mania begins easy and progressively becomes more difficult with each world. Not only do the worlds increase in level count after the first and 4th, but more ghosts are added for each world. That’s brutal in the worlds after the 4th, Jungly Steps, because Pac-Man and all the ghosts are faster.

Once some ghosts can jump again, you’re in for a real pickle. Usually the only way I can jump over the jumping ghosts is when I have the speed-boost powerup in effect. You thought it was bad enough having all 4 ghosts trap you into a corner in the original Pac-Man? Try dealing with that in this game with TWICE as many ghosts! BOO!!!!!

OVERALL

9.5/10 (this doesn't count the story)

Wow, I must like this game even more than I thought I did. Anyway, I’d recommend this game to any Pac-Man fan out there who wants something different and more challenging than the usual 2D maze. Who needs the original when it has 256 levels, anyway.

Well, I hope you found this review enjoyable and interesting to read! Please leave some constructive criticism below since I don’t usually review that much anymore but when I do, I seek to improve. Have a nice day!

Well this is a rather in depth review to say the least. 

I like the way you separated the different areas that you mark the game on, for me its the best way to make a review easy to understand for the reader...

You also went into a lot of detail in some areas which is good and it shows that you actually know about the game you are reviewing but sometimes you go a bit too overboard.... The first thing that popped out for me was that you wrote about the title screen for over 200 words... 
I understand that obviously you like the screen.. But its literally 1/8th of your whole review...  which is rather excessive for a screen most people will see for 2 seconds. 

Just remember that a lot of words is not necessarily a good thing.. It can be if used correctly and if you're writing in detail. But there's better things to write in detail about in a game review than the title screen. 

Honestly besides that it was a good review... You mentioned core mechanics and controls and highlighted what makes this game different from the many other pac man games.. Which really is not that easy to do. 

Sonicmcmuffin: I figured that there wasn't a good balance between the amount of detail with the graphics compared to the rest of the categories. One intention I had was to point out what most people wouldn't notice or take the time to see if they were playing the game.

What I just now think of is that I should only point out the best parts of the graphics instead of talking about everything. Thank you for your helpful criticism which allows me to realize that instead of getting carried away.

I'm currently experimenting with this new style of reviewing so I'll be making a less excessively detailed review later this month if I figure out which game.