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Hey, vizzed members! The title says everything I have to say about this game so you can click away from the review now. Just kidding, this game is so bad that I have a ton to say about it. Read it all if you dare.

Today I am reviewing Pac-Mania for the Sega Master System, one of the worst Pac-Man games I have ever played. But obviously, I’m still willing to play it because I’m sitting here typing my fingers off to tell you about it. Alright, it’s time I get started!

SOUND EFFECTS

2/10

I rated this a 2 because there are sound effects, but none of them sound good! Some of them are pretty strange too, such as the dot-chomping sound. It’s low and annoying. Pac-Man chomps a ghosteater pellet and you get a sudden change of pitch, low to high! That sound is actually pretty funny, but that does not mean it’s good.

Pac-Man chomps a fruit and… wait, did you hear that? Me neither. I reset the game and leaned my ear towards my speaker. That noise was doing the limbo, seeing how low it could go. If you eat a dot right before eating a ghost, you would hear another sudden change of pitch!

Pac-Man’s dying sound is another low one with a dramatic high pitch at the end for whatever reason. It goes along with the animation, but that’s the only good thing about it.

The only sound effect that I wouldn’t want to replace is Pac-Man’s jump. It isn’t good, but it isn’t too bad either. That sound saved this category from being a 1!

Finally, there’s the pause sound effect. Oh yeah, there isn’t one. When you pause, it just freezes the screen like your browser froze or the emulator crashed. It doesn’t even say, “PAUSE”. Oh my goodness.

MUSIC

Cring3y/10

I rated this a 3 because this game might as well have no music; all of it is weird-sounding. The cutscene theme makes me think “Eh”, but the other songs make me think, “BLEH”. I danced like crazy in my seat while listening to level 1’s theme just now because it’s the only thing that makes it enjoyable, besides how wacky it is. Just like with the sound effects, the music has some sudden pitch changes that add to the weirdness of the notes.

I bobbed my head up and down in order to enjoy the Pac-Man’s Park theme. Most of it sounds better than level 1’s theme, but not the end part before it starts over. Throughout the song, there’s a loud beat that overpowers the actual notes. It ruins the song even more than everything else.

GRAPHICS

7/10

I rated this a 7 because I love most of the graphics this version of Pac-Mania has. The mazes look simple despite being 3D and the colors are well-chosen for them and for Pac-Man. I have a problem with the ghosts, though. For one thing, they gained height but really lost some weight. Second, they have some shiny bald spots on “their heads”. So does Pac-Man but it looks better on him. Third, if you stare into their eyes you might think they feel sad. This is supposed to be a fun game where you don’t feel bad for the ghosts!

Lastly, Blinky, Pinky, and all of them are gone. You get to deal with green and orange ghosts now, so have fun. By
the way, the ghosts in the cutscene before level 2 actually look good. How come they couldn’t look like that in the actual levels??

ANIMATIONS

Lam3/10

I rated this a 3 because the cutscenes are lazily made and inconsistent with the original game. The first one does OK with consistency aside from how fast it is. The 2nd one, though, is just a bunch of ghosts following each other in a chase, but there is no Pac-Man. What are the ghosts chasing, and again, why do they look better than the ghosts in the mazes?

As for the animations you see in the mazes, they’re a little better. However, just like with the cutscenes everything is too fast, which I’ll talk about more in the difficulty section. Pac-Man does well executing his animations and as a little bonus, if you pause the game at the right time you’ll notice some hilarious faces. In a screenshot I’ll upload after this, I show that he looks very tired. The ghosts do well with their animations too, except one. They blink too soon before returning to normal, so you have barely any time to react before you run into one.

ADDICTIVENESS

M3h/10

I rated this a 3 because the only reason I come back to this game is to use my determination to make more progress. Also, it’s entertaining to hear that wacky music once in a while, since it isn’t too irritating.

STORY

N0pe/10

Even the cutscenes don’t tell a story, they just warn you about what is next, so I would say there isn’t a story in this game. Maybe you’d think that with a title like Pac-Mania, it has to be good. I mean…uh… Pac-Mania might sound like it would have an interesting plot. But no, it doesn’t have one, so sorry.

DEPTH

10/10

I rated this a 10 because this game has more than enough levels with how difficult it is. Also, it has all the maze types of the original game.

DIFFICULTY

10/10

I rated this a 10 because it is ridiculous, and not in a good way. Earlier, I mentioned that everything is too fast. Well, it is! You don’t have much time to react when you turn a corner and a ghost is coming your way. Also, the controls don’t respond as quickly as I want them to. If that doesn’t sound crazy enough, the amount of ghosts is quite excessive. That alone might be why I struggle not to lose a life in the first level.

Usually, I’m quite fortunate to make it past level 3.

OVERALL (not counting story)

5.4/10

Ouch. Yeah, this version of Pac-Mania really isn’t that great unless you use a cheat to go through the ghosts, and try to rack up a good amount of points that way. I would recommend it to anyone who is too good at the original Pac-Mania and wants a much harder version.

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

Decent review! I enjoyed reading it.

I'm not a huge fan of this port of the game. Whats even funnier is that this version came out as late as 1991 for the master system but is still sub-par.

Which port of this game is your favorite?

Jordanv78 : Thank you! I didn't know if reviewing a game I don't like that much would turn out too well, but I tried it anyway and posted it so it wouldn't be a waste of time XD

Yeah, it's weird how this version is newer but more terrible than the oldest one! My favorite port of this game is the NES version. I love that it gives you 5 lives to start, everything is scaled down, and it sounds amazing. What's your favorite port?

Okay, well I didn't read the whole review (:p) which is probably why I have this question.
If the game stinks, how did it get a 8.5? O.o

Abdullahboys : It didn't get an 8.5, at the end of the review I put the overall rating as a 5.4! XD You were looking at the average user score, which, now that I see that, surprises me.

Pacman+Mariofan : Oh! 5.4 makes more sense .
Well, I've never played it so... I wouldn't know lol.