Review Preview

Hey, vizzed members! In this review, I will be talking about Pac-Man for the Sega Game Gear. Enjoy the review and don’t forget to leave some feedback if you want to.

GRAPHICS

9/10

I rated this a 9 because Pac-Man looks too pixilated in ½ mode, and slightly pixilated in the regular size screen. Other than that and Pinky being too dark, everything looks great and some things even look unique. The ghosts have a cool and different look in this version. They’re wider and in ½ mode, their eyes are ridiculously huge! XD

The layout for ½ mode is a good one because the maze takes up most of the screen and the score on the right is large enough to see without much effort. It looks like it should in a normal-sized game of Pac-Man.

The layout for regular sized mode is even nicer because everything is shown within the maze. The score is on the top right, the fruit is on the bottom right corner, and Pac-Man’s lives counter is right above the cherry. What’s impressive about that? Well, none of them block the maze much and they don’t take up too much space.

ANIMATIONS

9/10

I rated this a 9 because Pac-Man’s chomping animation bothers me in the first cutscene when he’s large. By the way, that cutscene seems to be foreshadowing the game Super Pac-Man! The other animations are lovable in my opinion. Pac-Man’s chomping animation is just fine in the regular mazes, so how come that couldn’t be the case in the first cutscene? And as Pac-Man himself would probably say, “Wakka wakka wakka wakka.” Oh sorry, I forgot to translate. “Go big or go home.”

MUSIC

10/10

I rated this a 10 because I love everything about this game’s songs! The pitch, notes, mood, and whatever else is so cool. Also, they don’t sound off-key at all, which is crucial for any conversion of a video game like this one.

SOUND EFFECTS

10/10

I rated this a 10 because I just love this game’s sound effects! I love them so much that in fact, they sound better than the original game in my opinion!! Every time I play this game, I come to appreciate the sounds more and more.

ADDICTIVENESS

10/10

I rated this a 10 because every element about this game is appealing and makes me want to play it again even though I’m supposed to be typing up this review. The music and sound effects are especially what make this version of Pac-Man interesting for me. Also, the fact that there’s a regular mode and a ½ mode adds to the replay value.

STORY

S0rry/10

It’s a Pac-Man game, therefore a story does not exist! Well, some Pac-Man games have stories like Pac-Man Party. But this one doesn’t. Oh well, the game itself makes up for that.

DEPTH

10/10

I rated this a 10 because as I mentioned before, this game has 2 modes you can play in, 3 if you also count 2 players. ½ mode squeezes the whole maze on one screen while regular size has you scrolling through the maze. That can be difficult. Why?

DIFFICULTY

8/10

I rated this an 8 because even ½ mode can be hard for me to progress well in. I played the game twice while creating this review and I still didn’t get past level 4. Normally I at least pass level 6. Also, if you don’t pick ½ mode you won’t be able to keep track of where every ghost is, making it easier for you to get ghost-corner’d.

OVERALL (not counting story)

9.4/10

This still isn’t my favorite Pac-Man port, but if I ditched the NES version and became an expert at this version, it’s highly likely that I’d change my mind. I recommend this game to anyone who likes Pac-Man or classic video games in general.

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