COULD HAVE BETTER, BUT IT COMES UP SHORT 7 OUT OF 10
Pac-Man Collection consists of four Pac-Man games: Pac-Man, Pac-Man Arrangement, Pac-Attack, and Pac-Mania. Three of these games are fun, one is not. So I will review each of these games individually to give you a scoop about each game and and a score to go with it.
PAC-MAN- SCORE: 8.25 OUT OF 10
WHAT THE GAME IS: If you're a smart gamer you should already know what this game is about. But if not I'll give you an explanation; you are a yellow round object (sort of shaped like a pizza with a slice cut out) and you go around mazes eating little dots, all while trying to avoid being killed by enemies shaped like germs, unless you get a power up to which then you can eat them.
GRAPHICS: It has an old 8-bit look, but the levels all look the same, and nothing really seems to change when it comes to environments.
MUSIC: The only time music is present is when you start another round, but the small tune is okay.
SOUND: The sounds of Pac-Man eating dots and germs when they get turned blue, the germs moving around, and you dying.
GAMEPLAY: Simple concepts of navigating the mazes and eating all of the dots as fast as you can, controls work perfectly as any version of Pac-Man I've played.
OVERALL: A title that's still a lot of fun despite its release more than twenty years ago, but time has aged its old gameplay concepts and recycled levels, which does damage part of the quality.
PAC-MAN ARRANGEMENT- SCORE: 9 OUT OF 10
WHAT THE GAME IS: It follows the same Pac-Man gameplay concepts, you navigate around mazes, you eat dots and germs when they're in a current state, and you get a lot of points for finding extra items. But this game is more addicting to play, because of new colorful environments, 3D/2D graphics, there are six worlds to beat, the game is more forgiving, and some extra features in the mazes keep things fresh.
GRAPHICS: A nice 3D/2D look, especially for a Game Boy Advance title.
MUSIC: Again, music only plays when you begin a new stage.
SOUND: Again, like the original, Pac-Man eating, germs moving, and you dying.
GAMEPLAY: It's a step above the original when it comes to new things, no level is the same, faster gameplay, six worlds to beat, a boss battle at the end, and prettier graphics.
OVERALL: The game is almost perfect, but it's crippled by an overly forgiving continue system and constant death from germs like in the old Pac-Man game. But it's highly recommendable to anyone who likes Pac-Man.
PAC-ATTACK- SCORE: 4 OUT OF 10
WHAT THE GAME IS: Remember Tetris? It's like that only minus the fun of Tetris and it involves Pac-Man characters and blocks in only one color.
GRAPHICS: Bland and distasteful, especially considering this game was originally on the Super Nintendo, a system with a lot of pretty 2D games.
MUSIC: Unimpressive, and not a whole lot.
SOUND: Pac-Man eating germs when you line up blocks and germs in certain ways.
GAMEPLAY: Boring, the block and germ destroying is very repetitive and not fun, unlike most puzzle games. You have better options for Game Boy Advance than this.
OVERALL: They should have put Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures in here instead of this mess. Even though this game has little in common with Pac-Man's original gameplay, it's a lot more fun than Pac-Attack. And anyway, Pac-Attack has little in common with the other Pac-Man games too.
PAC-MANIA- SCORE: 7.25 OUT OF 10
WHAT THE GAME IS: It follows the steps of the original and Arrangement in gameplay and environments. The gameplay feels a little old, the graphics have a 2D/3D look, and environments are recycled.
GRAPHICS: Similar to Arrangement, only the environments aren't as interesting.
MUSIC: Again, not much like the original and Arrangement.
SOUNDS: Like the original and Arrangement, Pac-Man eating, germs moving, and sounds of death.
GAMEPLAY: Follows the original and Arrangement, but for some reason it feels somewhat boring unlike the latter games because of less interesting environments and the feel a little recycled along with some of the gameplay.
OVERALL: Enjoyable, not the best game in this package, but it does offer a good time for any Pac-Man fans.
This game could have been more, but it came up short due to the lackluster Mania, and awful Attack. Namco should have whipped up more Pac-Man games while they were at it, because the score I gave this game would be improved and it would make it more attractive to buy. But, this package as a whole is worth the investment to relive the old Pac-Man glory days.
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Good Collection, but Could be Better...
NAMCO has brought their classic arcade game PACMAN to the GBA, and it seems to be a bit lost in translation.
PACMAN (2.5/5)
The classic arcade game with the originol graphics. It breaks my heart to rate this game 2.5 stars, but it was intended for a larger screen original
PACMAN ARRANGEMENT (3/5)
The game by itself would deseve four stars (again, there is no saving) but it is almost identical to the originol PACMAN game. The only real difference is that it has brighter graphics and better music, and these aspects don't really add any enjoyment to the game.
PACMANIA (3/5)
Like PACMAN ARRANGEMENT, this is extremely simalir to the originol arcade game only with better sounds and graphics. You can use the A and B buttons to jump over the ghosts which makes the game easier than it all ready is. Again, I am puzzled by the fact you can't save your scores.
PAC-ATTACK (5/5)
This is definately the best game in the collection. Like TETRIS, there are blocks falling from the sky that need to be arranged, but here some of the blocks contain a ghost. If you arrange the ghosts in the right order, you are allowed to eat them. The game-play is addictive and challenging. in fact, the game is so much fun I would buy PAC MAN COLLECTION just to have it in my GBA library.
Overall, this is a flawed but enjoyable collection of games
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