Namco Bandai Games recovers one of the most representative figures of the golden age of arcade salons in a compilation that aims to please the most nostalgic players, those who left their savings in the form of coins in arcades like Pac-Man, a franchise that He won the favor of the gamers during the eighties and even the beginning of the nineties. And it does so in the form of downloadable compilation for
PlayStation 3 , Xbox 360 and PC ; thus, Pac-Man Museum arrives with 10 of the most famous titles in the long history of Namco’s Pac-Man, games as popular as Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man, Pac-Mania or the most recent Pac-Man Championship Edition or
Pac -Man Battle Royal. One of the titlesmost famous arcadein history that returns to the present for the luck of the most veteran players and for the youngest discover the beginnings of such an exciting world; All the details in our analysis .
Pac-Man fever!
The digital bazaars of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, as well as PC, receive these days Pac-Man Museum, a compilation that recovers 10 of the most famous titles of the popular Namco’s comecocos ; unfortunately, users of Wii U and Nintendo 3DS are left without its version, announced long ago by the Japanese company and that have not been able to see the
light finally due to problems in their development. Anyway, Pac-Man Museum is already among us and does it with a somewhat peculiar selection.
While several of the required titles of the franchise are present, such as the original 1980 or the downloadable Ms. Pac-Man -free until the end of March-, we find other less fortunate games like Pac-Land or Pac-Attack, in addition to other outstanding absences.
Pac-Man Championship Edition, one of the best titles of the selection of Pac-Man Museum, although we would like to enjoy the DX + version.
But let’s see in detail what Pac-Man Museum offers; how could it be otherwise, the first title we will play will be none other than the classic between classics, Pac-Man , the game that gave rise to the franchise and that in 1980 trapped millions of players around the world by its addictive gameplay. The objective is very simple and common to the rest of deliveries and
versions; controlling the famous yellow bugger , we will have to eat all the Pac-Ballsscattered through the labyrinthine scenarios without the cunning ghosts catching us, while we earn extra points thanks to fruits that will appear every so often. Luckily,
we have four power-upsthat will allow us to eat Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde to gain some time before they come back out of their lair located in the center of the labyrinth. Once we get all the Pac-Balls, we will pass the level.
From here, Namco has been offering -with more and less success- different titles and deliveries that sought to bring something new game after game to such a basic formula and even presenting titles framed in other genres such as platforms or puzzles. Thus,
Super Pac-Man -1982- took the Pac-Man experience a little further and offered a higher level of difficulty by including keys with which to open sections of the labyrinth in order to expose the precious fruit and the power-ups , besides allowing us to increase in size and move at a higher speed. The following year Pac & Pal would arrive,
a new turn of the nut to the original concept that introduced Miru, a small ghost that, once released, helped us to confuse the fearsome ghosts; a Japanese exclusivity that is included as a simple curiosity but that does not get to catch like the previous ones.
The classic Pac-Man remains as current as the first day; a simple but really addictive game formula that has received continuous additions in the successive deliveries.
We have already mentioned the less fortunate titles of the compilation and Pac-Land-1984- is one of them, an extremely simple platform that over the years have not been particularly good for him; a title to forget that acts as a simple rarity within said pack . Years later, in 1987, Pac-Mania arrived , the first title of the series that resorted to the isometric view to look
for a greater spectacularity; while for the time it was quite showy, the practice fell short in terms of playability, since its pace was slower and did not allow viewing the entire scenario. In 1993 we received Pac-Attack, another irregular game based on
Pac-Man that went to the arcade puzzles in the middle of the vortex of Tetris and the like, in which we had to gather ghosts to release a Pac-Man and lower the block structure.
We have to leave until 2005 to discover the next title of the compilation, Pac-Man Arrangement , a fairly acceptable three-dimensional version that added sections of acceleration and final bosses , entertaining battles in specific labyrinths that were as challenging as they were addictive. And we closed the selection with the two most recent titles in the series:
Pac-Man Championship Edition , 2007, and Pac-Man Battle Royal , 2011. Without doubt, are the two most recommended titles of the compilation, offering a modern aesthetic and updated classic Pac-Man and adding a devilish and really challenging gameplay.
Special mention for Battle Royal, which adds to the classic formula theMultiplayer mode for up to four players in lively and frantic combats along large labyrinths; a pity that you do not resort to the DX + version in the case of Championship Edition.
