Summary
Play Pac-Man with a different perspective
The Good
As a major follow-up to the Pac-Man Series,
Namco, not
Bally/Midway, went ahead with a game called
Pac-Mania. The game has that simple objective of the previous games - collect the dots and move on to the next maze. However, the game uses an isometric 3-D perspective. It is refreshing to see that the Pac-Man series finally took a different perspective. Each maze has a name, which ranges from “Block Town” to “Jungly Steps”, and each one of them has a different layout. This proves a challenge because you cannot take the same route as you did in previous Pac games, you have to complete each maze in a different approach. Also, Pac has the ability to jump, and this ability is useful if he approaches some ghosts and there is not a power pill nearby.
The original ghosts are still there, but there are three more ghosts. One of these ghosts is Funky, and he can also jump, especially in the later stages. It is sometimes difficult to get past him since he happens to jump at the same time that Pac does.
Pac has two other abilities that are not mentioned earlier, providing that he get them in the center of the maze. These abilities include increased speed and double points for eating one or more ghosts. The latter ability may result in extra lives.
In the Amiga version,
Pac-Mania has the same detailed graphics that the coin-op version has. Both of the mazes and ghosts are colorful, and the intermissions are fun to watch. The music and sound is great. I enjoyed listening to the drum-like background music while you complete the “Jungly Steps”.
The Bad
Having a 3-D perspective and mazes that do not fit on the screen means that you sometimes have difficulty finding ghosts and the remaining power pellets.
The Bottom Line
In a nutshell,
Pac-Mania has that same objective as that of previous games, but adds a few differences. The games uses a slightly different perspective than the previous games. Also, Namco introduced a new ghost and the ability for Pac to jump over ghosts. Jumping needs to be timed properly if you do not want to value your life. The intermissions are good to watch.
Amiga 500 owners can run
Pac-Mania perfectly, and these users could argue that their version is much better than its Commodore 64 counterpart, and I agree with that. In fact, the Amiga version won the Golden Joystick award for Best 16-bit Arcade Conversion. According to Wikipedia,
Pac-Mania is the last game in the series. What a load of bullshit.
