Super Pac-Man

The Good
Super Pac-Man is the second game in the Pac-Man Series that features Pac-Man himself. Originally released in 1982, it featured some modified gameplay not seen in previous games. No longer does Pac gobble up dots, but eats food instead, and the food is stored inside passages which must be unlocked with the keys scattered around the maze. As usual, four ghosts give you a hard time, but you can deal with them by collecting one of four yellow power pills and hunting them down. When Pac eats all the pieces of food, he goes to the next maze. Every three mazes, you get to watch a series of intermissions, and after these intermissions, you are treated to a bonus game where the object is to gather up the food before the time expires.

The game is aptly named because Pac-Man can increase his size and speed if he eats a green power pill. When he does, he can gobble at anything he likes, break open locked doors, and become invincible. But all good things must come to an end: within seconds, Pac can turn back to his normal self. There are two boxes in the center of the maze; which remain blank when you are not Super Pac-Man. You must match the food in the box on the left with the one on the right (it rotates) by getting the yellow star. If you match them correctly, you will receive a bonus.

The variation on the gameplay is a good thing, as it can be quite a challenge not to get caught by the ghosts. You need to be careful not to get trapped in a passage where the only way out is through a locked door. The new intermissions are more detailed than those in the previous Pac games, also being cute at the same time. The graphics are good. All the characters are drawn like they should be. There are different maze layouts, and there are different colors for these.

The Bad
When you turn into Super Pac-Man, your character is a bit hard to control. You see where you are going, mainly making a turn, but due to Pac's size, it is likely that you make a mistake and turn at the wrong time if there is more than one turn-off.

The Bottom Line
Super Pac-Man is unlike any of the previous Pac-Man games. Although the game had the same gameplay, there are some major changes, most notably the replacement of dots with food that are stored in passages that need to be unlocked. Although the ability for Pac-Man to change into Super Pac-Man has its advantages, he becomes much harder to control. Intermissions exist just like previous games, and are more enjoyable to watch, and the bonus game is challenging, especially when you are under a time limit.

The Good
There is so much more to do than regular Pac Man. It is the same basic maze game but you have 2 different types of power-ups now you have to use at the right times. The Namco cameo stuff was pretty cool at the time. And it actually made a good translation to the PC

The Bad
As an arcade game there really wasn't much more excitement to this than Ms. Pac Man. And it was just another maze game. But other than that there isn't much to not like.

The Bottom Line
Pac Man with lots of different things you have to eat and you had to collect keys to get past levels and you had a new power-up that super sized your Pac Man so you could break through some walls and the ghosts couldn't hurt you.