Ms. Pac-Man (SNES)

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Description

In 1981, a sequel to Pac-Man was introduced in the form of his girlfriend, Ms. Pac-Man. This sequel continued on the "eat the dots/avoid the ghosts" gameplay of the original game, but added new features to keep the title fresh.

Like her boyfriend, Ms. Pac-Man attempts to clear four various and challenging mazes filled with dots and ever-moving bouncing fruit while avoiding Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Sue, each with their own personalities and tactics. One touch from any of these ghosts means a loss of life for Ms. Pac-Man.

Ms. Pac-Man can turn the tables on her pursuers by eating one of the four Energizers located within the maze. During this time, the ghosts turn blue, and Ms. Pac-Man can eat them for bonus points (ranging from 200, 400, 800, and 1600, progressively). The Energizer power only lasts for a limited amount of time, as the ghost's eyes float back to their center box, and regenerate to chase after Ms. Pac-Man again.

Survive a few rounds of gameplay, and the player will be treated to humorous intermissions showing the growing romantic relationship between Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, leading all the way up to the arrival of "Junior".

Screenshots

Promo Images

Trailer

Alternate Titles

• "Super Pac-Man" -- Working title
• "Pac-Woman" -- Working title
• "Mrs. Pac-Man" -- Working title
• "Miss Pac-Man" -- Working title
• "Crazy Otto" -- Working title
• "Arcade Game Series: Ms. Pac-Man" -- Steam release

Part of the Following Groups

• Arcade Game Series
• Console Generation Exclusives: Xbox 360
• Games referenced in movies
• Genre: Labyrinth / Maze
• Pac-Man games (licensed)
• Protagonist: Female
• Video games turned into board / card games

User Reviews

Ms. Pac-Man Deluxe Edition

Katakis | カタキス (43211)

Critic Reviews

All Game Guide	1998		80
Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM)	Oct, 1996	27.5 out of 40	69
Total! (Germany)	May, 1997	3.25 out of 6	55

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Last number of UPC-A is missing?	2	Alaka (94220) Dec 30, 2019
Am I the only one seeing...	2	Cavalary (11439) May 21, 2014
Ms. Pac-Man chased through New York by ghosts	3	chirinea (47238) Oct 31, 2007

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Arcade version of Ms. Pac-Man appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Board game adaption

In 1982 Milton-Bradley released a board game adaptation of this video game.

Ghosts

While three of the ghosts returned from the original Pac-Man game, the orange ghost (Pokey/Clyde) was made female, and given the nickname "Sue". Sue was later depicted as a purple ghost, first in the animated series, then in later versions of the game. Sue is also named after the sister of original General Computer hacker Doug Macrae.

Launch game

Ms. Pac-Man was one of the "Fabulous Eleven" launch games for the Atari 7800.

Title

Once her initial leggy incarnation as Crazy Otto had been shelved, Ms. Pac-Man went through a baffling array of name changes: Pac-Woman was eventually vetoed by female employees of Midway, and revised to Miss Pac-Man -- until someone noticed that animated inter-scene depictions of the male and female Pac-Men getting together and producing a child now illustrated a bastard birth out of wedlock. From there, it shuffled to Mrs. Pac-Man and, at the last minute (within 72 hours of the production line startup of the original coin-ops) finalised as Ms. Pac-Man.

TV series reference

The game is referenced in season 5, episode 18 (Meet the Quagmires) of the animated TV series Family Guy. Peter Griffin, one of the main characters, is shown playing the arcade game of Ms. Pac-Man is 1984. The following conversation ensues:

Woman: Wow, you're really good at this game!
Peter Griffin: Yeah, I've logged a lot of game hours on Menstrual Ms. Pac-Man.
[in the game, we see Ms. Pac-Man eating her way across the screen, with 4 ghosts following her. Suddenly she turns toward them]
Ms. Pac-Man: WHAT?! WHAT?! [the ghosts quickly run away]
Blinky: Geeze.
Clyde: Nothing.
Sue: Bitch.

Unauthorized release

The arcade game Ms. Pac-Man was not created or authorized by Namco, who holds the original license. The idea behind this game was to make an upgrade for Pac-Man called "Crazy Otto", developed by General Computer Corporation (GCC). GCC approached Midway Manufacturing about buying the upgrade, which Midway did. Midway (Namco's American distributor) then altered Crazy Otto to make Ms. Pac-Man.

Midway (a division of Bally, at the time) released Ms. Pac-Man (unauthorized), but after a year they passed the rights of the game and character to Namco so that Namco would not sue them or withdraw their licensing agreement.

Unfortunately, Midway did not learn its lesson and created a number of other unlicensed versions of Pac-Man (like Pac-Man Plus, Baby Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man), which caused Namco to finally withdraw their agreement.

Awards

• Game Informer Magazine
  • August 2001 (Issue 100) - voted #9 in a Top 100 Games of All Time poll
• Retro Gamer Magazine
  • (Issue 46) - voted #15 in a “Top 25 Atari 2600” Games poll

Information also contributed Guy Chapman, Klaster_1, LepricahnsGold, Pseudo_Intellectual, and Sciere

Related Web Sites

• Abandonia (for DOS, Windows: downloadable releases; additional material)
• AtariAge (Atari 7800) (for Atari 7800: downloadable ROM; scans; manuals; additional material)
• AtariMania (Atari 2600) (for Atari 2600: database; downloadable releases; artwork; additional material)
• AtariMania (Atari 5200) (for Atari 5200: database; downloadable releases; artwork; additional material)
• AtariMania (Atari 8-bit) (for Atari 8-bit: database; downloadable releases; artwork; additional material)
• Game Base 64 (for C64: Downloadable links, Database, Music, Emulation, Frontends, Reviews and Articles)
• Game Oldies (Atari 7800) (for Atari 7800: online emulation of game)
• Game Oldies (Atari Lynx) (for Atari Lynx: online emulation of game)
• Game Oldies (Nintendo Game Boy) (for Nintendo Game Boy: online emulation of game)
• Game Oldies (Nintendo NES) (for Nintendo NES: online emulation of game)
• Game Oldies (Nintendo Super NES) (for Nintendo Super NES: online emulation of game)
• Game Oldies (Sega Game Gear) (for Sega Game Gear: online emulation of game)
• Game Oldies (Sega Genesis) (for Sega Genesis: online emulation of game)
• Game Oldies (Sega Master System) (for Sega Master System: online emulation of game)
• Kumar's Gaming (Looking back at the time when Ms. Pac Man was released, it really didn't had much going on to begin with. But what we got was of a complete opposite spectrum. Where Pac-Man was just an imitation, Atari took Ms. Pac-Man and threw everything possible at it to make it great.)
• Lemon 64 (for C64: games, reviews and music)
• My Abandonware (for PC and C64: downloadable releases; online versions; additional material)
• Qaop/JS – ZX Spectrum emulator (for ZX Spectrum: online game emulation)
• SMS Power! (Game Gear) (for Game Gear: releases info; credits; box text; additional material)
• SMS Power! (SEGA Master System) (for SEGA Master System: releases info; credits; box text; additional material)
• The International Arcade Museum (extensive information about the arcade game machine)
• Virtual Apple 2 - Online disk archive (for Apple II: online emulation of game (for Windows and Mac); downloadable releases; additional material)
• Wikipedia (combined platform entry)
• World of Spectrum (for ZX Spectrum: downloadable releases; additional material; player reviews; magazine references)
• X360A achievement guide (X360A's achievement guide for MS. Pac-Man.)