Pac Man Games

Pac-Man games have been around since the first generation of video games. Originally called Pakkuman in Japan, Pac-Nan was released in 1980. It soon became one of the most famous games of all time and has actually become synonymous with video games themselves. The little pizza-shaped character has actually been licensed for 30 spinoff games and shows no signs of slowing down. A new Pac-Man game was released in 2009 and several more games have been slated for release over the next few years. Below is a list of the top Pac-Man games that have been released so far.

1. Pac-Man The original, classic Pac-Man is the one that brought gaming to the masses, In 1980, most games revolved around space in some form or fashion. Space Invaders and Asteroids were the most popular until the pie-shaped hero took its place on the gaming scene. The original Pac-Man became a cultural phenomenon and even earned a song called “Pac-Man Fever” by a group called Buckner and Garcia. If there was ever a king of Pac-Man games, it would have to be the original.
2. Ms. Pac-Man One year after the original was released, Midway, acting on its own, made an unauthorized sequel to Pac-Man called Ms. Pac-Man. At first glance the only real difference is the pink bow affixed to the top of Pac-Man’s head; however, upon further examination, the game actually incorporated several new innovations, mainly because it was originally a completely different game called Crazy Otto. Midway changed the sprites of the game and placed that bow atop Pac-Man’s head. They even added a storyline where Ms. Pac-Man meets Pac-Man and eventually gets married. Ms. Pac-Man soon became more popular the original Pac-Man game in 1981, especially with girls.
3. Pac-Mania In 1987 a brand new version of Pac-Man was released in which our hero got a 3-D look. Instead of looking like a flat pizza-shaped hero, he got turned into a full sphere, as did the ghosts and the mazes themselves. The addition of the Pac-Man bounce took place in this game and allowed players to make Pac-Man jump over the ghosts. The odd thing about the game is that Pac-Man stays completely in the center of the screen and the Player makes the Maze move around him. This, coupled with the isometric view, made some gamers cry foul, but the game went on to be one of the most popular Pac-Man games in its history.
4. Pac-Man Championship Edition This one came out in 2007, but soon became one of the most downloaded games in Xbox Live's history. Much like the original Pac-Man, the game re-introduced the flat, pie-shaped pellet eater. This time however, the maze was stretched out to double its original size. If the player eats all of the pellets on one side of the maze, a bonus items shows up on the other side. If the player gets that bonus item, it causes the other side of the maze to change. Another big addition to the gameplay is the longer a player stays alive, the more fast-paced the game becomes. This makes the game far more difficult than past iterations. This is one of the highest rated-by-gamers Pac-Man games in series history.
5. Pac-Land This version of Pac-Man brought Pac-Man into the side-scroller world and had Pac-Man jumping and stomping on ghosts. Though this sounds like a Mario rip-off, this game actually preceded the famous Italian plumber. Though the game was very crude, it still struck a nerve with Pac-Man fans. The game ended up being very popular, got put into arcades and sold for the NES. The game was one of the first games to ever use paralaxing graphics where the background moves slower than the foreground giving the illusion of depth. This feature of side scrollers wouldn’t make its way into most games until the 16 bit era of games. The features it introduced would eventually become common place and because of this innovation, it became one of the most popular Pac-Man games.