Ms. Pac-Man Review

I’m not one to waste people’s time, so I’ll say it now. If you’re looking for Ms. Pac-Man on Palm, and want to know if this game remains not only loyal, but identical, in every way to the original, then just go buy the game now. That’s right; I told you to stop reading this review and go buy the game. For those of you remaining, please continue reading.

Before I continue though, I suggest you read my Pac-Man review, as it provides the background of the game that I won’t be providing in this review, to deter any possible repetition.

Moving forward though, Ms. Pac-Man is a competent reproduction of the arcade version of the game by the same title. Ms. Pac-Man, at the time, was a clone of the original, with slight alterations. You have the four ghosts returning, but replacing Pac-Man as the main character is Ms. Pac-Man, his wife.

The predominate difference between Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man is the mazes. In Pac-Man, you continually played in the same maze. You can beat it again, and again, and yet, it would always remain unchanged. In Ms. Pac-Man, that’s not the case, there’s more than one maze to play on. Ms. Pac-Man is a much more difficult labyrinth in many ways.

In the original, you could easily navigate. Ms. Pac-Man incorporates the side-by-side escape routes, where if you go through one side, you’ll end up at the other side of the screen. These are escape routes in times of trouble. They can also be used to warp from one side of the screen to the other in order to reach a flashing ghost or fruit in time.

As I’m reviewing this on the Zodiac, I will refer to the controls in the terms that the Zodiac provides. You’re provided with the ability to move Ms. Pac-Man with the joystick, the stylus, or the hard buttons. Both the joystick, which seems fidgety, and the stylus, which has an unreliable response, are not recommended. The hard buttons work perfectly for this game.

The sound is in-tact. You’ll hear the original’s ‘bling, bling, bling, bling’ and ‘wok, wok, wok, wok’. There’s also the introduction music and the ‘dun, dun’ music from the cut-scenes. Which brings me to the cut-scenes. Pac-Man was one of the first games to have cut-scenes. Ms. Pac-Man follows in this tradition. Of course, the original’s cut-scenes are included in the Palm version of the game.

While I won’t be giving Ms. Pac-Man as high of a score as Pac-Man, for the simple reason that I find Pac-Man to be more fun, and better maze designs, it all depends on who you are as to which game would be suit you. They’re both nearly the same, so there’s no need to own both. If you’re a fan of Ms. Pac-Man, go out and get that. If Pac-Man’s your thing, there’s nothing here that will change your mind, go with Pac-Man over this. Either way, Ms. Pac-Man compliments any Palm owner’s collection of games. It’s a classic.