Page 26 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #8

Key feature(s): Pac-Man is a superhero? Despite donning a red cape on the cabinet art and
marquee, this Pac-Man doesn't soar through the air, shoot beams out of his eyes, or capture
criminals. He basically gets fat. The "super" in Super Pac-Man refers to his super size, not super
powers. Namco's "official" sequel to Pac-Man finds the golden gobbler collecting keys to unlock
gates leading to fruit and other consumables. The maze format returns, along with the four ghosts,
but there are no dots. Eating an energizer causes Pac-Man to dramatically increase in size, granting
him the power to eat his rivals and smash his way through any remaining locked gates.

What went wrong? While Super Pac-Man is an interesting twist on the series, the gameplay looks
complicated at first glance, which perhaps is why it failed to take flight among arcade goers. The
developers took a creative risk by altering a winning formula, adding some layers of strategy to the
maze-based action at the expense of the original's singular-goal simplicity.

Key feature(s): Building on Super Pac-Man's unusual take on the maze format, Namco's Pac &
Pal has you doing even more head-scratching things while controlling the pie-shaped protagonist.
Pac-Man is still avoiding ghosts in a maze-type environment, but instead of munching dots, he's
flipping cards of all things. The gate system from Super Pac-Man returns, albeit with fewer
consumables. The handful of fruits and items in the maze must first be unlocked by eating the
corresponding playing cards.

Pac's "pal," a lime-colored lass named Miru, is not very friendly. She wanders through the maze and
will grab anything inside an open gate if you don't snatch it up beforehand. Yet the weirdest aspect
of the game is that Pac-Man no longer consumes ghosts. Instead, he stuns them by turning blue and
belching out different attacks, from sound waves to ice cubes.

Release info: Pac & Pal was exclusively released in Japan, though a version called Pac-Man &
Chomp Chomp was being prepped for a U.S. launch that never materialized. The key difference
between the titles? Miru was replaced with Pac-Man's dog, Chomp Chomp, featured in Hanna-
Barbera's animated series that aired from 1982 to 1984.

- 26 -