Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
Namco ’s second entry into the iPod game market comes in the physique of Ms. Pac - Man , the continuation to the legendary plot Pac - Man . The concept is fundamentally the same , as is the carrying out , although Namco ’s made a few nice embellishment for the iPod crowd .
In case you ’ve been endure on a desert island since 1982 , Ms. Pac - Man is an enormously popular arcade game in which you , as the eponymous Ms. , point around a maze fill up with pellets , gobble them as you go to increase your points . You ’re chased by four ghosts that emerge from a closed pen at the center of the snarl , and they ’ll do their best to eat up you , but you could become the table and eat them by gobbling “ power pellets ” site strategically in the corners of the maze , that imbue you with special exponent for a circumscribed prison term .
Back in its Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , Ms. Pac - Man was one of the most pop colonnade games ever made — it limit sales record , spawned many imitators and conversions to different platform , and ate a lot of quarters in coin - op arcades . And now this fun can be yours on the fifth - contemporaries iPod , for the comparatively low terms of $ 4.99 .
The originalPac - Mandebuted along with other premium iPod games made available for download through the iTunes Store last September , and it turn out to be lawful to its colonnade roots . Ms. Pac - Man is another faithful adaptation : The original mazes are here , the original fruit , even the same “ cutscene ” sequences that blossom the story of Ms. Pac - Man in three separate acts . Namco ’s even created “ locker art ” that frame the mazes much as the original coin - op colonnade locker did .
Anyone drop any amount of fourth dimension in an arcade during the 1980s will recognize Ms. Pac - Man , now available in iPod form from Namco .
Where it differs , of course , is in the actual display — the iPod screen door is a lot smaller than the CRT that primitively showed off this game , and while they ’re clear and the graphics are crisp , it ’s easy to suffer some middle breed while you ’re play . What ’s more , because you ’re sacrificing iPod blind actual estate for embroidery like storage locker art and a head teacher up display , the maze is even belittled than it really has to be .
As with the iPod rebirth of Pac - Man , you could make for Ms. Pac - Man in “ Original , ” “ Normal ” or “ Easy ” modes , which set the challenge level harmonize to how you feel that daylight . You ’ll get three effort per game to continue , and if you want to exit out quickly ( have ’s say you ’re play on the bus and your stop come ) you’re able to find fault it up again later . you may also skip to a level you ’ve reach before , which is a nice way of not have to play back the biz from slit each time you set in motion it .
Just like with Pac - Man before it , you operate Ms. Pac - Man around the maze by but touching the iPod ’s click wheel in the guidance you want to go . A miniature joystick on the filmdom will show you what direction you ’ve campaign — up , down , left and right . I find the controls to be a fiddling elusive . I do n’t know whether it ’s speculative hand / eye coordination on my end or sloppy stimulus , but I ’d often move my thumb in a sure direction and not see Ms. Pac - Man follow , even though she had a clear path in front of her . This got particularly maddening at higher levels , where the activity is a lot faster and those quick decision can mean escape or sure doom at the hands of the ever hungry touch quaternity .
There ’s an animated Help and tutorial sequence to allow you get initiate , options to switch game sounds on and off , brightness controls , even the ability to register your name for mellow musical score trailing .
The lowdown
All in all , Ms. Pac - Man is a thoroughgoing recreation of the original colonnade game on the iPod . A diminutive display and awkward control mar the experience , however , just like its predecessor .
[ older news editor program Peter Cohen refresh game ofMacworld ’s Game Room . ]
