Ms Pac-Man Remastered

Seeing yet another re-re-re-release of the Pac-family, I’m given pause to ponder the exact definition of ‘retro gaming’. Is it still retro if there hasn’t been a prolonged period of inactivity between the original and the resurfacing of a long forgotten favourite?

The Pac-Person games have never really disappeared, you see, having been wheeled out several times for pretty much every platform that ever existed, so this latest return of Ms Pac-Man simply doesn’t feel all that retro. What else is there to really say about it? Oh alright, let’s have a history lesson we already know by heart, to pad out the review.

This game began life as an unofficial hack of the original Pac-Man arcade hardware, with its most prominent feature being the changing mazes as you progress. Oh, and the red bow on her head.

Pac-Man was confined to a single labyrinth, but his good lady chases her way around a new maze after you’ve successfully cleared the dots of the current level twice in a row. It’s a small variation on the gameplay, but a vital one that, for all intents and purposes, actually makes this the superior of the two coin-guzzling coin-ops.

This mobile adaptation is undeniably pixel perfect, and works a treat with a Zeemote controller, if you’re endowed with one. It also features a Bluetooth multiplayer for up to four Pac-People, though you naturally still take it in turns to play a life, so it’s hardly an MMO.

It’s a great game simply because it’s Ms Pac-Man, but unfortunately Namco gets a ‘F’ for effort in the imagination stakes. We’ve seen equally great conversions a hundred times before, and in the shadow of the spectacular reinvention of the franchise - Pac-Man Championship Edition - this one is a pale and effortless exploitation of a great franchise.

If you own any other version of Pac-Man or Ms Pac-Man, you don’t need this. If you don’t own any other version, get Pac-Man Championship Edition. If there’s some obscure and unfortunate reason you can’t get Pac-Man Championship Edition on your phone, then settling for Ms Pac-Man is a reasonable course of action.

Ms Pac-Man Remastered

It’s Ms Pac-Man all over again. Yes, it’s a pixel-perfect conversion, but feels completely unnecessary and rather redundant in the face of so many previous ports of the same game
Score
Spanner Spencer
Spanner Spencer
Yes. Spanner's his real name, and he's already heard that joke you just thought of. Although Spanner's not very good, he's quite fast, and that seems to be enough to keep him in a regular supply of free games and away from the depressing world of real work.