Kim's Top 10 PAC-MAN video games!
but before we dive into the games just wanted to let everyone know that this is just my opinion, you can make your own list. With that said I got into the Pac-Man games because of the PS2 game, Pac-Man World 2. It was a fun 3D adventure with an optional arcade area that was filled with retro games. After that I played a few of the Namco Museums and my mom bought me a Super Pac-Man Plug n Play. So I'm pretty up to date with Pac-Lore. I even own the Pac-Man World Re-Pac. I was in a Ms. Pac-Man video. I get baked and play Ms. Pac-Man every weekend.
okay but let's just get to the pacs
10. Pac-Land
Pac-Land, a game that kinda sucks. Don't get me wrong, a platformer that scrolls is pretty cool and considering this is one of the earliest games to do that is cool too... but it's the worst Smash Bros stage for a reason. This game is hard as bricks.
9. Pac-Mania
8. Pac-Man World Rally
You might be thinking, does this really count as a Pac-Man game and not just a Mario Kart clone? Well I would concede to that pointless distinction, but in this game you do collect dots and fruit and you can eat ghosts.
This game isn't the best kart game ever, go play Diddy Kong Racing or Crash Team Racing or one of the Sonic racing games, but the blending of Pac-Man mechanics and Mario Kart mechanics work pretty well. Just think of Mario Kart Double Dash but with shitty AI and short cuts locked behind fruit gates, kinda like the fruit doors in Pac-Man World 1.
One thing that's kinda cool about the game is its boost mechanic. If you're a bad guy, it gives you this angel ghost dude that can protect you from getting hit by a bomb (this game's version of koopa shells)
7. Pac-Attack
this one is like tetris but yknow pacman. i love it. (fun fact: i have a tetris tattoo.)
thanks to pac-mania and the pac-man minecraft dlc i now imagine these gerters, these vanilla looking blocks, are what mazes are made out of. i love the fairy, it's a good call back to pac-land. fairies are cool they make me think of the wizard of oz and DnD and maybe zelda too and yugioh kinda. i guess tinkerbell too but pixies are not fairies. if only there was some sort of fairy themed cartoon but i can't remember. ah yes the breezies from my little pony gives fairy vibes. just a spirit of nature.
if you want the most out of this game you have to play multiplayer or play the puzzle mode. it pretty neat. the puzzles are easy and the battle mode is pretty good.
6. Pac-Man Championship Edition 2
this game kinda sucks but i respect the vision
the quest mode and the bosses are pretty cool.
i just personally think the 3d action cgi animation ruins the flow of the game. it stops all movement when you were a game about twitch movement.
if you're gonna get this game get it on the switch, the switch port has an exclusive 2 player mode and it's actually really good.
5. Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness
4. Pac-Man World 3
3. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX
2. Pac-Man World 2
1. Ms. Pac-Man
if i had to come up with a thematic through line between all the pac-man game it would be decisiveness. every game in this series will reward or severely punish you based on your movement. if you falter in your judgement for a split second it can be the make or break for beating your high score or getting cornered and chomped.
for this reason alone i have to say that Ms. Pac-Man is a better game than Pac-Man. Pac-Man is a good game, dare I say a perfect game. But with one maze layout and predictable enemy AI, it is a solved game. People have tore the original apart. We know everything about the ghosts movement, people wrote books on it, patterns make their way to the internet as simple infographics.
Ms. Pac-man shakes that up. Ms. Pac-Man not only changes layout over time but the ghosts are a bit more random. Not completely unpredictable however. Veteran players know anytime you see an “L” shape in a Ms. Pac-Man maze that you can funnel the ghosts behind you pretty easily like the first Pac-Man