Ms. Pac-Man

Review

by Brett Alan Weiss

While Ms. Pac-Man was a step up from Pac-Man and a revolutionary game in its day, the folks at Digital Eclipse decided that they had better give this updated remake of the game a '90s touch by adding a few bells and whistles. This version of Ms. Pac-Man, released in 1996, finally gave owners of the Super NES the chance to play the first Pac-Man sequel at home. Although it was available for the NES, Pac-Man itself was never released on this system. Luckily, Ms. Pac-Man more than makes up for this omission.

Along with the 32 added levels of play, Ms. Pac-Man for the Super NES (and the Genesis) features super speed, a large variety of big, small and strange mazes, and clever two-player cooperative and competitive modes. Also, you can choose between four difficulty modes: easy, normal, hard and crazy. These special features breathe new life into Ms. Pac-Man, giving it variety and a high degree of replay value.

Ms. Pac-Man was originally designed for use with a joystick and there are several available for the Super NES, but the standard control pad works surprisingly well. Once you get used to the controls, Ms. Pac-Man moves with speed and grace and turns sharp corners on a dime as she goes around the maze munching dots and ghosts. The graphics are colorful and very similar to the Arcade version, but with all the new levels and unique options, it would've been nice if the designers had added enhanced graphics and some new characters.

This version of Ms. Pac-Man never pretends to be an exact Arcade duplicate (for that you need Namco Museum Volume 3 for the PlayStation), but it works quite well for its intended purpose: entertainment.