Pac-Man Arrangement comes in two versions, the 1996 arcade title and an arrangement of the Arrangement that first appeared on Sony’s PlayStation Portable as part of Namco Museum Battle Collection (2005). Its pun-tastic title is the best thing about it. Developed by Kalisto Entertainment, following their Amiga title Fury of the Furries, it’s utter garbage and you shouldn’t waste more than a couple of minutes on it. Pac-In-Time (Super Nintendo, 1995) is a platform-action game where Pac negotiates scenery by jumping around, grabbing dots, and firing projectiles at enemies. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) It won’t win any awards, but it’s an amusing diversion nonetheless. Falling objects, now Pac-themed, can be stacked to avoid ghosts reaching the top of the screen. Pac-Attack (Super Nintendo 1992) is actually an adaption of the Tetris-inspired arcade game, Cosmo Gang: The Puzzle. It takes a while to figure out the grid’s layouts owing to the zoomed-in view, but this is all part of the learning curve. It’s visually superb, comparatively leisurely, great fun to play for score, and features plenty of maze variety.

Pac-Mania (arcade, 1987) slows things down and goes graphically isometric, using the same maze, dot-eating formula, with the added bonus of being able to leap ghosts in a single bound. It’s an excellent title to have as part of the collection. Complete the first course and you’re off again, now with new obstacles and increased difficulty. You run Pac back and forth, jumping over obstacles and ghosts, through forests and across falling mountain logs, before powering up with flight and soaring back the way you came, all under the duress of a time limit. The theme tune burns itself into the brain, and graphically it holds up very well owing to its unique art style. Pac Land (arcade, 1984) is one of the first true arcade platform games, appearing one year prior to Super Mario Bros., and it’s utterly superb. It’s also notably the first Pac-Man title to have music playing over the action. There’s some depth here, and it’s good fun to get involved in. Flipping cards opens many of the gates, and a new helper, the green Miru - Pac-Man’s “Pal”, as it were - helps you to grab fruit but decreases your overall score in doing so. These allow you to stun, freeze and confuse the ghosts. Pac & Pal (arcade, 1983) twists Super Pac-Man’s formula further, introducing power pellets with five specific uses, some based on famous Namco titles like Galaxian and Rally-X. It’s by no means as good as the original, of course, since a layer of simplicity has been lost, but fun nonetheless. It’s an enjoyable variation that fans of the original will enjoy when they want to mix things up a bit. Super Pac-Man (arcade, 1982) adjusts the formula by having you grab keys to open locked gates around the grid so you can collect all the fruit. Scoring is the name of the game, and it’s as superb as it ever was to die trying. An undying classic, you frantically sweep up dots, cherries, and fend off ghosts with power pellets dotted around the grid.

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)īeginning with Pac-Man (arcade, 1980) there’s little to say that hasn’t already been said. This is easily done by completing objectives, like playing a different, specified title twice, for example. Some titles, however, need unlocking to play.

There’s a broad variety of arcade games and one ‘consumer’ machine for console titles that require no coins, its mini-library cycled with the shoulder buttons. If you like Pac-Man, however, you will feel very satisfied by what’s on offer. You accrue more coins simply by playing machines and completing optional missions (presented like an achievement leaderboard) that add unique objectives for each title.

You start with 500 virtual coins in your pocket, but there are no microtransactions here. Presented within a 3D arcade, you can move the camera, trotting Pac around, looking at various machines and deciding what to play, each game with its own menus for gameplay tutorials, special objectives, and a little history. It comprises the most thorough collection of the yellow, pizza-inspired dot’s exploits ever assembled, from the original arcade masterpiece, through to 2015’s Pac-Man 256. This updated compilation includes some of the titles in the previous release, and adds several new ones, bringing the total count to 14 (although Pac-Man Arrangement is featured twice with arcade and home versions). Pac-Man Museum+ follows Pac-Man Museum (2014), a collection for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

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