Pac-Man Arrangement by Kimberly Keyes Stark
Sometimes when I buy an anthology of the original arcade classics to play at home, I'll come across a game I know I've never encountered before in an arcade but I end up liking that game so much that I wished that I had first encountered it in an arcade. Pac-Man Arrangement is one such game.
Pac-Man Arrangement is a more recent Pac-Man sequel that was originally released in the arcades on a machine called Namco Classic Collection Volume 2, which also included other games like the original Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, Rally X, and much more. However, this arcade machine had a limited release and Pac-Man Arrangement was never released as a separate ma chine. In fact, it wouldn't surface again until Namco released it on various home gaming titles.
Pac-Man Arrangement is the last of the Pac-Man sequels that I think is worth writing about in this blog. There were others but they were ones that I either never encountered at all and, based what I have read on other sites, hope to never encounter (such as Pac & Pal and Pac Land) or I actually played it a few times and found it totally unmemorable (such as Pac-Man Plus and Super Pac-Man).
The ghosts look l ike they are new and some of the nicknames are recycled but on to different color ghosts while they are all given new real names. (For example, in all the other games the red ghost is Blinky. In Pac-Man Arrangement, Blinky is an orange ghost.) The red gho st's real name is Urchin but his nickname is Clyde. The pink ghost's real name is Romp and his nickname is Pinky. The light blue ghost's real name is Stylist and his nickname is Inky. The orange ghost's real name is Crybaby and his nickname is Blinky. The yellow ghost's real name is only noted as "????" and his nickname is Kinky.
The rules are similar to the other Pac-Man games. Like Pac-Mania, Pac-Man Arrangement has 3-D graphics. One big difference is that some of the mazes seem to imply depth, which gives the effect of Pac-Man and the ghosts going up and down a hill or a step. Another difference is that you can see the whole maze at once in Pac-Man Arrangement while in Pac-Mania you could only see a small portion of the maze at a time (due to the fac t that the maze was larger than the screen).
In Pac-Mania, Pac-Man could jump over ghosts. Unfortunately Pac-Man loses that ability in Pac-Man Arrangement but there are some other tricks that compensate for that. On some mazes, if Pac-Man hits an arrow g oing in the same direction as the arrow is pointing at, he can go down a lane really quick. If there are pellets, then he can eat them extremely fast. If there are ghosts in his path, he can knock them unconscious for a couple of seconds until they quickl y recover. One cool trick is to eat an energy dot, then go quickly down one of those arrows and quickly eat any edible ghosts in his path.
Other mazes have a jump spot and if Pac-Man hits a jump spot, he can jump from one end of the maze to the other. Th e only thing to watch out for is a ghost who happens to arrive at the area where Pac-Man lands. In addition, the ghosts can also use that jump spot and quickly overtake Pac-Man on the other side of the maze.
Pac-Man can eat some power-up treats for speci al effects. One such example is the ability to create a mirror Pac-Man who can go to the other side of the maze and scarf up the pellets. This mirror Pac-Man is also immune to ghosts.
Sometimes a dark blue edible ghost will emerge from the ghosts' home a nd he has the same effect as an energy dot. If Pac-Man eats that ghost, all the other ghosts on the screen will turn edible.
The techno soundtrack sounds like something you would hear at a rave. (I guess it's Namco's way of showing that Pac-Man is one hi p guy.) The soundtrack is pretty catchy and there are times when I want to extend the game at the "Continue?" screen just so I can continue to hear the music. The soundtrack would make a pretty neat CD to listen (and dance) to.
The only thing that's miss ing from Pac-Man Arrangement are the brief animated interludes that tell some kind of short story featuring Pac-Man and the ghosts.
As of this writing, Pac-Man Arrangement was the last Pac-Man sequel that was released in the arcades. Perhaps it's just as well because it can get pretty hard coming up with new and challenging Pac-Man games that are just as entertaining as the original 1980 arcade hit.
DISCLAIMER: This blog is based on one person's biased opinions of which videogames should be considered to be classics and why. It is not meant to provide a complete history of the videogame industry, the latest videogame news, technical support, or hints on how to play a certain videogame. None of the videogame manufacturers or programmers mentioned here ha ve endorsed or supported this blog in any way, shape, or form.
NOTE: If there are any errors or updates to what I have written about Pac-Man Arrangement, please send an e-mail to [link=mailto:kstarkREMOVE-ALL-CAPS-IF-NOT-SPAM@erols.com]kstarkREMOVE-A LL-CAPS-IF-NOT-SPAM@erols.com[/link] (remember to remove the capital letters from my mailing address before sending or else it will get rejected) and I'll edit this piece when time permits.
PAC-MAN ARRANGEMENT AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE
GAME BOY ADVANCE
Pac-Man Collection--Includes Pac-Man and three of his sequels: Pac-Attack, Pac-Mania, and Pac-Man Arrangement.
GAME CUBE
[link=http://www.amazon.com/exe c/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006IKCD/theunicornwithan/]Namco Museum[/link]--Includes Pac-Man Arrangement, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian, Galaga, Dig-Dug, and Pole Position.
PLAYSTATION 2
[link=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detai l/-/videogames/B00005RCQY/theunicornwithan/]Namco Museum[/link]--Includes Pac-Man Arrangement, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian, Galaga, Dig-Dug, and Pole Position.
X-BOX
Namco Museum--Includes Pac-Man Arrangement, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian, Galaga, Dig-Dug, and Pole Position.
PAC-MAN ARRANGEMEN T LINKS
The Internet Movie Database's Information on Pac-Man--Includes information on both videogames and the 1980's Pac-Man television cartoon series.
The Killer List of Video Games' Namco Classics Collection Volume 2--which includes Pac-Man Arrangement along with other Namco games.
Namco--The official site of the company that's responsible for Pac-Man Arrangement as well as a bunch of o ther classic games (such as Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian, Galaga, and Dig-Dug).
Pac-Man...This is Your Life--It's a very thorough history of Pac-Man and his many sequels (including Pac-Man Arrangement).
The Virtual Pac-Man Museum--It's an online museum full of Pac-Man artifacts..
|
