Do you consider Jr. Pac-Man to be in the Pac-Man Canon or is it the bastard

[treismac]

Namco (wisely) opened its arms to the first unauthorized sequel to Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, by Bally Midway, but never let poor Jr. into the Pac family. If my personal experience reflects the greater story, Jr. Pac-Man never really made much of an impact at the arcades. According to Wikipedia, it was only ported to the 2600, DOS, and Commodore 64 with no consoles/computers with Japanese roots, predictably, ever seeing a port. So I'm wondering if any of you have fond memories of Jr. Pac-Man and, as regards the thread title and poll, do you consider Jr. Pac-Man canon?

[+KaeruYojimbo]

I didn't discover Jr. Pac-Man until the '90s, but it's now my second favorite Pac-game, after Ms. Pac-Man.

[Gabriel]

Namco did put something they called Jr Pac Man on the Pac Man 2 The New Adventures cart. I think the Genesis version has that particular minigame. It's not actually Jr Pac Man, but that's what they called it.

 

I love Super Pac Man, but Ms Pac and Jr Pac feel much more like proper sequels building upon the original. In some ways, Super Pac feels like a step back or a copycat game, which is ironic because the facts are the other way around. And Jr Pac definitely feels more like a proper entry into the franchise compared to Pac N Pal. Sorry. Nothing against Pac N Pal, but it's so different it just doesn't feel like a Pac Man game to me.

[BrianC]

The game in Pac-Man 2 Genesis is called "Pac-Jr.", not "Jr. Pac-Man". It is basically an edited Ms. Pac-Man. Not sure of the exact reasons why it was changed, but it probably had something to do with Tengen's Ms. Pac-Man.

[ComputerSpaceFan]

Just to jeopardize my "man card" here, there was an episode of Sex and the City, I think it was called "Better Late Than Never" where Carrie dates a gamer guy who runs an arcade. She asks him "hey whatever happened with Pac-man and Ms. Pac-man" and the guy tells her they had a kid.

 

There you go, as official as humanly possible.

[+save2600]

I voted of course! But Jr. is a red-headed step child bastard of a son…

[themushroom]

Two thoughts:

 

a) Junior Pac-Man was an appeasement to the 2600 owners who bought Pac-Man and were disappointed.

 

b) Junior Pac-Man is a love child, but since Pac and Ms Pac are life-partners everyone goes on quietly, knowing the secret.

 

 

Totally offtopic but this discussion reminds me: I have this 1960s movie/TV gossip magazine, and on the cover is a story about "Why Larry Storch Adopted A Negro Girl". The story inside says that the girl's parents were family friends and they weren't able to provide. A cover story that worked fine for 1960s audiences. Truth was, before Larry and his wife married (but while they were dating for years) she slept with someone from a black comedy team. So when the article says "adopted daughter" they really meant "stepdaughter", which would have scandalized the public of the time; the girl put out a book recently about growing up with this cover story about her.

[Shawn]

Jr. is part of the fam for sure.

[Master Phruby]

I love playing it on my 5200 and xegs. Definitely a worthly sequal.

[NE146]

Growing up I obviously was unaware of any background story, etc... so to me, Super Pac, and Jr. Pacman are engrained as Pac sequels. I did enjoy Jr. Pac but the game was very difficult so I couldn't get very far in it (unlike Super Pac which I got pretty good at).

 

What makes a HUGE difference in any Pacman Jr. game is the speedup hacks (also seen in Ms. Pacman, etc.). It makes the game so much more playable since the faster speed of Jr. Pac himself lends itself to the larger mazes and it actually makes the game fair.

[4Ks]

Jr. is the only "unofficial" Pac-Man I hold in esteem. It feels like a pretty natural evolution of the series formula. Ms. added alternate mazes and moving fruit, Jr. added scrolling mazes and fruit that blows up the dots. It's like Pac-Man designed by a Texan whose whole design philosophy was "make it BIGGER!" and I like it. Though I will admit, those king sized mazes can get a bit overwhelming.

[high voltage]

Cool, Atari got a great Pac game in the coloured box version (Pac-Man), a great Pac game in the silver box version (Ms. Pac-Man), and a great Pac game in the red box version (Jr. Pac-Man). And mama and papa are mentioned on the Jr. box and in the manual as 'my folks', so of course they had it off and Jr.'s part of the family.

Edited December 22, 2014 by high voltage

[toiletunes]

I loved playing Jr at (Venture? Zayre? Don't remember) and still have a Super PCB in the closet. If you want a bastard, try Baby.

[Unbeliever]

I consider Jr. a part of the Pac family myself. It's an enjoyable game...something I have yet to add to my Pac collection.

[Rex Dart]

While I deny the existence of any Pac-Man "canon", the Pac-Wiki seems to think this kid's a-ok.

[Gabriel]

While I deny the existence of any Pac-Man "canon", the Pac-Wiki seems to think this kid's a-ok.

 

So you won't be running around with a T-Shirt saying "Pac ate first!"?

[+FujiSkunk]

I say Junior is canon. It seems Namco is slowly warming up to the remaining unauthorized sequels. Pac-Man Plus made it officially onto one of the modern TV plug-n-plays, and people have discovered the music and sound effects for Jr. Pac-Man hidden on a plug-n-play as well. So I see no reason why Junior can't be part of the family.

[SoundGammon]

Like this game a lot better than Super Pac-Man!

[Dauber]

I love Super Pac Man, but Ms Pac and Jr Pac feel much more like proper sequels building upon the original. In some ways, Super Pac feels like a step back or a copycat game, which is ironic because the facts are the other way around. And Jr Pac definitely feels more like a proper entry into the franchise compared to Pac N Pal. Sorry. Nothing against Pac N Pal, but it's so different it just doesn't feel like a Pac Man game to me.

 

The thing about Super and Pal is...they're both Namco-produced sequels. The reason Namco was reluctant to acknowledge Ms. Pac-Man is that they felt it was too close to the original Pac-Man, and that if they were going to be a sequel, the game had to be significantly different. Dig:

 

Pac-Man: You go around a maze trying to eat all the dots while avoiding ghosts, and for a short time you can eat the ghosts. Two prizes appear per level.

 

Ms. Pac-Man: You go around a maze trying to eat all the dots while avoiding ghosts, and for a short time you can eat the ghosts. Two prizes appear per level.

 

Super Pac-Man: You go around a maze trying to eat all the...icons, I guess, while avoiding ghosts...in addition to the times you can eat the ghosts, you can also have "super power" in which you're invincible and you can move fast. And there's a bonus maze. One prize per level. And you have to unlock gates in order to eat the stuff on the screen. And you can enter the ghosts' pen.

 

Exciting New Pac-Man Plus!: You go around a maze trying to eat all the dots while avoiding ghosts, and for a short time you can eat the ghosts. Two prizes appear per level. The game play is slightly faster than that of the original Pac-Man, and when you eat a prize you have another chance to eat ghosts. However, during ghost vulnerability time, not all of the ghosts will necessarily turn blue.

 

Jr. Pac-Man: You go around a maze trying to eat all the dots while avoiding ghosts, and for a short time you can eat the ghosts. Because the mazes are double-wide, more than two prizes appear per level. Prize crosses over a dot, dot is bigger, worth 5x the points, and slows you down more than usual. Prize goes over one of the four outer energizers, energizer explodes.

 

Pac'n'Pal: You go around the maze trying to eat all the icons. You need to turn over those thingies in order to unlock doors to get to the various icons. You can't really eat any ghosts, but you can stun them. Meanwhile you have a "pal" (or Chomp-Chomp the dog on the American version) going around the maze who takes the stuff you're supposed to turn over and brings it to the ghosts' pen, which you can enter.

 

Pac-Land: A platform game based on the Saturday morning cartoon.

 

Pac-Mania: the old ghosts'n'maze formula, but on a 3-Dish maze with scrolling and jumping; game play is classic, but the look is completely different.

 

So...if you consider the authorized sequels -- Super Pac-Man, Pac'n'Pal, Pac-Land, and Pac-Mania -- they are a LOT different from the original. But the unauthorized sequels -- Ms. Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man, and Pac-Man Plus (let's not even think about Professor Pac-Man....gak!!!) -- are basically the same game with only minuscule differences, really.

 

There is one exception: Baby Pac-Man, an unauthorized sequel. it's still a maze-ghosts game, but there's a pinball machine attached, and the pinball game and video game are tied together. It's a unique combination that, unfortunately, literally didn't work very well. (And the video game graphics SUCKED.)

 

So yeah, the Namco-authorized sequels are going to seem more copycat...intentionally.

[Dauber]

Back to the point about whether or not Jr. is a true sequel...I've been a big fan of the Pac-Man franchise since it first came out, but I only fairly recently (like in the last ten years, maybe) learned about how a lot of the games weren't Namco-sanctioned. So I don't know what to think. Truth be told, I seldom play the original. When I'm at the arcade, I'm usually playing Ms. or Jr. (or if I'm lucky enough to be somewhere where there's a Super Pac-Man or Baby Pac-Man, I'll play those)...

 

If I sit down and think really hard, I'd have to say...yes, Jr. belongs in the canon. Yeah, it's a hack, but it's a well-done hack. The scrolling (well, crawling, really....left/right = crawl, up/down = scroll...well, I guess on the 2600 version it DOES scroll!) maze is brilliant, and it still has that Pac-Man vibe to it. And I LOVE that the developers paid enough attention to tie the other games together: notice how the Jr. Pac-Man theme is ALMOST a note-for-note copy of the music from the "Junior" cut scene in Ms. Pac-Man!

 

Lately I've been playing the "turbo" variation of Jr. Pac-Man at my favorite arcade. It's great -- with the high speed chip you actually get a chance to see all the mazes! It's very SMH that Twin Galaxies refuses to acknowledge its existence.

[ComputerSpaceFan]

Just to jeopardize my "man card" here, there was an episode of Sex and the City, I think it was called "Better Late Than Never" where Carrie dates a gamer guy who runs an arcade. She asks him "hey whatever happened with Pac-man and Ms. Pac-man" and the guy tells her they had a kid.

 

There you go, as official as humanly possible.

 

Further jeopardizing my "man card" I juts had to look it up. The episode was from Season 3 and it's called "Hot Child in the City". Carrie dated a guy who owned a comic book shop and he took her on a date to an arcade. That's where they discussed Jr.

 

Now if you'll excuse me I think I need to eat a steak or drink some booze or watch boxing or something right now.

[4Ks]

Further jeopardizing my "man card" I juts had to look it up. The episode was from Season 3 and it's called "Hot Child in the City". Carrie dated a guy who owned a comic book shop and he took her on a date to an arcade. That's where they discussed Jr.

 

Now if you'll excuse me I think I need to eat a steak or drink some booze or watch boxing or something right now.

It's okay. I looked up a guide on how to apply concealing makeup last week and I haven't sprouted a vagina yet.

[racerx77]

Personally, I love it. It has always frustrated me that Namco ignores this game. I wish they would reconsider and put it one of their collections.

 

[BrianC]

Personally, I love it. It has always frustrated me that Namco ignores this game. I wish they would reconsider and put it one of their collections.

 

It's frustrating that Namco often ignores Ms. Pac-Man too, though it was DLC for that XBLA/Steam/PSN collection.

[treismac]

It's frustrating that Namco often ignores Ms. Pac-Man...

Here, here. Ms. Pac-Man perfected Pac-Man. It is next to impossible for me to play, let alone enjoy Pac-Man after tasting the delicious moving fruit of his better half. I wonder how much of it is a matter of pride and patriarchy that the American girl doesn't get the proper respect from Namco.

Edited December 25, 2014 by treismac