Anyone else think Super Pacman is severely underrated?

[ColecoKing]

Super Pacman is the official sequel to the Pacman we all know and liked. However, Super Pacman is often ridiculed because it isn't as casual friendly or mindless as the original. As an Intv commercial would say - this is a thinking mans game! Being a game that makes you think is why I think the game was and still is grossly underrated and is in my opinion better than the original Pacman though that's not a popular statement.

Super Pacman replaces the repetitive predictable nature of the original Pacman and adds more to the gameplay. The first big change is Pacman moves faster and so do the ghosts, this welcome change makes it so you have to plan ahead and think on your feet more. Keys are used to open doors to get the collectibles in each stage, no longer are you just slowly munching a bunch of dots, you are now having to plan your route carefully accounting for your speed, what keys open which doors, and avoid trapping yourself in a corner to get eat by the ghost.

Then there are new Super Pellets. The original Power Pellets are still here, but these new Super Pellets increase Pacmans size to become a giant which allows Pacman not only to run over and squash ghosts though they don't die, but you can crash through doors without keys! Of course like Power Pellet their is a time limit for their use. I usually save the Super Pellets until I am in a difficult situation as it's a perfect way to turn the tables back in your favor.

I feel that this thinking mans Pacman is the best Pacman game of all time with the Pacman Arrangement GBA game with the boss battles being only a little bit behind, mostly because some of the stage design decisions in that game were not very good. I like the fast paced gameplay, the need to think on your feet and use strategy in order to defeat the more difficult stages.

For those who have not heard or played Super Pacman here is a short video on YouTube showing some gameplay

[youtube]www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4d4lV30tWM[/youtube]


Who else feels this game is underrated? It's a shame it wasn't more popular, I never expected it to be bigger than the original Pacman or Ms Pacman but it really didn't make any splash at all. It came out at the right time, 1982 was big for arcades very unfortunate but now with computers and phones everyone can play it now no excuse!

Edited September 27, 2020 by ColecoKing

[Ross PK]

I loved playing it on my Atari 800XL back in the 80's, it's a very interesting game, I think it's a lot better than the original Pac-Man.

 

The surprising thing is, is that the Atari 8-bit version is a prototype, it never had a retail release, I never knew this back in the day. How I got a hold of it was I just copied my Nephews games that he had on disk, and one of those games was Super Pac-Man, his disks were copies themselves which were copied from someone else.

 

Crazy how the original prototype was in America, and then I end up with a copy of it on disk in the UK.

Edited September 28, 2020 by Ross PK

[ColecoKing]

^ I agree I like the faster pace especially.

Didn't know Atari version was prototype though I also though it was original release.

[Lord Thag]

Yeah, I've always felt like this was the red-headed step child of the Pac Man line of games. It's much better than the original, just as fun as Ms Pac, and far less frustrating and cheap than Jr or Baby Pac. It allows a newbie to feel like their making some progress (much like Ms Pac) but gets hard fairly quickly.

Damn fun game. I also play the hell out of the Atari 8-bit port, it's a great home version.

[Zoyous]

I remember trying it as a kid when it was brand new in the arcade, but not really understanding it. I should go back and try it now.

[Pixelboy]

Super Pac-Man is not a bad game, but it does suffer from having "added ingredients" (keys, locked doors, super pills) that make the game appear like a gimmicky upgrade from the original. I would walk past a Super Pac-Man cabinet at my local arcade when I was a kid and think "What the heck is this supposed to be? It seems like the ghosts will catch me more easily with all the dead ends caused by the locked doors."

 

I'd rather play the original Pac-Man where the ghosts have less of an unfair advantage. I suppose others felt the same way back then.

 

[+Cafeman]

I hated it at first and refused to play it.  Similar to @Pixelboy comments above, it seemed less pure and more gimmicky, and I wasn't wasting my 25c.    But over time I've given it some time, and it is a very fun game.   It probably is underrated as a fun game.  I like it more than Jr Pac-Man with its scrolling playfield and tough difficulty.     

[GameGirl420]

Love Super Pac but never thought it was underrated. 

 

Pac & Pal on the other hand I'd say is very underrated. 

[ColecoKing]

Super Pac-Man is not a bad game, but it does suffer from having "added ingredients" (keys, locked doors, super pills) that make the game appear like a gimmicky upgrade from the original. I would walk past a Super Pac-Man cabinet at my local arcade when I was a kid and think "What the heck is this supposed to be? It seems like the ghosts will catch me more easily with all the dead ends caused by the locked doors."

I'd rather play the original Pac-Man where the ghosts have less of an unfair advantage. I suppose others felt the same way back then.

That was the issue though, it was a thinking mans game. Look at where the keys are, save Super pellets for those tough situations since you can chew through doors as giant pacman, look at positioning since everyone moves faster.

Pacman wasn't that different from games before it except it had the production value and was extremely easy for even drunk truck driver to play. Way to casual imo. Getting highest score in the neighborhood was less strategy and more patience.

[ColecoKing]

Lushgirl

Pac & Pal on the other hand I'd say is very underrated.

Lord help us jebus.

Maybe if you play it on mute, that few second music loop would drive me crazy and throw a brick at the arcade machine.

[NE146]

Personally for me, I don't think it's underrated because when it came out, I could not wait to get to the store to play it.  So it had a big impact on me at the time, and I got pretty good at it more or less. Although to be honest it hasn't held my interest fully as the years passed. If given the choice between it or a game like Pac-Man Plus for example, I'd rather play Pacman Plus.

 

On 9/28/2020 at 2:30 PM, Ross PK said:

The surprising thing is, is that the Atari 8-bit version is a prototype, it never had a retail release, I never knew this back in the day. How I got a hold of it was I just copied my Nephews games that he had on disk, and one of those games was Super Pac-Man, his disks were copies themselves which were copied from someone else.

Yeah and there's a few things wrong with it.. like the ghost bluetime was way too short (e.g. a mere 2 seconds on stage three).  People finally did some hacks to fix it but I it was for the 5200 version only I think

 

<edit> yep. Here it is.

 

 

[ColecoKing]

Strange how not one official console port released.

[NinjaWarrior]

Love Super Pac-Man on the GBC

[Cobra Kai]

My personal favorite Pac-Man game. 

[zetastrike]

I've tried to enjoy the A8bit version of Super Pac-Man, but something about the controls feel off.  Changing directions feels unresponsive or maybe inputs are being missed.  Pac-Man feels like he has some weird speed changes.  Regular or Ms Pac-Man using the same joystick feel fine.

[negative1]

On 9/29/2020 at 5:27 PM, ColecoKing said:

Strange how not one official console port released.

I'm not sure what you mean:

Platform(s)	Arcade, Commodore 64, IBM PC, Sord M5, Mobile phone

 

 

Legacy[edit]

• In 1996, Super Pac-Man appeared on the second Namco Museum arcade compilation for Sony's PlayStation (not included in the Japanese version).
• In 1998, Namco released Super Pac-Man as part of Namco History Volume 3 for the PC in Japan only.
• In 1999, Super Pac-Man was included alongside Ms. Pac-Man in Ms. Pac-Man: Special Color Edition for Nintendo's Game Boy Color system.
• In 2006, Jakks Pacific released the Plug and Play Super Pac-Man joystick that contained Super Pac-Man along with Pac-Man, Pac-Man Plus, and Pac & Pal. Super Pac-Man is also featured in TV Games' Pac-Man: Gold Edition & Retro Arcade.
• Namco has released a portable version on select cell phone models exclusively on Sprint. [1]. As a promotion, Sprint and Namco ran a sweepstakes which offered the grand prize winner a Volkswagen New Beetle customized with Super Pac-Man art. The car was on display at major videogame tradeshow E3 in Los Angeles in May 2006. The Sweepstakes began June 1, 2006 and ended on July 31, 2006.
• Namco released Super Pac-Man along with Pac & Pal, Pac 'n Roll, Pac-Mania and other non-Pac-Man games in Namco Museum Remix and Namco Museum Megamix, in late 2007 and late 2010 respectively.
• Namco re-released Super Pac-Man on mobile phones as a deluxe version with updated 3D graphics and redone sound effects.
• On November 4, 2008, Super Pac-Man was released in Namco Museum Virtual Arcade for the Xbox 360.
• Super Pac-Man was released as part of Pac-Man Museum in 2014.

later

-1

[negative1]

On 9/27/2020 at 10:05 AM, ColecoKing said:

Super Pacman is the official sequel to the Pacman we all know and liked. However, Super Pacman is often ridiculed because it isn't as casual friendly or mindless as the original. As an Intv commercial would say - this is a thinking mans game! Being a game that makes you think is why I think the game was and still is grossly underrated and is in my opinion better than the original Pacman though that's not a popular statement.

I agree that its a fun game, but i don't think it's underrated, it had a lot of attention when it came,

has a lot of great features. And theres quite a few people that have mastered it also.

 

Its not better than pac-man to me, its just different, but still good.

 

Quote

 

Super Pacman replaces the repetitive predictable nature of the original Pacman and adds more to the gameplay. The first big change is Pacman moves faster and so do the ghosts, this welcome change makes it so you have to plan ahead and think on your feet more. Keys are used to open doors to get the collectibles in each stage, no longer are you just slowly munching a bunch of dots, you are now having to plan your route carefully accounting for your speed, what keys open which doors, and avoid trapping yourself in a corner to get eat by the ghost.

 

Sorry, but you are completely wrong about this. Super pac-man is completely pattern based, and thats all it is.

You can use patterns to get through every single level. In fact they repeat forever, and you need about 9-12 of

them depending on how good you are.

 

Here's level 34 - 396k

 

I hit 700k with 5 men starting on the xbox 360/one version

(in pac-man museum), and am going for a million, shouldn't be too much longer I hope.

 

As you probably know, all the bonus levels can use the same pattern too.

Quote

Then there are new Super Pellets. The original Power Pellets are still here, but these new Super Pellets increase Pacmans size to become a giant which allows Pacman not only to run over and squash ghosts though they don't die, but you can crash through doors without keys! Of course like Power Pellet their is a time limit for their use. I usually save the Super Pellets until I am in a difficult situation as it's a perfect way to turn the tables back in your favor.

 

The super pellets are useless. On the bonus levels, they make you go faster.

On the early levels, you can just run through the levels at super size, later on

they don't work, and the ghosts dont' blink.

 

Quote

I feel that this thinking mans Pacman is the best Pacman game of all time with the Pacman Arrangement GBA game with the boss battles being only a little bit behind, mostly because some of the stage design decisions in that game were not very good. I like the fast paced gameplay, the need to think on your feet and use strategy in order to defeat the more difficult stages.

Who else feels this game is underrated? It's a shame it wasn't more popular, I never expected it to be bigger than the original Pacman or Ms Pacman but it really didn't make any splash at all. It came out at the right time, 1982 was big for arcades very unfortunate but now with computers and phones everyone can play it now no excuse!

There is only one maze in super pac-man which is just like pac-man.

Super pac-man is basically pac-man with a few more patterns. Other than that, its exactly the same to me.

 

Now, the mobile phone people were lucky, because there was an arrangement mode, with 4 different mazes.

some really cool features (wish there was an arcade version or rom):
==================================================
1 normal mode has selectable 256 levels - 2 difficulties (normal, and easy -> slower, with 2 extra lives)

2 enhanced mode - 4 NEW mazes (very cool) and 4 NEW powers (stun, mirror, teleport and freeze)
   yeah, some were 'borrowed' from pac n pal ....

3 time trial modes - single or multi-maze

4 PAC-TIME:  In the original game, Super PACMAN  moves faster than PAC-MAN.
                   When PAC-TIME is ON, Super PAC-MAN moves at the same speed as PAC-MAN,
                   everything else slows down instead

5 speed (dash) - can be turned on hold/ auto/ or toggle (different ways to dash)

 

 

 

 

 

(I made my own PC version of it). i called it Super Ms. Pac-man.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

later

-1

 

 

Edited October 2, 2020 by negative1

[+Cafeman]

On 9/30/2020 at 1:39 PM, zetastrike said:

I've tried to enjoy the A8bit version of Super Pac-Man, but something about the controls feel off.  Changing directions feels unresponsive or maybe inputs are being missed.  Pac-Man feels like he has some weird speed changes.  Regular or Ms Pac-Man using the same joystick feel fine.

Agreed. At first the A8/5200 port seems impressive, but its not a lot of fun to play.  The coin-op version is so much better programmed and fun. I played it for a long time at the last Replay FX show.   

[TrekMD]

I've always enjoyed Super Pac-Man.  It's a different game but still fun. 

[Cobra Kai]

Make sure to give some love to PacManPlus's 7800 version fellas.

[Mr SQL]

On 9/27/2020 at 11:05 AM, ColecoKing said:

Super Pacman is the official sequel to the Pacman we all know and liked. However, Super Pacman is often ridiculed because it isn't as casual friendly or mindless as the original. As an Intv commercial would say - this is a thinking mans game! Being a game that makes you think is why I think the game was and still is grossly underrated and is in my opinion better than the original Pacman though that's not a popular statement.

Super Pacman replaces the repetitive predictable nature of the original Pacman and adds more to the gameplay. The first big change is Pacman moves faster and so do the ghosts, this welcome change makes it so you have to plan ahead and think on your feet more. Keys are used to open doors to get the collectibles in each stage, no longer are you just slowly munching a bunch of dots, you are now having to plan your route carefully accounting for your speed, what keys open which doors, and avoid trapping yourself in a corner to get eat by the ghost.

Then there are new Super Pellets. The original Power Pellets are still here, but these new Super Pellets increase Pacmans size to become a giant which allows Pacman not only to run over and squash ghosts though they don't die, but you can crash through doors without keys! Of course like Power Pellet their is a time limit for their use. I usually save the Super Pellets until I am in a difficult situation as it's a perfect way to turn the tables back in your favor.

I feel that this thinking mans Pacman is the best Pacman game of all time with the Pacman Arrangement GBA game with the boss battles being only a little bit behind, mostly because some of the stage design decisions in that game were not very good. I like the fast paced gameplay, the need to think on your feet and use strategy in order to defeat the more difficult stages.

Awesome thread!  Super Pacman is definitely underrated - yes the speed totally changes the way you play the game, and the keys and doors add new elements to the genre.

 

I loved playing KC when it came out for enhancing the genre - moving dot and power Pellet characters and moving walls somewhat similar to the doors in Super Pac. This gauges KC as a thinking mans Pacman genre variation much like Super Pacman - great classification!

 

I am writing a KC Operating System for SillyVenture 2020 inspired by the evolved genre:

 

 

Liked the comparison video here with so many different versions, some with subtle and not so subtle changes that can add or subtract from the gameplay but all are interesting. 

 

[NE146]

People talking about the speed reminded me when I was a kid and there was a bootleg Super Pac-Man at one arcade. It did NOT have a Super Speed Button, but rather when you ate the big power pellet you got super speed automatically even if you didn't want it.  You could never slow down until you got back to regular size again.

 

I wonder how common that was?

 

 

[negative1]

1 hour ago, Mr SQL said:

Awesome thread!  Super Pacman is definitely underrated - yes the speed totally changes the way you play the game, and the keys and doors add new elements to the genre.

 

I loved playing KC when it came out for enhancing the genre - moving dot and power Pellet characters and moving walls somewhat similar to the doors in Super Pac. This gauges KC as a thinking mans Pacman genre variation much like Super Pacman - great classification!

The game is basically learning patterns, and then its a matter of endurance.

So it is essentially pac-man, with a different maze.

 

In the latter levels, the speed is a non-issue, because it doesn't last longer than a second or so.

 

later

-1

 

[BydoEmpire]

A few years back I randomly picked up the PS1 Namco Museum w/ Super Pac Man as my kid was into Pac Man for a while.  I haven't played it much, maybe a dozen or so games over a couple weeks.  It seemed fun, but (at least my) PS1 version hitches pretty frequently which is annoying.  I should put some more time into it, but as it stands now I still prefer Ms. Pac Man (or 7800 Pac Man Collection, which is really my go-to Pac Man game at this point when I'm in the mood).

 

+1 to KC Munchkin, it was the one game I really missed when I sold my O2 collection and ended up buying the 7800 homebrew version, which is really good.

 

I like maze games a lot, I wish there were more new ones coming out for various systems. Not that there aren't a million classic ones to still play...

Edited October 2, 2020 by BydoEmpire

[Atarian7]

Super Pac Man was my favorite pac man game.  I seemed to be much better at it than regular Pac Man. 

 

I don't know if it is underrated. 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 2, 2020 by Atarian7