User:Vorbis/sandbox/Pac-Mania

Pac-Mania is a maze game developed and published by Namco and localized by Atari. It was released in 1987 in arcades, and it was eventually ported to numerous home consoles until 1992. It was ported once again to the Game Boy Advance as part of Pac-Man Collection in 2001 and repeated in 2002 for the Japanese release of said compilation, and the game has yet to seek a rerelease in 2022 as part of Pac-Man Museum+. The game was intended to be the last game in the Pac-Man arcade series until it was dethroned 9 years later, making the former the second-to-last instead.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) With the theme of a stage play, Pac-Mania makes up for a great finale to the arcade series prior to Pac-Man Arrangement.
 * 2) The alter-ego of Akabei (Blinky), Cruise Elroy, is known for being furious to the point he speeds up, yet Pac-Mania gives him angry eyes to express his anger more clearly, which is an upgrade.
 * 3) The game's catchy soundtrack, particularly in the arcade and X68000 versions, the Acorn Archimedes version, the Amiga 500 version, and the MSX2 version.
 * 4) * The Block Town BGM is unique. The first 2/3 sounds like party music featuring a catchy solo, and the last 1/3 sounds like a hero's anthem.
 * 5) * The Pac-Man's Park BGM is a full-on remix of the intermission jingle from the original game.
 * 6) * The Jungly Steps BGM sounds spooky, which is fitting, considering the maze's night setting and the fact that ghosts are a major element in the Pac-Man series.
 * 7) The game is the first Pac-Man maze game where Pac-Man has the ability to jump over and easily avoid most ghosts.
 * 8) To avoid confusion with Guzuta (Clyde), Sue retains her purple color from Pac-Attack and her mechanics differentiate, thus giving her a different personality.
 * 9) The Commons, known as Funky and Spunky, are interesting traps. Pac-Man can still jump over Funky, yet Funky can still catch Pac-Man whether the jump is too early or late, whereas Spunky is inevitable in terms of jumping.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Many of the ports are terrible.
 * 2) * In these terrible ports (except the GBA port), the ghosts look rather odd.
 * 3) * The Sega Genesis/Mega Drive is capable of importing from the arcade version with the graphics, palette, and sound, as half of the Yamaha YM2612 is all of the Yamaha YM2151; Therefore, the Genesis version is inexcusable, not to mention its reworked soundtrack doesn't loop properly.
 * 4) * The Game Boy Advance version plays the Block Town BGM over Jungly Steps, heavily trims the soundtrack, and takes screen crunch, all of which are due to storage limitations and damage the value of the arcade version.
 * 5) * The Master System version's soundtrack sounds like someone slamming a broken pencil on their desk, whereas the Jungly Steps BGM sounds like a series of random notes, which is ironic, considering that the versions listed in WIR #3 have the sequence organized.
 * 6) * The ZX Spectrum version reduces the characters' moving speed, and all the ghosts are the same color as the map, making it difficult to tell which ghosts are the Commons, not to mention 1 or 2 of the eye expressions don't help.
 * 7) Jungly Steps can often be way more difficult than necessary.