 Let's take a look at the four Pac-Man games on Super Nintendo, starting with Pac-Attack, also known as Pac-Panic, developed and published by Pac-Man founder Namco, and yeah, as you can see, this is not what immediately comes to mind when you think of Pac-Man, sure it's a single screen puzzle game, but it's not, you know, Pac-Man, so it's kinda weird. This was actually adapted from another Namco game titled Cosmo Gang the Puzzle, and refitted with the Pac-Man motif. It's your typical Tetris style game with a twist where some of the blocks contain ghosts, and every so often one block contains Pac-Man, so the goal is to set up a sequence where you give Pac-Man an opportunity to eat as many ghosts at once. This fills up what's called a fairy meter, and when it's full, a fairy appears, gets rid of all the ghosts in an eight line section, and joins the remaining lines and simplifies the board, making it easier to clear the screen. Normal mode just has you keep going as long as you can, as the speed increases, while puzzle mode has a stage structure where you clear ghosts on a series of screens, and of course there is a two player versus mode as well. This game is pretty good, but I had a hard time getting used to this one, mostly because I had a tough time picking up on what Pac-Man's patterns were, so I could be able to set up everything the right way. I'm sure that's just a me problem, but still, this one can be pretty tricky. Pac-Attack also appeared on Sega Genesis, Game Gear, Game Boy, and even the CDi. It's also appeared on like a half dozen Namco compilations, so this one isn't hard to find. Pac-Attack won't blow you away or anything, but it's still a solid puzzle game. And we only get weirder from here with Pac-Man 2 The New Adventures. This one was also developed and published by Namco, but again it's not at all what you'd expect from a game with Pac-Man in the title for better or for worse. Believe it or not, this is a point and click adventure game with some platforming elements here and there, a little bit like Pac-Land, a 1984 arcade game that saw Pac-Man reinvented as a Mario style platforming hero, but this game is way further out there. Okay, so I'll put it bluntly, this game is kind of horrifying. From the way Pac-Man talks to some of the visuals, Pac-Man 2 is such a strange trip. Why didn't God's name just happened? Anyway, the game itself isn't all that bad, you start out with a slingshot just shooting anything on screen in order to trigger something, anything to happen, including these power pellets which apparently grow on trees? It's news to me. These are power-ups that turn Pac-Man into Super Pac-Man and he can fly around and eat ghosts, but the visuals here are just so unsettling, I can't get over it. The thing is with this game, you never have any direct control over Pac-Man, in fact you're tasked with keeping him in a good mood so he stays responsive, kind of like the Super Famicom game Wonder Project J. For example, you can keep him happy by shooting apples off of trees he can pick up and eat, then he does this bizarre nightmarish march, dear God. You do random tasks across town, everything from moving someone's couch to getting milk for Pac-Baby, what's weird is that sometimes you have to risk pissing off Pac-Man in order to accomplish what you want, like shooting at this bird who then knocks over a bottle so you can get milk, but after that make sure you get an apple or two to cheer him up, so this is a game of management so to speak. Later on you get to a platforming section where you actually have to shoot Pac-Man in order to get him to jump. It isn't until this minecart section here where the game finally settles in a bit, this section becomes a gallery shooter where you're shooting ghosts and dodging rocks on the cart path, there's also this hand gliding section here that's pretty fun, but before long it's back to this point and click mood management game where you're shooting anything and everything and hoping it works to your advantage, when all else fails just turn into Super Pac-Man and eat some ghosts I guess. Pac-Man 2 The New Adventures is one of the most intensely bizarre games I've ever played, from the gameplay structure to the artwork to the sound effects to the sprite animation. I gotta say I have to recommend this one because it's so weird, even though it has a lot going against it, for one thing it's very slowly paced, so you gotta stay patient with this one. It would be really handy if the game were compatible with the SNES mouse, but sadly it isn't. Also the game can be pretty unintuitive as you might imagine, it's pretty tough to get a full understanding of what the hell you're supposed to do, it's just one little event after another, sometimes things make sense and sometimes they don't. Eventually you can even direct Pac-Man 2 in arcade where you can play the NES version of Pac-Man, and once you complete the game, the arcade unlocks Miss Pac-Man, so that's a great little touch to include, and despite its flaws I do recommend Pac-Man 2 just because it's so strange and so different from anything else I've played. Next game, Pac-in Time, and this is the first game here that wasn't developed by Namco, instead by Callisto Entertainment. This game is pretty much just a reskin of the puzzle platformer Fury of the Furries, made for Amiga and PC, but Pac-in Time is its own game with newly designed levels, it just copied the mechanics and power-ups and such from Fury of the Furries. You go through 5 different worlds with 10 levels each, and you have to find 30 pellets in every level in order to progress through the game. Once you find the last pellet, an exit door opens up. To get every pellet, Pac-Man can obtain 4 abilities every level by going through a colored ring, green unlocks a rope Pac-Man can use to hang from ceilings and walls, same as you can in a game like Phantom 2040, red unlocks a hammer that you can use to unlock areas, yellow unlocks a fireball attack to destroy enemies, and blue unlocks the ability to swim. And of course, there's power pellets to fend off ghosts. The rope in particular is insane, and you'll be using that the most by far, and it's far from perfect. This is one of those things that's gonna vary from person to person, because you can get the hang of using it, but it's so finicky at first, you'll be flailing around helplessly. This is a fast-paced puzzle platformer that's much harder than it looks, and they did a really nice job with the Pac-Man sprite and the backgrounds and settings, but man, oh man, this game can get really tough and very frustrating. It's a surprisingly deep game with a ton of content, but this is a classic case of your mileage may vary mostly due to the rope power-up. If you have the patience to master that, then you'll really dig this game. Either way, I do think there's enough here to recommend this one, at the very least to play the first few levels to see if it's up your alley. And if nothing else to blast some enemies as Pac-Man, that's something I've always wanted to do. Last but not least, we have the Super Nintendo port of Ms. Pac-Man, and yeah, it's Ms. Pac-Man, what else do you want me to say? It's one of the most famous arcade games of all time, and rightfully so, because it's arguably the best iteration of the original Pac-Man formula out there. And the SNES port is reasonably faithful, but there's four different kinds of mazes available. The original arcade mazes, bigger, smaller, and strange mazes. The Pac Booster is also here, which speeds up the game significantly. There's also co-op and versus multiplayer modes, which is pretty nice. I will say this, if you have a young child that wants to get into retro gaming, but stuff like Mario World or Kirby is still too advanced for them, then have them play this port. It's a simple, focused game that starts out easy and grows in complexity the further you progress. It's a great balance of pick-up-and-play accessibility and under-the-surface strategy. But yeah, with all the extra options here, the Super Nintendo Ms. Pac-Man port is well made and worth picking up. Alright, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.