As featured in Retrogaming Times Monthly issue #9, February 2005.

Undoubtedly one of the most popular arcade games of all time is Ms. Pac-Man, the dot gobbling better half and sequel to the groundbreaking Pac-Man, released by Namco in 1980.  There had been home versions of the Namco classic on nearly every video game console and home computer but in 1990 Tengen released an NES version with all the charm of the arcade and a pile of new play modes.  Although I can’t imagine anyone that doesn’t all ready know the basic play mechanic of the original Pac-Man games, for the uninitiated the game centers around guiding Ms. Pac-Man around an overhead maze, eating all the dots while avoiding the four ghosts that inhabit the playfield.  Each maze has four power pellets near the maze corners, eating one of these will cause the ghosts to turn blue and become edible for a short amount of time.  Ghosts that are eaten disappear, except for their eyes, and return to the center of the maze where they are regenerated.  Each maze has a different bonus item food that bounces around the maze and can be eaten for bonus points.  After all the dots and power pellets are eaten, the player gets to start the next maze.  With each stage the ghosts get faster and the effectiveness of power pellets becomes shorter.  After certain stages the player is treated to a short intermission sequence showing how Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man’s relationship grows.  (okay, it’s not all that deep but it’s part of what makes this game a classic.

With the Tengen version on the NES you get a port of the arcade original plus a whole lot more.  After the title screen the player is presented with an options screen with different play modes and settings.  The first of these is the “Pac Booster” which can be turned on, turned off, or set to be activated by either button A or B.  The Pac Booster makes Ms. Pac-Man speed up, it takes away most of the challenge of the game but is a nice feature to have as an option.  Next is the game difficulty selection: easy, hard, crazy, or normal.  They’re all pretty much self-explanatory and control the speed of the ghosts.  The next option is where the Tengen port really shines, maze selection: arcade, mini, big, and strange.  “Arcade” is just that, all the arcade mazes and game play.  “Mini” is a series of half-size mazes.  “Big” is a series of large mazes with long winding alleys.  “Strange” is a series of oddly arranged mazes with lots of different nooks and crannies to navigate about.  Lastly you have the option to choose your starting level, stages 1-7.

In the graphics department Tengen did a decent job with attempting to port over the look of the original game.  The colors are a bit off but everything is close enough to the arcade original to warrant it graphically proficient when compared to the arcade version.  The arcade and larger mazes scroll vertically, following Ms. Pac-Man as the player navigates the maze.  Scrolling is smooth and far enough ahead of Ms. Pac-Man so there aren’t any surprises with ghosts suddenly appearing in front of the player.  About two thirds of the maze is shown on screen at a time.  Some people don’t like this scrolling motion but it allows the game to have good-sized sprites and maintain as much of the arcade detail as possible, remember the arcade version had a vertical monitor.  Sprites move smoothly and with a bare minimum of flicker.

The audio falls a bit short, while all the sound effects are there they simply sound slightly off.  The music at the start of the game and during the intermission sequences is actually really close to the arcade version.  Namco released an official version on the NES three years after the Tengen port, which has near-perfect arcade audio but the audio in the Tengen version is more than adequate.  Controls are just what one would expect, the control pad controls Ms. Pac-Man’s direction of travel and if you have the Pac Booster enabled as being activated by button A or B then button A or B activates the Pac Booster - imagine that.  In the arcade mode all the arcade stages are there but the additional play modes give what was already an incredibly addictive game infinite replay value.  It’s almost like getting a near-perfect 8-bit port of Ms. Pac-Man along with a myriad of maze expansion packs.  As I stated earlier, Namco did release an official version of Ms. Pac-Man on the NES in 1993, however it looks rushed visually and while the game play is there it just doesn’t seem like good old Ms. Pac-Man.  You also don’t get all the additional mazes and play modes with the Namco version.  Even though I personally think the audio in the Namco version is better, over all the Tengen port is simply a superior game on the NES.  The two versions are easy to tell apart since the Tengen release is in the signature black Tengen cartridge while the Namco release is in a standard gray NES cartridge.  Ms. Pac-Man is yet another example of the quality job Tengen could do with arcade games on the NES.
 

"InsaneDavid" also runs a slowly growing gaming site at http://www.classicplastic.net/dvgi

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