Gameplay on Pac & Pal's third level.
Pac & Pal (パック＆パル Pakku ando Paru?) is an arcade released in 1983 by Namco in Japan only; it runs on Namco Super Pac-Man hardware and is the fourth game in the Pac-Man series. While the original game was never released outside of Japan, a variation of it exists titled Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp that was only sold in various European countries; this version replaces Miru with Chomp Chomp from the Pac-Man television series by Hanna Barbera.
Gameplay[]
The gameplay is near-identical to the company's Super Pac-Man: Pac-Man must open gates by flipping over cards (rather than eating keys in Super Pac-Man), and eat the items inside, while avoiding the ghosts. A new addition to this game is a character called "Miru", the game's "pal". Miru wanders through the maze searching for items. When Pac-Man opens a gate, Miru will rush over and attempt to retrieve it. Miru will then bring the item to the ghost house, but Pac-Man can eat the fruit while she is carrying it. Pac-Man will not lose a life if he touches Miru. If Miru enters the ghost house with a fruit, the fruit will be gone, but it will count as being collected by Pac-Man. Another new addition are powerups, which replace the Power Pellets. Pac-Man can collect them to shoot the ghosts to stun them. While the items change, they always perform the same effect.
On Round 3 and every fourth level is a bonus level. In them, Pac-Man must uncover cards to earn points. If the player turns over Miru, the player's score will be doubled when the round ends. If the player uncovers Blinky, the binus round ends. The player will earn 10,000 points if Blinky is the last card to be turned over. Miru and Blinky are randomly placed in the maze. All other cards have a $ sign, which adds 100 points to your score. Miru and Blinky are also worth 100 points.
Ports and re-releases[]
Pac & Pal was released in the Namco History Vol. 3 collection for Windows 95. The game was released again in the 2006 Pac-Man TV Game by Jakks Pacific, and again in 2013's Pac-Man Connect and Play by Bandai. Pac & Pal was released on the Namco Museum Remix compliation in 2007 for the Wii, and again in 2010's Namco Museum Megamix. It was released again in 2009's Namco Museum Virtual Arcade for the Xbox 360.