Super Pac-Man

Japanese arcade flyer.

Super Pac-Man (スーパーパックマン, Sūpā Pakkuman^?) is an arcade game developed and released by Namco in 1982, and was licensed to Midway for North American distribution. It is the fourth entry in the Pac-Man series and was intended as the “true” sequel to the original, as Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Man Plus were not developed by Namco, but by Midway. Although it was well-received in Japan, it was criticized in North America, as it strayed too far from the first two games.

Super Pac-Man was ported to a number of home computers in Japan, with an Atari 5200 and Atari 800 version cancelled. The game was ported to the PlayStation in 1996 in the North American and European release of Namco Museum Vol. 2, replacing the game Cutie Q from the Japanese release. The game was alter ported to Windows 95 as part of Namco History Vol. 3, and later to the Wii in 2007 as part of Namco Museum Remix.

Gameplay

The player controls Pac-Man, and instead of eating pellets, must eat keys to unlock doors, and Pac-Man must consume the fruit locked away inside of the gates. Four gates contain Power Pellets, which Pac-Man can collect to turn the tables on the ghosts. A new type of pellet, the Super Pellet, will transform Pac-Man into Super Pac-Man for a brief period of time. As this form, Pac-Man will become huge and be able to destroy the gates instead of collecting keys, and becomes invincible to the ghosts. Additionally, Pac-Man can move faster if the “Super Speed” button is held down, and Pac-Man can also collect additional Power Pellets as Super Pac-Man to increase the amount of time in this form.

Each round has a small roulette counter, which will flash through various bonus items; if Pac-Man consumes the star, the roulette will end; if both fruits don’t match, the player will earn 300 points, if the fruits do match the player will receive 500 points, and if the fruits match and are the fruit that appear on that particular stage, then the player will receive a 1000 point bonus.

Ports

Super Pac-Man was meant to be ported to the Atari 5200 and Atari 800, but were later cancelled after Atari Games was purchased by Jack Tramel. In Japan, the game was ported to the Casio PV-2000 as Mr. Packn and Sord M5 as Power Pac, and later in North American for the Commodore 64. The game was ported to the PlayStation in 1996 in the North American and European versions of Namco Museum Vol. 2, while in the Japanese version, the game was replaced with Cutie Q. The game was later ported to Windows 95 in 1997 as part of Namco History Vol. 3, and later for the Wii in 2007 as part of Namco Museum Remix. A mobile phone release was also made, and featured updated graphics and sound effects, with this version being exclusive to Sprint. As a promotion, Sprint announced a sweepstakes in which the winner would receive a Volkswagen New Beetle customized with Super Pac-Man artwork. It was later included in Namco Museum Virtual Arcade for the Xbox 360 in 2008, and later in Namco Museum Megamix for the Wii in 2010. The game would later be included in the compilation Pac-Man Museum for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in 2014.