195. Pac-Man (Namco, Famicom, 1984)

Namco's second Famicom game after Galaxian (and the fourth non-Nintendo Famciom game) is that holiest of arcade classics, Pac-Man. Of course I've played Pac-Man in arcades, as well as in other ports, though those were typically direct ports of the arcade version.

The Famicom, being a piece of (relatively cheap) consumer hardware from 1983 is not quite powerful enough to stand up to the arcades of 1981. Not to mention, only a year into its lifecycle, most developers had not figured out how to use the Famicom efficiently / larger chips were not yet available. That is to say that Famicom Pac-Man is a definitive downgrade from arcade Pac-Man.

The maze is squeezed into a slightly smaller area. The musical cues don't sounds quite right, especially when you eat a ghost, though the between-level cutscenes sure tried to sound good. Graphically, the game looks a bit less fluid than the arcade original, especially with regard to the fruit, which are now all monochrome.

I would also call the game out for being sluggish and only having one maze, but that's just me hating on the original Pac-Man after playing dozens of hours of the superior Ms. Pac-Man.

3/5, slightly worse than its arcade counterpart