Pac-Man
Arcade
Nostalgia Factor:
Pac-Man is a game that's been around for my entire life. It came out in 1980, two years before I was born. My dad had the Atari 2600 version of the game in his rec room. I remember all the merch, specifically an activity book that was full of mazes and pictures to color. Pac-Man cereal, Pac-Man plushies. The game itself was a staple at every arcade, movie theater, bowling alley, or restaurant growing up. Everywhere you turned, there was Pac-Man.
Despite being a Pac-Man fan, I was never very good at the game. It didn't matter if it was the arcade or the 2600 version of it: I sucked. I could clear four or five stages at max - and that was on a good run. It didn't matter how much I practiced at home, or how many quarters I put into the arcade machine. I just wasn't good at the game. Over time, Pac-Man became a game that I would walk past or ignore when perusing the arcades. I hate to say this, but the game never really did anything for me. It didn't grab me the same way that something like Mario, Donkey Kong, Moon Patrol, or Asteroids did.
That's probably why I'm up to review #632, and I still haven't reviewed the game yet. You'd think I'd have done it a long time ago. What prompted me to sit down and finally pour some decent time into the game? I don't know. I like having an arcade game in the queue of my Retropie that I can come back to every few days or so and try to beat my high score. Centipede, Alien Syndrome, and Tetris have been my go-to games here in 2026 so far. But I was ready for something new. I decided on Pac-Man.
So here were are. Let's dive into this 46 year old game. Would it finally win me over? Is it still worth playing today? I'm excited to talk about it.
Story:
I really, really hope you aren't coming into Pac-Man and expecting any kind of strong storyline. You're Pac-Man. You run from ghosts. You eat pellets. We all laugh and have a good time. But there really isn't any attempt at story telling going on here.
The ghosts have names. Every once in a while, you'll see a short animation of Pac-Man turning the tables on the ghosts. My favorite is when the ghost gets caught on a snare that rips its clothes. But that's about all you get when it comes to story. I suppose I do have some questions. Like, if the ghosts aren't really ghosts, and they are just wearing ghost outfits, then who are they really? And what do they have against Pac-Man? But the game doesn't care about any of that.
Gameplay:
I'm going to pretend like you're a space alien from the year 2587, and you have never heard of this game before. You control a little yellow character named Pac-Man. You are looking down on Pac-Man from an overhead perspective. Pac-Man is in a maze filled with pellets. There are ghosts in a cage in the middle of the maze. Your goal is to explore the maze fully, eating up the pellets as you go. Once you've eaten them all, you clear the maze and you move onto the next one.
You must do this while being pursued by the ghosts, who are being released from their cages one by one. They will relentlessly pursue you until they catch you. If they so much as touch you, you lose a life and have to restart the level. Luckily, the pellets you've already eaten are still gone.
The thing I always liked about the game is how you can eat power pellets to turn the tables on your ghost attackers. Each stage holds four power pellets, each one located near one of the room's four corners. As soon as you eat one, all the ghosts turn blue. They start running from you instead of attacking you. If you touch them while they're blue, they get sent back to the cage in the middle of the room, and you earn points. The more ghosts you banish, the more points you get. If you can string together a combo of all four ghosts after eating a power pellet, you earn over 1,000 points. That's really the goal of the game: to earn points and get the high score.
The further you get into the game, the more difficult it becomes. The ghosts become faster, the power pellets lose their effectiveness. Everything becomes more difficult. Like I said earlier, I've always been terrible at this game. Even playing it for this review, I couldn't clear more than seven or eight stages before losing all my lives. My highest score was about 33,000 something - which I understand isn't very good. There's people out there who have probably hit a million points.
*Edit - I just looked and apparently you can earn over three million points if you get a perfect run. And how many levels are there? 256!! I've made it to 7 or 8!!
I understand there are exploits out there and ways to master the game. I've read Ready Player One. I feel like if I realllly wanted to, I could study up on the game and learn some of the exploits, and get better at it. But where's the fun in that? I like taking my own approach, regardless of whether or not it is successful. I'm here to have fun, not do homework.
But about the fun thing. Is this game really that fun? I don't know. I like the game. For the most part, I enjoy playing it. But that enjoyment never lasts more than a few moments. I start a game. I die within minutes. I play another round, where again I die within minutes. And then I'm done. I never want to play this game over and over. It's not something you can sink hours into. Even when I was a kid and this was one of the few games I had, I didn't put much time into it. It's hard to explain, but like I said earlier, this game doesn't really do much for me.
I acknowledge that the game is popular. I understand why people like it. It's just not something I'm crazy about. I'd almost always rather be playing something else. That's not a knock on Pac-Man, or an attack on its legacy. If anything, it's a me problem. I do like the game in short bursts. But aside from that, I could take it or leave it.
Even saying that feels blasphemous.
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Graphics:
This game has a timeless feel to it. It came out in 1980, and it looks better than a lot of games that came out after it. It's not ugly. It hasn't "aged poorly." It looks great. It's simple, it gets its point across. It accomplishes everything it sets out to do visually. The second your eyes notice this game, you know exactly what it is.
Sound:
This is a game that you can identify solely by sound. It's light on music. You only hear a few brief musical jingles off and on as you play - mainly when you start a new game or reach a level interlude. What makes the game identifiable is the sound Pac-Man makes when he munches the pellets. I can't really describe it in words. It's just something that you know as soon as you hear it.
The sound when you eat a large pellet is great. Even the sound when you lose a life is great. Whether it is the sound effects or the brief music clips, every sound this game makes is iconic.
Overall:
I feel like I've been tough on this game. One thing we all need to remember is that everyone has different tastes. Not everything is for everybody. There are things I like about the game. I like the visuals and the music. I like the premise of the game. Like I said, it is fun to play in short bursts. What I mainly appreciate is the enormous impact Pac-Man had on the video game industry, and the lasting legacy that has endured. Video games may not be where they are right now without Pac-Man.
That said, it's not my favorite game. Anyone who's been following this blog from the beginning knows that I'm not big on "high score" games, where your only goal is to complete a loop of increasingly difficult challenges until you eventually die. You can't beat the game, you can only hope to get the highest score. I like an ending. I like a goal to strive for. Sure, getting a high score is a goal, but I like to be able to beat the game. Plus, no matter how good of a run I have, I never seem to get a very good score. The ghosts always find a way to corner me or cut me off, no matter how quickly I react to them or try to throw them off my scent by juking or acting unpredictably. Maybe I just suck at the game. Maybe my experience is normal and most people can't clear more than a handful of stages. Whatever it is, I'll stand by my original statement. Pac-Man just isn't my thing. I don't hate it. I enjoy it in small bursts. But like I said, if I walk into an arcade with a bunch of different games to pick from, Pac-Man would probably be at the bottom of my list to play.
My review score will be interesting, because while I admit the game "isn't my thing" I will NEVER say that it is bad or that it sucks. I know it is a good game. It's not for me, but it is a good game. So I'll compromise and give this a slightly positive review score. Not high enough to make people think I loved this game, but not low enough where people are like "wtf, how could someone give Pac-Man a bad review?" Hopefully that works for you. Not that I care.
THE GRADE:
B-
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