Pac-Man Museum+ (2022)

Never been much of a Pac-Man guy. I had one of those plug and play arcade sticks as a kid (I should say, my brother had the Pac-Man one but all the high scores were mine) and I really liked the OG and Ms Pac-Man.

This little arcade though? No thanks, the weird and wonky 3D Pac-Men are visually unappealing and outside of the original and Championship edition this is very much a collection of mediocrity.

Brief thoughts on the games included in the latest Pac-Man collection:

• Pac-Man — The OG is still great to play, and a classic for good reason. And now I feel like watching the Action Button Review of this again...
• Super Pac-Man — Go big mode in Pac-Man, eating keys to unlock the gates blocking your foods. It took some getting used to, but I like it all right.
• Pac & Pal — This one's really bizarre... You pass over cards to unlock gates to foods, but your "pal" might run off with them. You can also get weapons of sorts to fend off ghosts. I kind of like it? The pal is cute, and so is the music.
• Pac-Land — I had played the Famicom version, but the arcade original is a lot better. It's still a very weird very early 2D platformer of sorts, but once you get the hang of it it's not bad for a diversion.
• Pac-Mania — It's just an isometric 3D-view version of Pac-Man. You can also jump over the ghosts (which you'll need to, because you can only see part of the maze since it's zoomed in). Not my favorite.
• Pac-Attack — From the SNES. It's a Tetris-like with falling blocks, but also falling ghosts and falling Pac-Mans. It's not my favorite of these sorts of games, but it's not bad.
• Pac-in-Time — From the Super Famicom. It's a 2D platformer with lots of items to use for traversal and whanot. I haven't quite figured the one out yet tbh, it's not very intuitive.
• Pac-Man Arrangement — It's just Pac-Man, but faster and with nicer graphics and more levels. I like it okay, but the gimmicks of some levels are annoying.
• Pac-Man Arrangement — From the PSP. This reminds me a lot of Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness. Just lots of levels to run through with Pac-Man, but with gimmicks like in the other Arrangement game. Some of Pac-Man's abilities are extremely finicky to me.
• Pac-Man Championship — Yeah, this one's pretty awesome. The true sequel to Pac-Man? It's fast, wild, and hectic. I've played through Championship 2 before, but this one feels a bit more challenging and rewarding.
• Pac-Motos — From the Wii. It's... dumb. You roll in a ball, knocking enemies off a platform.
• Pac 'n Roll Remix — From the Wii (though the original was from the DS). It's kind of like Monkey Ball, but way too fast and hard to control.
• Pac-Man Battle Royale — It's a four-player Pac-Man. Get the power pellet, and be the Pac-Cannibal you always wanted to be. Fun for a spell!
• Pac-Man 256 — The endless runner for phones that was later ported to consoles. I'm digging this one actually. It's a simple one to just jump into, but have a bit more to it than just regular Pac-Man. You upgrade items to use to clear away ghosts, and just try to last as long as you can.

So at the moment I'd say... 7 good, 3 okay-ish, 4 bleh?

Sorry, no Ms. Pac Man, no dice. I've got original Pac Man and Super Pac Man already, I just want Ms. Pac Man. The other Pac Man games I could do without.

We are in desperate need of a Midway/Williams/Atari Games compilation. WB Games last released one in 2012.

(And yes, I say that knowing full well that AtGames owns the rights to Ms. Pac Man).