![]() ![]() in plentiful amounts – a very simple concept that can be accessed by anyone who picks up a controller and enjoyed by all, despite nearly sticking to the original concept totally. The latter is something that is evident in Pac Man Vs. The main reason for the wealth of respect adorned on Miyamoto-san is because of his attention-to-detail and his eye for addictive gameplay. But just how much fun can a multi-player version of a crusty old formula be? Plenty, for sure… ![]() What happens when one of the world’s most talented game producers gets bored? He decides to whip up a quick remake of someone else’s game! Shigeru Miyamoto turned the single-player arcade Pac-Man into a ‘Connectivity Exclusive’ four-player title, presented it to Namco for feedback and permission to continue with the project and the end result is here today – Pac Man Vs, a title that cannot be played alone. Now if only the company had included some options to actually turn the plumber’s grating voice off… Not quite was expected from Pac Man Vs, but a clever move from Nintendo to stamp its mark on the game. Therefore, amongst the usual basic (and that is using the word to its full extent – with the exception of the nicely remixed Pac-Man theme on the title screen) music we are ‘treated’ to such ‘wonderful’ phrases as ‘It’s-a not looking so good-a!’ and ‘Pac-Man ate a Power Pellet!’, all in the mock-Italian squeak that is Mario’s accent. Nintendo has seen fit to drag Charles Martinet into the fray in order to provide a Mario voice over the top, just so that you definitely realise that this is not a Namco rehash, but a Nintendo re-invention (despite those two things being exactly the same in essence). Wacka wacka wacka wacka.and that is about it for Pac Man, right? Not this time around, however. ![]() Perhaps since Nintendo realised the game would not sell alone it decided that Pac Man Vs did not warrant the extra time and attention. However this is all quite disappointing, since some proper touch-ups could have been made overall on both systems. Then we have the GameCube updates of the mazes included, all of which come with their own special styling for each stage and contain 3D renderings of the ghosts and Pac-Man himself, all moving around at an expected locked-down 60 frames per second. The GBA is more than capable of representing the exact layout of the old 1980 arcade Pac-Man mazes, doing so without even breaking into a mild sweat. The game looks like it must have taken about a week at the most to churn out and it was a complete joke (an unfunny one at that) to have this as the main attraction of the E3 line-up. Wow, Nintendo must have done something absolutely amazing with this update then, surely? Then we have the Game Boy Advance, a system that has proved to be far more powerful than its oft-compared to predecessor the Super Nintendo – generally sporting in-game visuals that match the PSone and now can even support full-blown FMV sequences. So we have an all-powerful GameCube that easily outperforms the PlayStation 2 and can manage to keep to the same level of graphical quality produced by the XBOX. There is no back story to the game – basically you just boot-up and play without any delay. Reportedly even Nokia and its N-Gage crew tittered…But, Nintendo being Nintendo it was not about to be perturbed by such reactions and merrily steamed ahead with the update that requires three players to hook-up their GBAs to a GameCube with the remaining player using a GC pad. Suffice to say there was muffled laughter from the Sony and Microsoft booths. So imagine the dismay of several gamers when the large unveiling from über designer Miyamoto-san was none other than a multi-player update of the original maze-based Pac-Man title from Namco. May 2003 saw the latest E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) arrive, complete with the promise of huge announcements from Nintendo. This is what Nintendo was busying working on?! ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |