In 1980, Pac-man changed the history of video games. And not only because the developers realized the wickedness of players (it was originally called “Puck-man” but they quickly thought about how easy it was to turn a P into an F), but because arcades experienced a second life that they hadn’t seen since Pong. Everyone quickly became fond of the maze game, the yellow tokens, and the “Waka-waka”.
So much so that various versions quickly emerged. The most well-known of them, of course, was Ms. Pac-man, but we also had Pac-man Plus, Super Pac-man, and Pac & Pal, as it gradually made its way into home consoles. In 1984, with the franchise more than profitable, the time came for Namco to launch a deviation from the norm: Pac-Land. And that’s where everything started to get complicated.
What’s the point, man
Pac-Land was not a game from the classic franchise: in fact, it was a kind of adaptation of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series that aired between 1982 and 1983. In this case, the game replaced the classic maze in a top-down view with a side-scrolling format where Pac-Man walked through his city avoiding enemies until he reached the end of each level. And no, it wasn’t exactly easy. Obviously, Pac-Land ended up being adapted to all consoles and the saga has not received new titles since then except for the decent Pac-Mania… until 1994.
Well, not entirely: in 1993 it is true that we had Pac-Attack, which was actually an adaptation of an earlier game, Cosmo Gang the Puzzle, and which, all things considered, was original in combining the gameplay of the saga with another type of puzzles more similar to Tetris. And so, with Pac-man smelling a bit old by the mid-90s, this is how we finally arrived at Pac-man 2: The New Adventures.
Originally, Namco assigned the development of this sequel to a team that didn’t have much prior work, emphasizing that they should also incorporate elements from the animated series. The result was not Pac-man, but neither was it Pac-Land; instead, it was an audiovisual experiment that is the complete opposite of what any player would expect from a sequel like this. And indeed, in the midst of the point-and-click adventure craze, Pac-man 2 went, directly… to not even allowing you to control its protagonist.
There is neither Wakka nor Wakko that matters
In this 2D graphic adventure, Pac-man basically has to run different errands for his family (buy milk, pick a flower, recover a guitar, deal with a monster made of gum) while the ghosts try to take him down. With an open mind, it can be understood. The problem is that, instead of controlling Pac-man, you could only suggest that he do things, and the character could decide to completely ignore you and do his own thing.
To move forward, the player has to solve different puzzles based on Pac-man’s emotions: he can get angry if you throw stones at his face, become happy if he eats an apple, etc., but with caution. For example, the happier he is, the more arrogant he can become, to the point of disobeying the player, but his anger, which gives him more strength, also makes him irrational and leads him towards his own death.
If you don’t like this game, you’re in luck, because by going to the arcade you can play Pac-man, and if you find three additional cartridges you can play well as Ms. Pac-man on Super Nintendo or Pac-Jr on Sega Genesis, a totally original game (which, don’t beat yourself up for not finding it anywhere, is actually just a version of its counterpart on SNES). A little reminder that the saga was more than just telling a yellow ball where to go and annoying it to make it do things.
In reality, to be honest, the blame for this sequel turning out this way was actually due to Namco’s division in the United States, which decided that the Japanese title, Hello! Pac-man was not attractive enough and chose to go big: with a gigantic “2” on the cover that caused the public to lose trust in the franchise for good. There was never a Pac-man 3, but there were several spin-offs (Pac-man world, Pac-man Championship Edition, Pac-man and the ghostly adventures, Pac’n roll…) that have ensured that, more than 40 years after its first arcade, the yellow ball is still more alive than ever. At least they learned from their mistakes: now you can control it all the time.