As a child, I had a medical condition known as “Pac-Man Fever.” Pac-Man was the very first video game I ever played, or at least bothered to care about. Along with pumping as many quarters as I could, whenever I could, into Pac Man machines wherever I could find them I regarded Pac Man with an eerie cultish-kind of enthusiasm. I watched the Pac Man cartoon, I had Pac Man toys, a Pac Man hat, even Pac Man underoos. I loved that little yellow dot-chomping bastard. Despite the games and systems that have come and gone since those carefree days, Pac Man remains very near and dear to me.

Obviously, upon hearing about Pac-Man Collection on Game Boy Advance, I got excited. After several failed attempts to rent it, I impulsively picked up the cartridge a little over a week ago. The Pac is back and I am loving it. It’s like being reunited with a long lost childhood friend. Sure, I’ve played Pac Man to death on MAME and what not but while this offers all but arcade perfect Pac-ports for my GBA.

Before talking about the games themselves, I’ll be right up front and say you cannot save high scores for any of the games. I’d imagine this is to keep costs down (Pac-Man Collection can be found for $30) it’s still disappointing. After all, if there was ever a game where getting and beating a high score mattered, it’s Pac-Man.

The game is split up into four Pac-Man titles. Here’s a rundown and my thoughts on each one.

PAC-MAN: The original in all its glory. Most gamers have played this game, and if they haven’t they should. I wasn’t the only person in the 80’s going Pac-Crazy…

Like with Namco Museum, you can choose to play it in Full Screen mode, which depicts the full maze, but smaller, or Scroll, which has a larger segment of the maze. Neither mode is arcade perfect of course, but they are just short of it. Both get the job done and it’s great to have a choice. In the scroll mode, you can even use the L or R buttons to view the opposite portion of the map, though this is not recommended unless there are no ghosts nearby.

For such an old game, the ghosts are quite tricky and the game is as challenging and fun as ever. There are patterns in the game, and being able to play such a faithful rendition (and better still, take it on the go) allows you to really appreciate this classic.

PAC-MANIA: Pac-Mania is essentially Pac-Man in 3D. The mazes are much bigger, so the game works similar to scrolling mode in Pac-Man, except this is actually how the original Pac-Mania game was. The mazes are so big, some even have 5 ghosts and the game alerts you when power-ups (fruit, or additional power pellets) appear in the center of the maze—you might miss them otherwise.

Besides an enormous maze, Pac Man can jump in this game! You can even change direction in mid-air when jumping, making it a bit easier to avoid ghosts or hold back on getting power pellets until you want 'em. The down side is there is a slight bounce when you hit the ground. This pmomentary makes you vulnerible, should a ghost be turning the corner...

PAC-ATTACK: This is a Pac-Man puzzle game, which mixes elements of Tetris & Dr. Mario. L shaped puzzle piece chunks fall from the sky, each consisting of 3 spaces. The spaces are filled with blocks, ghosts, or Pac-Man. When you make an uninterrupted line of blocks, it vanishes. Ghosts will prevent you from forming lines, which causes pieces to stack up. The ghosts are cleared by Pac-Man pieces, which move to clear all ghosts in its path from the board. Therefore, the trick is lining up the ghosts in preparation to be eaten by the Pac-Man pieces, while not letting the blocks stack up too high. Not terribly difficult, but quite enjoyable.

Playing the puzzle mode, where only a few Pac-Mans appear per level, is a bit more engaging and has a simple password system so you can pick up where you left off.

PAC-MAN ARRANGEMENT: This is a Pac-Man update I never knew existed and apparently has never appeared anywhere except arcades previous to now. While I hesitate comparing it to the original Pac-Man, I think it’s a fantastic game that I keep coming back to. Pac-Man and the ghosts are both more detailed and animated. In some levels, the dots are even animated, moving in waves, quivering or flashing. Mazes are very colorful, varied and have different themes.

The other additions are even more profound. Along with the standard fruit, there are also other power-ups that appear. These include increased speed, a bag that sends all the ghost cowering back into their base, a cane that turns them all into edible birthday presents and even a holographic Pac-Man that mirrors your movements on the other side of the maze, capable of eating dots while passing through ghosts. Some mazes have dash strips, that can be used one time to run past ghosts and leave them spinning, or catch up to them to eat them while they are blue. Later levels even feature “jump gates” alongside tunnels, which whisk you to a random corner of the maze.

Besides the four standard ghosts, there is a new ghost with glasses, known as “Kinky.” Kinky is quite a chaotic addition to the Pac-Man world. When he first appears, he is usually blue and edible; even better, eating him turns all the other ghosts blue & munchible. Kinky’s a fast little mofo though and while you’re trying to catch him, he is usually trying to catch one of the standard ghosts. If/when this happens, Kinky wraps himself around the other ghost, creating a super ghost. Clyde (red) becomes a giant bull ghost with horns & will charge at ol’ Paccy full speed upon sight; Pinky becomes a bunny ghost that can hop at you from across the maze; Inky becomes a slick ghost that can send out his own mirror hologram that is very deadly to Pac-Man and Blinky (Orange) becomes a fat ghost that actually spits out dots. Eating a power pellet will turn even these super ghosts blue and luckily you get extra points for eating them.

There’s a rapidly changing soundtrack of some funkafied techo-ish tracks, very much in the flava of Pac-Man. Hearing the music in the first two levels has actually prompted me to pick up for a quick play, with my GBA hooked into my computer speakers.

After over 20 levels or so, you fight a boss and the game is over. Although it seems like it’s over too short, it took me a few tries before I felt motivated to ride it out as far as possible. After you run out of lives, you can continue, but it resets your score. Since scores aren’t saved, this is hardly a detriment. Luckily, the difficulty level can be adjusted, so you can turn up the heat for the replay, making the game a bit speedier & challenging.

This is a really neat and new Pac-Man and although I was underwhelmed by it at first, it continues to grow on me. In fact, I’m beginning to think Pac-Man Arrangement may almost worth the price of admission all by itself.

Regardless, the original Pac-Man is still probably my favorite.

I am getting much better at Pac-Man than I ever was as a kid. Well, a bit better anyway. The flipside to this is that the scores aren’t saved. So what, I should… write them down? Yeah right. It’s a serious blow to such a killer package.

Ms. Pac-Man is represented on Namco Museum, but it’s a little odd that other old Pac-Man games didn’t make the cut, like Super Pac-Man, Baby Pac-Man, or Pac n’ Pal. Still, the four Pac-Man games selected are probably make for the best overall package a Pac-fan could hope for.

All of the games suffer slightly from the “arcade game at home” syndrome: it’s great in small doses but wears thin after a while. At the same time, it’s Pac-Man! So it doesn’t stay “old” for very long. Pac-Man fans can’t go wrong and new school kids should at least rent if they’ve never had the pleasure of Pac-Man.