Platform: Arcade
Region: NTSC-U
Country: United States of America
Developer(s): Namco
Publishers(s): Bally Mfg. Corp. | Midway Manufacturing
ReleaseDate: 1984-10-31
Players: 2
Co-op: No
Pac-Land
Pac-Land is a 1984 arcade side-scrolling platformer video game developed by Namco and released by Bally Midway in the USA on October 31, 1984. Pac-Land is the ninth game in the Pac-Man series and the fourth game in the Pac-Man series to be developed by Namco in Japan. Controlling Pac-Man, the player is tasked with reaching the end of each level while avoiding enemies and other obstacles. Stages are known in-game as "trips" and are broken into four sections — the first three have Pac-Man running to return a lost fairy back to "Fairyland", and the last having Pac-Man return home to his family. Pressing either of the directional buttons will make Pac-Man walk in that direction, and repeatedly tapping either button will make him run. Pac-Man can also jump over pits and obstacles by pressing the jump button. In each stage, Pac-Man will encounter the four ghosts from the original game — Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde — alongside a purple ghost named Sue, originally a replacement for Clyde in Ms. Pac-Man. Eating large flashing Power Pellets will cause the ghosts to turn blue for a short time, allowing Pac-Man to eat them for bonus points. The ghosts are often seen driving vehicles, such as airplanes, buses, cars, pogo-sticks, and flying saucers, and will sometimes drop miniature ghost enemies from the air to try and hit Pac-Man. Other types of obstacles are also present in stages, such as water-spewing fire hydrants, springboards, falling logs, quicksand, and geysers. Trips consist of cities, forests, deserts, and abandoned castles. Most trip sections end with a large sign saying "BREAK TIME" with a church on a hill in the background, and bonus points are awarded for jumping at certain points at the end of each section. The final section of a trip gives Pac-Man a special pair of boots that will allow him to jump infinitely into the air, and tasks the player with returning home to Pac-Man's family. The player can find hidden items by pushing against specific objects in certain stages, including a helmet that protects Pac-Man from falling mini ghosts, an item that makes Pac-Man temporarily invincible, and a Galaxian flagship that awards the player a large sum of points. Jumping in certain spots will reveal fruit items that can be consumed for points. The game features the theme song from the Pac-Man cartoon series, which plays in a constant loop throughout. The North American version of the game by Midway features the characters being re-designed to more closely resemble the designs found in the show, while the Japanese Namco version has the characters modeled after Pac-Man marketing material and cabinet artwork. It's currently unknown what version the European version looks like.
Trailer: YouTube
ESRB Rating: E - Everyone
Genre(s): Platform
