Curmudgeon Gamer
14 October 2007
Ms. Pac-man and Everyday Shooter
I've loved every minute I've played of Everyday Shooter, but I've struggled to explain the attraction to myself. Today, I think I hit upon a partial answer: it makes me feel like I feel when I play Ms. Pac-man.
No, really.
Ms. Pac-man is a maze and ghosts and power pellets. Everday Shooter is Robotron-style shooting and dodging with Every Extend Extra chain reactions set to guitar riffs. Yet, they share some important qualities.
Both open with a few unique, appealing bars of music. I listen and prepare myself mentally for the challenge ahead. Playing Ms. Pac-man at a stand-up machine, I settle my stance and grip the joystick with the tips of my thumb, pointer, and middle fingers. For Everday Shooter, I close my eyes and enjoy the music and enjoy a moment of peace.
The music ends and the action begins. In Ms. Pac-man, I clear the maze of dots while leaving the power pellets for later. Similarly, I dodge the first few enemies in Everday Shooter as I prepare to set up chain reactions. (Or, on the second level, I attack the first stationary enemy. Or on the third, I shoot robots and look for the first large one to begin a chain. Und so weiter.) The work is menial, but essential.
With the stage set, I begin exploiting the system. Ms. Pac-man collects four ghosts per power pellet and catches the two fruit in each maze. As ghosts pin her in, she sneaks away with some quick moves. Similarly, the dot in Everyday Shooter starts setting off chains, harvesting points, while weaving amidst danger for all it is worth. With skill, the payoffs are substantial.
And when the wheels come off, as inevitably they do, I improvise. Ms. Pac-man may have to slip through the warps on the side of the screen a couple of times to get at a particularly isolated dot with ghosts patrolling nearby. In Everday Shooter, I botch the timing and suddenly the dot is racing to gain some measure of control of the screen all over again. Take out a few enemies and work toward stability again.
Ultimately, both games are about survival. I suppose you could say that Ms. Pac-man is about points, but I don't really pay attention to the points anymore except to pick up the extra Pac at 10000 points. Instead, I measure my success by how far into the sequence of mazes I survive (second banana is good for me, as I don't play much anymore) and how often I chomp more than two ghosts at a time on later levels. In Everday Shooter, I measure my success by how far into the sequence of levels I survive, and by the efficiency of my chaining. My score weakly reflects these qualities.
No, really.
Ms. Pac-man is a maze and ghosts and power pellets. Everday Shooter is Robotron-style shooting and dodging with Every Extend Extra chain reactions set to guitar riffs. Yet, they share some important qualities.
Both open with a few unique, appealing bars of music. I listen and prepare myself mentally for the challenge ahead. Playing Ms. Pac-man at a stand-up machine, I settle my stance and grip the joystick with the tips of my thumb, pointer, and middle fingers. For Everday Shooter, I close my eyes and enjoy the music and enjoy a moment of peace.
The music ends and the action begins. In Ms. Pac-man, I clear the maze of dots while leaving the power pellets for later. Similarly, I dodge the first few enemies in Everday Shooter as I prepare to set up chain reactions. (Or, on the second level, I attack the first stationary enemy. Or on the third, I shoot robots and look for the first large one to begin a chain. Und so weiter.) The work is menial, but essential.
With the stage set, I begin exploiting the system. Ms. Pac-man collects four ghosts per power pellet and catches the two fruit in each maze. As ghosts pin her in, she sneaks away with some quick moves. Similarly, the dot in Everyday Shooter starts setting off chains, harvesting points, while weaving amidst danger for all it is worth. With skill, the payoffs are substantial.
And when the wheels come off, as inevitably they do, I improvise. Ms. Pac-man may have to slip through the warps on the side of the screen a couple of times to get at a particularly isolated dot with ghosts patrolling nearby. In Everday Shooter, I botch the timing and suddenly the dot is racing to gain some measure of control of the screen all over again. Take out a few enemies and work toward stability again.
Ultimately, both games are about survival. I suppose you could say that Ms. Pac-man is about points, but I don't really pay attention to the points anymore except to pick up the extra Pac at 10000 points. Instead, I measure my success by how far into the sequence of mazes I survive (second banana is good for me, as I don't play much anymore) and how often I chomp more than two ghosts at a time on later levels. In Everday Shooter, I measure my success by how far into the sequence of levels I survive, and by the efficiency of my chaining. My score weakly reflects these qualities.
Labels: classic, ms. pac-man, ps3, psn
--jvm at 00:12
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13 January 2007
Ms. Pac-man's dirty little secret
The review of the Xbox Live Arcade version of Ms. Pac-man makes me angry. Not the review, per se, but that dirty little secret that the big media feel like they can't mention in public:
To my knowledge the only thing approximating this mode is the fast mode offered by Tengen's cartridge version of this game (on SNES and Sega Genesis, perhaps others). Even there, it's not quite what you'd expect and the Ms. gets a pair of wings on her head or something to show that she's going FAST! Every other version -- on the many incarnations of the Namco Museum, particularly -- is the slow-as-molasses original.
So why do we keep getting the same lame version that no one actually likes? And why can't someone reviewing the game for a big site come right out and tell Namco how much the slow version stinks?
Update: Just so it's clear: slow original vs. fast modification. I prefer the latter, but Namco doesn't even offer the option. (Possible exception noted in comment below by JohnH.)
No one actually plays the original Ms. Pac-man.That's right. The original game is a plodding exercise in frustration. What we all really enjoy is a rousing game of the sped up version of Ms. Pac-man that has dominated arcades everywhere since -- well, a very, very long time.
To my knowledge the only thing approximating this mode is the fast mode offered by Tengen's cartridge version of this game (on SNES and Sega Genesis, perhaps others). Even there, it's not quite what you'd expect and the Ms. gets a pair of wings on her head or something to show that she's going FAST! Every other version -- on the many incarnations of the Namco Museum, particularly -- is the slow-as-molasses original.
So why do we keep getting the same lame version that no one actually likes? And why can't someone reviewing the game for a big site come right out and tell Namco how much the slow version stinks?
Update: Just so it's clear: slow original vs. fast modification. I prefer the latter, but Namco doesn't even offer the option. (Possible exception noted in comment below by JohnH.)
Labels: ms. pac-man, namco, xbla
--jvm at 02:50
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[ 8 ]
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