Curmudgeon Gamer
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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