This game is in the same boat with ET... what more can I say?
Well, I don't mean to burst a bubble, but that's what everyone thought in 1981. This is one of the many reasons why games shouldn't be rushed out so quickly. It could've been a lot better than it is, but Atari made the bold move in pushing the due date waaaaaaaay too quickly. It's also said that this was one of the many games that helped bring the video game crash of 83.
Now, this isn't a horrid rendition of Pac-man; it is sort of fun to a certain extent; but the hype that was built for this game was ridiculous. This was one of the first "over-hyped" games. It goes down in history with the likes of Bubsy and ET.
Either way, the video game industry learned a hard lesson from this one. Don't send out a prototype. Yes, a prototype. This is the bare bones before the final product, but the execs at Atari thought the prototype as it was would be sufficient enough to bring on better sales, primarily because it held the Pac-man name.
It vaguely reminds me of a game called Mario is Missing...
Eitherway, controls aren't bad. Graphics are crappy, even for the 2600.
What's really surprising about this game though, is that it's more respected now than it was that twenty some years ago. Sure it sucks hard like a (*edited*). But I showed this game to a few people that didn't have to go through the mass disillusion of Atari's laziness. They liked it. And most of all, thought it was reasonably enjoyable to a point.
Personally, I've grown to accept this version of Pac-man as shoddy. And for some reason, I respect it more than I did years ago. It's like picking up a decent calculator game. That may be downgrading towards TI games, but if you take out Pac-man from it's title--it's a decently mediocre game.
Well, this game holds a strong position in video game history. It helped spawn distrust towards Atari products and was the highest selling 2600 game (due to an over-hyped advertising campaign).
Get this game nevertheless; it holds historic value.