A partial look at Pac-Man's Game Boy debut
And a question: Can a single feature make or break a game?
This week's video feature looks at an all-time classic arcade game that got a somewhat less than amazing conversion to Game Boy. And in honor of Namco's work, I've given it a somewhat less than amazing retrospective.
Yeah, I goofed this week. I got so cocky about the subject matter that I didn't bother to read the manual. Who needs a manual for Pac-Man, right? Well, it turns out the manual is the only way you'd know that Pac-Man on Game Boy includes a single-screen full-maze view, whose absence I lamented, as a semi-hidden feature. And since I've been traveling internationally for the past three weeks, I wasn't able to fix up the video with proper footage once I learned about it.
So I guess the question is, does that one additional feature compensate for all the other shortcomings of this port as outlined in this video? I guess we'll find out in a few weeks when I revisit Pac-Man and Palamedes to amend my oversights. Something about games whose names begin with P-A on Game Boy are my kryptonite, apparently.
Next week, though, things will be better. I did some first-person research about the upcoming game and went literally to its source for info. See, it's not all embarassing gaffes around here.
