Collection essentials #233: Pac-Attack (SNES)

Here’s another childhood game of mine that I used to play against my dad. Although I think my childhood copy is at my parents’ house, not the one shown here (but I’m oddly not 100% sure at the moment!)

Pac-Attack is an interesting take on the fall-blocks puzzle game formula. Like in Tetris, you want to create rows of blocks that will clear themselves when you get a perfect line. And in a certain way, it’s easier than in Tetris, but gravity actually works on the falling blocks in this game, so there won’t be gaps directly under blocks. But the catch is that, along with blocks, there are also ghosts that you’re forced to place on the stack, and a row cannot be cleared if there’s a ghost in it. But that’s where Pac-Man comes in! Every so often, you’ll get a drop that includes Pac-Man as part of it, ready to eat. Once placed, he will start moving in the direction he’s facing, and keep eating until he gets to the bottom of whichever way he goes. So you can strategically arrange the ghosts to be eaten, but that’s not as easy as it sounds because you never know which direction Pac-Man will be facing next time you get him.

There aren’t a whole lot of modes in Pac-Attack. You have the standard score attack single-player mode where you play as long as you can until you die, trying for a high score. The highlight of the game is two-player versus, which can be a lot of fun if you have the right buddy to play with. And then there’s “puzzle mode”, in which you are given a series of pre-constructed levels which you have to clear with a limited number of Pac-Man drops. There’s a big problem with puzzle mode though, and that is, the pieces you are given to use are random every time! So sometimes when you play certain puzzles, you might literally have no chance to win just because of stupid random luck. Obviously any attempt should only take roughly a minute or less so it’s not like it takes a long time, but it’s still rather annoying.

You might be surprised to find out that this wasn’t originally a Pac-Man game. It’s an adaptation of another game by Namco called “Cosmo Gang: The Puzzle”. When considering bringing the game outside Japan, Nintendo realized that they would do well to reskin the characters to Pac-Man and his enemy ghosts, and it made all the sense in the world. I didn’t know this for many years and was really surprised when I found out, since the concept seems to fit Pac-Man perfectly.

I wouldn’t call Pac-Attack one of the top puzzle games of its kind on SNES, but it’s certainly a good time with a friend, and considering that and its significance as one of my first video games, it easily gains a spot on the essentials list.