It started with the original Pac-Man. Nothing fancy here, just the same board on every level and the same objective. Eat all the dots. Then Ms. Pac-Man gave us more mazes and faster action. For years I have thought that Ms. Pac-Man was the best version of Pac-Man ever. Some may argue that Pac-Man Plus is the best. However, I have recently discovered Jr. Pac-Man and I have to say that it is without a doubt the best Pac-Man game ever. Scrolling screens, more power pellets, and slightly better sound. I have to say that I’m hooked on playing it. Unfortunately my arcade never carried this game.

Jr. Pac-Man is regularly overlooked because it is not a part of the Namco family. The reason? Namco had a deal with Bally/Midway to release the original Pac-Man game, then Bally/Midway just did whatever they wanted with the title by making their own versions of the game. These are the versions we all know. Namco didn’t like that Bally/Midway was making and releasing their own versions of the game. They made a deal with Ms. Pac-Man, but when Jr. Pac-Man was released, that was the end. Therefore you don’t see Jr. Pac-Man ported on any home consoles.

All of Namco’s Pac-Man sequel attempts sucked. Super Pac-Man was lame and hard to control, as was Pac & Pal. Pac Land sucked, and all of the 3D attempts at the classic game sucked as well. Bally/Midway succeeded with Pac-Man because they were smart enough not to change the original game play. They simply made slight improvements to the original game. This is something I wish Namco would learn since they are the ones in control of the Pac-Man license. I would love to see more modifications to this original arcade classic on my home console. For now, I’m trying to make it to the 4th level in Jr. Pac-Man.