Information for the following ROM(s): pacmaniaj
Pac-Mania © 1987 Namco, Limited.
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Pac-Mania was released in November 1987 in Japan. After the superb platform action of the series' previous game, "Pac-Land", Namco chose to return the series to its roots with the re-introduction of the 'eat all of the pills in the maze' gameplay of the earlier classics. Pac-Mania feels somewhat different to its illustrious predecessors, however, due to Pac-Man's newly-acquired 'jump' ability. The mazes are now rendered with an isometric, pseudo 3-D viewpoint, allowing the player to jump over the chasing ghosts and make an escape. The 'Pac-Man's Park' maze is basically the original "Pac-Man" maze in an isometric 3-D perspective. Another new feature in this game is the appearance of several 'special items' (in addition to the traditional fruit bonuses - cherries, strawberries, oranges, apples, bananas, apricots, bells, and keys). These items include candy, hamburgers, ice cream cones, coffee, and two special kinds of power pills. The pills, which appear in addition to the traditional power pills, give Pac-Man more points for eating ghosts and also give him extra speed, both of which come in very handy during gameplay. After Pac-Mania, Pac-Man's next two arcade outings would both come in 1996 with "Pac-Man Arrangement" (part of "Namco Classics Collection Vol.2") and the extrmemely rare "Pac-Man VR". After that, he would have one more arcade outing in 2010 with "Pac-Man Battle Royale". Donn Nauert holds the official record for this game with 385,570 points. Victor Entertainment released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Namco Video Game Graffiti Vol.4 - VDR-5282) on March 8, 1989. The theme music for Pac-Man's Park was remixed for the animated series 'Pac-Man and The Ghostly Adventures' ('Pac-World' in Japan). | ![]() Click to see more (members only) |