This is a collection that badly needs context, as it’ll display the ill-fated sequel Super Pac-Man, which creator Toru Iwatani has retrospectively called “ boring,” right next to a console station that includes 2007’s excellent Pac-Man Championship Edition, which helped revive the game’s popularity and usher in an era of great downloadable titles, and treat them as titles of equal importance. Most of the included games not being all that enjoyable to play beyond some short-lasting nostalgia makes it all the more damning that there are barely any supplemental features in Pac-Man Museum+. Unfortunately, there’s just not much to sink your teeth into beyond the few quality releases, most of which I’ve already bought once or five times before. The two Pac-Man Arrangement games are passable besides the poor graphics but are largely uninspired.
Some of the games were bad enough that they never came stateside (such as the Japan-only Pac & Pal, which is at least worth a retrospective look due to how absurd it is), while others play just fine but have aged poorly, like Pac-Mania and its usage of 1987 3D effects. It’s not a terrible thing that Pac-Man Museum+ is mainly focused on maze games, but when so few are actually interesting, it’s too easy to keep replaying the original instead. Despite having one of the most varied histories in all of gaming, Pac-Man Museum+ is largely a one-note affair doubling down on plopping Pac-Man in a maze and having him gobble up pellets and ghosts.
More obscure releases, such as Professor Pac-Man, or intriguing oddities, like the point-and-click adventure Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures, are not included, as this is a pretty by-the-numbers affair that doesn’t include many games that weren’t already bundled up a dozen times before by Bandai Namco. Beyond that, well, there are 10 games that range from absurdly awful to middling. And Pac-Man 256 and its endlessly scrolling maze are able to captivate on the big screen despite the Crossy Road-like title originally being developed with phones in mind. Pac-Man Battle Royale is some of the best multiplayer fun you can have when playing with casual friends. Pac-Man Championship Edition (nope, not DX) is still a fantastic and refreshed take on Pac-Man, even if its deluxe sequel is far more colorful and engaging. The original 1980 arcade game has withstood the sands of time and is still an enjoyable test of skill more than 40 years later. Of course, there are some truly fantastic games included in Pac-Man Museum+.
Pac-Man ( which isn’t in the collection as she has now been rechristened “Pac-Mom”), but trying to call the 14 titles included in this compilation “legendary” is more than an exaggeration and more of a straight-up lie, as the vast majority of the games are baffling and aren’t worth revisiting after the brief hit of nostalgia has passed. On the PlayStation 5 menu, the tagline for Pac-Man Museum+ reads, “Play 14 legendary Pac-Man games!” Marketing is difficult, especially when Pac-Man‘s history isn’t particularly filled with beloved titles beyond the original and Ms.
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