Today saw the release of pacman 99 on the switch, a welcome surprise after the death of Mario. Is this one worth your time?
So pac-man 99 it follows the exact same concept of Tetris 99 and Mario 35 before it meaning. It's a unique spin on the battle royale formula where you and 98 other players in this case battle it out.
Thanks to a unique spin on the pacman formula and the goal would be the last pack standing. I'm gonna put it out there now. Look i am impressed the gameplay captures that classic pac-man formula while adding enough twists that. It stands out as very much, its own thing.
So the controls are simple d-pad is pre-set to movement. The left stick absolutely nothing that's kind of weird. In my opinion, well i would suggest you know d-pad myself. You can turn on the left stick in the options if that is more your speed the controls though as fast and responsive as you would expect from the formula the map here, you'll be navigating.
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It's the single screen classic layout from the original 1980s arcade release with no changes at all. One thing i expected though was the map to potentially you know evolve as you progressed or maybe just have a few different options. But from what i've seen, it's just this single layout and that does make sense given.
You couldn't really change the layout on the fly without interrupting
the flow of the action maybe in the future though. It would be a nice touch to
add you know maybe a few different like layout kind of random before each round
begins when it comes to the battling though. It's not just about surviving as
long as possible of course that is the main goal.
But rather if you gobble up ghosts, you can send them your opponent's way this is for the most part the standard formula of grab one of the four power pellets that are found in each corner of the screen. Turn your enemies into blue edible versions that all said though once these pellets are gone.
You'll need to regenerate them to do this you need to eat the slowly respawning fruit that's found underneath the ghost spawn box that is in the center of the screen. This is going to be the key to your winds when you eat up one of these ghosts. So they get sent to one of your opponents as jammer pac-man.
This is the white outline pacman, there are a new enemy type of more. They won't actually kill you, they do like slow you down to a snail's pace never a good thing with a ghost on your tail slow you down though. You'll need to wait a few seconds and they will disappear eventually. But my preferred option is actually grab a power pellet.
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Because not only will it have, its usual you know edible ghost effect. But it actually clears these from your screen as well want to really overwhelm your opponents though. It's pretty obvious what you need to do you want to send as many ghosts as possible at one time just to really test out their skill set to do this.
You're going to want to use what are called sleeper ghosts again. It's an outline, but this time it's of the ghost. These are on the left and right side of the map. It's simple eat them up and they will create a train of ghosts behind one of the main cast on screen, then go and eat that power pellet.
Basically go for a buffet these again regenerate with a fruit piece. So that is the strategy really here. The key element is that fruit itself, it's not only creating attacks. But understanding that opportune moment to eat that fruit and then regenerate things like the power pellet the ghosts. All that good stuff the final piece of gameplay is actually attached to the right stick on the face buttons now on the left side of the screen.
There are the face buttons, we have a strategy meaning. You can be stronger to avoid, so much slow down. You've got speed to move at a faster pace standard that just keeps being simple. You know you get that kind of classic feel and then train was my favorite. It extends the length of the sleeping goose when they attach to a phone meaning.
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You've got much more powerful attacks to really win though. You want to use a combination of all these different kind of strengths, then on the right side of the screen, choose your opponent. It actually pre-selects who to attack whether that's knockout which means someone that's about to die hunter.
I presume those with you know high knockout numbers. So you want to be wary counter that gets those that are attacking you and then random, i mean the name says it all there. This game like those before it tetris 99 and mario 35, it is very difficult to really tell what your opponents are doing.
So this kind of automatic selection is by far the best way, they could have gone the game though it feels like pac-man and the formula absolutely works. Pac-man has always been manic and at times you know anxiety, inducing and that's very much the case here. As i often just held my breath and hoped for the best.
I think any pac-man fan or even arcade fan that wants something that's
kind of like you know, pick up and play. You should absolutely take a look as with
all these 99 games then though there is no real tutorial or even explanation
which kind of sucks honestly would for sure help. But otherwise as free content
goes, i only have a few minor complaints wise outside of the you know single
map layout.
We've got presented to us when you lose. I think it would have been nice to have been able to watch the rest of the battle, you know jump around and see what others are doing just one. So you could kind of work out your own strategy. But two to see if your friends are in the room that's something I frequently did with mario 35 likewise here, like no lobby system.
So you can't jump in with a friend, it's a case of. Basically counting down at the same time pressing start at the same time and then hoping for the best. Those are definitely minor complaints. But a bigger one for me, is you know reasons to play reasons to come back. There's very few unlockables here that are not paid, i thought the emblems next to your name they would be made for progression.
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But instead it's get this high score on this theme which conveniently happens to be paid content will get this high score on time attack mode which also happens to be a paid mode. I checked every single grader emblem, all of them require my credit card in some form now. I do get it. But just a few would have been nice for us to unlock just for kind of taking part.
But also kind of get us in the repetition of you know coming back every single night, really the only progression. You can check stats on the main menu and then your ranking that paid content, then you can pay 15 bucks for additional modes.
These are private matches a cpu version of 99 score attack and blind time attack. On top of this, then you can also pay for 20 custom themes of other classic games at two bucks a pop now. If for some reason you want all of the modes and all of the themes, go for the 30 ultimate bundle instead it works out considerably cheaper.
Finally wrapping this up i'm going to keep it simple for graphics and audio i mean. It's pac-man it very much looks as you would expect channeling the original 80s arcade release. But now in you know a flawless HD and the animations.
They're simplistic. But as good as ever, i will say though the new elements add some real flash to the experience, you know find a big train of edible ghosts ahead of you. It can be an absolute assault on the senses in the best possible way likewise the other maps very much.
They are in keeping with their influences the menu finally for graphics as well really like. It it's presented as a retro arcade cabinet selection and it's definitely very much suiting of the pac-man theme.
The audio then, it's the classic sound effects with a modernized spin on the music. It's repetitive as always, but it's also catchy as hell and the fast pace just keeps the heart rate right up there like the gameplay itself.
So the final verdict and is it a free to play. But it's also a relatively small in-store size at 796 megabytes, so if you want to give it a shot it's not going to take up too much space. If you want an interesting spin on the battle royale formula though you simply love your pac-man and arcade style gameplay, there's absolutely no reason you shouldn't be downloading this immediately.
The only disappointment for me, i wanted some unlocks. I wanted a few
simple rewards for my effort that i am putting in. Sadly though what i do find
here is it's kind of all locked behind the payroll now, sure it might be purely
cosmetic. But i still think, it's a nice touch to have something that you're
gonna grind for and with how simple these badges are you know and even the maps
themselves having.
Maybe just a few free options that can be grinded out will keep people coming back and that's. So important for a game like this, it gets the addiction going and pac-man 99 at release just doesn't quite have that pool yet. Then i'm willing to pull the credit card out that said though like.
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It's still addictive and already day one. I'm getting my ass kicked and that's enough to keep me coming back. Personally, it's just whether that's gonna be enough for you as well. It's not to chase a high score here, rather to chase that number one spot. But i know that the reward when you do finally get that number one spot will be absolutely worth it.
I will say though at this point. I'm extremely excited now to see what they do with this one in the future. Because i also see a huge amount of potential around it. So have you downloaded this one already and what do you think this far? is it one that will keep you coming back like tetris 99?
So thank you all so much if you do want to check that out another nintendo switch game review, you can check my another article in this blog. I'll see you all on the next article, thanks everyone.
