Lovely readers, if you have a moment I invite you to click here and spend 10 or 15 minutes playing this gem of a game. It’s first-person Pac-Man. This sounds straightforward at first, but augmented with eerie music and ghosts that materialize out of the darkness or pop around corners when you least expect it, it quickly becomes an experience you probably weren’t expecting when you read the word “Pac-Man”.
Mister Adequate and myself couldn’t help but somewhat whimsically wonder what the gaming landscape would have been like if the first Pac-Man had been less cute and more spooky. Survival horror: survival horror everywhere!
It has come to my attention that not everyone is aware of this brilliance, so I’m here to rectify that.
First, an intro. Pac-Man was one of the very first video games I ever played. I don’t even know how young I must have been– two or three– either way, I don’t remember not knowing what Pac-Man is and how to play it.
In the years since, I play versions it sometimes when I’m feeling retro. It’s held up well, but it doesn’t keep my attention as long as it used to when I was a little kid. The same maze over and over just got old.
At first, I assumed it was just a bunch of player-made mazes that you’d play through one at a time. Eh, okay, I’d give it a shot, it’s something different. I picked a maze at random and began the game. I was about halfway through when I decided to use one of the tunnels to get a ghost off of my tail and warp over to the other side. You know, like a normal Pac-Man game.
My mind. Was. BLOWN. When it took me to another maze.
After that I was hooked. If I start this game up, I’m inevitably going to be playing it for a really long time. I don’t know if I’ve ever been so thoroughly impressed by a version of Pac-Man. But this. THIS. I dunno. The desire to “see all the mazes” is just ridiculously strong. Stronger than you may initially think.
So go check it out, but BE WARNED: It may suck your entire day away.
Oh, and some of these mazes are truly devious. It’s great.
