by Jay "THE FLEA" Wade
The first lady of video games has returned to the maze in Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness.
You play as Ms. Pac-Man (hint's the name) in her quest to save Professor Pac.
You guide her though mazes and overcome obstacles and eat items and get to the finish line.
The game play is a lot like the 3D Mazes that where in Pac-Man World but there's more to the levels then eat dots to finish it. You now collect Stars in order to open new levels. You get stars by Finishing a level, Eating all the dots in a stage, Eating all the fruit in a stage or beating the time trail. The mazes are not the hardest to get though, it's finding all the dots and fruit that is a challenge. You'll also have puzzles to solve to get secret items or get though the maze.
The game has tons of stuff to find, you'll be playing a maze over and over again just to find that last fruit. But it's not a real challenge to play the game. You'll earn lives really fast. by level 5 you'll have over 25 lives. So you won't have to worry about that "Game Over" screen to much. And the time trails are also difficult, they give just enough time if you slip up in any way you'll need to start over
The graphics are okay but could have been a little more animated. And the FMV using still pictures with animated mouths are a little out dated.
Also the use of enemies other then ghosts is a little out of place for this game. You avoid tornado spinning mummies and centipedes then gobble a super pellet and eat them to?
There's plenty of fun mini games to find in Maze Madness. Including the classic Ms. Pac-Man Arcade.
The control is really simple. Directional pad or stick moves Ms Pac-Man......that's it. No jumping, no special moves, no shooting pellets, just move Ms. Pac-Man trough a maze. (with the exception of some of the bonus rounds.)
There is a multiplayer mode. it's basically the one who eats the most dots wins. Collect power ups to get to the dots first and win the round.
Overall, If you love the classic Pac-Man games and want to play a new Pac Maze game or you like hunting for tons of items, then you'll get a kick out of Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness.
PUBLISHER: NAMCO
GRAPHICS: 7 SOUND & MUSIC: 6 CONTROL: 7
SECRETS: 8 ORIGINALITY: 6.5 FUN & REPLAY: 8
OVERALL: 7