Pac-Man Vs. is one of the simplest and most fun games I’ve played in a while.
Everyone knows how to play Pac-Man, right? So picture this: Three people control the Ghosts (Red, Blue, and Green{?}) on the big screen, one person controls the Pac on a GBA, and everyone tries to get to some preset score. The person who plays as Pac-Man gets to see the whole screen while the Ghosts on the Cube get to see a limited area. The Pac gets points in all the standard ways, but the Ghosts have two options: Eat the fruit (which also makes his field of vision bigger temporarily, or eat Pac-Man. Eating Pac-Man steals 1600 points, and then the two players have to swtich controllers.
For some reason or another, someone decided to throw in some kind of Mario-esque voice in the game to randomly scream at the players while the game’s going on. He says stuff like, “This-a looks not so good!”, or, “Pac-Man ate a Power Pellet!”, etc. Other than that, it sounds exactly like a Pac-Man game should.
The bad? The amount of controller switching in an especially close game will quickly turn your controller cables into something resembling a bird’s nest, so at least one Wavebird would be an excellent add-on, otherwise your group will slowly get closer and closer together as the mass of cables grows. Problematic if someone in the room forgot deoderant that day.
I read somewhere (probably the manual) that this game can be played with less than 4 players, but that’s a lie. Sure, all the elements are there, but without the four players, it’s just like a demo mode. It’s like playing Mario Party without the full compliment of 4 players, it’s like a whole other game that’s just not as good.
This game is certainly worth the $20, and it even comes with a copy of Pac-Man World 2 if all your friends leave.