Super Pac-Man is a game released in 1982. It was intended to be the sequel to Pac-Man, except that Ms. Pac-Man was released first, created without the involvement of Namco.
Gameplay[ | ]
Instead of dots, Pac-Man eats fruits and prizes such as apples, bunches of bananas, doughnuts, hamburgers, fried eggs, ears of corn, sneakers, pieces of cakes, raspberries, limes, cups of coffee, mushrooms, Galaxians, bells and shamrocks. In order to gain access to the passages that contain these items, Pac-Man must eat keys to open specific doorways. As the levels increase, the keys open less convenient entryways.
The maze layout is identical for each board, but the maze walls do change color from board to board. The "side door escape route" works just like Pac-Man; you can lose the ghosts easily. There are energizers that function like Pac-Man energizers, but there are also two "super" energizers that increase your size and give you a super speed option (accessed from the control panel). While at super size, pressing the super speed button will make you approximately twice as fast. Pac-Man can safely pass through ghosts when he is big. The ghosts will become longer and thinner when the super energizer is eaten. This is to give the effect of Super Pac-Man "flying" over the ghosts. If the ghosts are blue before the super energizer is eaten, they will remain regular size, and Pac-Man can eat them as a normally-energized Pac-Man would.
In the middle of the maze, there is a flashing star between two boxes that display the bonus fruits or prizes: one box displays the current fruit or prize and the other displays a rotating selection of them. Pac-Man can eat the star to score points and if he eats the star when they match, there will be a large bonus score.
Occasionally, there will be a bonus stage where Pac-Man will automatically be "Super" and will have to eat everything in the maze before time runs out. During this stage, there are no ghosts to pursue him. The familiar cartoon sequences also appear in this game and are perhaps some of the best of the Pac-Man series.
Notes[ | ]
Atari developed a home version of this game for the Atari 5200, but it was shelved when the American home game market collapsed in 1983.
The game is included as a bonus game on the Game Boy Color version of Ms. Pac-Man.