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Pac Attack
(Why can't firms learn to give up on retired games characters?)
Basically, the game involves you rotating and moving L-type shapes made up of 3 'things' as they fall down a pit, in a similar vein to Tetris and columns. These 3 'things' are ghosts, blocks and Pac-men. (Should Pac-men be capitalised or not?)
When you get a solid horizontal line of blocks, they all disappear, so the only thing in your way is the ghosts and Pac-men. Luckily, Pac-man eats the ghosts. However, old Paccy is quite rare, so you need to organise the ghosts in a manner that will let you eat them all in one fell swoop.
As well as an endless mode (that just chucks these L-shaped collestions of 3 things at you until your pile of stuff reaches the top) you also get a 'puzzle mode' for your 1-player thrills. Basically, you start each level with a few ghosts already on-screen, and as soon as those are eaten - as well as any others you may have placed on the level - you progress to the next. You have a set number of Pac-men and once this number has been used, if you still have not got rid of all the ghosts, you lose. As you go through the levels, you start getting strange objects like floating blocks and whatnot, and this all makes your job that tiny bit more difficult.
The 2-player mode is basically just yer standard 1-player endless mode, but when you delete ghosts, you send a few over to your opponent. Using a 'best out of 3' format, the winner is the person who doesn't lose 2 times.
(Isn't it quite interesting how in puzzle games you always seem to win by making the other guy lose, rather than actually by doing somthing to 'win'?)
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how far I got: got to
level 67 on puzzle mode, tried the 2-player mode with a friend,
got bored of both that and the endless mode.
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rating : 32
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I always wanted to play this. After reading a few reviews of it, it really started to fascinate me, and I /had/ to get it. Eventually I bought it for a fiver off of eBay and played it - first in 1 player, then 2 player. It was alright, but maybe not quite as good as I had hoped. It was, however, as good as I had expected.
Although it takes a few minutes to get to grips with (as you aren't connecting colours as is so often the case), it soon becomes apparent that this is a rather simple affair. The endless 1-player mode won't keep you interested for long, but the puzzle mode definitely works well, and if you bought the game, you'd probably spend a few enjoyable hours going through the puzzles.
The levels keep changing often enough to keep you playing and there's a real sense of progression. New elements are introduced at a regular rate and the levels seem to be interesting and fun to play (until you get totally stuck at one...). The fact that the way stuff falls down is not always the same makes for a far more interesting experience.
The music is pretty rubbish, but that means that you can just carry on listening to a CD or mP3 and not miss anything. ;)
The 2-player mode is also quite enjoyable, but whilst it may be a reasonable introduction to puzzle games, you're better off getting Hebereke's Popoon or Hebereke's Poppoitto for short term thrills, or any version of Puyo Puyo (Kirby's Ghost Trap) for long term 2-player thrills.
Overall, this game is simple, playable and enjoyable, but totally unexceptional. Only the (somewhat nicely done) puzzle mode makes me give this anything over a 2. Still, if you're after a puzzler which is easy to get to grips with and has both a decent 1-player mode and 2-player mode, this is worth considering.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends