NES

Pac-Land

Pac-Man's first platform adventure where he runs through a scrolling landscape to return a fairy to Fairyland. Features multi-directional scrolling, power pellets, and classic ghost enemies.

Release Date
January 1, 1985
Developer
Namco
Publisher
Namco
Players
1
Region
US

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Gameplay Systems

Controlling Pac-Man , the player is tasked with reaching the end of each level while avoiding enemies and other obstacles. Stages are known in-game as "trips" and are broken into four sections — the first three have Pac-Man running to return a lost fairy back to "Fairyland", and the last having Pac-Man return home to his family. Pressing either of the directional buttons will make Pac-Man walk in that direction, and repeatedly tapping either button will make him run. Pac-Man can also jump over pits and obstacles by pressing the jump button.

In each stage, Pac-Man will encounter the four ghosts from the original game — Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde — alongside a purple ghost named Sue, originally a replacement for Clyde in Ms. Pac-Man . Eating large flashing Power Pellets will cause the ghosts to turn blue for a short time, allowing Pac-Man to eat them for bonus points. The ghosts are often seen driving vehicles, such as airplanes, buses, cars, pogo-sticks and flying saucers, and will sometimes drop miniature ghost enemies from the air to try and hit Pac-Man.

Other types of obstacles are also present in stages, such as water-spewing fire hydrants, springboards, falling logs, quicksand and geysers. Trips consist of cities, forests, deserts and abandoned castles. Most trip sections end with a large sign saying "BREAK TIME" with a church on a hill in the background, and bonus points are awarded for jumping at certain points at the end of each section. The final section of a trip gives Pac-Man a special pair of boots that will allow him to jump infinitely into the air, and tasks the player with returning home to Pac-Man's family.

The player can find hidden items by pushing against specific objects in certain stages, including a helmet that protects Pac-Man from falling mini ghosts, an item that makes Pac-Man temporarily invincible and a Galaxian flagship that awards the player a large sum of points. Jumping in certain spots will reveal fruit items that can be consumed for points. The game features the theme song from the Pac-Man television series , which plays in a constant loop throughout. The North American version of the game by Midway features the characters being re-designed to more closely resemble the designs found in the show, while the Japanese Namco version has the characters modeled after Pac-Man marketing material and cabinet artwork.

It's currently unknown what version the European version looks like.

Media Reviews

IGN
7/10
Famitsu
30/40

About Pac-Land

Pac-Land is a classic video game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System on January 1, 1985. Developed by Namco and published by Namco, this title has become a beloved entry in the retro gaming library.

This wiki entry provides comprehensive information about Pac-Land, including release details, gameplay information, and story synopsis. Whether you're looking to revisit a childhood favorite or discover classic games for the first time, Emulator Games Wiki has you covered.

Some information sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 3.0.