Pac-Attack

Overview

Pac-Attack is a falling-block puzzle game developed and published by Namco for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993 for North America and Europe.

A spin-off of the Pac-Man series, Pac-Attack is a localized update of the 1992 Japanese game Cosmo Gang: The Puzzle, replacing the game's Cosmo Gang characters with those from the Pac-Man series. While most of the gameplay remains the same, the concept of bowling Cosmos over with large balls is replaced with having Pac-Man eat ghosts in his autonomous path.

The game was also ported to the Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear, and Game Boy in 1994, and for the CD-i in 1995. The CD-i version was released exclusively in Europe, while the Game Boy version is the only one released in Japan. All of these ports were re-titled to Pac-Panic in European and Japanese releases. It also received a port to the PlayStation as part of the Japanese-exclusive 1998 compilation Namco Anthology 2, which was later used as an unlockable mini-game in the 2002 PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and PC game Pac-Man World 2. It later received an iOS adaptation on October 14, 2010.

The SNES version was later digitally released as Virtual Console titles, including the Wii in 2008 and the Wii U in 2015. The Genesis version was included in the 2014 compilation Pac-Man Museum, replaced with the SNES version in its 2022 sequel.

Gameplay

The object of the game is to clear rows of blocks by getting them into straight lines; however, most of the falling puzzle pieces also have ghosts attached which take up valuable space where blocks could be stored. The solution to this problem is Pac-Man himself. Every once in a while a Pac-Man piece will fall, and all the ghosts on the board will turn blue. If the Pac-Man piece is situated in an area where he can easily catch any ghosts he will remove them from the grid.

The game offers a standard "Normal Mode" in which the game plays out as described above, as well as a "Puzzle" mode in which the player is given a limited number of Pac-Man to eat the various ghosts.

Critical Reception

When the SNES version was released Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the review scores of 8,7,7,8 and 8 out of ten. Mike Weigand wrote, "No, don't laugh, just try it! This game looks like nothing but once you start playing you will not be able to stop! The three games are addictive, and the two-player competition will have you and a friend playing until you drop!".