9:34 Actually, Pac-Land's theme has had full remixes two times. First in the Pac-Land room in Namco Museum Vol. 4, and second when using the Pac-Land skin in the now-defunct mobile game Pac 'n Jump. 15:16 Clyde is the aggressive ghost in this game because that's how he was portrayed in the cartoon that Pac-Land is based on. Why they got the ghost personalities mixed up in that? I dunno. It's Hanna-Barbara. 15:47 The purple ghost was named Sue in official Japanese promo art and guides for Pac-Land from the time of its release. Sue actually also comes from the cartoon (well, her name comes from Ms. Pac-Man, but the cartoon was the first instance of her being purple.) No clue what "Dorris" is from, though.
Ah, yes… the game that’ll scare any smash fan regardless if they’ve even played it, which I highly doubt it. Also, the church was changed in the original Pac-Man Museum and Smash Bros
The PAC-MAN theme song was actually used in the Museum+ launch trailer, and the PAC-LAND level of PAC 'N JUMP. The Monster Mansion theme usually plays when the Ghosts head back to Mezmaron's castle.
I think the PC Engine version changes the level design a bit to be more home experience friendly? It also adds much needed continues which weren't in the arcade version. Honestly, I'd much rather take this game over Pac-In-Time any day of the week, sorry but from what i tried of it that game is an unpolished, broken mess that has labyrinthine level design and drags on for far too long.
Oh hey, it's that one stage in Smash that no one plays. But in seriousness, I didn't get to play this game until Namco Museum Archives where the controls were ass, but then came Pac-Man Museum+ and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Although the lack of a turbo button especially for making those long spring jumps would've been good, and I had to use my appropriately themed Pac-Man Hori turbo controller for that
Personally, I love the hell out of this game, it's why I picked up Namco Museum Volume 4 twice, first time only it and Assault/Assault Plus worked on the disc, the second time I bought it, everything worked fine (I happen to like Ordyne, Genpei Toumaden, and Return of Ishtar on that disc as well, had to have them working to enjoy them as the first disc had a warp under it that didn't allow those games to load and play).
Pac-land id honestly impressive for one of the first sidescrolling platformers ever, it actually feels playable! also, this was in their era where blinky and clyde's name kept being mixed up, if you watch the show you'll see they pin blinky as the shy and timid one and clyde as the agressive one, i think theres some videos that detail this weird thing too
@@ahbeef To be honest, if there's one change I liked between the 1990s and 2000s, it's that the Red Ghost and Orange Ghost swapped names to accommodate for the mix-up that Hanna-Barbera caused. The Red Ghost was suppose to be the leader, yet Hanna-Barbera made the Orange Ghost be the leader, because at the time, the Orange Ghost was called Clyde; and the name "Clyde" is usually synonymous with leaders (and even gangsters), as Hanna-Barbera already had a character named Clyde, who is the leader of the Ant Hill Mob in both "Wacky Races" and "the Perils of Penelope Pitstop". So, during the 90s and 2000s, the Orange Ghost was called "Blinky", and the Red Ghost was called "Clyde". Given there was a 3-eyed orange fish in the Simpsons called "Blinky", I say it's more suitable that way.
The diving board served as a beginner's trap for me when I first played the game on Museum+. Still not sure why they didn't at least opt for mashing the jump button to maintain height, instead of the right button.
I played through the whole game years ago, but with the PC-Engine/TG-16 version. I do remember having a hard time on the later stages even with savestates. Although i would like to point out that the home version is almost arcade perfect except for the fact that it doesn't have parralax scrolling.
The cartoon refers to the purple ghost as Sue, too. In fact, Pinky is male there, making Sue the lady of the ghost group. I have zero clue where "Doris" comes from. I liked that "Secrets" segment. Phases 29 and 32's segments made me laugh.
what an interesting video, i never knew there was so much under the surface of Pac-Land, makes me appreciate that much more (though those later levels look like hell, i only did the minimum required for Museum+'s missions)
Stop nitpicking about the keys. I’m sure they don’t use the original designs as to not confuse the players into thinking they’re fruits like in previous games.
At least with Jr. Pac-Man the difficulty makes sense since it’s the third (If you count the original and Ms.) in the main series. The irony is that both his wife and son have harder games than the big man himself. You’re unlikely to ever play Ms. and Jr. without ever trying out the original anyways, it’s so universal that it’s nearly impossible to avoid it even if you aren’t that interested. Pac-Land on the other hand has no excuse since it’s basically the first of its kind, predating Super Mario Bros.. The difference with Super Mario Bros. though is that the physics of that and difficulty curve feel a lot fairer, you can make micro pixel adjustments as you mentioned and can partially control your momentum when running and in the air. Not so much here, every input you make goes in a certain direction for you for a few seconds no matter what, powerless to change any of it. If Pac-Land was at least as refined with its controls as Super Mario Bros. was, then it would’ve cut the difficulty in half. I’m not saying it would’ve ever been as easy in the first place since this is an arcade game, but I think it would’ve helped people to replay it in the long run more than to just cheap out on unsuspecting players. Like I said, it doesn’t have the same excuses that Ms. and Jr. has with being harder sequels, this is the first and pretty much only game of its type in the arcade. It’s why it’s one of my least favorite Pac-Man games made by Namco right up with there with Pac & Pal since I don’t genuinely have as much of a good time with it. Ms. and Jr. even with their BS can still be fun if you are good at playing Pac-Man, you just have to memorize the patterns a little differently. Not so much here since everything is a chaotic mess, and this is coming from a guy who loves platforming games. I have this game included in my Arcade1Up machine and I *still* have a difficult time even getting to levels 4-8, I can’t imagine how much harder the levels are after those even with an emulator or many pockets of quarters. Make no mistake about it, I still like the few things it does right, it’s very unique and memorable unlike Pac & Pal, but good *lord* is it a chore to get through even for the most diehard of platformer nerds. Easily the most brutal game in the Pac-Man arcade series outside of Baby Pac-Man (For all the wrong reasons in the lazy programming), no question about it. Y’know, somebody should try making/modding better level layouts for Pac-Land and better ghost AI for Baby Pac-Man. I’m surprised these things haven’t been done yet. I think both of them would be a lot better if they weren’t so recklessly infuriating. At the very least if Pac-Land is gonna eventually be this hard, then there should be a slower and better difficulty curve to help you memorize every obstacle and pattern before doing stuff like making longer ponds and spamming enemies everywhere, and instead of doing those right away also increase them more subtly as each level progresses. I just find it funny how Namco wants to forget of better classics like Ms. and Jr. just because Midway was known for making too many unnecessary Pac-Man games, when in reality Namco themselves weren’t much different. And yet Namco still proudly tries to flex games like Pac-Land or Pac & Pal with no attempts at bringing back Jr. and erasing Ms. from history, heck *off* with that Namco, they need to be more responsible for those two games…. (Not saying Land and Pal are necessarily bad by the way, but Ms. and Jr. are far superior with the more traditional Pac-Man gameplay imho) All that nonsense aside, this game on its own is just alright to me. Had it not been for the Pac-Man brand attached, I guarantee you it wouldn’t have been remembered as much. Maybe it’s special from a programming and technical limitations standpoint, but I don’t really see myself replaying this game all that often. It hasn’t aged nearly as well functionally as the other main three I mentioned, that’s for sure, or hell even as good as Super for that matter. And against Pac-Man World 1 and 2? *Forget about it, no competition.* I do like the secrets and introductory levels a lot though, and I think without Land we wouldn’t have gotten the World games, so I’ll give credit where credit is due. If nothing else, it’s also at least still historically relevant unlike Pac & Pal or, ugh, Professor Pac-Man… Oh yeah and I think this is the start of where Namco kept mixing up the names between Blinky and Clyde all the way up to World 3. I think they even went as far to change their names for only the original game in that Classic Vol. 2 compilation for some reason, (The one that had some Arrangement games) so it’s not like they weren’t aware of it, but I could be wrong. Either way it’s strange. Also I’m not too surprised that you’re getting more views again after the Jr. video, it’s the first one I saw of yours too. I’ll always stand by the belief that it’s one of the most underrated arcade games of all time. Congrats! I hope you keep rising up in popularity, you deserve it for how well your videos have been made recently so far. I can’t say anything for your older ones since I haven’t seen them yet, but that’s mostly just laziness on my part, and also because I love Pac-Man. (Duh) *Dammit I wrote a mountain of text again. Lol*
I wanted to know what happened when I jumped on Sue when time was out. I jumped on her, and she shot me upward at incredible altitude. After, I fell all the way down and she killed me.
7:43-7:47 The cross on top of the church in the visuals from the Japanese version was removed and censored completely from the North American version because conservatives tend to "frown" on religious symbols being used other than worshipping purposes. Footnote: Some home versions of the game did use the cross but others like the Arcade1Up version on both the Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man Legacy Edition Arcade Cabinets and Super Pac-Man Partycades did not. Also, the hat used by Pac-Man in this game is close to the one used by the Hanna-Barbera cartoon version as well as changes to Ms. Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man to resemble more or less their cartoon counterparts. For novice players, the longer they go, the more frustration they will feel because surprise challenges will be overwhelming and thus, some of those players would likely throw in the towel. But overall, your videos on the Pac-Man franchise are well constructed and illustrated.
14:34 I've actually played an original cabinet before and I didn't really notice much delay, but I'm not really good at picking that up unless I'm looking for it so there's that.
@@ahbeef it has an option for controls that dont require button mashing and like twice the levels (tho the extra 32 are near impossible) theres some extra stuff too that i forgot off the top of my head
oh wow, i didn’t know all that! had i known in advance, yeah it probably would’ve been version versus. i don’t know the first thing about turbografx emulation though, i’ve never played a single game for it in my life (hence the borrowed youtube footage for the cutscenes)
9:34 Actually, Pac-Land's theme has had full remixes two times. First in the Pac-Land room in Namco Museum Vol. 4, and second when using the Pac-Land skin in the now-defunct mobile game Pac 'n Jump.
15:16 Clyde is the aggressive ghost in this game because that's how he was portrayed in the cartoon that Pac-Land is based on. Why they got the ghost personalities mixed up in that? I dunno. It's Hanna-Barbara.
15:47 The purple ghost was named Sue in official Japanese promo art and guides for Pac-Land from the time of its release. Sue actually also comes from the cartoon (well, her name comes from Ms. Pac-Man, but the cartoon was the first instance of her being purple.) No clue what "Dorris" is from, though.
Ah, yes… the game that’ll scare any smash fan regardless if they’ve even played it, which I highly doubt it.
Also, the church was changed in the original Pac-Man Museum and Smash Bros
The PAC-MAN theme song was actually used in the Museum+ launch trailer, and the PAC-LAND level of PAC 'N JUMP. The Monster Mansion theme usually plays when the Ghosts head back to Mezmaron's castle.
I really never would've considered giving this game a shot but this actually does look pretty fun despite how absurd it gets later on
I think the PC Engine version changes the level design a bit to be more home experience friendly? It also adds much needed continues which weren't in the arcade version. Honestly, I'd much rather take this game over Pac-In-Time any day of the week, sorry but from what i tried of it that game is an unpolished, broken mess that has labyrinthine level design and drags on for far too long.
Oh hey, it's that one stage in Smash that no one plays. But in seriousness, I didn't get to play this game until Namco Museum Archives where the controls were ass, but then came Pac-Man Museum+ and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Although the lack of a turbo button especially for making those long spring jumps would've been good, and I had to use my appropriately themed Pac-Man Hori turbo controller for that
Personally, I love the hell out of this game, it's why I picked up Namco Museum Volume 4 twice, first time only it and Assault/Assault Plus worked on the disc, the second time I bought it, everything worked fine (I happen to like Ordyne, Genpei Toumaden, and Return of Ishtar on that disc as well, had to have them working to enjoy them as the first disc had a warp under it that didn't allow those games to load and play).
Funny that Warner Bros. owns the Pac-Man cartoon given they also own the Midway library, hence why they publish the new Mortal Kombat games
The "purple ghost" is named Sue. She was named Sue in the cartoon
Why the heck did they name her "Doris"
Pac-land id honestly impressive for one of the first sidescrolling platformers ever, it actually feels playable! also, this was in their era where blinky and clyde's name kept being mixed up, if you watch the show you'll see they pin blinky as the shy and timid one and clyde as the agressive one, i think theres some videos that detail this weird thing too
that would explain why the orange ghost has the more aggressive behavior in the game
@@ahbeef To be honest, if there's one change I liked between the 1990s and 2000s, it's that the Red Ghost and Orange Ghost swapped names to accommodate for the mix-up that Hanna-Barbera caused. The Red Ghost was suppose to be the leader, yet Hanna-Barbera made the Orange Ghost be the leader, because at the time, the Orange Ghost was called Clyde; and the name "Clyde" is usually synonymous with leaders (and even gangsters), as Hanna-Barbera already had a character named Clyde, who is the leader of the Ant Hill Mob in both "Wacky Races" and "the Perils of Penelope Pitstop". So, during the 90s and 2000s, the Orange Ghost was called "Blinky", and the Red Ghost was called "Clyde". Given there was a 3-eyed orange fish in the Simpsons called "Blinky", I say it's more suitable that way.
The diving board served as a beginner's trap for me when I first played the game on Museum+. Still not sure why they didn't at least opt for mashing the jump button to maintain height, instead of the right button.
I played through the whole game years ago, but with the PC-Engine/TG-16 version. I do remember having a hard time on the later stages even with savestates. Although i would like to point out that the home version is almost arcade perfect except for the fact that it doesn't have parralax scrolling.
The cartoon refers to the purple ghost as Sue, too. In fact, Pinky is male there, making Sue the lady of the ghost group. I have zero clue where "Doris" comes from.
I liked that "Secrets" segment.
Phases 29 and 32's segments made me laugh.
Wait
Since Pinky was commonly believed to be a girl when he is in fact a guy
*Does that make Pinky the first trap in videogame history?*
Lategame Pac-Land is a Japanese torture device
Fun Fact: Pac-Land inspired Super Mario Bros.
what an interesting video, i never knew there was so much under the surface of Pac-Land, makes me appreciate that much more (though those later levels look like hell, i only did the minimum required for Museum+'s missions)
Honestly I love the art style in this game. It feels like a coloring book come to life
Stop nitpicking about the keys. I’m sure they don’t use the original designs as to not confuse the players into thinking they’re fruits like in previous games.
you make a good point! not gonna stop nitpicking though lol
Haha fair enough
At least with Jr. Pac-Man the difficulty makes sense since it’s the third (If you count the original and Ms.) in the main series. The irony is that both his wife and son have harder games than the big man himself. You’re unlikely to ever play Ms. and Jr. without ever trying out the original anyways, it’s so universal that it’s nearly impossible to avoid it even if you aren’t that interested.
Pac-Land on the other hand has no excuse since it’s basically the first of its kind, predating Super Mario Bros.. The difference with Super Mario Bros. though is that the physics of that and difficulty curve feel a lot fairer, you can make micro pixel adjustments as you mentioned and can partially control your momentum when running and in the air. Not so much here, every input you make goes in a certain direction for you for a few seconds no matter what, powerless to change any of it. If Pac-Land was at least as refined with its controls as Super Mario Bros. was, then it would’ve cut the difficulty in half. I’m not saying it would’ve ever been as easy in the first place since this is an arcade game, but I think it would’ve helped people to replay it in the long run more than to just cheap out on unsuspecting players. Like I said, it doesn’t have the same excuses that Ms. and Jr. has with being harder sequels, this is the first and pretty much only game of its type in the arcade. It’s why it’s one of my least favorite Pac-Man games made by Namco right up with there with Pac & Pal since I don’t genuinely have as much of a good time with it. Ms. and Jr. even with their BS can still be fun if you are good at playing Pac-Man, you just have to memorize the patterns a little differently. Not so much here since everything is a chaotic mess, and this is coming from a guy who loves platforming games. I have this game included in my Arcade1Up machine and I *still* have a difficult time even getting to levels 4-8, I can’t imagine how much harder the levels are after those even with an emulator or many pockets of quarters.
Make no mistake about it, I still like the few things it does right, it’s very unique and memorable unlike Pac & Pal, but good *lord* is it a chore to get through even for the most diehard of platformer nerds. Easily the most brutal game in the Pac-Man arcade series outside of Baby Pac-Man (For all the wrong reasons in the lazy programming), no question about it.
Y’know, somebody should try making/modding better level layouts for Pac-Land and better ghost AI for Baby Pac-Man. I’m surprised these things haven’t been done yet. I think both of them would be a lot better if they weren’t so recklessly infuriating. At the very least if Pac-Land is gonna eventually be this hard, then there should be a slower and better difficulty curve to help you memorize every obstacle and pattern before doing stuff like making longer ponds and spamming enemies everywhere, and instead of doing those right away also increase them more subtly as each level progresses.
I just find it funny how Namco wants to forget of better classics like Ms. and Jr. just because Midway was known for making too many unnecessary Pac-Man games, when in reality Namco themselves weren’t much different. And yet Namco still proudly tries to flex games like Pac-Land or Pac & Pal with no attempts at bringing back Jr. and erasing Ms. from history, heck *off* with that Namco, they need to be more responsible for those two games…. (Not saying Land and Pal are necessarily bad by the way, but Ms. and Jr. are far superior with the more traditional Pac-Man gameplay imho)
All that nonsense aside, this game on its own is just alright to me. Had it not been for the Pac-Man brand attached, I guarantee you it wouldn’t have been remembered as much. Maybe it’s special from a programming and technical limitations standpoint, but I don’t really see myself replaying this game all that often. It hasn’t aged nearly as well functionally as the other main three I mentioned, that’s for sure, or hell even as good as Super for that matter. And against Pac-Man World 1 and 2? *Forget about it, no competition.* I do like the secrets and introductory levels a lot though, and I think without Land we wouldn’t have gotten the World games, so I’ll give credit where credit is due. If nothing else, it’s also at least still historically relevant unlike Pac & Pal or, ugh, Professor Pac-Man…
Oh yeah and I think this is the start of where Namco kept mixing up the names between Blinky and Clyde all the way up to World 3. I think they even went as far to change their names for only the original game in that Classic Vol. 2 compilation for some reason, (The one that had some Arrangement games) so it’s not like they weren’t aware of it, but I could be wrong. Either way it’s strange.
Also I’m not too surprised that you’re getting more views again after the Jr. video, it’s the first one I saw of yours too. I’ll always stand by the belief that it’s one of the most underrated arcade games of all time. Congrats! I hope you keep rising up in popularity, you deserve it for how well your videos have been made recently so far. I can’t say anything for your older ones since I haven’t seen them yet, but that’s mostly just laziness on my part, and also because I love Pac-Man. (Duh)
*Dammit I wrote a mountain of text again. Lol*
Great review they keep getting better and better.
I wanted to know what happened when I jumped on Sue when time was out.
I jumped on her, and she shot me upward at incredible altitude. After, I fell all the way down and she killed me.
sounds like a really funny glitch, i’ve never seen that before
@@ahbeef AHBEEF REPLIED TO ME OMG OMG OMG OMG
7:43-7:47 The cross on top of the church in the visuals from the Japanese version was removed and censored completely from the North American version because conservatives tend to "frown" on religious symbols being used other than worshipping purposes. Footnote: Some home versions of the game did use the cross but others like the Arcade1Up version on both the Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man Legacy Edition Arcade Cabinets and Super Pac-Man Partycades did not. Also, the hat used by Pac-Man in this game is close to the one used by the Hanna-Barbera cartoon version as well as changes to Ms. Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man to resemble more or less their cartoon counterparts. For novice players, the longer they go, the more frustration they will feel because surprise challenges will be overwhelming and thus, some of those players would likely throw in the towel. But overall, your videos on the Pac-Man franchise are well constructed and illustrated.
14:34 I've actually played an original cabinet before and I didn't really notice much delay, but I'm not really good at picking that up unless I'm looking for it so there's that.
MAME has input lag delay, so while the emulator is good to let you play old arcade games, it's far from the perfect experience.
a person talks about that one smash stage in a youtube video
shoulda done a version versus between this and the turbo grafx version (turbo grafx is better
i'm not sure how much difference there is to talk about aside from the added cutscenes and music (which i brought up in this video anyway)
@@ahbeef it has an option for controls that dont require button mashing and like twice the levels (tho the extra 32 are near impossible) theres some extra stuff too that i forgot off the top of my head
oh wow, i didn’t know all that! had i known in advance, yeah it probably would’ve been version versus. i don’t know the first thing about turbografx emulation though, i’ve never played a single game for it in my life (hence the borrowed youtube footage for the cutscenes)
@@ahbeef i dont remember turbo grafx being that hard to emulate
@@ahbeefFrom a faint memory I have it also includes a post-game "for pros" mode, though I'll have to check further to see if that's true