digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About

The 12 Best Pac-Man Clones and Spin-Offs

racketboy.com — Over the last twenty-five years, there have been quite a few Pac-Man clones and official spinoffs that are still worth playing today, and possibly even worth getting excited about. This feature takes a look at the best games that either added something new to the formula or modernized the experience on newer platforms.

Who dugg this? Made popular Nov 27, 2007

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

44 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • mattcoady, on 11/27/2007, -0/+19Hold on a sec. You could jump in Pac Mania?! I owned that game for two years and I never knew that. :(
  • Goodbyeworld, on 11/27/2007, -1/+12Mrs. Pac-Man FTW
  • JAVandiver, on 11/27/2007, -1/+103-Demon in CGA on a 80-88... God am I old!
  • joehobbes, on 11/27/2007, -1/+8If you guys haven't tried Pac-Man VS, you don't know what you're missing.
    It is a killer party game -- even if your friends aren't typical gamers. The Pac-Man mechanics are obviously pretty simple, but it's amazing how competitive and addicting it can be. (BTW, Miyamoto did a lot of the development for this for Namco) I hope they do a Wii version sometime (with DS connectivity) -- I also need to try out the DS version on Namco Museum.

    I keep hearing a lot of good things about Championship Edition on XBLA, but I'm holding out on getting a 360 for now.
  • MikeonTV, on 11/27/2007, -2/+8Yet nothing about Pac-Transgendered-Person!
  • tensaibaka, on 11/27/2007, -0/+4Anybody remember K.C. Munchkin for Odyssey 2? The one that spawned a lawsuit.
    That game had me playing for hours as you could also build your own mazes.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07JtE4pIq8U
    It also had a sequel K.C.'s Crazy Chase
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8YlmDqs4Z4
  • amiak, on 11/27/2007, -0/+3priceless
  • dagooh, on 11/27/2007, -1/+4I really like Rally X, when I was a kid at my local arcade a Rally X machine had a few loose bolts on the cabinet so I could lift the whole controller bay, stick my entire arm inside the machine and touch the little tab that detects the coins when they go in...
    So 22 years later I'm the greatest Rally X player in the world, thank you lazy arcade maintenance guy!
  • racketboy, on 11/27/2007, -0/+2I'm not even sure what CGA or 80-88 is....
    I played it on my 286 (which I still have in my parent's basement with the 3-Demon floppy)
  • racketboy, on 11/27/2007, -0/+2Namco Museum on the DS is a pretty good value -- I was just disappointed that it didn't have all the games that were on the GBA compilations.
  • joehobbes, on 11/27/2007, -0/+2If I can find a good deal on it, I may pick it up :)
    Thanks for the list, BTW :)
  • jiub, on 11/27/2007, -0/+2Ms. Pac-Man actually, apparently they're not married.

    And I was surprised it was left off the list.
  • bbjr, on 11/27/2007, -0/+2What about Maniac for the PowerPC Macintosh? I wasted so much time with it in High School. It had 3D stereo sound and a hangman game to end rounds with.
  • MonsterChaOS, on 11/27/2007, -1/+3Where is CD Man??!?!?!?
  • Xibby, on 11/27/2007, -0/+2de_pacman. Counter-Strike in a Pac-Man maze. Always good for stupid fun.
  • Vistrix, on 11/27/2007, -1/+2Whats that side scrolling pac man arcade game?

    I was addicted to that...
  • Lynxpro, on 11/27/2007, -0/+1
    I just want a port of the arcade versions of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man including the "Zoom" button feature. I don't think the Zoom button was authorized and I would lay money that the company GCC was behind it. The button would drastically speed up the game, almost like how AutoMan or StreetHawk would seem to be traveling so damn fast on their respective television shows. But I've yet to see Namco incorporate this feature in any of the authorized home versions of the games.

    GCC was sued by Atari for installing unauthorized upgrades to Missile Command arcade units. They also went on to program a lot of Atari 5200 games, designed the Atari 7800, and made the Atari game [Charley Chuck's] Food Fight. Apparently, they are still in business.

    I also do not see any references to the arcade game Pop-Man, which took the Pac-Man characters and basically themed them after Popeye characters. I've only seen one arcade version of it, and that was around 1984 or 85 in New Mexico...at either a 7 Eleven, 7-2-11, or Circle 7 convenience store.
  • bigballer73, on 11/27/2007, -1/+2gotta luv pac man
  • counterplex, on 11/27/2007, -0/+1CGA was a 4-color display mode (with a 16 color palette) and 8088 was one of the first processors in modern personal computers - before an 80286.
  • Ungh, on 11/27/2007, -0/+1Your 286 was one generation better than the 80-88 and chances are it had EGA graphics which were a generation better than CGA
  • Ungh, on 11/27/2007, -0/+1Well then, that makes two of us.
  • Eldavidos, on 11/29/2007, -0/+1You forgot Metal Gear Solid!
  • jiub, on 11/27/2007, -0/+1Argh...didn't read the first paragraph. Still, an unlicensed sequel that was good enough to become "official" should still be worth a spot.
  • bzaks, on 12/04/2007, -0/+1You Can't forget Menstral Ms. Pacman!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWiE65M14jQ&mode=re ...
  • gordonp, on 11/27/2007, -0/+1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchkin_(Videopac_ga ...
  • Dragular, on 12/21/2007, -0/+1wakka-wakka-wakka-wakka-snipe snipe snipe snipe wakka-wakka-wakka
  • Atomic1fire, on 12/02/2007, -0/+1yet no mention of anti pacman
  • svivian, on 11/27/2007, -0/+1Yet, after seeing all those, all I want to do is play original Pac-Man
  • larsoncc, on 11/27/2007, -0/+1It's both good and bad that the author chose to focus on relatively recent Pac-clones and spinoffs. It's good because you can still get these games pretty easily, but it's bad because KC Munchkin (O^2) and Munchman (TI-99) were both great takes on the original.
  • BrotherHero, on 11/27/2007, -0/+1MOUSE TRAP BABY!!!
  • toasterweasel, on 11/27/2007, -0/+1Munchman from the TI-99/4A: http://www.videogamehouse.net/munchman.html
  • Sizzor, on 11/27/2007, -0/+1What? No Hangly-man?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangly-Man
  • HarleyQuinn, on 11/27/2007, -1/+1Missing was the worst but most anticipated Pac Man. The Atari 2600 version.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pac-man_flicker ...
  • romainemu, on 12/06/2007, -0/+0check out Twinkle, a cool arcade coin op pacman clone. You can jump, and have exciting bonuses like laser, helmet ,etc.
    You can play it here directly in your browser (no download) : http://www.easyretro.com/node/87/Twinkle.html
  • DigitAl56K, on 11/27/2007, -2/+2Missing Deluxe Pacman for Amiga:
    http://www.lemonamiga.com/?mainurl=http%3A//www.le ...
  • rev3nant, on 11/27/2007, -2/+2No CD-Man. Buried.
  • GojiraBreath, on 11/27/2007, -0/+0What! No SnackMan from the VIC-20! Lame list.
  • TorinVlietstra, on 11/28/2007, -1/+0Where the ***** is super pac man?
  • jonathankimmm, on 11/27/2007, -2/+1I smell a movie in the making..........
  • EnergyFlash, on 11/27/2007, -2/+1Wheres Pac Land? >:(
  • Br0wn, on 11/27/2007, -2/+1Where's the Nicaraguan version "Circle Eater"?
  • Vicinus, on 11/27/2007, -4/+2Lady Bug...my highlight. too bad its not mentioned here. Can anyone else remeber this game?
    I kinda miss those days although you invested your pocket money just to play another 30 seconds on an arcade machine.
  • airencracken, on 11/27/2007, -3/+1Buried for lack of Trog.
  • burkay, on 11/27/2007, -4/+1132 diggs and not on the front page?

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...


© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.