Pac Attack - Super Nintendo - SNES

Pac-Attack for Super Nintendo SNES

Pac-Attack for Super Nintendo SNES is a puzzle game in which blocks and ghosts fall together from the top of the screen. You move and rotate the clusters before they land. Complete horizontal rows of blocks disappear, but the ghosts remain a problem until Pac-Man appears. By arranging them carefully beside and below one another, you create a route along which he can eat many in succession. A trapped ghost, on the other hand, can continue to occupy valuable space.

Pac-Man moves left, right and down through the playfield, but does not climb upwards. His facing direction and the blocks around him therefore determine how many ghosts he can reach. Eaten ghosts fill a meter; when it is full, a fairy helps remove several rows of ghosts. In the normal game, the speed increases as you progress. A preview of the next cluster helps you prepare a chain in advance.

You can also solve one hundred individual puzzles, clearing all the ghosts with a limited number of Pac-Men. Only in these puzzles can you change his direction with the shoulder buttons while he falls. Passwords let you return to a puzzle you have reached later. For a head-to-head duel, two people play simultaneously, each using a standard controller. Large meals of ghosts send extra ghosts to your opponent; the first player to win two rounds wins the match.

Region and language

Our Super Nintendo SNES games are PAL editions, unless stated otherwise. This product contains a loose cartridge for the European market. A box is only included if explicitly stated in the product details. We note any different region in the product details. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.

Manual

With Pac-Attack for Super Nintendo SNES, you receive a loose cartridge. A box and manual are not included unless we explicitly state otherwise in the product details. This is the standard way we supply this copy.

The history of Pac-Attack

Namco brought Pac-Attack to the Super Nintendo in 1993. The game builds on Cosmo Gang the Puzzle, a puzzle game Namco released in arcades in 1992. For Pac-Attack, that block-based concept received the familiar yellow protagonist and ghosts. This moved Pac-Man to a different kind of playfield: not a maze in which you take every turn yourself, but a well in which you first lay the foundations for his eating route.

Eating ghosts remained the connection to the older Pac-Man games. Here, however, their placement took on a different meaning. A ghost is both an obstacle occupying space and part of a longer chain. Ordinary blocks can support that chain or block the route. This dual role gives the familiar character a clear purpose within the puzzle system. You mainly control the falling pieces, then let the situation you have built play out.

The original SNES release spreads this idea across continuous play, fixed puzzles and a direct duel. The one hundred puzzles in particular put Pac-Man's route at the centre, with a limited number of Pac-Men and passwords for progress. Namco later included Pac-Attack in compilations such as Pac-Man Collection and Namco Anthology 2. This cartridge represents the original SNES version, with its own controls and local two-player contest, not the additional features of later collections.

Similar games for Super Nintendo SNES

Tetris & Dr. Mario on Super Nintendo SNES shares the movement and rotation of falling pieces with Pac-Attack. Tetris clears complete horizontal lines; Dr. Mario uses coloured capsules to eliminate viruses. Pac-Attack combines clearing rows of blocks with ghosts that need a separate eating route. A neatly completed row can therefore still leave an unreachable ghost behind, whereas the other games mainly ask you to check shape or colour.

Kirby's Ghost Trap for Super Nintendo SNES also revolves around preparing chain reactions and obstructing an opponent. You stack coloured blobs and clear connected groups, allowing new combinations to form. In Pac-Attack you do not connect colours: you build a passable route for Pac-Man between ordinary blocks. Both reward thinking ahead, but the question of whether a character can reach the next group is distinctive to Pac-Attack.

Tetris Attack on Super Nintendo SNES also pairs a familiar Nintendo hero with a puzzle game featuring chain reactions. You use a cursor to swap two adjacent panels in a rising stack. Pac-Attack instead drops clusters from above and then gives you less freedom to move pieces already in place. In Tetris Attack you keep actively rearranging the stack; in Pac-Attack you mainly consider where the next cluster should land.

Bust-A-Move for Super Nintendo SNES, like Pac-Attack, offers individual puzzles and head-to-head contests in which clearing your field can put pressure on an opponent. You fire coloured bubbles from below and use the walls to reach awkward angles. Pac-Attack uses falling blocks and ghosts eaten along downward routes. Planning direction matters in both, but in Bust-A-Move you aim a shot, whereas here you try to prepare an entire eating route beforehand.

Wario's Woods for Super Nintendo SNES, like Pac-Attack, combines falling pieces with a character inside the playfield. You control Toad directly: he picks up monsters and bombs, carries stacks and puts them down elsewhere to make combinations. In Pac-Attack you mainly control the falling clusters, then let Pac-Man follow his eating route. Both require spatial planning, but Toad can actively rearrange existing stacks, whereas Pac-Man does not move pieces for you.