Pac-Man және Pal: Лабиринттегі серіктес

1983 video game

Pac & Pal (パック＆パル, Pakku ando Paru) is a 1983 maze chase arcade game developed and published by Namco. It is part of the company's Pac Man series and the third to have been produced in house. Players control Pac Man as he must eat the items in an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts that pursue him. Pac Man is assisted by a green colored creature named Miru (also called Mil), the titular "Pal", who brings the items back to the center box. Pac Man can also collect power ups that allow him to briefly stun the ghosts. Pac & Pal is largely based on Super Pac Man, Namco's attempt at making a follow up to the original Pac Man. When Super Pac Man proved to be unsuccessful, Pac & Pal was created to refine many of its mechanics and build on its concept. The game was intended to be released in North America by Midway Games under the name Pac Man & Chomp Chomp, which replaced Miru with Pac Man's dog from the Hanna Barbera cartoon series. Chomp Chomp was never released in America and was limited to a run of 300 machines produced for several European countries. Retrospectively, it has received attention for its premise and differences compared to its predecessors and has been listed among the strangest games in the Pac Man franchise. It is included in several Namco compilations for various platforms.

Controls consist of a four position joystick and a button. Using the joystick, the player guides Pac Man through an enclosed maze in which several items are locked behind doors. Several face down cards are scattered throughout the maze; when Pac Man runs over one of these, it flips over to reveal one of the items, which becomes unlocked so Pac Man can eat it. Items include a flagship from Galaxian, a red car from Rally X, a trumpet, a snowman, and a miniature Pac Man. The items are simply different cosmetically, and all of them have the same effect. Namco and Midway had plans to release Pac & Pal in North America under the new name Pac Man & Chomp Chomp, which replaced Miru with Pac Man's spherical dog from the Hanna Barbera cartoon series. Toy manufacturer Jakks Pacific included the game in many of their Pac Man branded "plug'n play" controllers throughout the mid 2000s. Pac & Pal is also included in a few Namco compilations such as Namco Museum Remix (2007), Namco Museum Virtual Arcade (2008), and Namco Museum Megamix (2010). To commemorate the launch of the Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures television series, Bandai added Pac & Pal to their Pac Man Connect & Play controller in 2012. Pac & Pal is included in Pac Man Museum (2014), alongside several other games in the series. In 2019, Arcade1UP released a Pac Man "counter cade" arcade machine that includes the original Pac Man and Pac & Pal. Pac & Pal is included in Pac Man Museum+ as a unlockable title.

While Pac & Pal saw success in its first few months on the market, it was relatively a commercial failure and remained obscure for many years. The game's drastic differences compared to the original Pac Man and Super Pac Man and its limited production run have been attributed to its downfall. Writing for Paste, Preston Burt listed it among the weirdest Pac Man sequels for the addition of a second player character and its premise, saying that: "If you have no idea what's happening in this game, you're not alone." Jeremy Parish of USgamer retrospectively reviewed Pac & Pal in commemoration of its 30th anniversary in 2013. He claimed that it made for one of the stranger entries in the series for its substantially different gameplay compared to Pac Man and Ms. Pac Man. Parish also said that many of the game's additions, namely Miru and the power up items, detracted from Pac Man more minimalist approach and appeal. Ultimately, Parish said that the new mechanics and difference in play made it a much more difficult and stressful game compared to its predecessors, feeling that players would have a hard time succumbing to its "strange" ideas and gameplay that had a more action oriented pace to it.