Ms. Pac-Man (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Namco's 1993 maze-action game for the NES, Ms. Pac-Man.
In this video, I played until I hit a game over on the twenty-fourth round.
Like Pac-Man ( • Pac-Man (NES) Playthro... ), Ms. Pac-Man saw multiple releases on the NES.
Ms. Pac-Man for the NES comes in two distinct flavors. The version shown in this video - the official release that did a nice job of approximating the feel of arcade game - was developed by Now Production for Namco and was released exclusively in North America.
The other version, Tengen's unlicensed 1990 release, lacked the shiny gold seal of quality, but it was more faithful to the arcade game and introduced a ton of new maps and features.
Namco's Ms. Pac-Man looks and feels like an early-gen NES title - the cartridge doesn't incorporate any sort of memory mapper and the game data weighs in at just 40K - and though it's good, the differences between it and the Tengen version make it clear that the NES of 1985 was a far less capable machine than the NES of 1990.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!

[@NintendoComplete]

It's definitely not on par with Tengen's version of Ms. Pac-Man, but it's still pretty good.

[@frankiev-tech4630]

Yeah Tengen's is way closer to the arcade.

[@coach7304]

​@@frankiev-tech4630I subscribed to your KZbin channel

[@Bloodreign1]

It's also far more expensive than the Tengen variant, though the Tengen variant is also slowly rising in variant. This here version ran me $20 years ago, which even at the time was lower than Ebay and online, but when you are used to playing Ms.Pac-Man in the arcade with the speed hack, this one is sluggish.

[@frankiev-tech4630]

@@Bloodreign1 oh I didn't know of these variant versions! Interesting. I always wonder the hardware of the arcade including Galaga during the 80s. No 8 bit and 16bit system home consoles were able to program a perfect arcade port especially the sound.

[@hardlucknate6769]

Nothing says iconic more than classic arcade games at its finest like this game

[@williamdrum9899]

Fun fact: the ghosts' eyes are a separate sprite from the body. If you were to dump the character rom you would see this. But there's no need to do that to prove it - the way sprites work on the NES, having the eyes be part of the ghosts' sprites would take up all the color slots and none would be left for Ms. Pac Man

[@NintendoComplete]

That's neat. I had just assumed that the ghosts were single sprites with the pupils set to transparent since you can see the dots through them.

[@williamdrum9899]

Now that you mention it they are transparent aren't they? In the original Pac-Man I believe they were dark blue, so in that game what I said still holds. Here though, I'm not 100% sure. Depends on if you can see dots through Ms. Pac Man's eyes and "beauty mark"

[@bigduke5902]

How did you find this out if you don't mind me asking?

[@williamdrum9899]

@@bigduke5902 Just knowledge of the hardware and process of elimination

[@spoonshiro]

Had the Tengen version as a kid, never knew it had a licensed release. Looks like this version isn't as good though!

[@stephennovotny6157]

Great game 🎮 👏 👌 👍 🙌 💪

[@sa3270]

Ms. Pac-Man is one hot momma!

[@chill9371]

Yes, I always love this game 😃

[@ElephantMariotheRHDNhater3293]

Interesting conversion...

[@germanalfaro6342]

A classics among classics! Never got tired of playing it

[@marlinjohnson9347]

Great game, even though I suck at Pac Man

[@MBRetroGamer]

nice top game nes

[@KenjiEspresso]

Crazy

[@chill9371]

very good 👍

[@ItsJustTrevor]

I had no idea this version existed at all

[@NintendoComplete]

It was a really late release so it's pretty obscure.

[@smartass643]

@@NintendoCompleteis there a jr pac man nes version?

[@NintendoComplete]

​@@smartass643Nope, but it did get Pac-Mania, and the Famicom had Pac-Land.

[@MarcBarkyMarta]

I know this was released at the end of the NES's life in the US, but I've never seen the Famicom version, nor found any evidence of it. Are you sure this was a 1985 FC release?

[@NintendoComplete]

You know, after I read your comment, I went and double checked and realized I screwed up a few details, so thanks for the heads up. Yeah, it couldn't have been made in 1985 since Now Production wasn't even established until 1986. This was a NA exclusive release. I was getting the details confused with the original Famicom Pac-Man since they both use similar cart setups. Both were NROM boards w/8K CHR roms, but Pac-Man had a 16K PRG rom, and Ms. Pac-Man's PRG is 32K.

[@daoyang5988]

Time to Exterminated! Your ghost trapped! 1:18

[@Aaron-by3ke]

I'll stick with the superior Tengen version as it has way more playability. The sound effects in this version from NAMCOT are pitiable. Did they lift the chomping sounds from Clean Sweep on the Vectrex? Other sound effects are very Activision VCS-like.

[@Thought_Police]

Why aren’t the ghosts chasing you? Literally see them get close to you and turn the other way?

[@NintendoComplete]

They all have different behaviors. Some come directly at you and some try to box you in.

[@thegreatcanadianlumberjack5307]

As mentioned they have diffrent Behaviours. Blinky (The Red one) will Directly chase you and While Pinky and Inky (The pink and Blue one) will try and box you in. Clyde on the otherhand (the orange one) will rotate between Chasing or Boxing you in. Watch carefully throughout the playthrough and you will notice this.

[@EuSouRCS]

Props to Tengen to say no to Nintendo's garbage rules.

[@NintendoComplete]

That plan really worked out for them, huh?

[@EuSouRCS]

@@NintendoComplete ask this question to all of those companies who followed those rules and vanished anyway.

[@bigduke5902]

There are actually very good reasons Nintendo had all of those guidelines and they all have to do with a certain crash that destroyed the entire industry not too long before they attempted to revive it.

[@EuSouRCS]

@@bigduke5902 Nintendo of Japan disagrees with you.

[@bigduke5902]

@@EuSouRCS I'm okay with that assessment. Happy gaming!