The VHS Rental Store
I remember a lot of stuff quite vividly and this is one of those things. It took place almost 30 years ago and I must’ve been about 9 or 10 years old. I distinctly recall the first time I rented Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures for the Super Nintendo. I got it from my local VHS rental store. It was a sunny, excellent day – although I’m not completely sure – as all good memories of mine seem to suspiciously have good weather.
If you’re old enough to remember VHS rental stores, you’ll recall the excitement of browsing their vast library of tapes. This was before streaming and mainstream internet. At least for me, it was exciting: a child with a lot of free time and some pocket money. I easily got lost inside these stores for an hour. I spent this time looking for stuff I hadn’t already recorded (or “taped”) straight from television. I had quite a few VHS tapes, full of recordings. Mainly action movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone or Jean-Claude van Damme (every Friday at 20:30!) plus some heavily edited family-friendly versions of Indiana Jones and Robocop. And with that I meant no arms getting blown off or any melting faces or any exploding heads. In fact, the first time I saw the uncensored version of Robocop a couple of years later I was shocked.
Besides VHS tapes, you could also rent video games. Their beautiful original cardboard boxes ripped in half and stuck inside a VHS hard case. Renting games was awesome. It was the main way of playing a varied amount, since the retail price of a game was quite high. As a child I relied entirely on my parents to get me a new one. This happened approximately once a year, usually for my birthday. These were mostly important games such as Donkey Kong Country, Mickey Mania, Secret Of Mana and Yoshi’s Island. For a small price, you’d rent a game for a day. It often felt like demoing or screening one for eventual later purchase. Sometimes they were so short you could finish them in a day. I stood there, browsing all the alluring SNES hard cases that seemed to all call out to me. My eyes eventually fixated on Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures.
The only way back then to even know what you were in for, was to read about these games in gaming magazines such as Club Nintendo Extra. Or literally judge it by its cover. However, checking out the box-art, I still didn’t know what to expect. I was familiar with Pac-Man, of course. It was ‘okay’, but nothing special for a kid used to Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country. I thought ‘it might be OK for a rental’, so I took the case to the counter, paid five Guilders for an exclusive day with this cartridge and headed home.
My SNES was hooked to the living room TV, which slightly annoyed my father, though he would usually read the newspaper. I specifically remember being alone in the living room that day. School and homework were done and I had a new game. I jammed the cartridge in the SNES and flung it on. A wave of excitement came over me as the Namco logo appeared. Back then, playing a new game was always a special occasion. Everything felt like a new experience. It was just me and Pac-Man now.
A Mind Of His Own
The game starts with a short, meaningless intro. After that, a small cutscene details the first objective. The first screen shows Pac-Man walking out of his own house (shaped like Pac-Man.) And then… he automatically walks to the right. Weird.. the controls don’t seem to work and the D-pad isn’t responding? Why is he not listening? Well – Pac-Man is a passive character in this game, in fact. He is only remotely controlled by giving commands of where to look. You can direct him ‘Left’ or ‘Right’, ‘Up’ or ‘Down’, indicated by a voice and on-screen cartoon bubble saying “Look!“. Pac-Man then goes: “Huh?” – and looks towards the direction you’re pointing, prompting him to move in said direction. But he won’t always listen. Depending on his mood, he will do whatever he wants.
Aside from commanding Pac-Man’s attention, you also control a catapult – your only real way of interacting with the environment. You can shoot objects, trees, bushes, certain key items, but you can also shoot innocent people, which will anger Pac-Man. You can also shoot Pac-Man repeatedly. When you do this, he gets so angry (teeth exposed in aggression) a small nuclear cloud explodes above his head and he will run around completely pissed off, arms flailing up and down. During this time, he will not listen to a single one of your commands. He will then vent his frustrations out on the scenery and sometimes in-game NPC’s. In fact, he will often die in these scenarios – thanks to you – in hilarious ways.
There is also a “Power Pellet” mechanic, where you fling one (of three) into the screen with your catapult. Like in the original Pac-Man, he will then gobble up the colored ghosts (which ofcourse, make an appearance), except in this one Pac-Man will fly around the screen as Super Pac-Man (mildly controllable with “Look!“.) This is useful, as the ghosts sometimes carry items you need.
As for the story, well, there is a witch that thwarts Pac-Man for some reason. Pac-Man handles mundane chores. He gets milk for his baby. He also takes a cable cart up to the mountains to pick a flower for a little girl’s birthday. The story doesn’t really matter, it’s the vivid animation and randomness of it all. The game has plenty of fourth wall breaking moments. For example, when you shoot that little girl, he gestures at the screen (you) and indicates that you are completely out of your mind (a game over, by the way, although you have infinite lives and always restart on the current screen.) If you don’t do anything for a minute, he knocks on the screen, asking you to do something. The game is full of these moments. This certainly was something completely new as a video game; sort of a choose-your-own-adventure type animated cartoon. I soon got the hang of the quirky control scheme.
One specific moment involves Pac-Man sneaking past some huge, sleeping, angry-looking dog. Once he tip-toes past it, you can (and obviously will) shoot at the dog to see what the reaction is. The dog will look at Pac-Man and start to bark viciously. Pac-Man gets scared and runs away aimlessly forward, non-stop. You can’t do anything in such a moment. You can “Look!” all you want. The only thing you can do is watch the tragedy unfold. Pac-Man will run full-force into a door opened by someone with comedic timing. This flattens him, and he’ll float to the ground like a piece of paper. This is followed by a classic black circle cartoon outro, including a jingle.
Other deaths are equally hilarious. One occurs by slipping over a skateboard that shoots upwards off-screen. The skateboard then flies back onto his head if you don’t make him “Look!” up in time. Another scenario is one where Pac-Man buys a hot-dog. A street cat will steal it, and Pac-Man will be sad. With this knowledge in hand, though (every time the screen reloads, all parameters reset), you shoot the cat right away. But this is one of those mistakes where the game trolls you, because when done too early, without reason, the cat will screech, run at Pac-Man and kill him in a huge star-filled dust-cloud fight.
Safe to say, I was completely in tears. It’s good I was in the living room by myself. I never laughed so hard at a video game. Wiping the tears away, I played on. Besides the colorful cartoon-y graphics, it also had excellent animation. It had fun music. It had a nonsensical premise. But mainly, it had character. This was no generic platformer, arcade game, or puzzle game. This was arguably the funniest game I had ever played.
Things took a surprising turn for me, once I finally owned the game (I’ll quickly glance on how that happened later.) With my newly acquired game in hand, excitement apIenty, I desperately had to show my friends this game, for they would surely find it equally hilarious.
A matter of opinion
I called my friends up over the phone, voice trembling in excitement: “I’ve got Pac-Man 2! You’ve got to check it out! I’ll come by and show you!“. This was followed up by a short period of silence on the other end of the line. In fact, only one friend agreed that day. I went over to this friend, who had some other people over. I gave him the cartridge. Pac-Man 2 was projected onto the television screen. While they were coming to terms with it, I looked onto their faces with a huge grin. Hilarity would surely ensue and we would all laugh together.
Well, nobody laughed. Except me – and my laughter faded rather quickly. Why wasn’t anyone laughing? How was this not funny? Instead, they gave me a look of mockery. A feeling of shame washed over me, and I returned home. This friend, in fact, was good at drawing, and he used to draw his own tabletop mystery board-games – cards and all. I found out later I was included in one of those cards. I was drawn as a chubby little kid with rosy cheeks, checklist in hand, with names crossed off of all the people I had already called up to tell them about “Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures” shouting in a cartoon bubble: “I have Pac-Man 2! I have Pac-Man 2!“. I was slightly offended, of course, but I made a mental note about people having different opinions and that they could definitely make fun of things you seemed to like.
Some time later, I was browsing a video game magazine called Power Unlimited. The magazine had a review of Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures. It got a 1 out of 10 and they called it “The Worst Game Ever“. I was now full-on offended. How could they not see how good or special this game was? Everywhere I looked: “This game sucks” and “Only retards like this game”. I felt like nobody properly looked at this game and didn’t give it any chance. It’s impossible that people would still have these shit opinions if they would just sit down and play the game for longer than five minutes. I understood that it was unconventional (Not knowing the term at that age, obviously.) Yeah, sure — You can’t really control Pac-Man? It can be infuriating when he goes off on his magical tantrums? Pac-Man often does not listen whatsoever? The game wastes a lot of time and becomes extremely frustrating? The trial and error is terrible? It’s not clear where to go or what to do at all times? A lot of things are too cryptic? Hmm… are they right? Is this game actually a piece of shit?
No.
They are wrong.
Why everyone else is wrong
First of all, I’m not claiming this game is a masterpiece of any sort. I understand (most) of the criticisms, but aside from highly subjective opinions, I consider (most) of them simply uninformed. The point of the game is Pac-Man – and his personality – that you have to deal with. You can influence it by either helping him or undermining him severely. You are a spectator in charge of Pac-Man’s fate. The rest is just added on top.
The game is rather short as well, with only four scenario’s. Arguably, the most frustrating experience in the game are automated ‘vehicle’ sections. These are complete trial and error, however, there are only two of those. So, really, what are we complaining about? It’s a tiny bit of challenge in a game that is mostly about an angry yellow ball walking around. Most of the game is trial and error, and in my opinion, ‘that’s a good thing‘. (I hate it when people say that, but let me explain.) Specifically in the case of Pac-Man 2, it literally is, because it forces you to experiment with every emotion. And to interact and shoot with everything that you can: the scenery, the objects, Pac-Man himself. The game has an enormous variety of different animations, scenario’s and comedic moments. There are comedic moments in each and every screen. These are a reward in and of itself.
You will always get something out of experimenting. I use the word “reward” here for a reason. Back in the ’90’s, you simply couldn’t hop online and look things up as easily as you can nowadays. Nowadays, whenever people get stuck for 5 minutes, they jump on Gamefaqs. They have less patience than my 9-year old self. I also doubt any gaming magazine had a dedicated walk-through of this game. Nobody gave a shit. This really meant it was just you, the game, your wits, your experimentation, and the unpredictability of what could happen. And you never knew! It’s not a go from A to B game. Just screw around and find out. It really is a rewarding experience if you go along with it. A lot of people didn’t fully experience this game. They didn’t want to play around with the mechanics for hours on end. This was the main point of the game. Yet, I assume, a lot of people probably quickly glanced over it. They saw some kind of kiddy platformer with weird controls and some unpredictable character.
Recently, this game got a re-release on the Nintendo Switch Online service. I read both reviews and none of them were even remotely favorable. There were key criticisms such as: “flawed game design” and “the game play hasn’t aged well.” These criticisms seem completely non-applicable to me. The game doesn’t have traditional design or game play that could “expire” altogether.
Of course people are entitled to their different opinions. However, so am I, and if you really enjoyed something, past or present, you would defend it with terminal intensity. This is especially true if, to your recollection, it was continuously and repeatedly bashed, scoffed at, mocked at (by friends) or made out as a piece of shit in the media. In fact, I’m still doing this. I apparently never got over it. I will defend this game until I die. It was undeserving of the disproportionate amount of criticism it got. I believe this is a truly misunderstood game. And while everyone else was enjoying Super Metroid or Link to the Past (vastly superior games, yes), Pac-Man 2 was swept under the rug. It was some kinda weird novelty. Many people didn’t get it, or felt like getting it. People saw in this some kiddy garbage game not worthy of a second glance. Maybe the demographic was too small. Mainly me, that 9 or 10-year-old, overly happy child. I found it hilarious and took my time with it. My often older, more seemingly jaded friends or peers were into Street Fighter II and Killer Instinct. They spent days playing those to perfect their combos. I, instead, enjoyed shooting a catapult at a balloon Pac-Man was holding and giving him a heart-attack.
A Work Of (Pixel) Art
Now, all the hyperbole inside this article didn’t come from a single experience. But for now, however, I want you to ponder the following. Look at the exquisite artwork of the sprite sheets. Look at the detailed emotions of Pac-Man and his hilarious facial expressions. Observe the design of the backgrounds and their artwork. Look at all the hard work and detail that went into this game, a cartoon-y art-style that separates it from other Super Nintendo titles of the time:
Sheets courtesy of spriters-resource.com
Wrapping Things Up
Impressive, right? Well – after that magical first time, I rented the game a couple of times more. I loved it every single time, and got further bit by bit. But renting a game is not the same as owning it. To own a game, is to fully experience it. Eventually I asked the people at the rental store if it was possible for me to buy it. They said no. They told me, however, that new consoles were just around the corner. The first PlayStation was arriving soon. They would get rid of their current NES / SNES inventory in a not-too-distant future. I begged them (multiple times) to call me if that moment was there. I NEEDED to have this game.
Well, they didn’t call me. And I remember being so upset it made me cry. I never saw this game in any store whatsoever, and now it seemed gone forever. Remember, nobody heard of emulation yet. And games seemed already rare as they were. At least I got True Lies out of it. It was another fun game I used to rent. But it was no Pac-Man 2.
About a year later, not sure how, my parents managed to find me a copy. I can tell you, my heart exploded with excitement. I finally, fully experienced the game, in my own time, all the time. And an amazing time I had. This was when i called all my friends, and got their infamous reaction, but it didn’t matter in the end. I must have beaten it a few dozen times. Eventually, I knew exactly what to do, and where, and what would happen, and when. What a great game. I have great memories of it.
A few years later still, I had to work for my own money. I had to buy my own games. After the Nintendo 64 era, I got a GameCube. There were a few games coming out that I desperately wanted, like Metroid Prime. The only problem was: I didn’t have enough money to buy these games. So I sold a lot of old SNES games, and one of them, begrudgingly, was this game. I still to this day don’t know why I did it. But fate has it, that eventually, a good friend of mine gave me his copy years down the line. And that one will be in my possession forever now, so it all ended well. I will keep defending this game forever and once in a while, I will boot it up. It’s been a few years now, in fact, and talking about it, makes me want to play it again.
I don’t know if my mind embellished some facts over the years, but this is precisely how I remember it. To my recollection, an honest retelling. Not that the stakes are particularly high for this personal blog – or this article. But you just spent 10 minutes reading a Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures post, so good on both of us. Thanks for reading!
The End