Play Pac-Man Online
Release year: 1986 | Players: 1 player | Developed by Namco
Here, at My Emulator Online, you can play Pac-Man for the NES console online, directly in your browser, for free. We offer more Arcade, Maze and Namco games so you can enjoy playing similar titles on our website. Why don’t you try?
PacMan is no longer a video game, it is one of the great pop icons of our time
Game Review
If you were around for the early days of Pac-Man, you’ve probably dedicated a whole bunch of quarters to the yellow mascot’s quest to eat pellets and dodge ghosts. Thankfully, whether you experienced that arcade craze firsthand or not, gems like Pac-Man are still perfectly lovable today. The addicting gameplay, iconic sounds, and the excitement of securing a new high score are all as powerful today as it was all the way back then. One of the earlier attempts to make the game accessible outside of the arcade, Pac-Man on NES is a solid port that translates the original arcade experience to a home console quite convincingly. There are a few hiccups here and there, as is often expected with older NES titles, but Pac-Man is largely the addictive experience that you remember it being.
Just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few decades, Pac-Man is a game about progressing through a repeating series of mazes by eating every pellet packed within its walls. Complicating matters is a tireless squad of ghosts – Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde – pursuing Pac-Man to the bitter end. These ghosts each float through the maze with impressive speed while Pac-Man guzzles down power pellets. If they manage to corner Pac-Man at any instant, it’s curtains for our hungry hero: he’ll dramatically lose a life by slowly shrinking into nothingness. He’s not totally defenseless against the ghosts, though – Pac-Man can grab special pellets out of the corners of each level that briefly render each ghost vulnerable. He can then eat the ghosts and briefly send them back to the center of the maze, granting him valuable space while he works to clear the maze and move onto the next level.
For practical purposes, the mazes never end, so outside of any existential dread, the sole purpose of Pac-Man is to get the highest score possible. So, survive as long as possible and eat every pellet you can. You get the picture. Along the way, try chaining ghost-eating sprees together and munching on special fruits to boost your high score even, well, higher.
The result of this never-ending chase for high scores is one of the most iconic experiences in all gaming. As the quintessential arcade experience, everyone knows and loves Pac-Man. If you haven’t had a proper dive with the game for yourself, give it a deep look now. The NES version translates that incredible arcade experience quite well, and you don’t have to save up a few rolls of quarters before you can play. You’re free to tackle this classic adventure over and over and over again – as you likely want to, because it carries some of the purest, universally recognized euphoria across the gaming medium. That satisfaction that comes from nailing a new strategy, eating all four ghosts off of one mega pellet, grabbing an extra life in the nick of time, and blowing past your old high score provides a sort of raw accomplishment that you don’t quite find in today’s games. Pac-Man is the real deal. Play a few rounds, won’t you?
Score
9/10
