Pac-In-Time

Nintendo console exclusivePort

Everybody knows what/who Pac-Man is from his heyday in the '80s, but this time, we're getting a whole new adventure of our little eater. Guess his stomach is full, 'cause there's nothing much to eat here, only collecting points. This is much like some Indiana Jones adventure, only your little hero's Pac-Man instead of Harrison Ford.

Released: 1 December 1994
Platforms: Game Boy MS-DOS SNES macOS
Genres: Platformer
Developers: Kalisto Entertainment
Publishers: Namco
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action Fantasy
Country: France
Age ratings: ESRB E
Languages: English
Composers: Frédéric Motte

About

Pac-In-Time is a 1995 platform game developed by Atreid Concept and published by Namco for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy. It is a reskinned version of the 1993 game Fury of the Furries, also developed by Atreid, modified to feature Pac-Man. It was also released for MS-DOS and Mac OS, where the original game was released.

The game is an offshoot from the normal variety of Pac-Man games, in that it does not confine Pac-Man to a maze-like board. Rather, the player controls Pac-Man through various side-scrolling levels, obtaining many different items along the way; the plot does take elements from the earlier Pac-Man games, such as the objective of collecting a certain number of pellets before exiting a level. The game allows the player to access completed levels via passwords that are given every five levels.

›Story

Pac-in-time is the US release of Fury of the Furries. It's exactly the same game. Only the characters were changed: the not-so-known European Tinies (from the Skweek/Super Skweek/Tiny Skweeks/Brainies/Tinies games) were replaced by the widely known Pac-Man.

Keywords

retro

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

In Pac-In-Time, players control Pac-Man in his mission to return to the present day after his nemesis, the Ghost Witch, cast a spell that transported him to his youth in 1975, five years before his debut appearance. The game spans the course of five different worlds with 10 levels each. Levels are designed around solving puzzles and backtracking to previous sections, taking place in environments such as mountains, villages, and castles. The objective of each level is to collect all of the pellets, or "Pac-Dots", found throughout to open up an exit door.

Each level contains around 30 Pac-Dots each, with a counter displayed at the bottom-left of the screen that indicates how many remain. Enemies and obstacles are found throughout that will cause Pac-Man to lose a portion of his life-bar when touched. The Ghosts also appear and will give chase to Pac-Man; he can defeat them by eating a Power Pellet, which will cause them to turn blue and edible.

Development

Pac-In-Time was designed by Atreid Concept, a French video game studio headed by business entrepreneur Nicolas Gaume. Assisting production was Namco Hometek, the North American console game division of Japanese company Namco. Namco Hometek also served as the publisher for the game. Pac-In-Time is a reskin and rebranding of Atreid's older game Fury of the Furries, a puzzle platformer originally released for Amiga, Macintosh and MS-DOS in 1994.

Namco licensed the game's engine from Mindscape, the parent company of Atreid Concept. Namco, who had attempted to get a foothold into the European game market on multiple occasions, decided to make the game a Pac-Man platformer due to the character's worldwide appeal.

Reception

Pac-In-Time was met with a generally favorable reception from publications, and is seen as a unique and innovative title in the Pac-Man series. GamePro magazine commented that it helps represent the character's legacy, and that it was an interesting take on the franchise. The Super Famicom version sold 21,265 copies in its first week on the market.

The game's visuals and presentation were praised by several. Electronic Gaming Monthly liked Pac-Man's cute design and for the game itself having a distinctly-cute style, while also praising the graphics themselves for being bright and colorful, which GamePro agreed with. Reviewing the Game Boy version, Famitsu and Total! Germany said that the graphics had a very cartoony look, but were average for the system.