Ms. Pac-Man (Arcade Classics) (Philips CD-I) Longplay

This is the obscure CD-I port of Ms. Pac-Man, played via the Arcade Classics Namco Compilation. This port may seem familiar to those who know the Tengen ports of Ms. Pac-Man (NES, Genesis, Master System, SNES), and that's because, well, it is like those ports, but at the same time it isn't, there's a key difference that separates this one from the others. The Big, Mini, and Strange maze sets most are familiar with? They've been ditched in favor of brand new maze sets never seen in any other port. They're essentially the highlights of this port, and range from pretty wacky, to very difficult, mostly the "very difficult" part, as some contain areas where it's easy to get sandwiched. Disappointingly, each maze set (minus the "Arcade Levels" set) has 5 levels, which loop endlessly until the game is over.

Another difference is its difficulty selection. Firstly, let me just say it, there's no Pac-Booster (sort of, I'll get to that in a bit), which makes it harder to outrun ghosts that are giving chase. Second, there's only 3 difficulty options, Easy, Hard, and Manic (with "Manic" replacing the "Crazy" difficulty of the Tengen games, gutting the "Normal" difficulty entirely). While the former two aren't particularly special, the "Manic" difficulty has Ms. Pac-Man moving fast while the ghosts have their normal speed, akin to Tengen's Pac-Booster I mentioned earlier. However, you may be thrown off after a bit, as after stage 3, the ghosts begin to match the speed of Ms. Pac-Man.

Despite some shortcomings, I am a fond of this port of Ms. Pac-Man. It doesn't have a lot of coverage, and that may be due to the complications with CD-I emulation and the CD-I console in general (it has a currently waning battery life that bricks the system if it dies), which is why it's about time I've uploaded footage for this game, emulated of course. The main goal was to get up to stage 6 or beyond, which fully showcases all 5 mazes in each of the 4 maze sets. Should also mention that the sound bugs out and goes silent at some points, this is LIKELY an emulation error.

0:00 Bootup and Arcade Levels (Easy)
27:35 Battle Zones (Hard/Manic)
44:44 Team Spirit (Manic)
1:01:12 Death Traps (Manic)
1:10:30 Speed Mazes (Manic)