Granny Vinnie Reviews

7800 Rank: Not Ranked Genre: (Action/ French Cartoon) Awards: First 7800 Game About Yogurt Ms. Pac Man Gets a Makeover Pros: Same Great Pac-Man Gameplay, Interesting Items in First Release Package Cons: Only Two Selectable Mazes She Should Sue Her Stylist

Overview: Any game that draws inspiration from the French should come with some sort of warning label, because it is gonna be a weird experience. Pac Pollux combines a beloved franchise with an obscure one (at least to most Americans), and for a few lucky peeps who ponied up the money, it proves to be a successful experiment. The title is a hack of the outrageously popular 7800 version of Ms. Pac-Man that attempts to pay homage to a bizarre French cartoon entitled “Nestor et Pollux”. The cartoon is about a smart rat and a dumb fur-ball named Pollux who are ruled and abused by a triangle that is known as Dieu. Apparently, they can only eat delicious raspberry and disgusting plum yogurt, and the clever rat (Nestor) lies and convinces Pollux to only eat the plum yogurt because the raspberry will get him sick. Does this sound amusing to you? If it does, check out Jerry Lewis. Yeah… the guy with all the kids. The French find him hilarious, too. Buy a beret.

Graphics: To be honest, the game looks pretty good, but there are some hiccups here and there that mar the experience. First off, all of the ghosts have been replaced by the orange Dieu triangle-man. Not four types of Dieu, just four identical Dieus… so the individual ghost personalities have been eliminated. This isn’t very consistent with the cartoon… it would be like four Jons chasing Garfield, but it is no big deal to the uninitiated. Another problem with the triangular antagonists is that it is hard to tell when they are vulnerable to being eaten after Pollux eats the power pill because only the center of the triangle changes color. The blue mazes and plum yogurts (which have replaced the dots) are not as bright and attractive as Ms. Pac-Man’s world… but who can blame them… can you really out-decorate a girl?

Sound: This is pretty much the same audio as Ms. Pac-Man… if not identical. So, this is a good thing.

Gameplay: If you are a Pac-Man pro, you will enjoy this game because it is fast just like the 7800 version of Ms. Pac-Man. Plus, the Dieus seem to be a little more intelligent and aggressive than your normal ghosts, adding to the difficulty. The two mazes featured in Pac Pollux cannot be played anywhere else in the Pac-Man universe, with the 2nd one being a little more unconventional and is much more interesting. The default maze is very similar to the first maze in Ms. Pac-Man. Instead of levels deciding which maze you play, you have the option of cycling between the two throughout the entire game by flipping the difficulty switch on the console. This is a neat little twist to the norm… but four original mazes reached through successful gameplay would be preferred.

Originality: The French cartoon inspired Ms. Pac-Man hack is quite original and a little bizarre, but beneath the surface this is more of the same old same old. Pac-Man freaks will enjoy the new mazes.

Value: This original 15 buyers of this short-run game got quite a deal. They picked up an instruction manual, the cartridge with full color artwork, a talisman (???), and a nifty Pac Pollux Patch (too bad I don’t have a denim jacket anymore) all for $28 bucks. The game has an alternating two player option, level select (featuring Keys and Galaxians), and two new mazes. To a Nestor de Pollux/ Atari 7800 enthusiast, this would be a dream. I hope those two people caught wind of this before they sold out.

Overall: To be honest, this could be a game featuring Homestar Runner, my mom and dad, or the New York Jets, and it wouldn’t change very much about the game. The cartoon tie-in is just a novelty, but for the most part Pac-Man fans will be happy if they can get a hand on this one. On the down side, the graphics are a little bland, some of the cut scenes later in the game seem broken, and the game lacks a little polish. So therefore, the game is not as much fun as Ms. Pac Man, but overall, 7800 fans and French cartoon fans can't go wrong with this one in their collection.

Bonus Points:

***The game was a conversion of an earlier hack made by PacManPlus, gambler172 fueled the insanity, Shawn Jr. made the carts.

***Cartoons about triangles, rats, and yogurts prick your interest? Here’s the link: Nestor et Pollux



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