Pac-Man Vs.

Pac-Man Vs. (パックマンvs. Pakkuman Buiesu) is a maze game developed and released by Nintendo in collaboration with Namco in 2003. Originally released for the Nintendo GameCube, this game requires a Game Boy Advance to Nintendo GameCube Link Cable to play.
==Gameplay==
Pac-Man Vs. is a two to four player game that pits one player controlling Pac-Man to eat all the Pac-Dots in the maze, while the remaining players or computer controlled players control the Ghosts, aiming to catch Pac-Man. To play the game, one Game Boy Advance and one Game Boy Advance to Nintendo GameCube Link Cable is required. One of six mazes to play in and the set score needed to win the game (7,000, 10,000 or 15,000 points) are adjusted before starting a game. 
=== Characters ===
Once the options are complete, the game will randomly decide who will control Pac-Man. The player controlling Pac-Man uses the Game Boy Advance’s controls and display to control Pac-Man, while the other player(s) control the Ghosts using the Nintendo GameCube’s controllers and display to control the Ghosts. 
The game will periodically speed up as the game progresses. A round will end when either Pac-Man is caught by a ghost or Pac-Man eats all the Pac-Dots. The game ends when the selected score threshold is reached by a player, who then wins the game.
==== Pac-Man====
The player who is selected as Pac-Man uses the Game Boy Advance’s control pad and display screen to control Pac-Man. The first player to be chosen as Pac-Man will start with 1,600 points. 
Pac-Man is able to see the complete maze from a top down perspective, similar to the arcade original. Like the arcade game, Pac-Man’s goal is to eat all the Pac-Dots in the maze while avoiding the ghosts in order to win the round. Pac-Man moves slightly slower than the ghosts and doesn’t gain a speed boost on corner turns in this game, making him more vulnerable when ghosts are pursuing Pac-Man, though he can still use the Warp Tunnels to fend them off. If Pac-Man eats a Power Pellet within the corners of the maze, he temporarily gains the ability to eat the opposing force and steal doubling point bonuses from other players for each consecutive ghost eaten. In the periodic moments where the Bonus Fruit appears in the maze, Pac-Man can eat the Bonus Fruit for a 400 point bonus.
If Pac-Man is caught by a ghost, the round will end alongside the player controlling Pac-Man having 1,600 points taken from the winning player. The winning player swaps screens with the player that is Pac-Man, and the losing player takes control of their corresponding ghost. If Pac-Man succeeds in eating all the Pac-Dots in the maze, the round ends and that player will get a 1,600 point bonus.
=====Score Table=====
* First to be selected as Pac-Man: 1,600 points
*Pac-Dot: 10 points
*Power Pellet: 50 points
*Bonus Fruit (Cherry, Strawberry, Orange, Apple): 400 points
*Scared Ghosts:
**1st consecutive ghost: 200 points
***Pac-Man will take 200 points from the chomped ghost if it is player-controlled.
**2nd consecutive ghost: 400 points
***Pac-Man will take 400 points from the chomped ghost if it is player-controlled.
**3rd consecutive ghost: 800 points
***Pac-Man will take 800 points from the chomped ghost if it is player-controlled.
*Caught by a ghost: Lose 1,600 points to the player controlling the Ghost
*Maze clear (all Pac-Dots are eaten): 1,600 points
====Ghosts ====
The players controlling the ghosts use the GameCube controllers and use the TV screen to control the ghosts. Each player is assigned one of each different ghost to control: Player 1 controls Red, Player 2 controls Blue, Player 3 controls Pink and Player 4 controls Green.
Unlike Pac-Man, the Ghosts’ view is presented in 3D and can only see a small, circular-shaped portion of their current location in the maze. Though the maze walls are not displayed, the player(s) are able to see their current locations on their screen with a small radar indicating each ghosts’ current position. The Ghosts’ goal is to capture Pac-Man before he eats all the Pac-Dots. Though the ghosts have limited sight, they are able to track Pac-Man by following his glowing trail. On the periodic moments where the Fruit appears in the center of the maze, the Ghosts can eat the Fruit for a point bonus; which also temporarily extends the eating player’s range of vision, allowing the player to locate Pac-Man easier. Ghosts will also slow down if they enter Warp Tunnels. 
If Pac-Man eats a Power Pellet, the ghosts are temporarily vulnerable and are slowed down. If a ghost is eaten by Pac-Man, they will lose points and will automatically run back to the Ghost House and will regenerate their body. The ghosts are able to hide in the Ghost House during Power Pellet effects, where Pac-Man cannot enter.
In the two player and three player game modes, the remaining ghosts not controlled by players are filled in by two, computer-controlled, transparent and grey-colored ghosts (two of them appear in during two player play, while one appears in three player play). The grey ghosts cannot harm Pac-Man (they will simply appear as eyes on Pac-Man's screen), but if a player touches the grey ghost, the grey ghost will take on the color of the ghost that touched it and will be able to catch Pac-Man. The opposing ghost player can touch the computer ghost to change it to their color as well. If the computer ghost catches Pac-Man, the player whose grey ghost has their assigned color will win the round and Pac-Man's 1,600 points will be taken by said player. If the grey ghost is assigned with a color and Pac-Man eats it, the gray ghost will respawn without an assigned color. 
When the remaining Pac-Dot count goes under 25, the Pac-Dots become invisible from the Ghosts' screen. The round ends if one of the ghosts catches Pac-Man. The ghost that caught Pac-Man will take 1,600 points from the player that controlled Pac-Man and will be the next player to control Pac-Man.
===== Score Table =====
* Bonus Fruit (Cherry, Strawberry, Orange, Apple): 400 points
* Chomped by Pac-Man:
** First consecutive ghost to be chomped: Lose 200 points to the player controlling Pac-Man
** Second consecutive ghost to be chomped: Lose 400 points to the player controlling Pac-Man
** Third consecutive ghost to be chomped: Lose 800 points to the player controlling Pac-Man
* Pac-Man caught: Take 1,600 points from the player controlling Pac-Man
===Levels===
Pac-Man Vs. features six (five in the Namco Museum DS version) different mazes, each with its own theme. Similar to the arcade original, the Original Pac-Man maze does not have any background music.
*Original Pac-Man ("Original" in Namco Museum DS)
*Panic Pier (This maze is absent in Namco Museum DS)
*Frantic Forest ("Blocks" in Namco Museum DS)
*R.I.P. Park ("Outer Space" in Namco Museum DS)
*Manic Manor ("Volcano" in Namco Museum DS)
*Haunted Hall ("Lib Rab Woods" in Namco Museum DS)
===Single Console mode ===
The Nintendo Switch version of Pac-Man Vs. included in Namco Museum adds a mode that allows the game to be played by one player and a single console. In the Single Console mode, Pac-Man is always controlled by the computer player and his score tally is not counted, so only the ghosts are playable and can win in this mode. The other computer-controlled ghosts can achieve points in this mode, so the computer-controlled ghosts will win if they reach the score threshold.
==Home Ports ==
*GameCube
** This is the original release version.
**Despite being a major selling point for the GBA Link Cable in the US, the game received very limited releases in other countries. In Japan, the game was only released through the Club Nintendo service for an unknown amount of points. In Europe, the game was only bundled with other software, seemingly none of which was Pac-Man or Link Cable-related.
*Nintendo DS
**A port for the Nintendo DS was included in Namco Museum DS.
***The Nintendo DS version recreates the game’s aesthetic from scratch, redesigning the appearances and themes of the mazes in addition to the replacement of the original themes with new arrangements based on previous Pac-Man and Namco releases.
***The top screen is used for the 3D display, while the bottom screen is used for the maze. 
****This also gives Pac-Man 3D sight of his view and the ghosts.
***Notable differences in gameplay include:
****Bonus fruits are now worth 300 points instead of 400 points.
****The computer-controlled ghosts can now accumulate points.
****The Touch Screen can be used by the Ghosts to emit a light on the radar that appears for all other Ghost players, allowing the Ghost players to alert the other players of a specific area. 
***The original multiplayer method is recreated using the Nintendo DS’ DS Download Play function, which allows up to four Nintendo DS handhelds to play the game with only one Namco Museum DS Game Card. Each player uses their own Nintendo DS screen to control either Pac-Man or the ghosts when selected.
***After the game ends, the players are promted to press the A button to turn off their systems.
*Nintendo Switch
** A remaster of the Nintendo GameCube version is included in the digital collection Namco Museum (2017) and its physical release Namco Museum Arcade Pac. 
***The Nintendo Switch version increases the game’s resolution to 1080p in 16:9 widescreen, as well as increasing the quality of the 2D graphics. In addition, the game adds the Single Console Mode that allows the game to be played by just one player.
***The original multiplayer method can be recreated using two Nintendo Switch consoles. A Nintendo Switch console with Namco Museum can communicate with another console using the “Pac-Man Vs. Free Multiplayer” version of Namco Museum, which can be downloaded for free on the Nintendo eShop. This "free" version of Namco Museum only includes the multiplayer function of Pac-Man Vs. and cannot be played without another Nintendo Switch console using the full version of Namco Museum.
The Japanese mobile game Taisen Pac-Man (released as just "Pac-Man" in Europe) is effectively a successor to Pac-Man Vs., though it is not officially considered a direct port of the game.
==Trivia==
*The game was developed by Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. Miyamoto had always wanted to create his own Pac-Man game before this release, as he considers Pac-Man his favorite game franchise of all time.
*Charles Martinet, Mario's voice actor from 1992 to 2023, dubs over various parts of the game as a narrator in his Mario voice. The narration does not appear in the Namco Museum DS version.
*The game was added as a bonus disc in the Player's Choice edition of Pac-Man World 2. It was also available in other Namco-published GameCube titles, like I-Ninja and R: Racing Evolution.
*Pac-Man Vs. is the only game that requires the usage of both the GameCube and Game Boy Advance. Other games can use these features, but they are not necessary for normal play, only adding bonus content or multiplayer modes.
*In the GameCube and Switch versions, all of the game's music is lifted from Pac-Mania, Pac-Man Arrangement (1996), and Namco Museum Vol. 1.
**The title screen theme uses the Pac-Man game room theme from Namco Museum Vol. 1.
**Panic Pier uses the Block Town theme from Pac-Mania.
**Frantic Forest uses the Pac-Man's Park theme from Pac-Mania.
**R.I.P Park uses the Jungly Steps theme from Pac-Mania.
**Manic Minor uses the Sandbox Land theme from Pac-Mania.
**Haunted Hall uses the Original Pac-Man World theme from Pac-Man Arrangement (1996).
*In the Namco Museum DS version, the game features newly arranged themes for the courses and menu screens, with several arrangements from Namco's arcade titles.
**The Original maze uses an arrangement of the Block Town theme from Pac-Mania.
**The Blocks maze uses an arrangement of the main theme from Pac & Pal.
**The Outer Space maze uses an arrangement of the main theme from Thunder Ceptor.
**The Volcano maze uses an arrangement of the Volcano area from Dragon Spirit.
**The Lib Rab Woods maze uses an arrangement of the main theme from Libble Rabble.
*A popular reaction image of four men looking disinterested (often referred to as just "reaction guys") was taken during the initial E3 announcement of Pac-Man Vs.https://web.archive.org/web/20170406003843/https://www.ign.com/blogs/peer-ign/2008/01/23/confessions-of-a-reaction-guy
*The artwork for Green in-game is a recolored version of Clyde's 1983 stock artwork.
*Unused graphics in the Nintendo GameCube version include the sprites of the panels from the Nintendo puzzle game Panel de Pon (also known as Puzzle League and Tetris Attack), which are found in the data of the Memory Card folder.https://tcrf.net/Pac-Man_Vs.
*Unused graphics found in Namco Museum DS show unused sprites for Clyde, hinting that Clyde may have been intended to be the ghost controlled by the fourth player until they decided to use Green.https://tcrf.net/Namco_Museum_DS
**Other unused graphics also indicated that the Namco Museum DS version of the game may have intended to include connectivity with Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection for online play.
==Gallery==
===Screenshots===
Pmvs-gamecube-ghost.jpg|GameCube (Ghosts' POV)
Pmvs-gamecube-pacman.png|GameCube (Pac-Man's POV)
Pmvs-ds-ghost.png|Nintendo DS (Ghosts' POV)
Pmvs-ds-pacman.jpg|Nintendo DS (Pac-Man's POV)
Pmvs-switch-ghost.png|Nintendo Switch (Ghosts' POV)
Pmvs-switch-pacman.png|Nintendo Switch (Pac-Man's POV)
===Artwork===
Pacman-running.jpg|Pac-Man
Pacman-thumbsup-2d.jpg|Pac-Man
Untitled-1-0.png|Artwork from the Nintendo Switch version.
File:Funky pac-man vs..png|Green (GameCube)
File:GreenSwitchVS.png|Green (Nintendo Switch)
==References==
Category:Games
Category:Pac-Man Games
Category:Console Games