DESCRIPTION

Ms. Pac-Man gets a facelift and a brand new series of adventures with Ms. Pac-Man: Maze Madness. Pac-Land is under attack by Mesmeralda, a horrible witch who has turned the Enchanted Castle into a ghost-ridden haunted house. Adding to the misery is the disappearance of the Princess.

Thanks to Professor Pac and his nifty Pactrometer, Ms. Pac-Man can pass through the force fields separating the four Wonders of Pac-Land: CleoPactra, Pac Ping Harbor, Crystal Caves and Haunted Halloween. To save the day and prevent darkness and chaos from spreading, Ms. Pac-Man must find retrieve one Gem of Virtue (Truth, Wisdom, Generosity and Courage) from each of the four lands.

Ms. Pac-Man: Maze Madness gives you a three-quarter perspective, top down view of each of the game's 180 scrolling mazes. There is much to do in each land. As you guide this female version of Pac-Man around the pathways, you must eat all the Pac-Dots, search for hidden areas and collect cherries, strawberries, peaches and other fruits. You must also contend with Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Sue, ghosts who follow you around and make your journey difficult. To temporarily turn the tables on your foes, you can eat one of several Power Pellets, which make you invincible and give you a hankering for ghosts.

In addition to ghosts, you must also contend with other maze-roaming enemies and a number of obstacles new to the Ms. Pac-Man universe. These include sphinxs, alligators, centipedes, hellhounds, falling boulders, ice corridors, bolts of lightning, nitro boxes and more. A number of puzzle elements have also been introduced, such as opening and closing switches and gates, pushing buttons, finding keys to unlock doors and pushing moveable blocks to access areas. Other elements of gameplay include moving platforms, warp portals and popper pads (for jumping). Despite all the activity, no buttons are used in regular play, only the control pad or stick.

Ms. Pac-Man: Maze Madness also features a number of multi-player games. Dot Mania is a race to see who can be first to eat 80 Pac-Dots. If you get hit by a ghost, you lose ten dots. You can grab moneybags to make other players lose dots, don sneakers to run faster, dash chili pepper to burn other players and gobble cake to become big and indestructible. You can even generate lightning to shock other players.

In Ghost Tag, players begin the game as ghosts! When you see the Ms. Pac-Man icon, try to get to it so you can become Ms. Pac-Man. Once you assume the role of the feminist dot-gobbler, begin munching Pac-Dots as fast as you can. If you are a ghost, try to catch Ms. Pac-Man so you can turn into her. The first player to eat 50 Pac-Dots is the winner.

Dr. Bomb randomly chooses a player to hold a bomb that counts down from 30 seconds. To get rid of the bomb by passing it to another player, simply tag that player. When the timer reaches zero, whoever has the bomb gets blown up; bombed players turn into ghosts. When you're a ghost, you can maneuver around the maze and block other players. The winner is the last non-ghost player.

Classic Ms. Pac-Man is also included in the package. There are four different non-scrolling, 2D mazes, each of them filled with Pac-Dots that you must eat. For bonus points you can gobble one of four Power Pellets in order become invincible and turn the tables on your enemies, those four pesky ghosts. You can also munch fruit treats that bounce around the mazes. When you clear a maze, you move on to the next.

Ms. Pac-Man: Maze Madness lets you save your game data and progress by using eight pages of Controller Pak memory. ~ Brett Alan Weiss, All Game Guide