That's not to say there aren't reasons for that lack of affection and attention. After all, the 1990 TurboGrafx-16 port of this Namco-made Pac-Man platformer, originally released in the arcades five years earlier, was roundly ignored on this side of the pond.
The TG-16's dearth of sales had a lot to do with that, of course, as did the game's age by that time. Also, Pac-Land in any form could be described as antiquated, difficult and repetitive.
Still, I think it has just enough positive attributes to be worth checking out if you're a fan of the genre. The main ones: its graphics, which look like something pulled from a Saturday morning cartoon, and its infectious soundtrack.
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It also has a pretty great instruction manual, as you'll see if you continue scrolling through this write-up. Granted, that's not going to help you enjoy playing the PC Engine version of Pac-Land, but it should help you feel better about owning a copy (if you happen to buy one, that is).
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The highlight of Pac-Land's booklet, in my humble opinion: its abundance of color. Although I've liked a lot of black-and-white PC Engine manuals over the years--the ones made for Don Doko Don, Mizubaku Daibouken and The New Zealand Story are good examples--I usually prefer a bit of color.
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Well, there isn't a single black-and-white spread in this particular manual. Hell, there's only a couple of black-and-white illustrations--both of which can be found in the scan below.
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Every other page of the Pac-Land instruction booklet features illustrations awash in color. Some of them aren't of the highest quality, mind you, but as my mom's always told me, nothing's perfect.
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Thankfully, most of the art that's on offer here is nice enough that no one should regret spending $10 to $20 to obtain it (along with the game's HuCard and outer case, naturally).
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Now that I've wasted a number of sentences discussing and dissecting the quality of the art that appears in the Pac-Land manual, let's change course a bit and chat about the theme that surrounds that art. Specifically, I'm talking about the game's odd "alpine aesthetic," for lack of a better phrase.
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Don't see it? Look at every single depiction of Pac-Man in the scans shared in this post. The old pellet-chomper sports some sort of mountaineering hat in all of them. He also spends a surprising amount of time leaping from log to log and traipsing through forests and fields in this side-scrolling adventure.
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That's just a side note to the rainbow-swathed drawings and screenshots scattered throughout this booklet, though.
And although I can't say I like them more than the ones included in another Namco PC Engine instruction manual, for Valkyrie no Densetsu, they're better than what you'll find in less thrilling manuals--Parasol Star's is an unfortunate example--so you won't hear me complaining anytime soon.
See also: previous 'Manual Stimulation' posts
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