Don’t make your Pac-mamma cry

If you’ve been playing Pac Man with any consistency, chances are pretty good that you’ve been tagged by Blinky, Pinky, Inkey or Clyde. If they tag you, you shrivel up and die, thus causing your Pac-mamma to cry. This is not desirable.

In my previous entry, I offered the three basic rules of Pac Man.

1. Ghosts are scary, and should be avoided.
2. You should eat fruit.
3. You should bide your time and visit terrible bloody vengeance upon those who seek to do you harm.

If you are successful in following those rules, your Pac-mamma will undoubtedly be proud of you. She will post your high scores on her refrigerator. She will brag about you to her friends. She will make you a fruit salad, consisting of all of your favorites – cherries, strawberries, oranges, apples, grapes, bananas, and… keys? Yes. Keys.

So, by following the above simple rules, you will please your Pac-mamma and generally make life easier on yourself. Of course, those rules are very broad. Certainly, they are the foundation of your Pac Man experience, and when you find yourself in a rut, you should focus on those basic guidelines.

But to improve, we need to narrow our focus to some more specific rules:

Clear the trouble spots on the board as soon as possible.

I can’t stress this enough. At the beginning of each level, try to get that bottom row of pellets out of the way. When I rediscovered the game, I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve been trapped between two ghosts at the bottom of the screen. The less time you spend on that bottom row the better.

Also, don’t forget to clear out the little alleys just above the ghosts’ pen whenever you get the chance. If you’re aggressive with power-pellets, they will be returning and barreling down those alleys as soon as they … um… re-ghostify. So be aware.

Make your move early.

Typically, I don’t like to clear the first board without at least 10,000 points. That first board is when the ghosts are most susceptible to the power pellets. You should strive to eat all four of them (good for 3,000) points with each power pellet. So ideally, you should finish the first board around 12,500 points. Any less than 8,000 means you’re being a little too timid. There will be plenty of time for that later, when eating a pellet only causes the ghosts to change direction, rather than even turning blue and blinking.

Some fruit tastes better than others.

This is along the lines of making your move early. Don’t bust your Pac-nuts trying to get to those cherries. They’re only worth 100 points. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not going to do much for you, and the area directly below the ghost pen is an area ripe for being trapped. Strawberries are worth 300 points and oranges give you 500. Both aren’t worth it, in my opinion, although, if you’re certain you have a clear path to either one, by all means take it.

As soon as you get to the apple, though, make it a point to try chomp down on it. At 700 points, that’s worth just over eating two ghosts. Getting the grapes (1,000 points), bananas (2,000) and especially the keys (5,000) are more than worth the trouble, and can make a huge difference in your final overall score. You want a high score, right? Maybe you don’t. And that’s okay. That brings me to the final rule.

Choose your own adventure.

One of the great things about “modern” video games, is that many will allow you to choose different paths in a branching storyline or even customize and upgrade your character as you advance. The same is true of Pac Man as well. As I see it, you have one of three choices: Try to clear levels – survive and advance, try to score points – wreck bloody vengeance on those who seek to do you harm, or a middle ground. It’s entirely up to you. Many Pac Man players will swear by each of these philosophies. Each has its merits, naturally. But to favor one over another is to miss the point of the game. Whatever you do, don’t rigidly adhere to a single one of those paths. It’s when you truly “let go” and allow the game to come to you that you will experience the most success.

Next time, we’ll take a look at how Pac Man applies to our daily lives.