Platform: Arcade
Region: NTSC-U
Country: United States of America
Developer(s): General Computer Corporation
Publishers(s): Bally Mfg. Corp. | Midway Manufacturing
ReleaseDate: 1983-10-18
Players: 2
Co-op: No
Jr. Pac-Man is a 1983 arcade maze chase video game developed by General Computer Corporation and released by Bally Midway in the USA on October 18, 1983. Jr. Pac-Man is the eighth game in the Pac-Man series and the fifth and final game in the Pac-Man series to be developed without Namco's involvement. The core gameplay of Jr. Pac-Man is similar to its predecessors. The player controls the eponymous Jr. Pac-Man (who wears an animated propeller beanie), and scores points by eating all of the dots in the maze, while four ghosts (Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Tim, who replaces Clyde) chase him around the maze and attempt to catch him. Eating a power pellet turns the ghosts blue, briefly allowing the player to eat them for extra points. Once the maze is cleared, a new maze is presented and the gameplay continues. The mazes are now twice the width of the monitor and scroll horizontally. A total of seven mazes appear throughout the game, and five of them have six power pellets instead of four, but none of them have tunnels that wrap around from one side of the screen to the other. Bonus items (such as tricycles, kites, and balloons) appear in each round, starting above the ghosts' lair and moving around the maze as in Ms. Pac-Man. As an item encounters dots, it changes them into larger ones that award more points but slow Jr. Pac-Man down while he is eating them. After a certain length of time, the item will move toward one of the remaining power pellets (if any) and explode on contact if not eaten, destroying both itself and the pellet. Contact between Jr. Pac-Man and a non-vulnerable ghost costs the player one life and makes any large dots either disappear or revert to normal ones, depending on how many dots overall are left in the maze. The between-level intermissions show the developing relationship between Jr. Pac-Man and a small red ghost named Yum-Yum who is apparently the daughter of Blinky.
Trailer: YouTube
ESRB Rating: E - Everyone
Genre(s): Action