#15 – Baby Pac-Man 
48 Points, 3 Lists, Top Vote: #7 CJones Production Date: 1982
Manufacturer: Bally Midway
Pop quiz time: Name any pinball/video game hybrid other than Baby Pac-Man. Yes, there are others.
Baby Pac-Man is a prime example of a game that is sought after, not so much because it's particularly good, but because of its novelty value. It's not even that rare a game. About 7000 were made. But it's the only game of its type that has name recognition. I'm not saying the game is bad. Just that no one who plays this game does so because they expect a good video game and/or a good pinball game. Both parts taken alone are actually pretty half-assed. But the combination of the two is what makes it more interesting than the sum of its parts. If I could afford my own private arcade, Baby Pac-Man is one of the first games I would want to get.
Baby Pac-Man is another in the line of Pac-Man games that Midway made themselves, and that Namco had nothing to do with. At the time, Bally was heavily into Pinball manufacturing, and Midway was heavily into exploiting Namco's IP, so it made sense to try and combine the two. Especially at a time when the name "Pac-Man" was virtually a license to print money. However, the combination of what is effectively two completely different games, tended to alienate both pinball fans and Pac-Man fans.
The maze part of the game is brutally difficult. There are no Power Pellets to begin with. You have to play the pinball part to earn them. Despite not having any outlanes, the pinball portion is also pretty difficult. Because the playfield is so small, and the primary targets are in the top center, balls can easily ricochet down the center, or just be moving faster than you can react. You can't actually die during the pinball portion. But you won't be allowed access to it again unless you die, or clear the stage.
<![CDATA[<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/NEX7TqjW3nU" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/NEX7TqjW3nU</a>]]>Fun fact: How many such hybrid games were made? Three. "Caveman" by Gottlieb was the first. Then "Baby Pac-Man" and "Granny and the Gators", both by Bally Midway. Baby Pac-Man is easily the most common of the three.
Up next yet another game with an ape climbing buildings.
Topic: LoC 90: Top 50 Arcade Games Countdown (Read 43996 times)
