Ms. Pac-Man/Gameplay

Controls

 * Joystick: Use the 4-way joystick to direct Ms. Pac-Man around the mazes. Hold it in direction that you want her to go before she can turn that way, and she will turn as soon as she can.
 * 1 or 2 Player Buttons: Push these buttons to begin a one or two player game.

Ms. Pac-Man
While still primarily a giant mouth like her male predecessor, Ms. Pac-Man incorporates a little more style into her appearance, including lipstick, eye shadow, a red hairbow, and even a beauty mark. Her one and only goal is to gobble up every pellet (and power pellet), in all of the game's mazes. She must avoid contact with the four ghosts unless they are temporarily afraid of Ms. Pac-Man as a result of eating one of the four power pellets. As with the original Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man moves faster when she's not eating pellets than when she is. She is also capable of turning around corners faster than the ghosts, so make as many turns as possible when the ghosts are on her tail. At 10,000 points Ms. Pac-Man receives an extra life by default, but this setting can be modified to 15,000 points, 20,000 points or even disabled altogether. She also dies by spinning around in a clockwise direction rather than folding in on herself, like the original Pac-Man did when he died.

Blinky
He's dropped the name Shadow in favor of his nickname Blinky (even though he was originally known by the names Oikake, Akabei, Urchin and Macky in Japan), but he's still the most likely of all of the ghosts to be on your tail. When he is not in one of his random movement phases, he will attempt to traverse the shortest path between him and Ms. Pac-Man, and will usually lead the pack when pursuing her. As in the original Pac-Man arcade game, his home corner is the top-right.

Pinky
Formerly known as Speedy (or Machibuse, Romp and Micky if you are a Japanese reader), Pinky retains much of the same joystick reading ability that he had in the original Pac-Man. Pinky will attempt to move to the position that Ms. Pac-Man will arrive at shortly, in an attempt to head her off at the pass. His ability is not in effect during the brief random movement phases, and as with the original Pac-Man game, his home corner of a maze is the top-left (like Blinky's is the top-right).

''Note: In the original arcade series, the ghosts' genders are unspecified and assumed to be male (with the exception of Sue). In 1999, the USA division of Namco, Namco Hometech, developed the Pac-Man World series and declared Pinky to be female.''

Inky
Inky (who was originally known by the names of Kimagure, Aosuke, Stylist and Mucky in Japan), is still the bashful ghost of the gang. If Ms. Pac-Man and Inky are about to collide head on, Inky may very well be the one who veers off course first. You should not count on him to do this every time however. He still may have no choice but to collide with you, if he ends up on the opposite side of a tunnel from you. As with the original Pac-Man game, his home corner is in the bottom-right.

Sue
Poor Clyde (who was originally known by the names Otoboke, Guzuta, Crybaby and Mocky in Japan), has been replaced by a new orange ghost named Sue. Even though Sue was depicted as the sassy purple ghost in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon and the later Pac-Land arcade game (which was the first game from Namco to use a Hitachi HD-63701 sub-microprocessor), orange Sue is pretty much the same as Clyde, doing whatever she pleases with little regard to the rest of the pack.

Scared Ghosts
When Ms. Pac-Man eats one of the four power pellets which are positioned in the corners of each maze, the ghosts will turn blue for a short period of time (as you can see in the image to the left). The higher the level, the shorter that time becomes, until the ghosts eventually do not turn blue at all (but they will still reverse their direction). Eating consecutive ghosts while they're scared can earn you 200, 400, 800 and 1600 points if you manage to gobble all four. But you should watch out when they start flashing (as you can see in the image to the right) because they are about to change back to their former ghostly selves, and they will then continue to pursue you in a same manner as they did before.

Rounds

 * Note: After Round 7, the bonus item that appears will be randomly generated, which means that a 5000-point Banana could by followed up by a 100-point Cherries, and vice versa.

Intermissions
Like the intermissions found in Pac-Man, these cut scenes give players a break from the action, as well as providing fans with a glimpse of what the characters' lives are like outside of the game. Ms. Pac-Man's intermissions tell the story of how Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man met, fell in love, and had a baby. Ms. Pac-Man's intermissions are also preceded by a sign & title.
 * Act I - They Meet: Pac-Man enters the screen from the left side being chased by Inky. Ms. Pac-Man enters from the right side being chased by Pinky.  As the two of them are about to collide, they quickly move upwards, causing those two ghosts behind them to collide and disappear.  They face each other at the top of the screen, and a heart appears above them.
 * Act II - The Chase: Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are seen giving each other a playful chase. One of them chases the other across the screen in one direction, and they then take turns alternating who chases who and in what direction across the screen.  After three turns, they have a pause before chasing each other twice more across the screen at a faster speed.
 * Act III - Junior: Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man anxiously awaiting the arrival of a stork, who flies overhead with a bundle. As the stork is about to pass over them, he releases the bundle, which drops to the ground in front of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, and opens up to reveal a baby Pac.  This intermission would later serve as the introductory sequence to Jr. Pac-Man.