Pac-In-Time

Pac-In-Time is a platform game, that was released by Namco Hometek for the SNES and Game Boy systems on January 3, 1995; it follows on from the events of Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures, which was released in the previous year. After Pac-Man "chewed up" the Gum Monster for the Ghost Witch of Netor (who no longer looks like an evil version of Taira no Kagekiyo from Genpei Tōma Den or the female equivalent of Dr. Bakuda from Beraboh Man), she cast a spell on him, which sent him back to 1975 - five years before he was even thought of and while videogames were still in their infancy. The time-travelling spell had an unfortunate side effect to Pac-Man; he grew younger until he reappeared as a Pac-Boy. The game is somewhat like a cross between original Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros..

Pac-Boy, as he will now be referred to for the remainder of this guide, must now make it through five 1970s-style worlds (each one comprised of ten areas, for a total of fifty levels) in order to get back to his own time; he now has a power to shoot fireballs at any non-ghost enemy like the aforementioned Mario Brothers did after they grabbed a Fire Flower in their games, but power pellets are (as always) the only way to defeat the ghosts, when they do appear. He can also employ the use of a hammer to destroy obstacles, a bubble so he can breathe underwater (the equivalent of the Water Barriers from Sonic the Hedgehog 3), and a hook so he can latch on to the ceilings of some areas - but in some of the areas he will not have a certain item at the outset, so you will have to find it in order to collect the pellets you cannot reach without it. Namco's mascot is also, after 8 years, back under player control; this was also the only Pac-Man game to allow players to turn the music (and sound effects) off in the options menu, as well as create the illusion of not having a scoring system (like both s).