Ms. Pac-Man/Gameplay

You control Ms. Pac-Man through each maze with the joystick. You must eat every dot and energizer to advance to the next stage. You must avoid contact with the ghosts while they are their normal color.

If you eat an energizer, the ghosts will turn blue, and you may eat them for bonus points until they turn back to their normal color. Ghosts travel at half speed through the side escape tunnels. Use them to get away. A fruit or pretzel will appear from one of the escape tunnels twice per stage and bounce around the ghost pen. Eat the fruit or pretzel for bonus points. They will leave the maze if uneaten.

Controls

 * Joystick: The only control that you need to play, the joystick helps you direct Ms. Pac-Man through the mazes. You can hold the joystick in direction that you would like Ms. Pac-Man to go before she is able to turn that way, and she will turn as soon as possible.
 * 1 or 2 Players: 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 lip stick, eye shadow, a red bow, and even a beauty mark. Her one and only goal is to gobble up every dot (and power pellet) in the maze. 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. Ms. Pac-Man moves faster when she's not eating dots 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.

Blinky
He's dropped the name Shadow in favor of his nickname Blinky, but he's still the most likely of all of the ghosts to be on your tail. When he's not in a random movement phase, he will attempt to traverse the shortest path between him and you, and will usually lead the pack when pursuing you.

Pinky
Formally known as Speedy, Pinky retains much of the same joystick reading ability that he has in Pac-Man. Pinky will attempt to move to the position that Ms. Pac-Man will arrive at shortly, in an attempt to head you off at the pass. His ability is not in effect during the brief random movement phases.

''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 is still the bashful ghost of the group. If Ms. Pac-Man and Inky are about to collide head on, Inky may very well be the one who veers off course first. Don't 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.

Sue
Poor Clyde has been replaced by a new female ghost by the name of Sue. Even though Sue is depicted as the sassy purple ghost in the cartoon and the Pac-Land video game, orange Sue is pretty much the same as Clyde, doing pretty much 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 positioned near the corners of each stage, the ghosts will turn blue for a short period of time. The higher the level, the shorter that time becomes, until the ghosts don't turn blue at all (but they do change direction.) Eating consecutive ghosts while they're scared can earn you 200, 400, 800, and 1600 points if you nab all four. But watch out when they start flashing because they're about to change back to their former ghostly selves.

Scoring

 * Dots: 10
 * Power Pellets: 50
 * 1st ghost: 200
 * 2nd consecutive ghost: 400
 * 3rd consecutive ghost: 800
 * 4th consecutive ghost: 1600
 * Bonus symbols: See stages

Stages

 * Note: This is the first set of instances for the symbols on these stages. After Stage 7, the bonus item that appears will be randomly selected.

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 and a title.
 * Act I - They Meet: Pac-Man enters the screen being chased by Inky. Ms. Pac-Man enters from the other side being chased by Pinky.  As the two of them are about to collide, they quickly move upwards, causing the two ghosts behind them to collide.  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 chases the other in one direction, and they take turns alternating who chases who and in what direction.  After three turns, they chase each other twice more at a faster speed.
 * Act III - Junior: Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man anxiously await 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.