Sentences written about this title, gathered by type from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles (as of 2026-8-30).
Programmer Steve Golson said: "In the span of just two weeks, it went from Crazy Otto to Super Pac-Man to Miss Pac-Man.
Shortly before release, Stan Jarocki of Midway stated that Ms. Pac-Man was conceived in part as a response to the original Pac-Man being "the first commercial videogame to involve large numbers of women as players", and it was "our way of thanking all those lady arcaders who have played and enjoyed Pac-Man".
This is corroborated by marketing chief Michael Leone of the Castle Park Entertainment Center, who noted his company "noticed a recent trend in our game pavilions that indicates a tremendous female acceptance of the Pac-Man game", further noting it "was only natural for Midway...to introduce a Ms. Pac-Man".
In an interview, Macrae said: "We sent out ROMs to Midway, and they sent them over to Japan for the President of Namco, Masaya Nakamura, to look at.
In 2001, Namco released an arcade board with both Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga in honor of the 20th anniversary of both games with the subtitle "20 Year Reunion / Class of 1981".
This settlement stated that GCC members would be paid royalties by Midway for usage of Ms. Pac-Man in commercial contexts.
Presiding Judge Vince Chhabria stated that "all involved parties [had] resolved the case of their own accord.
InfoWorld stated that Atarisoft's Ms. Pac-Man for the Commodore 64 was as good as the best-selling Atari 8-bit version.
Computer Games magazine called the Commodore 64 version a "Spectacular" and "Incredible" conversion, while stating that the Atari 5200 and IBM PC versions suffered from limitations, but were nevertheless "enjoyable" ports.
Reviewing the Super NES version, three of Electronic Gaming Monthlys four reviewers said the gameplay is timeless and universally appealing, and the enhancements appealing.
Julian Rignall reviewed the Atari Lynx port for CVG Magazine, writing that "it offers a fun and non-violent challenge which will appeal to anyone" giving a final score of 79 out of 100.
Les Ellis reviewed the game for Raze in February 1991, stating that he liked the "neat little between-level scenes" and the "jolly title tune", and giving the game a final score of 79%.
Reviewing the Game Gear version, GamePro commented "If you loved the Pac-Man games, then you loved Ms. Pac-Man, and if you loved Ms. Pac-Man at the arcades, you'll love her here, too."
In 1997, Electronic Gaming Monthly listed the Genesis and Super NES versions as number 89 on their "100 Best Games of All Time", stating that the "Two-player simultaneous play and new mazes completely revive this classic.
In 1999, Next Generation listed Ms. Pac-Man as number 41 on their "Top 50 Games of All Time", commenting: "It sounds easier than it is, and it makes the game one we consistently go back to, week after week.
In 2009, Game Informer put Ms. Pac-Man tenth on their list of "The Top 200 Games of All Time", saying that it "trumped [the original Pac-Man] in nearly every way".
In 2016, Ms. Pac-Man placed fifth on Times "The 50 Best Video Games of All Time" list.
It is a sequel to Pac-Man (1980), and the first entry in the series to not be made by Namco.
Shortly before release, Stan Jarocki of Midway stated that Ms. Pac-Man was conceived in part as a response to the original Pac-Man being "the first commercial videogame to involve large numbers of women as players", and it was "our way of thanking all those lady arcaders who have played and enjoyed Pac-Man".
This is corroborated by marketing chief Michael Leone of the Castle Park Entertainment Center, who noted his company "noticed a recent trend in our game pavilions that indicates a tremendous female acceptance of the Pac-Man game", further noting it "was only natural for Midway...to introduce a Ms. Pac-Man".
Reporter Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times reported that the game made its public debut on February 3, 1982, "in typical showbusiness style at a press conference at the Castle Park Entertainment Center in Sherman Oaks.
Pac-Man's Arcade Party was succeeded in 2018 by Pac-Man's Pixel Bash, which added 19 games to the existing roster, but Ms. Pac-Man was only available if the machine was set to Free Play.
However, the game and its title character have suffered legal ownership issues between Namco and General Computer Corporation.
While Crazy Otto was in development, GCC settled a lawsuit with Atari, Inc. over their Missile Command conversion kit Super Missile Attack.
Regarding legal issues in later years, the character's final official, playable appearance was in a Pac-Man crossover event for Sonic Dash in 2018, while her final official appearance whatsoever was as a minor cameo in the background of the Pac-Land stage in Super Smash Bros.
Bandai Namco, upon learning that AtGames had been seeking these rights for a possible mini-arcade game, filed a lawsuit against AtGames alleging AtGames misrepresented itself as licensed to make Ms. Pac-Man products, and created Ms. Pac-Man mini-cabinets under those claims.
InfoWorld stated that Atarisoft's Ms. Pac-Man for the Commodore 64 was as good as the best-selling Atari 8-bit version.
In STart, Clayton Walnum praised the Lynx version's new mazes and the added twist of the lightning power-ups, and found the game transferred well to the small screen.
In 1996, Electronic Gaming Monthly reported that the Genesis version of Ms. Pac-Man, which was released in 1991, was still among the top 20 best-selling Genesis games.
The arcade version was not released in Japan, but Namco licensed it as a derivative work.
Among those never released in Japan is Microsoft Return of Arcade: Anniversary Edition (Windows), released in 2000.
Beginning with the Arcade Archives release of Pac-Land in 2022, the Ms. Pac-Man character has been removed from games which previously featured her.
The character had also been removed from the Arcade Archives release of Tinkle Pit in 2024, which saw Pac-Man replace Ms. Pac-Man's appearances in the game.
However, due to previous legal action with Atari, Inc., GCC was forced to present the project to Midway Manufacturing, the North American distributor of Pac-Man.
Les Ellis reviewed the game for Raze in February 1991, stating that he liked the "neat little between-level scenes" and the "jolly title tune", and giving the game a final score of 79%.
The sentences quoted on this page were taken from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles exactly as they stand. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) — usable under those terms. They are the work of the people who wrote them.