As one comedian whose name escapes me once said in the mid nineties, "I don't believe that computer games have any effect on the behaviour of young people today. Or else they would all spend their time in darkened rooms, bouncing around the walls whilst popping pills and listening to endlessly repetitive music. Oh, wait...."

Released in 1987, Pac-Mania builds on the original game by introducing much-improved graphics, bigger and more varied mazes and a fixed, 3D isometric viewpoint. As before, the aim of the game is to collect all of the pills distributed throughout the levels whilst avoiding bumping into ghosts, with power-ups once again available that temporarily allow Pac Man to eat the ghosts instead, at which point they revert to a pair of eyes and flee back to their pen in the centre of the map to regenerate. This time around however Pac Man can jump over his foes, adding an extra dimension to the gameplay.

The visuals are a huge improvement on the garish and blocky graphics of the original, whilst the zany and bombastic midi score adds a lot of enjoyment as well. Whilst he original game consisted of a single static maze, Pac Mania instead consists of four different types of level, namely the lego-like Block Town, Pac Man Theatre, Sandbox land and Jungly Steps, and a camera follows Pac Man throughout the large mazes as he moves around, the screen scrolling up and down and left and right.

Whist Pac Mania is perfectly playable and entertaining, the scrolling and jumping features are only minor embellishments on the original format, and the original static maze design of the first game represents a more pure gaming experience with less distraction. That said, Pac Mania still remains an entertaining and enjoyable arcade experience, with charming music and visuals to boot.