| Pac-Man Pinball Advance | |
|---|---|
 North American cover art | |
| Developer | Human Soft |
| Publishers | |
| Series | Pac-Man |
| Platform | Game Boy Advance |
| Release | |
| Genre | Pinball |
| Mode | Single-player |
Pac-Man Pinball Advance is apinballvideo game developed by Hungarian studio Human Soft and published byNamco Hometek for theGame Boy Advance. It was released in North America on May 3, 2005. It is part of thePac-Man video game franchise.
The game switches from normalPac-Man gameplay to a pinball-style video game.Pac-Man Pinball Advance received mixed to negative reviews from critics, who felt that its gameplay was limited.
The game has twoPac-Man styledtables to play on, and both incorporate themes from thePac-Man universe.[2] The ball isPac-Man, who rolls up into a ball and continues to collect pellets much like he did in earlier notes.[2] Like the other games in thePac-Man series, there are four ghosts which wander the pinball tables after Pac-Man eats a power pellet.[2]
The plot of the game focuses on the kidnapping of all the residents of Pac-Land by the four ghosts from thePac-Man series, Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde.[3] The plot is secondary to the gameplay of the game though, and mostly exists just as a premise to explain why Pac-Man is playing on a pinball table.[4] The game does not contain a high scores table.[2]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | 52/100[5] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Game Informer | 7/10 |
| GameSpot | 3.4/10[6] |
| GameSpy |    [7] |
| Nintendo Power | 7/10 |
Pac-Man Pinball Advance received mixed reviews from critics, who thought that there was a lack of content and sub-par graphics; it received a 52% and a 50.40% from review aggregate websitesMetacritic andGameRankings respectively.[8][9]GameSpot's Frank Provo heavily criticized the game for a lackluster graphics engine and its inappropriate physics engine. He called the lack of a high scores table "inexcusable".[2]GameSpy's David Chapman felt that the game managed to capture the feel of thePac-Man series, but ultimately was a bland video game.[3]PALGN's David Low felt that the graphics and physics engine were adequate, but felt that the lack of content and the inclusion of only two pinball tables was the game's weak point.[4]
A sequel titledSuper Pac-Man Pinball for theNintendo DS by Rubik Interactive (nowZen Studios) was scheduled for release in fall 2005.[10] Reasons for cancellation are still not known.
