# Retro Game: Pac-Land ## Overview *Pac-Land* is a revolutionary title that took its iconic hero out of the maze and dropped him into the world of side-scrolling platformers. In this vibrant adventure, players control a newly bipedal Pac-Man on a quest to guide a lost fairy from under his hat back to her home in "Fairyland." It was a radical departure for the series, trading the claustrophobic mazes for sprawling, colorful landscapes filled with new challenges and classic enemies. ## Background Released by Namco in arcades in 1984, *Pac-Land* is a historically significant video game. It was one of the very first games to feature multi-layered parallax scrolling, a graphical technique that creates an illusion of depth and which would become a staple of the platforming genre. Its design and gameplay mechanics are widely cited as a major influence on later masterpieces, most notably Nintendo's *Super Mario Bros.* The game's visual style was directly inspired by the popular Hanna-Barbera *Pac-Man* cartoon series, which is why Pac-Man is depicted with arms, legs, and a face. ## Gameplay The gameplay in *Pac-Land* is a complete shift from its predecessors. Players control Pac-Man by running and jumping from left to right through a series of stages, or "trips." The primary objective of each trip is to safely reach the end and return the fairy. The ghost gang—Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde—return as the primary antagonists, but now they chase Pac-Man in vehicles like cars, buses, and airplanes. Scattered throughout the levels are Power Pellets, which, when eaten, allow Pac-Man to temporarily turn the tables and chase down the ghosts just like in the original game. After successfully returning the fairy, Pac-Man must complete a return trip, racing against the clock back to his family home, all while using his jumping skills to navigate the terrain.