YMMV / Pac-Land

• Once Original, Now Common: This game was groundbreaking when it was first released in 1984. It was the first side-scrolling platforming game, utilized parallax-scrolling before many consoles were even capable of natively doing it (though Pac-Land wasn't the first game to utilize this trick), and was even the first mascot platformer. However, games like Super Mario Bros. (which itself was influenced by Pac-Land) further refined the platforming genre, making Pac-Land look dated in comparison with the game's rudimentary control scheme (two buttons to move left and right instead of a joystick/D-pad) and its level-design being simplistic for today's standards. These days, Pac-Land is seen as archaic, but even then it still gets some respect from some fans (as its appearance as a stage in the later Super Smash Bros. games shows) because if there was no Pac-Land, there would be no Super Mario Bros.. The Famicom port suffers the worst of this; not only was it a Porting Disaster, it had the misfortune of releasing in Japan after Super Mario Bros. did.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Pac-MILF"^ExplanationWhen the game got rereleased as part of the Arcade Archives collection, it was discovered that Ms. Pac-Man was replaced with a new character named Pac-Mom due to legal disputes over the original character. Redditors quickly mocked the rename.
  • "MS Paint graphics"^ExplanationWhen Pac-Land became a stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, players unfamiliar with the game mocked the stage for its "MS Paint graphics".
• Porting Disaster: The Famicom version. Although Namco had a pretty good track record with their home conversions looking and playing faithfully to their arcade originals, this wasn't one of them. While other versions of the game during the 80s at least tried to look faithful to the arcade original, the Famicom version's graphics have been panned by gamers. The sprites are tiny, the colors are dull, there's no 2-Player mode, the ghosts don't drive cars for some reason (the sprites are still in the game's files but for some reason go unused), the game maps the move buttons to A and B (though controller 2 uses a more traditional D-Pad control scheme), and the game loops back after Trip 4, meaning half of the levels from the arcade game were cut. Even people who say the arcade version looks like it was drawn in MS Paint admits the Famicom version looks much worse. Even more baffling is that when Nintendo wanted to release Pac-Land on the Wii U eShop to commemorate the game's inclusion in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U as an unlockable stage, this was the version that was released instead of the superior arcade original that was featured in Smash.
• Polished Port: The TurboGrafx-16 version. It not only looks and plays exactly like the original, but sports an alternative control scheme that makes Pac-Man move with the D-Pad instead of the face buttons, animated "Coffee Break" segments that play every two trips (eight rounds), an improved soundtrack, and a very basic ending. The only downside is that the graphics are slightly worse than the original (as in, no parallax scrolling).
• Scrappy Mechanic: The ponds. Inspired by Track & Field, you need to get a running start and jump off a springboard at the moment it's at its lowest point, similar to the springs in Super Mario Bros.. Here, however, you also need to rapidly tap the direction button you're going in to float over the pond. If you don't tap fast enough, Pac-Man will fall slightly towards the water and possibly ruin the jump (and in later levels, it's all but guaranteed that one slip up equals death). Even still, you may be in a situation where you look like you'll just barely make it, only to hit the ledge of the pond's opposing side and sink. Beginners could get stuck as soon as round 3 because of how unintuitive this maneuver is, with new players being likely to jump off the springboard and dive straight into the water. Your only hint that floating over the ponds is even possible is that Pac-Man runs faster if you double-tap the direction buttons.
• That One Level: The Pro Mode in the TurboGrafx-16 version is a whole new set of more difficult levels. The difficulty comes from the ghosts being extremely quick in everything compared to Pac-Man's slow movement. Their starting speed in the first Pro level is faster than the final main level, and this speed keeps increasing up to a point that the player needs to react in advance to slowly maneuver the bullet-fast ghosts.