# Pac-Man, but You're the Ghost

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Pac-Man, but You're the Ghost and 10 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for its original, funny concept of playing Pac-Man as the ghost. The most common caveat is sluggish swipe controls that make turning hard.

## Why people recommend it

- Original, funny concept (2 comments): "Incredible concept. It's a little easy to figure out how to game the pac-man's movement" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48546991)) "I never laughed so hard at a game." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48530562))
- Fun to play (1 comments): "I actually love playing this and would love to see a more polished version." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48527320))

## What people warn about

- Swipe controls sluggish or laggy (4 comments): "The controls in this version are, for lack of a better word, sluggish compared to the tight responsiveness of the originals" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48524638)) "Could be my shitty phone, but the swipe lag is huge. I can swipe ~1s ahead of time and still miss a turn." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48525503)) "The swipe controls are solid trash" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48526754))
- AI-slop quality concerns (2 comments): "I agree on the AI-slop or lack of quality production." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48524633)) "AI slop without the corner easing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48524429))
- Missing corner easing (2 comments): "the lack of corner easing like the original game makes it less fun" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48524427)) "AI slop without the corner easing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48524429))
- Ghost gets stuck in pen (2 comments): "I'm struggling to even leave the ghost pen on iOS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48525252)) "you can't get out of the box" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48525831))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Fly By retro biplane game](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fly.md): 22 recommend
- [Sopwith](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sopwith.md): 18 recommend
- [Pac-Man](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pac-man.md): 9 recommend
- [Atari Tempest arcade game](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tempest.md): 8 recommend
- [Beakdown](https://hackerapproved.com/p/beakdown.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Pac-Man, but You're the Ghost", https://hackerapproved.com/p/pac-man-but-you-re-the-ghost/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).