# Pac-Man

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Pac-Man and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A simple classic that's fun for playing with friends, including multiplayer versions. One critic finds it boring now; another reports severe flicker in one version.

## Why people recommend it

- Fun with friends and couch multiplayer (3 comments): "What a great game. We played it non stop for the whole semester." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48533480)) "me and my friends had a lot of fun playing it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50330677)) "It was a great couch 3v1 game." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48526438))
- Simple classic improved in fresh ways (2 comments): "Even simple, seemingly rudimentary, games like Pac-Man have been eureka moments for me once they've been blown open for scoring." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48910079)) "it makes a classic game better in such an elegantly simple way" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48536872))
- Appealing variants and new twists (2 comments): "That Pac-Man Vs. looks awesome. I'd love to try that with the full setup on GC." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48527932)) "Really cool had fun with portals" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46366018))

## 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
- [Atari Tempest arcade game](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tempest.md): 8 recommend
- [Pac-Man, but You're the Ghost](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pac-man-but-you-re-the-ghost.md): 5 recommend
- [Beakdown](https://hackerapproved.com/p/beakdown.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Pac-Man", https://hackerapproved.com/p/pac-man/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).