Pac-Man
Ranked 3 of 6 arcade games by recommenders
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.
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.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 82%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 4.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fun with friends and couch multiplayer
“What a great game. We played it non stop for the whole semester.”
Comment from 14 Jun 2026 in “Pac-Man, but You're the Ghost” “me and my friends had a lot of fun playing it”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Pac-Man's Siren Call” “It was a great couch 3v1 game.”
Comment from 14 Jun 2026 in “Pac-Man, but You're the Ghost” Simple classic improved in fresh ways
“Even simple, seemingly rudimentary, games like Pac-Man have been eureka moments for me once they've been blown open for scoring.”
Comment from 14 Jul 2026 in “Ask HN: Does anyone let AI agents play games just for fun?” “it makes a classic game better in such an elegantly simple way”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Pac-Man, but You're the Ghost” Appealing variants and new twists
“That Pac-Man Vs. looks awesome. I'd love to try that with the full setup on GC.”
Comment from 14 Jun 2026 in “Pac-Man, but You're the Ghost” “Really cool had fun with portals”
Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Pac-Man with Guns”
Other arcade games people recommend
The four most recommended other arcade games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fly By retro biplane game | 22 | 7 | 76% | 4 | — | Approved |
| Sopwith | 18 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Pac-ManThis page | 9 | 2 | 82% | 5 | — | — |
| Atari Tempest arcade game | 8 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| Pac-Man, but You're the Ghost | 5 | 10 | 33% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
10 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“me and my friends had a lot of fun playing it”
“Pacman is, honestly, boring as shit now.”
“the flickering is so severe that it impacts the collision detection”
“Even simple, seemingly rudimentary, games like Pac-Man have been eureka moments for me once they've been blown open for scoring.”
“it makes a classic game better in such an elegantly simple way”
“What a great game. We played it non stop for the whole semester.”
“That Pac-Man Vs. looks awesome. I'd love to try that with the full setup on GC.”
“It was a great couch 3v1 game.”
“still have active global leaderboards”
“Really cool had fun with portals”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.