In the last few years I have noticed a trend regarding Ms. Pac-Man as well as Ms. Pac-Man/Galage 20th Anniversary arcade machines. Ms. Pac-Man seems to be moving as if she just snorted a line of coke! At first I thought I was just imagining things, but then I would go back to Namco Museum 50th Anniversary on the PS2 and Xbox and both versions have her moving at a regular pace.

And it wasnt just the one location. Literally every single one of these machines were changed to make her move much faster than the ghosts. I asked about this at highscore.com and they have a category for it called "Turbo Ms. Pac-Man." I had asked a clerk (who appeared to be about 10 years younger than me) about why she was moving so fast and he said "thats how it always was in the original arcade" um yeah sure...

The other day I was at Mall of America and I noticed Galaga had been sped up as well. I noticed the high score was almost at 1 million which is about 3 times higher than some of the highest scores Ive seen for Galaga at its normal speed.

I dont know the logic behind speeding up these games. Did every arcade operator get together and say "studies have shown that gamers prefer a fast-paced Pac-Man." It makes the game somewhat easier because you can outrun the ghosts but you need faster reaction time to make it around the corners.

Am I the only one who wants to play these games as they were originally intended? Its hard enough finding an arcade machine that isnt a light gun or racing game as it is, even harder to find one that is working the way the game designers intended it to.