I only play one arcade game: Ms. Pac-Man.

Not Pac-Man Jr., four-person Pac-Man or simply old Pac-Man.

Do not. As true feminists, we have only one Pac-Man in this house: madam.

This is not because I am excellent in this area. In fact, when it comes to dedicated players, I am pretty mediocre. If it is in the lower 100,000 range, I usually only get a high score on the machine.

But this is an arcade game that I have played since I was a kid, thanks to the dedication my mother inherited. I remember watching her playing with the Pac-Man machine at Gigglebee's when I was a child. Looking at the screen, she ate some or barely wiped the notorious little fan (the worst ghost).

Nevertheless, I still have a dream: if one day I get the highest score on every Pac-Man machine in the city, I will become the (professed) ultimate Sioux Falls Pac-Man champion.

I persuaded my editor in some way that I could write it as an article, and I took my Twitter followers on my journey last week.

Alas, I failed. I didn't even break 100,000 in any location (I don't really want to break my best score, just get a high score and leave because I have to play in eight locations within six hours).

Although I did not get the title of Ultimate Sioux Falls Ms. Pac-Man, I did learn something in the process. Ms. Pac-Man is not only a fun game to kill time, but also the cohesive force of the entire city.

I also found out which machines are good for playing and which...not too fun to play.

This is my ranking of the Sioux Falls Lady Pac-Man machine:

The Bayi Arcade Bar has only opened for a little over a year and a half in downtown Sioux Falls, but it has become a favorite place for people and they are looking for a fun place to spend their weekend late night.

Because of this, their Pac-Man machine is so popular that the joysticks are broken. This makes playing games very difficult, not to mention getting high scores on the machine. Due to this small inconvenience, I could not even pass the first round of Pac-Man.

Hopefully, EightyOne Arcade Bar will get a new machine or repair their joystick as soon as possible. Otherwise, can I make you interested in the game of dance revolution?

The hotel arcade is interesting. The hotel swimming pool is also very interesting. But on the second floor of the pool area is the arcade of the Ramada Hotel, creating a humid environment.

This is not to say that it is not a good machine or an interesting place. I just want to say that if you sweat easily when playing high-intensity games (yes, Ms. Pac-Man can make your heart beat faster), then when you finish a game at Ramada, you will get wet.

Since it is a complete arcade machine designed for children, you must also purchase a prepaid card to play on the Pac-Man machine, with a minimum consumption of $5. Unless you want to pay $5 on a machine, you can also play several other games (including the Flappy Bird game) after you finish playing Pac-Man.

One of the main things I realized in this task is that I hate the Ms. Pac-Man 20th Anniversary machine very much. I grew up on a fast-paced Ms. Pac-Man machine, not the numbingly slow pace of the original version (sorry, purist).

However, this is just personal preference. The three machines in Sioux Falls are all 20th anniversary editions (Monks, Ramada, and Outlaw Tattoo). Except for the 80th arcade machine, these are the only places where I didn't get high scores.

Other than that, I like everything about the Monks location. I just can't get rid of the slow pace of the game.

The beer is great, the pizza is great, and the atmosphere is great-if you have no problem with raw speed, this is a great place to play Pac-Man or pinball.

If you want to automatically get high scores in the Miss Pac-Man contest, please go to Sport Bowl.

I like this machine very much. The speed is good, the joystick is smooth, and the graphics on the machine are not too old.

But when I walked over to play Ms. Pac-Man, the front desk staff followed me to the arcade area of ​​the bowling alley and opened the extension cords that were inserted in all arcade games.

I think you have to save utilities in some way, but when it is a blank piece of paper, it will definitely diminish my high score achievement (and know that my high score will be erased after a few minutes of leaving)

This is a great machine, but high scores are reset regularly. You must also purchase a prepaid card to play any game on the arcade machine.

Besides, this is an interesting place.

However, you may wish to have a child 12 or younger to accompany you so that you do not become a single adult in the children's playground.

As I said before, I hate the 20th anniversary machine.

However, if you want to participate in any 20th Anniversary competition in Sioux Falls, you'd better participate in the competition at Outlaw Tattoo & Piercing.

From the talking Hannibal Lecter when entering the door to the eclectic decorations, simply sitting inside is a fun atmosphere.

The game is slow, the machine will eat about a quarter of your investment, but this is a table game, so you can sit down for more than two hours, it will take you to beat the high score of 210,460 (this is what I lost The place of hope to get the ultimate Sioux Falls high score).

When you play for so long, you can also get a tattoo of Ms. Pac-Man.

Well, Fuddruckers' machine should actually be much lower in the list. For decades, it was so old that the graphics faded and the label peeled off from child abuse. But I have an emotional connection to the Fuddruckers machine that sits down.

After eating burgers and steak and chips with my family when I was young (but sometimes persuading them to buy me a milkshake), I would sit down and play Pac-Man games with my mom for over an hour-compete to see who can get more Good score.

Soon after, I surpassed her and got high scores regularly, and I missed the lazy nights where we could waste a lot of time playing games.

Easily become the best Pac-Man machine in Sioux Falls? In my opinion, the vinyl taco social club.

Not only is it a fast-paced version of the game, but you can also play 80s rock music on the bar’s sound system. 

Whenever I meet friends in Vinyl Taco, they know that I will spend at least half an hour playing with Pac-Man before I can sit down and enjoy the giant margarita. It is just appropriate.

Did I miss the Pac-Man machine in Sioux Falls? Or did you get the ultimate Sioux Falls Lady Pac-Man champion status? Please let me know via mhuber@argusleader.com