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Does the world need yet another version of Pac-Man? For years, Namco has been trying to shoehorn our rotund yellow friend into any number of game genres with often ghastly results. Nostalgia hound that I am, even I have a hard time getting excited about Pac-Man anymore. 

Now along comes Pac-Man Championship Edition, a game that at first glance is sure to be met with a collective yawn from hardcore gamers. But surprise, surprise you self-proclaimed snobby gaming elite types.  Pac-Man CE is a masterpiece.

The Tao of Pac-Man

The genius of Pac-Man CE can be found in what the game doesn’t try to do.  There is no storyline, no radical changes to the gameplay. Pac-Man doesn’t talk, jump, butt stomp, or carry around a flamethrower. He eats dots and avoids ghosts.

Toru Iwantani, the man who created Pac-Man almost thirty years ago, has taken the basic gameplay of the original and tweaked it to appeal to modern gaming sensibilities. Instead of discreet levels, Pac-Man CE sports a dual maze that fills the two halves of the TV screen. When players consume all of the dots on one side of the screen, a bonus fruit appears on the opposite side.  Eating the fruit replenishes the dots on the empty side and completely changes configuration of the maze.

Pressed for Time 

The other major change is that the game is timed at five or ten minutes. Once the timer runs out, it’s game over. As the minutes tick by, the speed of the game gradually increases. By the end, everything is moving blindingly fast. Purists might scoff, but seeing how long you can play isn’t the point of Pac-Man CE. This game is all about figuring out how to get the highest score with the time you have. It’s not about finishing, it’s about finishing in style.

Some maze configurations contain multiple power pellets. In Pac-Man CE, you can chain together pellet attacks for some astounding score multipliers. More subtly, the longer you go without losing a life, the higher the point value you get for each dot consumed. There are lots of tricks you can try to earn a higher score.  And because each game is quite short, there’s a bit of a “just one more round” feeling you get when playing. The six different game modes, each with a unique progression of evolving mazes should keep players busy for quite a while.
 
Pac-Man Fever

No doubt there are some who just won’t “get it.” It is just Pac-Man after all, right?  Wrong. Pac-Man CE is the first legitimate sequel to Pac-Man in over 25 years. It takes everything that made the original game so compelling and makes it feel fresh and relevant all over again. It’s simple. It’s elegant. It is Pac-Man reborn.

Article by: Greg Bemis