Pac-Man Championship Edition

"Now THIS is how you do a Pac-Man update."

Of all the attempts throughout the years, Namco Bandai has finally found a way to reinvent the wheel. Pac-Man Championship Addition is a must own for fans of the original and Ms. Pac-Man. Other updates to Pac-Man have tried going isometric and 3D and unfortunately were just forgettable games. Ms. Pac-Man scored a homerun because it changed up the mazes and added a sense of variety. That's where it stopped.... Until now! I am pleased to report that Pac-Man Championship Edition is an excellent game that will keep you glued to your Xbox 360 for hours and hours on end.

What makes this game so great is the brilliance in its simplicity. The graphics are largely reminiscent of the original game yet the mazes have been given a sort of techno flair for lack of a better way to put it. Pac-Man is surrounded by neon glowing walls as you navigate him through the maze and avoid the ghosts. So what is new about this? I'll tell you; the entire formula has been reworked to where it stays the same and yet has a whole new feel.

Gone are the mazes of old. They are replaced with a new maze system that is sheer brilliance. Time is the main factor in this new game. As you go through the maze and eat the pellets and power pellets, you don't stop until the game time is over. Game times are either five or ten minutes long and you continue playing until the time runs out. When you have eaten all of the pellets and power pellets on one half of the maze, a stationary piece of fruit appears on the opposite side. When you eat the fruit the empty maze half is completely altered and the pellets and power pellets are replaced. You navigate Pac-Man back and forth between the maze halves back and forth, avoiding ghosts or eating them in order to score points, until the time is over. Like I said; simple yet brilliant. Another piece of brilliance is the way you can double up on power pellets to eat the ghosts. Once you have eaten all four ghosts, if the "power pellet music" is still going after they have returned to their home base, regenerated, and re-emerged, you can eat another power pellet and double up on points and attack them again. It's a great way to accumulate points fast.

There are various modes of play presented here. Each one keeps the same basic formula yet has a slight variation of play. Most of which are just different maze designs or the difference between playing for five or ten minutes. One Challenge mode actually makes you play the game where you can't see the maze at all. Pac-Man seems to illuminate the walls directly surrounding him yet you can't see anything beyond that. The pellets are visible but once you have eaten them, you won't see anything else until you eat the fruit and a whole new maze is generated. It's very challenging and a whole lot of fun. Another added bonus just comes with the achievements and leadership boards standard to Xbox Live Arcade games. It all adds to the feeling of accomplishment when playing this update to the classic.

The sound in the game is largely the same as the original, but that's a good thing. Tweaking it would only feel like this isn't a Pac-Man game. What has been added is the music. Think of a slight techno remix of the Pac-Man music you remember and you have the idea. Bass thumps keep the intensity going as you play through the game and as time comes to a close, the music intensifies. Again; simple yet brilliant.

This is a game I am very excited about. I am glad Namco Bandai figured out what to do with Pac-Man. This introduces him to a whole new generation of player and makes him feel new and fresh again to those of us who already know him. I grew up playing Pac-Man. I have seen all of the iterations. Ms. Pac-Man was great but after that the series struggled to find itself. Pac-Man 3D, Baby Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man, Pac-Man Adventure... these were all just forgettable games that caused the series to lose its focus. This is the great update Pac-Manophiles have been waiting for. Pac-Man Championship Edition is a must have for old schoolers and new gamers alike.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/05/07