"You Pix the Pacs, I Pix the Pacs"

For as long as us teenage gamers can remember Pac-Man has been a large indent in the cement of gaming. Anyone can recognize Pac-Man. Except your Grandpa with the scabby eye from picking at it, and his glasses at Lens-Crafters, and it was sore from going swimming on a beach with too much salt. Anyway...

Gameplay (9/10)
This game is great. You draw your own stuff. That stuff comes to life. You smile an extreme smile. No seriously though, you draw Pac-Man and he comes to life if done correctly. The goal is to eat up all the ghosts in this game with Pac-Man. Don't worry though, you don't need to get the little power ball that makes the ghosts turn blue. They might as well already be blue.

In later levels, you also unlock other gestures. Like arrows in which you sometimes have to shoot up to the top screen in order to hit trapped ghosts or switches that need a good hittin'. In even later levels you can draw bombs. You draw a circle and connect the fuse to a candle. When the fuse is gone the bomb a-splodes. This sounds simple, but doing these all at once and worrying about Pac-Man falling off the screen can get very tricky.

You get a certain amount of Pac-Man gestures for each certain page. If you run out of these Pac-Men because of him falling off the screen, or getting hit by a vilainous creature, you get a game over. You also get a time-limit for each page. If this time expires before you are complete with the page, you also get a game over. If you get a game over you have to start the whole chapter over again. Chapters are 5 pages. Even numbered chapters, however, have bosses at the end. Boss battles are also very awesome.

The only reason that one point of gameplay is taken off is because this game can get very frustrating for little mistakes that aren't really mistakes. You can mess up very easily from barely mis-drawing a gesture. Sometimes your Pac-Man moves a direction that the mouth is not facing. It's not as bad as it sounds, but it gets awefully annoying.

There is also a little sketch-book type dealy where you can draw whatever you want. Some things come to life though if drawn correctly. These things include things like rain coulds, treble clefs, and many other things. It's very fun to try to find these hidden gestures, and then figure out how you did them.

Overall: Good gameplay if drawing and pure stylus fun is your style. Probably not if it isn't.

Graphics (10/10)
Now some of you that don't like this game are thinking "The fudge...whats your deal home-dawg" First of all, I'm not your home-dawg and secondly, whats your beef? Most of the graphics in this game are drawn yourself, but there are those few little things that make this game fun to look at. Some people would say the game is dull-looking and there isn't any level format well I disagree. This game is very cartoony when it comes to mirrors, ghosts, annoying blocks, and bomb explosions. I especially like the bomb explosions. All sprites and everything else move very crisp and clean, unless you drew a very large Pac-Man that is. They also brought back some elements from the original arcade game. Like the fruit. Yes, all the fruit.

Overall: Some people may not agree, but it is very fun to look at this game, or just watch somebody play. Very fun indeed.

Sound (8/10)
The sounds in this game are very pleasant, sometimes funny, and really fitting for the moment.

First of all the music. The music in this game is just remixes of old Pac-Man themes. That, of course, is not a bad thing. To some, however, it'd get repetitive if you were a hard-core Pac-Man player back in the day. I really like the music. Usually very moment fitting. Especially on the last chapter.

Second and last the sound affects. These sound affects are awesome. From the "wugga wugga" sound of Pac-Man to the switching of...um...switches. :)
When a switch is switched it usually makes a very nice ping noise. This also happens when some puzzles are solved. When a ghost is eaten it also makes nice ping noise and pauses for about half a second to let you know you ate it. The bomb explosions also sound very nice. Not really realistic...but they sound like a cartoon bomb explosion like on old cartoons. Very fun sounds in my opinion.

Overall: In my opinion, good music (others might disagree) and good sound affects.

Replay Value/Lastability (10/10)
There's not much to say here. The game itself will take you awhile to complete. If you pass both books, that is. But getting the high-scores is another thing. This takes many tries, therefore this game is sure to eat up your time. There are also cards to collect. The cards themselves are somewhat interesting and a little humorous at times, but getting them is what's interesting. You get these cards from getting certain high scores on each of the 12 chapters in this game. And the 12 chapters in the second part of this game. There is also good pick up and play value if your into high scores and such.

Overall: Lots of stuff to collect. The game itself is pretty long. Good pick up and play anytime. It's sure to eat up your time.

Pros -
- Hey! You drew those graphics!
- Fun gameplay with lots of replay
- Can be deliciously challenging
- WUGGA!
- Good music
- Lots of somewhat worth-while extras

Cons -
- Usually very frustrating
- The graphics and gameplay aren't for some

Ending Statement
This game does not suck (maybe to those casual gamers) If you liked YT&G and WWT then I highly recommend this game. Like those 2, this is all stylus gameplay. Go buy it! Or have someone else buy it for you!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/04/05