"Has Pacman Pac-ked up?"

The first time I heard about this game, it looked stunning. The idea of drawing Pacmen and being able to control them with the stylus seemed like the most ingenious idea, and perfectly suited for the DS. I saw a few video's, and was even more impressed. But looks can be deceiving, my friends!

Intro: This game has a particularly weak story, to be honest. Mainly because the target audience is small children. Basically, an evil wizard invented a strange substance called "ghost ink", and when used, the drawings will turn into very mischievous ghosts. The ghosts all caused chaos in many books, so Pacman has to stop them all, by venturing into the books.

4/10

Graphics: The graphics are pretty good, however it was disappointing to find it 2D. They are good though, as far as 2D goes. The main letdown was the scenery. As mentioned already, the game is set inside a book, and it's pages, so the scenery, is the same in all the twelve levels. A blank page. Hooray! But on the top screen, there's a few drawings of fake ghosts.

5/10

Music: Well, this section is going to be short. That reflects the music in the game then. Short. In all the twelve levels, there is a grand total of... two different tunes! Well so far this game looks promising doesn't it! The tunes are played alternately, one tune in level one, the other in the next level, etc. and this becomes very tedious, as it seems to be just a few bleeps strung together with a pathetic beat in the background. But on the plus side, it does play the original Pacman tune at the start of each level. Come on everybody, you all know it! Doo dodo doodley doo, doo dodo dOOdley do, doo dodo doodley do, dodedodedodedo!

4/10

Sound: Well, there's the nice *wakka wakka* sound in there! And a little bleep when you eat a ghost! And.. Umm.. There's a bleep when you eat fruits! And a bleep when you fire arrows (more on that later), and a bleep when y... I think you get the idea.

2/10

Gameplay: Well, you would expect this at least to have a good rating? 'Fraid not. Ok, like I said before, this difference with this Pacman game is that you use the stylus to draw Pacman, and then draw walls to direct him. Sounds good? Well it is when you can actually draw them "properly". This game reminds me of an old teacher, in the way that you have to do things one way, and one way only. It shows you a specific route in which to draw the Pacmen, and THEN it doesn't work! I have wasted over half the allocated level time trying to draw a Pacman! However it was rather funny when I drew a terrible Pacman, and it walked sideways! Further on into the game, you get a special ability that allows you to draw arrows. This also has a certain way to draw arrows. This ALSO doesn't work very well! However, it does work when you draw shapes similar to cherries. The final "good" idea are bombs that can destroy obstacles. This proves to be just as bad.

3/10

Replay Value: This has as much replay value as a banana. When you have finished the main bit, you're left with the rubbish bit that it came with. In this case, you have the monotonous job of collecting cards that give some information about the characters and items. This, as far as I can tell, has no use whatsoever except another thing to distract you from writing a letter of complaint to Namco about this atrocity.

0/10

Overall, a shame to the great team at Nintendo and Namco. For Pacman fans: The old ones are the best. For everyone else, go buy Mario 64 DS ;)

Final Score:

4 + 5 + 4 + 2 + 3 + 0 18 3
---------------------- = -- = --
10+10+10+10+10+10 60 10

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 08/16/05