Although many still carry a fondness for classic arcade games like Pac-Man we expect more now a days when shelling out $10 plus dollars for a game. The first Pac-Man Championship Edition kept the core of what made the original great while adding numerous modern touches. Pac-man Championship Edition 2 expands on that concept by adding a handful of new courses and clever variation in game modes. There is a lot going on visually but this new series is actually much for forgiving than an arcade cabinet. Like the arcades however comes a desire to strive for high-scores and related milestones. If you're ready to test your reflexes and get hooked on score chasing Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 might be for you.
On a very basic level Championship Edition 2 resembles the Pac-Man we know and love. You move around the screen gobbling up the pellets while avoiding ghosts. You'll have to clear through a series of sub-levels to get a power pellet used to eat up the ghosts. As you collect normal pellets you'll pass many sleeping ghosts which will attach themselves onto the main four ghosts causing a chain of ghosts. By eating enough normal pellets a fruit will appear; eat enough of those a power pellet will appear then you can proceed to consume those extremely long lines of ghosts. The ghost will try to run away from you but the paths they use to flee are clear to see so you can try to run ahead of them to cut them off.
A big difference in this game is that the ghosts won't hurt you the first couple times you touch them. However if you keep bumping into them they will get angry and chase after you for a several seconds. Another twist in Championship Edition 2 is the fact that every time you eat a fruit the layout of the maze will change. Thankfully the pellets are almost always laid out on a single path that winds its way around the level. As you progress farther through the level the pellet paths will get longer and longer requiring more time while also providing a greater test of your reflexes. If you choose to eat all the pellets before eating the fruit you'll be rewarded will an extra bomb. The bombs can be used to escape a dangerous situation and return you to the middle of the maze. If you're in a hurry to eat the fruit the bomb will put you right above it making it easy to progress the labyrinth.
The main stages are all five minutes long and reward you with a letter grade based on your performance. There are a couple different strategies for getting a really good score. Pellets are worth up to 500 points each as long as you eat them all, however if you don't eat them all before eating the fruit their value will drop. On the other hand the faster you get to the fruits the sooner you'll get to the later mazes. Usually as the labyrinth expands there are more ghosts and more power pallets. Championship Edition 2 introduces a new adventure mode which breaks up the stages into bit size sections that usually take only about a minute to complete. You can choose one of three difficulties levels which vary the amount of time and lives you get. Finish ten stages and you'll get to face a boss level in which all the ghosts get angry as soon as the fruit appears.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is a very addicting game that will have you chasing high-scores for hours. If improving your score wasn't rewarding enough for its own sake you can try to upgrade your letter grade as well as see how far you move up the leader boards. There are eight different mazes with three variations giving you a total of 24 scores to chase. I found score chasing to be the heart of this games as the adventure mode felt quite lacking. I absolutely hate the way you need to pick a difficulty before hand. Had instead the game rewarded you based on how fast you went and how few lives you lost that would have been much much more engaging. Don't let the mediocre adventure mode to stop you from enjoying this delightful modern twist on a classic arcade experience.