Dizzyingly presented and addictively frantic, Pac-Man's latest XBLA title is an absolute rush and by far his best yet.
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX isn't like its ancestral forefather per se. Though the basic ideas of roaming around the level as Pac-Man, collecting pellets, and avoiding ghosts are there, the Championship Edition DX installment is about getting high scores and getting them fast. Ghosts will sleep along the board, only waking when Pac-Man dashes by. The awakened ghosts will tail Pac-Man in succession, but getting a Power Pellet turns the tables, allowing Pac-Man to earn big points by eating blue ghosts in fast frequency. Eating enough dots will open new doors for Pac-Man, as the board will shape-shift with new designs and ghosts to awaken. Pac-Man also has an arsenal of bombs, which when detonated will keep ghosts at bay and let Pac-Man escape a tough spot. These new dynamics to the Pac-Man formula make worlds of difference in practice. You really are playing an entirely new game, one that shares only a few qualities with the original arcade legend. Don't expect Pac-Man Championship Edition DX to just remake the Pac-Man of the past. With new levels, dynamic stage design, and inventive tweaks to the tried-and-true formula, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX shows Pac-Man to a new generation and does so without any hesitation.
Each board in Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is dynamic in and of itself. Levels will change architecture as scores climb and speeds accelerate. The overall pacing of each stage begins easily enough, as there are clearly designed paths to net the most points to score and ghosts to lead. As the scores rise, however, speed will as well. Chains of ghosts devoured increase the speed of both Pac-Man AND the ghosts movement, demanding that you make decisions on the fly and aim for netting the highest possible score. This dynamic tension is what makes Pac-Man Championship Edition DX so hard to put down; you'll instantly be drawn in by the game's gatling-gun-paced, pellet-gorging motion. There's an unquestionable rush to experience in Pac-Man Championship Edition DX; those moments of beating your high score after destroying a ghost train are all rewarding. By turning the traditional Pac-Man experience on its head, Namco Bandai has created a new level of addiction and reflex-testing rush that the XBLA hasn't seen before.
Though some Xbox Live Arcade games rely on nostalgia exclusively for its replay value, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, at its core, is a bit of a one-trick pony. Wandering around the mazes is essentially what you'll be doing throughout the entire game, climbing up the scoreboards and getting that one step to overtake your last high score. The game's replay value is pretty much built on high scores, and while that may seem a tad dated in this gaming ecology, it doesn't stop the game from drawing players in and keeping a strong grip on their attention. Leaderboard scores offer plenty of competition and the variety of stages and challenges will keep players coming back for more. Though there isn't any multiplayer component a la Pac-Man VS from the Nintendo Gamecube days (an odd exclusion, considering there's plenty of potential for it on Xbox Live), there still remains a strong amount of content to satisfy the Xbox Live Arcade lone wolves. At 800 Microsoft Points ($10 US), Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is an absolute steal. If you're looking for an addictive arcade legend with a remarkably effective twist, you'll find plenty of fun to be had in Pac-Man Championship Edition DX.
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is eye candy. Not just any eye candy, though; colorful, sugar-coated candy that glows in the dark while you eat it. This is the most in-your-face, visually intense XBLA game out there. Seeing Pac-Man run around the different mazes may capture nostalgic memories at first, but once he's dashing around the level with thirty or so ghosts on his tail, the game emits such dramatic rainbow-blasting color that you'll keep playing. The brilliance comes to a peak once that ghost train turns blue from Pac-Man's Power Pellet and is devoured in blazing succession, resonating and bursting with colorful visual effects and colossal scores. There's nothing particularly innovative or even technically groundbreaking in Pac-Man's visual style, but there's just so much that's shoved in your face through each piece of successful gameplay that you'll be hypnotized into an addicted stupor in no time. The game doles out the visuals at every opportunity, but also delivers nostalgic Pac-Man themes, many of which have uplifting remixes throughout. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX has a presentation that draws in the fanfare of the arcade while also throwing out every visual trick in the book, all to keep the player hooked.
Pros
+ Presentation bursts with intensity, from the bright colors to the hypnotic animations
+ Filled with creative and challenging content
+ Awesome new gameplay elements keep the flow smooth and the rush constant
Cons
- No multiplayer in the aura of Pac-Man VS
- Can seem a bit like a one-trick pony
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is Pac-Man for a new era. Just as the little guy burst onto the gaming scene in the days of the arcade, he's returned to share his gaming greatness with a generation that might not have even played the original arcade game. The changes to gameplay, from the ghost trains to the bombs to the dynamic level design, these all flow incredibly well and offer an experience that hasn't been touched until now. The frenetic burst of adrenaline-soaked arcade madness keeps the replay value at a strong high. Many different visual aesthetics compliment the many different stage constructions, each with their own unique elements. It's that presentation that will draw you in without a second thought. This is the most intense collection of visual style that has ever graced the Xbox Live Arcade. Drenched in fluorescent glow and shimmering rainbows of color, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX's mesmeric mastery of graphic design will keep gamers staring at their televisions, while their thumbs nimbly dance across their controllers. It's a brilliant culmination of stunning presentation and resonant gameplay. Namco Bandai's efforts at revamping the Pac-Man franchise couldn't have gone much smoother. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX isn't just a brand new Pac-Man. It's quite simply Pac-Man at his pellet-eating, ghost-devouring best.