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| Source // Microsoft |
When playing both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, I played a few versions scattered across home consoles and handhelds of the time, or thereabouts, with the obvious conclusion that you should obviously play some form of Pac-Man. Just... duh.
But all these decades later, the original designer, Toru Iwatani, has been brought back to create a reimagined Pac-Man, as though, the 1001 write up suggests, the Xox 360 was available to develop for in the 1980s.
And it's the only way to play Pac-Man, supposedly. It's Pac-Man Championship Edition.
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| Source // Microsoft |
Fun Times
Over the years, through the sales, I've got the PC versions of Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+, but preferring to play as original a version as I can, and not being sure what these various versions and sequels offer that the first didn't, I fired up the Xbox 360 and downloaded a demo.
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| Source // Microsoft |
It's an awful demo that allows you to play a game for about two minutes before just ending and telling you to cough up to unlock the full game, so I did end up playing DX+ later on to actually get a whole game under my belt, but the gist of Championship Edition is easy to see.
You are Pac-Man, as ever haunted by ghosts in a maze full of pellets, only this time out, the maze actually looks and behaves like the fever-dream you picture seeing after guzzling a load of pellets and fruit.
Instead of a maze full of pellets that lead to points, a route of pellets on one side of the screen is laid out, awaiting you to navigate over and consume. Get them all and a reward will appear on the other side of the maze. Gobbling that not only rewards you with bonus points but alters the layout of the other half of the maze, keeping you on your toes as you roam the halls and ever-increasing speeds, avoiding ghosts unless you're suitably powered up to feast upon them.
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| Source // Microsoft |
The longer you survive, the faster your game gets, turning Pac-Man into a game not just about scoring as high as you can, but of doing so within a time limit. The game whips along at a slick pace, colours glowing and techno sounds - thankfully using the original sound effects we're all familiar with - completing what is quite the treat for Pac-Man fans.
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| Source // Microsoft |
Frustrations
But none of it could really keep me around for any great length of time. It mixes up the gameplay with various alternate modes, and it looks like a massive visual overhaul, of course it does, but there's something about it that I'm not quite on board with.
For all the content there is, and for all the challenges you can reach for, I wasn't interested in grasping any of them.
Final Word
Slowing down the action and zooming into significant moments to heighten the fun does make Championship Edition look and feel like a Pac-Man for the new millennium, but I still prefer the original for its simplicity, and charm, and all the nostalgic reasons you could list.
Championship Edition is definitely a title by Pac-Man fans, for Pac-Man fans. You'd have thought it would be for non-Pac-Man fans as well, because it tries to stick to the roots of the original gameplay, for the most part, but I don't think it succeeds.
I think, for all this visual flair and updates to the format, it does too much. It goes too far. It's not Pac-Man, it's something else. Something Pac-Man related, obviously, but not the Pac-Man I'm expecting.
Maybe I'm in the wrong here. Maybe I need to play a whole load more of it to really understand what I'm seeing. Perhaps Championship Edition really is the best way to play Pac-Man. At least it doesn't glitch before ending, right? I hope.
There's nothing wrong with Pac-Man Championship Edition, really. I just don't yet know how much of it is right for me.
Fun Facts
This was the last game Toru Iwatani worked on, who now works as a University lecturer.
Pac-Man Championship Edition, developed by Namco Bandai Games, first released in 2007.
Version played: Xbox 360, 2007.
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+, PC, 2010/2013