Pac-Man Championship Edition DX

You’d be forgiven for thinking that this is a Pac-Man too far – going by screenshots alone it doesn’t look massively different from 2007’s Pac-Man Champion Edition. Within seconds of playing it though you’ll quickly realise that it’s a very different beast.

It’s easier for starters. Pac-Man has seemingly been hanging around with Bomberman and now carries explosives. If you’re about to collide with a ghost the camera zooms in and the action slows down to give you a few seconds to escape from the situation by dropping a bomb to send the ghosts back to the centre of the maze. The ghosts no longer float around aimlessly either – as soon as they catch sight of Pac-Man, or are awakened by Pac-Man passing by as they snooze, they start to form a giant conga behind the yellow pill popper.

Therein is the game’s hook – the idea is to round up as many ghosts possible and then nab a pill to eat them in quick secession in order to vastly boost your score. I’m not talking about five or six ghosts here, but rather 30-odd. As per Pac-Man Champion Edition the game becomes faster the longer you survive which increases the amount of points gained for every pill munched. Using a bomb will decrease the speed of the game so it’s best not to use them all that often if you’re trying to beat scores set by people on your friend’s list.

Presentation is slick – you can even change the visual style so that it resembles 1987’s Pacmania – but it’s slightly disheartening that the achievements are so incredibility easy to unlock. If they’d been a little harder to get it would have helped as an incentive to keep playing. For Pac-Man purists Champion Edition is still the way to go, but for instant gratification this is hard to beat.

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