Of the 11 games mentioned in Namco-Bandai’s press release, three of them star Pac-Man. That’s a resounding 36%, unless our calculator is borked.
Let’s take a look at what the yellow fellow is getting up to.
We enjoyed the Pac-Man World games, so we’re rather intrigued by 3D platformer Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures. We do worry though that it may be a little on the simplistic side – it’s going to be released to tie-in with the animated series that’s due to air on Disney XD later this year.
Power-ups will play a big part – Pac-Man can acquire new skills, including a chameleon suit to get around the futuristic looking levels unnoticed. It’s due out on PS3, 360, PC and Wii U, with the 3DS getting its own version – a 2D platformer.
Word has it that in the US it’ll retail for less-than-full-price. We can’t find any UK retailers offering it to pre-order yet, but we’d wager that it’ll be released at around £29.99.
We do know how much Pac-Man CE DX Plus costs though – precisely nothing. It’s a free title update for the very well received 2010 download complete with improved leaderboards, new achievements/medals and access to new DLC mazes includes some inspired by Dig-Dug and Rally X.
Usually free DLC doesn’t include ‘proper’ achievements, so expect them to be in-game only. The update launches this summer for the XBLA, PSN, Steam and Windows 8 versions.
Then we’ve got Pac-Man Museum. The fact that this collection contains Battle Royale caused a stir in the retro community – this’ll be the first time the four-player arcade game has seen a home release. We’ve not played it for ourselves, but apparently it’s a bit of a gem.
The collection is intended to let you play through the evolution of the Pac-Man series, but whether this’ll include the much loved Pac-Land and Pac-Man Versus is unclear as a full list of titles hasn’t been given. Hopefully Namco-Bandai will give us a heads up before its winter release. Formats for this one? PSN, XBLA, PC, 3DS and Wii U.
Pac is officially back, man.