ZarkSeven

Throughout the years, re-imaginings of Pac-Man have generally sucked.  “New” Pac-Man games haven’t been good since Ms. Pac-Man.  But when Pac-Man Championship Edition came on the scene in 2007, it created quite a stir.  The swansong game of original Pac-Man creator Tōru Iwatani,Pac-Man Championship Edition was released on the Xbox Live Arcade in 2007.  Does the iPhone / iPod Touch version of Pac-Man C.E. stand a ghost of a chance?

Premise

The basic gameplay of Pac-Man returns in Pac-Man C.E..  You still navigate though mazes, eating dots to clear screens, power pellets to turn the tables on the chasing ghosts, and bonus fruit.  What’s new in Pac-Man C.E. is time limits.  The focus isn’t just high score, but high score within a set time frame.  That fact alone makes it a good candidate for a portable platform.  As you play through mazes, the pace intensifies.  There is a delicate balance between clearing maps and raising your score as fast as possible and staying alive until the timer runs out.

There are 3 modes of play in Pac-Man C.E.: Mission, Championship and Challenge.  Mission Mode consists of short games that require you to complete a specific goal, like getting a certain number of points, or eating a specific number of fruit or ghosts, all within a st time limit.  Completing each mission on Easy difficulty unlocks a medium difficulty version of the mission, usually with less time and more to accomplish.  Completing that successfully unlocks Hard difficulty for each mission.

Championship Mode is more like classic Pac-Man, except that you are trying to achieve a high score within a set time limit.  Challenge Mode is similar but with even harder gameplay.

Presentation

One of the inherent drawbacks of translating Pac-Man from an arcade game to a home console game is the arcade’s vertical screen.  The Pac-Man C.E. remake takes full advantage of television’s wide horizontal screen, and this is kept with the iPhone / iPod Touch’s landscape mode.  The graphics and sound look just as good as they do on XBLA, though both are scaled down.

There’s no real internet capacity with the game, which is surprising.  Leaderboards consist of your high score only, and you don’t even input your name or anything, meaning that if your friend plays on your device and gets his score on the board, you can’t tell the difference between his and yours.  I don’t really care how I fare against the world in online leaderboards, but Facebook integration ala Bejeweled Blitz or some way to see how you fare against your friends would have been nice.

Interface

It’s a challenge for every iPhone / iPod Touch game developer to translate physical joystick controls to the touchscreen input.  Pac-Mac C.E. offers 4 different control modes.  D-Pad mode puts 2 virtual directional thumb pads in the bottom left and right corners of the screen.  Directional Buttons mode makes large sections of the screen be up, down, right and left.  Thumb Swipe and Pointer-Finger Swipe (essentially the same) lets you control Pac-Man by swiping your finger on the screen in the direction you want to go.

I think most people will favor either D-Pad mode or Thumb Swipe.  Directional Buttons mode is very awkward.  I’ve had the most success with Thumb Swipe mode, though when the action gets frantic my swiping definitely gets less precise, and I end up heading in directions I didn’t intend.  Nothing compares to a real joystick, but I think there is a control mode for everyone.

Freshness

Pac-Man C.E. brings a lot of newness to an otherwise stale formula.  The “board” is basically split into two halves.  Clearing one side makes a fruit appear on the other side.  Eating it will refresh and change up the cleared side.  Having the maze constantly in flux adds a lot of depth.  The pacing also varies from frantic to mild.

I found the Mission section particularly addictive.  Because the missions only last a minute or two, it’s easy to jump into.  Easy and medium difficulties usually aren’t too tough, but I’ve had a few Hard missions that I replayed again and again, trying to accomplish the objective within the time limit.

Value

The biggest controversy surrounding the game is the pricing model offered by Namco Bandai.  The game consists of a “base version” with an expansion pack.  In the base version, you get 20 Mission mazes, 5 Championship Mazes, and no Challenge mazes.  For an additional cost, you can purchase the expansion pack, which will give you 100 more Mission mazes, 10 more Championship mazes, and 15 Challenge mazes.  It’s similar to being charged for a (fairly large) demo, and then charged again for the full game.  The base version is currently $2.99 (it was 99 cents for awhile last month), and the expansion pack costs #3.99, making it essentially a $7 game.

Is it worth it?  I’d say yes.  Think of it as  a full purchase and don’t let the pricing model turn you off.  The gameplay is excellent, and the controls work for the most part (outside the occasional death by bad swipe).  The missions are great little nuggets of gameplay, and the Championship and Challenge modes are fast and frantic.  A worthy addition to your iPhone / iPod Touch library.

Summary

Premise:  Great
Presentation:  Impressive
Interface:  Sufficient
Freshness:  Above Average
Value:  Good
Overall:  Great app