Pac-Man Championship Edition Review
Played on:
X360
After reading an article in the RetroGamer magazine , I decided to give Pac-Man Championship Edition a try. Being a huge Pac-Man fan, I had high hopes that it would hold to the legacy of Pac-Man.
There are six game modes to play, each with a time limit. The modes are Championship with a five minute limit and two challenge modes, both with 10 minutes limit, and 3 extra Modes of play. The modes are all very similar in play just with a different maze layout when you start the game.
The basic premise is the same in each mode where you need to clear a side of the board and eat as many ghosts as you can with power pellets. The gameplay itself took me a bit to get used to as I was expecting, well, Pac-Man. My standard Pac-Man moves were obsolete since, instead of living as long as possible and then racking up as many points as possible, you're constrained by the time limit in which you must score as many points as you can with an ever changing pattern of pellets to eat.
When I was younger I used to play Pac-Man for hours at a time with no issues, but Pac-Man CE has set those time limits. However, after a few rounds of play, I was glad for the break in action as I don't remember Pac-Man moving that fast even with some of the arcade hacks of yesteryear. It's a very different experience compared to the old game.
Pac-Man CE should be a simple game to design graphics for but the game designers decided to throw in some snappier visuals to make the game more colorful. At first they were distracting as they would pull my eyes to a different part of the screen, but I adjusted to them and could ignore them after awhile.
The music is the standard Pac-man theme music when you start each mode, but updated with some modern flare to it. The ghosts noises when they die or get eaten are the standard sounds that I grew up with. Something can be said for sticking to traditions.
The loading screen, however, drove me nuts. You have to wait for Pac-man to move about halfway across the screen before the game loads. It seems that a game like this should be able to load much faster. As I do not have a lot of Xbox Live Arcade games, I am not sure this is the norm or not.
I found the ability to upload your scores via Xbox Live to be a great bonus. I like to see how my scores compare to the people around the world and this gives me this opportunity. I do wish they would have put in a multiplayer mode to play against people on the same console or against a player on Xbox Live.
If you are looking for a more traditional Pac-Man game, you will not find it with Pac-Man Championship Edition. However, if you are looking for an upgrade to the classic game with some twists, Pac-Man Championship Edition is for you.
