Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ Reviews

Despite being old enough to remember Pac-Man’s heyday, I’ve never been sold on it. While the first couple of levels are fun enough, it soon descends into unfairness with power-pills that last a split second and ghostly pricks of the highest order. Add to that Namco’s constant remarketing of that supposed classic and it’s enough to put anyone but Billy Mitchell off of the pizza-faced junkie.

2007’s Championship Edition changed all that. A game that took the game away from pattern memorisation and into a fun, reflex-based arena. The updated visuals matched the modernised gameplay perfectly and I still fire it up now for the occasional leaderboard refresh, so it was with some excitement that I waited for Pac-Man: Celine Dion (or CE DX if you prefer) to arrive.

Instead of the expected same gameplay/more levels route, Namco have actually changed the core mechanics behind the game, turning it back towards Pac-Man’s memory-based roots but thankfully it does it with enough class that the results are almost as spectular as they were three years ago. You still have to eat pellets and items to refresh each half of the constantly-changing maze, but now you also have to awaken ghosts by passing them closely. Doing this puts the ghost on your tail and the big scores come from collecting a whole mob of the spectral sons of bitches and then turning on them when you get a power-pill.

CE DX’s real triumph comes from the sheer number of ghosts that come after you and the lovely mix of mazes, modes and graphic styles on offer. Leaderboards are present for everything meaningful combination of the above (although irritatingly, the main dashboard leaderboard is based on cumulative score, not Championship II mode) which means you and your friend list should be in for some epic battles. The damp squib achievements (maxable within the hour) are a shame but aside from that, this is satisfyingly different from the previous game and very nearly as good.

Achievements

An insultingly easy 200GS. There's nothing here even remotely challenging.


www.peoww.co.uk

Pac-Man: Championship Edition DX provided a new game style to the Original Pac man game. Although this version still had elements from the original, you could also notice the differences.

The game provided a few Game "Modes" Time Trial and Score Attack

In time trial you had to eat a fixed number of apples in a certain time. Slowly increasing but also decreasing the time limit. These modes were enjoyable at first. Especially as how the game was ranked (explained later). However eventually the novelty wore off.

In score attack, you had a fixed time either 5 minutes or 10 minutes, to rack up the biggest score possible. You had to eat all the pellets on one side of the map and the fruit, for more pellets and ghosts to spawn on the other side. The best way to get big scores was to get loads to follow you. Then near the end of the time limit eat a power pellet and eat all of them. Once you ate 4, you got 3200 points for each ghost you ate, like a chain score thing.

Ranking

The way the game was ranked was that, your total time for every time trial in a "map" was added together, to give your overall time. Then this was put on a leaderboard not seen, well i never saw it, and gave you a rating. Whether you were in top 1000, 5000, 10000 etc. A similar thing was done for Score attack.
This then gave yoo an overall ranking for that map, which also gave you a rating.

Maps

More levels were unlocked once you got so far on the previous level. However all the game modes given to you were the same as prvious onces. So its wasn't great. As you felt you were doing same thing.

Achievements

The achievements in this game were far too easy. You were able to obtain all 200G, in one sitting, at most in one hour. However, i felt it was still quite fun trying to earn them.

Overall Opinion

I found the game very enjoyable. But the novelty wear off after about 3 hours(?) But for 800Microsoft its a good buy. easy 200G ;)

Cabbage
P.S If something is wrong with this review please let me know. (Meaning why a negative vote :P)

GRAMMAR WARNING Translated from Danish to English using Google Translate.

In 2007 Namco changed the way we perceive it to play Pac-Man. 240 dots, 4 energy tablets and 4 were ghosts in Pac-Man Championship Edition replaced by much more of everything added an even more intense gameplay. With DX series takes Namco step further and delivers on the incomprehensible ways an even better experience. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is nothing less than excellent!

The cheese is back!
Yes, actually it's according to legend, a pizza, you control around the maze, but most of the legendary stories surrounding the Pac-Man, is shown just tall tales. One thing is certain - Pac-Man is back, and Namco has started to revitalize some of their greatest classics, must certainly have all the praise they deserve. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is a continuation of the 2007-series (without the DX in the title) but it is a continuation where the changes are to the touch.

The most noticeable change is the addition of the "Sleeping Ghosts". It is the ghosts who come to a standstill on the track (which comes in widescreen) and they wake up only when you drive past them.

Then follow after you, and the strategy is mostly out to gather as large a result as possible before you eat one of the track energy tablets (the ever so famous Power Pellets), and you can eat a whole series of ghosts in a row ( I arrived at a time up to 76 in a row before time ran out). When eating an energy tablet (both available at stationary places on the track or follow the ghosts around), one can eat as you know the enemy ghosts, and simultaneously displays a small indicator of how much time, your energy tablet products. We therefore reach to eat a new energy tablet before time runs out and it is largely the basic strategy in the Pac-Man Championship Edition DX.

It may not sound like that big a revolution - but that's it! The feeling of eating - and could continue to eat - row on row of ghosts - is simply phenomenal. There are some relatively large requirements for hand-eye coordination, since the speed often increases with how well it goes.

Should it be close to going wrong, the game sometimes in a sort of slow motion when you are in a split second just has the ability to change direction. It works amazingly well and is "tweaked" perfectly. In addition, you also have a number of bombs that send the pursuing ghosts in quarantine in the center space on the pitch in a few seconds and then resume the hunt for you.

The game contains of course the familiar Pac-Man symbols (key, cherries, etc.), which gives bonuses and simultaneously gets new dots and ghosts to materialize around the pitch.

The gameplay has a breakneck pace, yet you never feel it slipping and overly difficult. There are several different game modes, but there is no real difference between them. On some levels you must collect as many points as possible in time, while at other attempts to collect a certain number of dots or symbols without regard to score points.

Just as in 2007-series is both graphics and sound excellent. The sound effects exhibit obviously great respect for the original sound from 1980 and is heavily inspired it. Music - of course with a high tempo, so it fits the gameplay - is also really velllykket. Graphically, you can choose from several different themes, which you can also choose colors and various versions of Pac-Man. The graphic expression is phenomenally well put together and fit - just as the soundstage - perfect for the gameplay.

Was it really possible?
When I in 2007 became acquainted with the absolutely amazing Pac-Man Championship Edition'm really not that Pac-Man in any way could be improved, but the DX series is actually in all areas even more successful. The gameplay is almost perfect and one should point out some shortcomings, it would probably be especially that there is no opportunity to compete against each other - either offline or online. That being said, it's excellent gameplay and the amazing sound and graphics to make Pac-Man Championship Edition DX for one of the best XBLA game ever.

9/10

http://www.gamesector.dk/2011/02/09/pac-man-championship-edi...

How much do I love this game....tons! After all of the shooters I have played...after all of the various game styles I have played, I still come back to this game. It is so simple and engaging to play. Over and over again. There are multiple maps to try to clear all in different styles to keep one engaged. There are levels where the maps change as a certain fruit is eaten. There are games where getting a certain number of fruits in a certain period of time.

No matter how many games I play, I end of coming back to this game. Sometimes I play for an hour, others I try to to complete a section. This is a great update to the original game and would recommend it in anyone's library.