As represented by the turnout at the recent Pac-Man Word Championship, Namco Bandai's iconic yellow dot is a cultural phenomenon whose influence is still felt by gamers and developers alike. Everyone knows Pac-Man; in many ways he is the industry's mascot, and while others have risen other the years, including Mario, Sonic, and even Master Chief, none can hope to gain as much popularity as the unmistakable yellow circle with an insatiable appetite for dots.

One could speculate on why, and many have, but the simplicity of the original version - a simplicity belying a need for a deep logic, strategy, and quick reflexes in the player - is probably what lent itself well to Pac-Man's rise to popularity. This deceptively-addictive game pit the yellow disembodied hero against four ghosts, with somewhat-predictable AI, who would chase him around various mazes in his quest for dots and power pellets. On eating a power pellet, Pac-Man would become the aggressor, able to eat the ghosts for score combos. Simple, elegant, and pure.

So, how could one improve on this formula while simultaneously appealing to newcomers and the already-existing and very widespread Pac-Man fan club? This is a general question that developers trying to re-imagine the "classics" constantly ask themselves. Well, the answer is Pac-Man Collector's Edition. Other developers should take notes.

Pac-Man Collector's Edition keeps things simple, but adds a new frenetic time-trial element to the game. Gone are levels with a static number of dots to be eaten. Gone is some maximum, calculable score. Gone are rigid, squarish mazes that only change at predictable intervals. In place of these long-time Pac-Man staples are various timed modes with one dynamic board that changes as players consecutively eat dots and fruits, all packaged in a widescreen, neon-infused presentation.

Each of the six included modes follow the same pattern, but then deviate in some logical or strategical way. Each features the same linear progression of fruits, and eating a fruit will "spawn" new dots on the opposite half of the board. That is, a fruit only appears once a player has cleared one half of the board, which is then replenished once a fruit is eaten. In some modes, the actual architecture of the other half of the screen will change, and though each half will still connect with the other, there are many new strategies to consider.

A player can spend his time focusing solely on one half of the screen, or he can try to go solely for dots, or he can try to combo-chain as many ghosts as possible…there are many more possibilities here than in the original Pac-Man, and some of the modes lend themselves to more appropriate strategies than others. For example, one mode is completely dark, with only a small radius around Pac-Man and the four ghosts to reveal the maze. Another starts Pac-Man and the ghosts off at full speed and the maze has multiple openings all around which wrap to different locations on the board.

The primary offering, however, is the Championship Mode, from which this new version of Pac-Man gets its name, and this is the mode that will probably be the focus for those vying for Xbox Live leaderboard supremacy. While it's true that leaderboards have existed, and people have competed against their friends and the faceless horde of Xbox Live denizens for those top slots, few Xbox Live Arcade titles ever truly offer that "top score" feeling that a gamer feels at an arcade cabinet. Yet, somehow, this new version of Pac-Man manages to capture even that classic spirit, of competition-by-points.

Toru Iwatani, in his farewell to video game design, helped Namco Bandai conceive this secret project, to bring a new version of Pac-Man to the Xbox Live Arcade, the first new mazes to appear in Pac-Man for 26 years. Pac-Man himself, like Mr. Iwatani, has had a long career: Super Pac-Man, Pac-Man 3D, Pac Land, a cartoon, and many other things, even sharing the spotlight with his wife for awhile. It looks like he will never get any rest, as this latest version, Pac-Man Championship Edition, appears to be more of a new beginning than an end.

Jul 6, 2007 | 1 comments
Roger Helgeson