Pac-Man Championship Edition DX - Review

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX papercraft

A long fourth dimension agone, Pac-Human being was king of the arcades. If yous were a gamer, you were either playing Pac-Human being or wishing yous were playing it, and you never failed to enquire asked your mom to make Pac-Man pancakes in the morning. Over the years, the yellow guy's popularity has waned despite the occasional (and by and large mediocre) sequel.

Fortune turned back in Pac-Man's favor with 2007's downloadable console title, Pac-Man Title Edition. Critics and gamers alike praised CE'due south return to archetype-style game play and looks. Three years after, Pac-Man Title Edition DX improved on CE'due south foundations, creating the perfect Pac-Man game for the modern era. At present DX comes to Windows Telephone with a few less features than the panel version but just as much retro modernistic amuse.

Turn a corner, scout out for ghosts, and head by the break for our full review.

Like before, only better

Pac-Man CE DX title

The original Pac-Man used a vertical screen orientation (and didn't accept upwards the whole screen on Windows Phone), only DX switches to a widescreen format. Pac-Man still eats dots, fruits, power pellets, and ghosts, but the formula has been tweaked a scrap. The maze does not get-go out entirely filled with dots – each of its sides contains a smaller matching set. Eat all of the dots on either side and a fruit appears on the opposite side. Chomping the fruit triggers the germination of a new, unlike pattern of dots. The game goes back and forth like that, with new paths constantly beingness created every bit Pac-Human clears sides of the screen. Instead of going on forever, though, each of DX's game play modes is timed. It's all about getting as many points as possible while you can by finding the best paths between the dots.

Ghost trouble

The ghosts remain equally determined as e'er to end Pac-Man from completing his mission. Notwithstanding, their numbers have greatly increased. As each set of dots appears, so do 1 or more than sleeping ghosts. Pass past them and they wake up and give chase. Instead of wandering randomly, these sleepers line up behind Pac-Man and are more often than not piece of cake to avert since they're backside him. The train of ghosts gets larger and larger as the game goes on, often consisting of xx or more ghosts. Occasionally a ghost that follows its own AI patterns instead of Pac-Man's movements spawns from the center of the maze as well. When the yellow hero finally eats a ability pellet, the player can take the ghosts down for huge points. Some ghosts even bear power pellets inside, making it possible to keep the ghost concatenation going if you similar. A handy on-screen meter makes it easier to guess when a power pellet is going to wind down, besides.

Maze madness

PacMan CE DX Championship

Players can select from three unlike courses: Championship II, Manhattan, and Dungeon, every bit well as a tutorial maze that's annoyingly highlighted by default. The following modes are bachelor on each course:

Score Set on: The main game manner, which comes in 3-minute and 5-minute varieties. The goal is to score as many points every bit possible past eating as many dots, fruits, and ghosts every bit possible inside the time limit. Players have unlimited lives, but dying reduces the game speed and score multiplier to zero.
Ghost Combo: The only goal here is to eat as many ghosts as possible in a unmarried chain philharmonic. The thespian can quit at any time after ending the combo.
Time Attack: Instead of playing for score, Time Attacks are most finishing a maze in the least possible fourth dimension, so eating ghosts is non of import. Players have express time and lives to collect a certain number of fruits in each challenge. Each course has several shorter Time Attacks and a longer claiming that combines all the shorter ones.

Difficulty

Pac-Man CE DX manhattan

The kickoff Windows Phone Pac-Man game (review) was mode too difficult for a couple of reasons: the cadre original arcade game is just hard, requiring serious design memorization in order to succeed; and the touch-screen swiping controls just couldn't turn Pac-Man as fast every bit the arcade game required in order to follow patterns and avoid the ghosts. DX is a huge comeback in both regards. Players don't have to memorize and execute complicated patterns to win. The all-time path to follow is ordinarily obvious from the pattern of dots on-screen. The ghosts are also far less aggressive than before. If they practice manage to get close, the game even goes into slow motility until the player escapes or gets eaten.

Pac-Homo tin can now avoid death with the new bomb attack that knocks all ghosts into the center of the maze. Bombs should be used every bit a last resort since they decrease the game speed and score multiplier, though not as much equally dying. A reverse pinching motion (as if one was zooming in) launches bombs. I've never been a fan of touch-screen pinches, only bombs almost always piece of work here. Should the move ever fail, the game would exist in ho-hum-motility past that bespeak anyway, giving the player some other chance to try it.

What about full general motility and turning corners? I'1000 super happy to report that DX's touch on-screen movement is dramatically meliorate than the original's. There is no virtual stick – you just swipe anywhere on screen to turn. The game almost never misinterpreted my swipes. Just like the original, players tin buffer a turn by swiping in the management of the plough before Pac-Man reaches a corner; a spark trail now indicates a turn has been buffered. Turning corners rapidly is all the same a footling more challenging than it would be with a concrete controller, only these are still some of the best touch on-screen controls I've experienced.

3 classic looks

A huge part of the Pac-Homo'due south continued pop culture success is the iconic appearance of Pac-man and his nemesis ghosts. Pac-Man CE DX doesn't mess too much with a good matter. The game features 3 dissimilar visual styles for its characters. Type A'southward characters are made upwardly of blocky pixels. The wait is seemingly inspired by the awful Atari 2600 Pac-Human, though it's not the aforementioned. Blazon B'southward characters look only like the arcade originals except that they are at present composed of neon outlines. Type C is borrowed from the isometric arcade sequel Pac-Mania. That's the one in which Pac-Man and the ghosts looked semi-3D and the mazes were made of Lego bricks. Information technology'southward cool to experience Pac-Mania's visuals without that game'southward awkward perspective and wearisome game play. Each of the character visuals has its own matching background visuals and music, all of which can be mixed and matched for variety.

Achievements

PacMan CE DX Dungeon

DX'south Achievements are orders of magnitude easier than the outset game's. They by and large revolve around doing well in the Score Attack modes. It's quite possible to earn all of the Achievements just by mastering the diverse modes on a single maze – I would have liked the Achievements to encourage playing every mode on all three stages, but that would of course make going after them much more time consuming.

Only two Achievements gave me trouble: 750,000 Points and Large eater. The quondam requires players to finish the 5-minute Score Attack with 750,000 points. It'southward entirely possible to cease with far less points, so learning the best routes to the dots is necessary. I finally got it later on watching a YouTube score run. As for Big eater, the description only states "Eat 100 ghosts." But the only way to earn it is to get a combo of 100 or greater in Ghost Combo. Apparently the developers plan to make it a cumulative Achievement in a future update. The game doesn't actually teach players how Ghost Combo is meant to exist played, only later a quick YouTube viewing I had the method downwardly pat.

Gone with the current of air

Every bit great as the Windows Phone version of DX is, it'due south missing a significant corporeality of the panel version's content. The loss of several visual styles and background music tunes is probably not a big bargain. Too gone is the Free mode in which players could tweak the game rules, enabling unlimited bombs or adjusting the number of ghosts in play.

More egregious is the number of mazes that were cut. The mobile version only has three of the console'due south 9 courses. Gamers can still get enough of play time out of the included courses, but there actually was no reason to leave out the others. It's not like the game's file size is that huge.

Overall Impression

If the Windows Phone version of Pac-Human Championship Edition DX had all nine of the console game'southward mazes, I would charge per unit it a 10 and recommend it unconditionally. Information technology'south only a little difficult to overlook the cutting content, especially given the game'southward $6.99 cost tag. Only DX is a game that any Pac-Man fan will thoroughly enjoy and a huge comeback over the previous mobile version. The graphics, sound, controls, and difficulty are all just about perfect. Whether you buy information technology now or expect for a sale, Pac-Homo CE DX is a championship that any mobile gamer should own.

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX costs $6.99 and has a gratis trial. Don't let the ghosts cease you from getting information technology here at the Windows Phone Store.

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