If I ever wanted to feel old I need only look at the copyright date for the original Pac-Man: 1980. I still remember feeding quarters to the machine and Ms. Pac-Man was by far my favorite for years. I'll never forget the music and the "whaka-whaka" sound they made as they chomped buttons along a maze. You'd think with 25 years (25 years!) of Pac-Man to call upon I could draw one in my sleep. Pac-Pix showed me just how wrong I am.
With the myriad of incarnations of the Pac-Man franchise I really never imagined one more could be made. Namco proved me very wrong. Where to begin - I guess with page one. The game has one of those silly little stories: the ghosts from the Pac-Man world - Pinky, Blinky, Inky and Clyde (as well as Blue, Bari-boo and a few others) - have escaped and are doing damage to the world. Through some trick of video game magic they are all locked up in a book. Unfortunately, fate is fickle and locks up our beloved Pac-Man as well. It is your job to go through each chapter and defeat the ghosts and obstacles and help Pac-Man escape. Each chapter consists of 5-6 pages - some with a really bizarre boss monster! Once you complete the entire chapter, you move on. They get progressively harder as you go, adding new obstacles until you reach the end. I finished every single page except the final boss monster. I've battled him more than 50 times - I've yet to beat him. Some day...
Here's where it the game departs from the Pac-Man we know and takes advantage of the design of the DS - there's no maze. Actually, there's no Pac-Man. Page one of Chapter One begins with the bottom screen as a complete blank except for three ghosts running around randomly; the top screen has a "pathway" that will take you from one side of the screen to the other. It's up to you to draw Pac-Man. Now, there's pattern recognition to your drawings so you can't do this in any manner you like - practice a little in the tutorial. The bigger the Pac-Man the slower he is but the more likely he'll eat the ghost; the smaller, the faster. Once you get him drawn you then have to direct him on the screen by drawing lines in the direction you want him to head. He'll follow your directions by running into these lines and then turning. If he runs off the screen, you lose him.
Now - should a ghost get in the way of your drawing (whether it be a line or a Pac-Man) that drawing will disappear. It's the most common way you'll lose your Pac-Man off the screen. You can also direct your Pac-Man to head through the pathway at the top of the screen. Oh, did I mention that the Pac-Man you draw is animated? This is a lot of fun when what you've drawn looks absolutely nothing like you intended. There were several times that the backend of what I drew was recognized as the front end and I had one heck of a time directing it where to go. I couldn't understand the animation at all! These animations continue as it heads through the top of the screen as well. It's rather impressive.
As I said, the game gets progressively harder. The ghosts have different properties. Inky actually drops ink and you can't draw anywhere it exists. Blue has a tendency to move very quickly. There are portalling ghosts, some with shields on one side, and some with armor… Did I mention you have to draw other things? The top screen is not at all ignored in this game. It's rather nostalgic that the fruit that used to float around the maze pops up from time to time in the path above but ghosts float up there, too. You've got to shoot them down with arrows - again drawn in a recognizable pattern. I've found I'm good at arrows drawn in two directions but not all four. It's particularly frustrating when you're bouncing arrows off of mirrors to shoot things down! Arrows will also blow off armor, stun ghosts, unlock doors - this is not the Pac-Man of your childhood (or your parents as the case might be).
And then there are bombs. I can draw bombs quite easily and they come in handy. It's the scorch they leave behind I don't care for. Like Inky's ink, they make it impossible to draw on the touch screen until they wear off and when you've got walls blockading, armored ghosts, Inky dropping ink from above, a candle needing to be lit by a bomb, scorch marks and very little room to draw anything but the smallest (and ridiculously fastest) of Pac-Men well, things get a little crazy. That's when I throw 2-3 Pac-Men on the board. And all this time you're running against a timer with limited Pac-Men to draw….mayhem.
But it's sooo fun!
The game is not particularly long. If you're someone who sits and plays games from end to end you're going to play it in about 2 days. But, if you play it a bit at a time (it can get frustrating), work to beat your score, gain cards (there's a card collecting system) or just want to have fun, it's infinitely replayable. I know it's one I'll be keeping and going back to over and over. And someday, I will get that final boss monster.
I'm a mother of two boys, ages 7 and 10 and live in the chaos that ensues. I've a permanent disability that keeps me homebound, so books, kids, games and books are my constant companions. Oh, and books, too. *grins*
My children both play games so I often play them first, getting to know exactly how something may effect my sensitive and easily stimulated older child vs. my stoic and imperturbable younger.
I like games for games; for the pure enjoyment of them and believe that no game is wholly bad, though some are real stinkers.
I also have the dexterity of a camel in mittens so find playing FPSs difficult (and I also don't like the gore) and RTSs at times can stump me. I just can't seem to move quickly enough to keep up with them. Some of my favorite games are arcade games and I'll spend 3-5 years on the same 5-6 levels because I just never get any better. But, I have fun.
