Pac-Man: Championship Edition - Xbox 360 Game Review

NAMCO BANDAI Games brings Pac-Man to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace for the third time. At first there was the arcade port of Pac-Man, then the arcade port of Ms. Pac-Man and now this "championship edition". However the name of this game could fools us, because it could make us think that it's basically the same Pac-Man game we've played 20 years ago; which would be completely incorrect, because this is a whole new game and unofficially it could be called as Pac-Man 2. This is the true sequel that builds upon the classic, not just graphic wise, but gameplay wise as well.

Let's start with the meat of the game, the improved gameplay. In the original you had the same maze over and over again with no changes, besides the speed the ghosts moved. In this one you got numerous of mazes; in fact they are generated on the fly while you're playing! If you eat every single dot on one side of the maze, a fruit appears on the other one and once you eat that, new dots appear on the barren side, along with new maze layout. All you have to do throughout the whole game is eat dots and fruits until the time expiries. However, the game isn't that easy, as you have ghosts trying to eat you and blocking your way. In order to get rid of them, you have to eat power dots that allow you to make them disappear for a certain amount of time upon eating them.

Each game lasts for only five minutes, unless you run out of lives, in which case the game would end early. In that short amount of time you have to rank up as many points as possible. Once you run out of time, your final score will be shown and will be submitted to the online Xbox leaderboards, so you can compare your score with thousands of other player's.

The graphics are very retro looking, while still looking great with all the bloom and cool particle effects. The sound is pretty good as well, along with the music, even though there's only one song in the whole game. Thankfully you can use the Xbox Media Player while playing so you can rock out to all of your favorite songs while chomping on those dots and getting that high score. Also, the game comes with six different modes, including one where the whole maze is covered in darkness and one where you're running with blazing speed in freeway-like maze.

In my opinion, the game is fantastic! It's addictive, it's fun, and it's one of the best Xbox Live Marketplace games at the moment. It only costs $10 or 800 Microsoft Points, which however might seem like a little bit of a steep price, considering the original Pac-Man is only $5 (400 Points). The difference between the two game is that the original Pac-Man is over 20 years old and I personally have played it to death already, while this new version still makes me excited and keeps me entertained. In conclusion, go and download the demo from the Xbox Live Marketplace and check it out.