I Play What I Want!
Pac-Man Championship Edition for Xbox Live Arcade
By Kat Armstrong - May 30th, 2010
Hello, intrepid readers! Long time no talk!
There has been a flurry of Galaxy-ing in my house lately and the mini-game-like levels of both Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel have overwhelmed me. But fear not – last night, I decided to hit up my old favourite and it gave me the desire to write about it here for you: Pac-Man Championship Edition for Xbox Live Arcade!
My husband Matt bought Pac-Man CE for our Xbox about 2 years ago, after asking me if I was interested in any of the games that I saw in Live Arcade. When I told him that I loved Pac-Man, he bought it (I think with a chuckle, assuming that I’d play it once or twice); boy, was he wrong!
I spent about 6 months playing regularly, and it’s the first game that I have ever played where I unlocked achievements on my own; in fact, I have unlocked 11 of 12 achievements! Not bad for a not-too-regular gamer, right? So why is Pac-Man CE an awesome buy? It’s different enough from the original arcade classic to be challenging, but similar enough to be fun as hell, that’s why!
This game was built specifically (and from scratch) for the Xbox Live Arcade and features all-new mazes for you to take Pac-Man through. As I’m sure you’ll remember, in the arcade classic, once ol’ Packman ate all the pellets in a level, you would level up to a faster, more challenging level; not in CE. CE has a series of six challenges that are either 5 or 10 minutes long; when you eat all of the pellets on the board (or in some cases on half the board), your fruit will appear. When you eat the fruit, more pellets appear, until your time limit has been completed.
Sounds awesome, right? Here’s the tricky part: as you eat those blasted ghosts, the whole game speeds up (ghosts and Pac man included), making the 10 minute rounds tougher as you make progress. My absolute favourite level is Challenge mode 1: 10 minutes of total crazy back and forth where you have to eat pellets on one side of the maze in order for the fruit to appear to create a new series of pellets on the opposite side of the maze; only one in every 4 or 5 mazes (per side) has power pellets – although, eating ghosts too early in this level is not in your best interest, given the speed increase that causes.
Another mind warp in this game is the Extra Mode 2, where the whole screen is black except for a faint light around the ghosts and a brighter one around Pac-Man. Combine this darkness with the hum of the neon-looking lights pulsing around the outside of the maze and the uber-trippy techno music, and you have got yourself a serious brain ache (in a good way). This level is tough, but totally beatable after one or two tries, which makes it enjoyable.
You’d think, too, that once you finished each maze successfully, you would be sick of playing it. Not I; 2 years on and I still absolutely love it; I learn new things all the time: for example, once you eat a certain number of pellets, the point value of said pellets increases by 10, unless you die (which I am prone to do, turning corners too fast or being unable to stop and turn around before slamming into Pinky, that bastard). The fact that I have unlocked all the achievements by myself (save for the totally elusive and difficult 400,000 point achievement) gives Pac-Man CE a special place in my heart; should you ever meet me, you would understand the nature of my callused thumb.
So what are you waiting for?!?!
