Pac-Man Championship Edition DX

DX is one of those games that proves incredibly hard to review. not because you're unsure of the game's quality - the game's already in the top tier of digital releases in 2010 - but because to review it, you need to play it. And when you play it, tapping in words on a keyboard is one of the very last things you want to be doing or thinking of, just behind sleep and eating.

DX builds upon the Championship Edition released a few years ago. you know the rules by now. Pellet lines appear on one of the eight maps as you finish chomping the last line like some vindictive coke dealer, expanding in complexity over time. Unbroken chains of pellet and fruit-eating gradually increases the on-screen speedometer, while the current time limit (ranging from five to ten minutes limit, and challenge-centric time trials) ticks down above.

There are tweaks to the classic gameplay than some might claim as dumbing the formula down, but all are worthy additions to the franchise. You've now got a limited stock-pile of bombs to clear incoming ghosts when you're cornered, but their range is so small that they don't overpower proceedings and by booting chasing ghosts back to their home lose you the chance of scoring a massive points chain.

Essentially Namco has attached a subconscious notion that using bombs is akin to chickening out. the last resort of a coward. You'll try your damnedest not to use it, but like Geometry Wars, when you do to save your beck, you'll feel dirty as a result.

The small boosts that you can achieve when cornering by tapping your chosen direction in advance when Pac-Man emits a spark ahead of a crossroads is small incremental change that offers you some small advantage when planning routes. at higher speeds it takes skill to keep chaining the boosts together as Pac-Man slithers out of your grasp with all the slippery speed of a lathered bar of soap.

The zoom-in and slow-down when the game detects when you're only a few pixels away from slamming into a ghost not only looks and sounds fantastic, but is essential when you're hitting the high speeds the game builds up to. The increased heart-rate and joyous roar when you perform a near-miss is better for the gameplay's flow than an instant death.

As maps evolve ghosts appear sleeping in alcoves dotted around level, with close proximity passing awakening and causing them to give chase. At first you'll actively avoid their catchment areas, but once your confidence grows you'll chart routes that'll snag double numbers worth of ghosts onto your tail before nabbing a power pellet.

Of all the eye-catching tricks the developer has added in Pac-Man's resurrection, the split-second pause and booming sound effect as you chomp each ghost in turn provides a hit of pure gaming heroin.

Each of the nine maps have multiple gameplay modes that are unlocked as you complete the initial set, standard timed playthroughs, score attacks, and time trials. Each subsequent time trial offers a slightly different spin on the last, asking you to collect a set number of fruit as quickly as possible, while adjusting the number of ghosts. Each score forms part of a larger total, which is graded and the score uploaded to online Leaderboards. There's also a Ghost gobbling mode to set the highest chain possible.

Every single mode is seeded with enough addictive additives to lose several hours over. On the first evening's play we didn't even move past the first map, cycling through the different modes and attempting to better our scores. A nice addition to the Time Trials is setting your previous best score as the new time limit, and replays allow you to learn map patterns before jumping back in.

If there is one problem with DX, its the Leaderboard integration, or lack of it. we want to see how we stand against friends at a glance, so having to navigate to separate menus is an issue, and separating global and friends leaderboards is unnecessarily fiddly.

For a game such as this you want to be able to see current scores at a glance, something we wish Namco had taken a page out of Bizarre's book with. Geometry Wars 2 had its Friends List Leaderboards front and centre on the main menu and divided alongside their respective game modes.

Niggle aside, DX shows you what can be done when you reinvigorate a thirty year-old franchise correctly, going beyond a simple paint job yet retaining its core values, though even the level of customisation, from map and character design and colours, and background music, impresses too.

even if you're currently neck deep in blood from assassinations, burning round the race track, or racking up experience on the online battlefield, you need to download and play this title, else you're missing something very special. This might become our most played game of the year.