The “arcade experience” – perfect ports of those games you could only previously get in a cabinet in a public setting – was something that consoles and their games developers mastered a long time ago. Hell, in some cases, it had been done before there was even a brand called “Xbox”.
However, with the advent of the Xbox 360 and the Xbox Live Arcade, people were no longer seeking just ports of arcade games. They sought beyond-arcade experiences – games that took those experiences and augmented them in such a way as to retain that one-more-go feeling, but give you reasons to come back to it. One game that XBLA did much better than any other, and now a whole new swathe of console owners can experience it too…
Pac Man Championship Edition – a 2007 Namco Bandai Games release – was a terrific first shot at updating the classic arcade game for a modern audience. By introducing time limits and different “maps” to take on, PMCE added an even more frantic edge to the original formula. In addition to those improvements, PCME’s main hook was that each map was divided into two halves. Collecting all the dots on one side of the map would produce a fruit on the other side. Collecting that fruit would then completely change the layout of the first side of the map., introducing a whole other level of muscle memory to proceedings.
It was fresh. It was exciting. And everyone who played it thought that was it. That there was no way it could be improved upon further. Those people – myself included – were wrong. Because Pac Man Championship Edition DX was incredible, and very possibly the best game ever made available on XBLA.
Taking everything great about the first CE, DX turned the insanity up to the Nth degree by turning the number of ghosts up to the Nth degree. That’s right, no longer are you stuck with just the four ghosts. Dotted at conveniently placed points on the map, these sleeping ghosts can be woken from their slumber by passing them, at which point they join a chain of other ghosts stalking you around the map as you pass more and more of them.
And then comes one of the most thrilling single experiences in all of gaming – the power pill massacre. Every nine or ten map half refreshes, one of those lovely round pharmaceuticals appears next to a ready-made chain of around thirty ghosts. Add those onto the two dozen ghosts you’ve been leading around like a demented Pied Piper, and you’re suddenly faced with upwards of fifty ghosts to guzzle down like a mobile Sarlacc pit at an all-you-can-eat buffet. And then, as soon as you’ve wolfed down everything on that half of the map, the other half refreshes to reveal another pill and another 30 ghosts. If you don’t find it punch-the-air exciting, then see a doctor, because you may be clinically dead.
Frankly, I’d consider PMCEDX a triumph is that was all it was. However, there is so much more to it than that. With nine course, a number of variations on each map and three different game modes, PMCEDX offers a ton of re-playability. Re-playability which was extended even further with the 2013 addition of a free-to-download “+” mode that added additional leader-board functionality, the ability to challenge friends and some new maps (which, admittedly, cost money, but were very reasonably priced).
Put the whole package together, and Pac Man Championship Edition DX+ isn’t just one of the best re-imaginings of a franchise ever. It isn’t just one of the best Xbox Live Arcade titles ever. It’s one of the best games ever, period. Add in the fact that it’s now available for Xbox One players through backwards compatibility, and there is literally no good reason not to own it. You may never actually spend a better tenner.
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