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Pac-Man Championship Edition (also as Pac-Man CE) is the latest version of Pac-Man, developed by original Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani, for the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade, and considered the first true sequel to Pac-Man since Ms. Pac-Man. The game was released on June 6, 2007 for 800 File:Microsoftpoint.gif ($10 USD). Championship Edition features the first new Pac-Man mazes in more than 26 years. The promise of the game actually spurred more purchases of the Xbox 360 in Japan, and was Iwatani's final game before retirement.

Changes to Pac-Man

While the basic gameplay of Pac-Man CE remains unchanged from the original - that is, dot-eating, ghosts, power pellets, and bonus fruit - it differs from the original in many profound ways:

• Most of the sound effects remain the same, but the "siren" from the original is augmented by a techno music pulse. The music score itself changes after every minute of play, and the final minute is bouyed by a final crescendo.
• The maze walls and general color initially retain the same general look as the original, but eating a power pellet or advancing to a new level causes the walls to change color.
• The overall speed of the game is faster, and changes according to the actions of the player. The game speeds up with point score, but now slows down when a player loses a life.
• The power pellets' effectiveness weakens far slower than the original, and never completely lose effectiveness.
• Holding the D-pad or analog stick in the direction of a corner before reaching it causes sparks to emanate from Pac-Man, increasing his speed when turning the corner.
• Pac-Man's now respawns at the point of death, rather than a pre-set starting location.
• Pinky now knows the exact location of Pac-Man at all times; the other ghosts' behavior remain similar to the original's.
• An extra life is awarded every 20,000 points, instead of just a single life at 10,000.
• There are now multiple tunnels, rather than just one.
• The maze never clears of dots. The maze is invisibly divided into two halves. When Pac-Man eats all of the dots from one half of the board, that side darkens and a bonus fruit appears on the other half.
• When the player eats a bonus fruit, it changes the shape of the opposite half of the maze and replenishes the power pellet(s) (if any) and dots there. The most common configuration features one horizontally-aligned tunnel and two vertically-aligned tunnels.
• Each side of the maze is independent of the other. Therefore, levels advance and achieve bonus fruit at independent rates, and a player could theoretically focus on one side of the maze without ever completing the other.
• The scoring is changed, especially with blue ghost eating, which features a 400 x X scoring (400, 800, 1,200... through to a maximum of 3,200.) The player can maintain the level of blue ghost scoring if he eats another power pellet before the effects of the previous one wears out.
• Eating dots now reveals their score as well. The value of dots increases in 10 point increments as Pac-Man eats more dots without dying, up to a maximum value of 50. If Pac-Man dies, the point value per dot resets to 10.
• The game ends in one of two ways: loss of all the players' lives, or when the timer expires.
• After every game, the game features a stat screen showing the distribution of points among three categories (dots, blue ghosts, bonus fruit), and a bar graph showing the distribution of points over time.
• After the stat screen, the game shows a replay of the previous game.

Game modes

There are six game modes to choose from:

• Championship Mode: Regular Pac-Man CE gameplay, with a timed limit of 5 minutes.
• Challenge Mode 1 (Patience and Reward Course): The mazes alternate between an abundance of power-pills and no power-pills. Timed limit of 10 minutes.
• Challenge Mode 2 (The Darkness Course): Only the area directly around Pac-Man and the Ghosts is visible and the maze walls are completely hidden. Timed limit of 10 minutes.
• Extra Mode 1 (The Freeway Course): An extremely high-speed mode for advanced players, this mode features warp-speed Pac-Man and Ghosts and plenty of tunnels. Timed limit of 5 minutes.
• Extra Mode 2 (The Manhattan Course): A maze inspired by the streets of Manhattan - the maze evolves in radically different shapes. Timed limit of 10 minutes.
• Extra Mode 3 (The Overall Course): A mix of all other modes. Timed limit of 10 minutes.

Bonus Fruit

The scoring starts with the first fruit (Cherry), which is 1,000 points, and increases in 200 point increments thereafter for each successive fruit until the Key, which is 4,000. The increments resume for 200 points per level til the Crown, which is 7,650 points instead of 6,400. The maze formations reset after the first Crown level to the first Cherry, and recycle from there, but the Crown remains the fruit for the rest of the game. (See table at right.)

Trivia

The Boss Galaga and one of the drone ships from Galaga join the Galaxian flagship (aka Galboss) as bonus fruits, as well as a drone from Galaxian as well.

Achievements

Pac-Man Championship Edition offers 12 Achievements for a total of 200 Gamerscore.

Achievement	Description	Gamerscore
File:Pacceach1.jpg 200,000 Points	Score 200,000 points!	10
File:Pacceach2.jpg 400,000 Points	Score 400,000 points!	30
File:Pacceach3.jpg Sparkster	Emit sparks for 1 second!	5
File:Pacceach4.jpg 8 Ghosts	Eat 8 ghosts in succession!	5
File:Pacceach5.jpg Championship Mode	Complete Championship Mode!	20
File:Pacceach6.jpg Challenge Mode 1	Complete Challenge Mode 1!	20
File:Pacceach7.jpg Challenge Mode 2	Complete Challenge Mode 2!	20
File:Pacceach8.jpg Extra Mode 1	Complete Extra Mode 1!	20
File:Pacceach9.jpg Extra Mode 2	Complete Extra Mode 2!	20
File:Pacceach10.jpg Extra Mode 3	Complete Extra Mode 3!	15
File:Pacceach11.jpg Key	Eat the Key!	10
File:Pacceach12.jpg Crown	Eat the Crown!	20

Reviews

Pac-Man Championship Edition was released to mostly rave critical reviews, with reviewers stating the gameplay was "fresh and exciting", "one of the best 'exclusive' pieces of downloadable/casual entertainment available", and that it was "nice to see a classic remade instead of simply repackaged." The minor criticisms included the $10 price point, a lack of a true multiplayer mode, and an apparent relapse to "patterns" that had been in the original.

As of June 22, 2007, the Metacritic score is 80.

References

1. Joystiq, June 8, 2007
2. GameStooge, June 5, 2007
3. Joystiq, June 5, 2007
4. Joystiq, June 7, 2007
5. IGN, June 6, 2007
6. 1Up, June 11, 2007
7. Team Xbox, June 9, 2007
8. GameStooge, June 13, 2007
9. MetaCritic: Pac-Man CE

External Links

• Official Game Page

• 2007 video games
• Namco games
• Xbox 360 Live Arcade games
• Xbox 360-only games