Pac-Man C.E. [Online Game Code]

by NAMCO BANDAI Games

Product Details

• Online Game Code: Currently, this item is available only to customers located in the United States and who have a U.S. billing address.
• Note: Gifting is available after purchase via e-mail.
• ASIN: B001LRQ956
• Release Date: November 28, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,802 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Single Player, HD (High Definition). Purchase the full version of Pac-Man Championship Edition. With new and unique gameplay features, including six game modes, a time limit, constantly evolving mazes, and enhanced graphics and sound! Practice hard and play well to experience increased gameplay speed! Experience the evolution of Pac-Man! There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/Live/accounts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of XBLA's Best, April 14, 2009

By 

GJ "Yo!" (Illinois) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Pac-Man C.E. [Online Game Code] (Software Download)

The easiest way to say this is that I'm not that great at the game, but I absolutely love it. I used to think that Ms. Pac-Man was the height of this formula, but CE just runs away with the title without much of a contest.

Changing mazes, heavily increasing speeds, opportunities for crazy scores if you play well. The game, more than anything else, heavily rewards staying alive... Eat enough dots and the score goes from an initial 10 to 50 over time, which adds up pretty significantly. Perhaps the biggest change to the formula is the addition of a timer. The game simply doesn't allow you to live on indefinitely due to memorizing patterns. Rather it forces you to think about what is the most important thing to pick up at any given moment. This concept makes trying to beat your friends' scores even more exciting because you know they're playing under the exact same constraints you have. While the scoring system allows you to build up a heavy amount of extra lives, dying eats up enough time that you could have probably have eaten all four ghosts with a power pellet (not to mention the scoring for the dots resets to 10 -- if you had that up to 50, that's a major knock on score).

The game also features morphing boards, a two sided system that requires you to eat fruit or an item to rebuild the opposite side and expanded ghost eating abilities (up to 3200 points per ghost if you chain enough together). There's several board and timer choices to choose from, including one that blacks out the entire maze design (a dull light surrounds you and the ghosts, lighting things up).

It's just incredibly addicting, it's incredibly fun and it's dozens of times more fun than the demo would ever let on. Really, the only thing that could make it better would be a multiplayer function.

In my opinion this is one of the top handful of XBLA games and arguably one of the better games released in its year. It's not just a Pac-Man title. It's Toru Iwatani's swan song that makes up for years upon years of strange choices for the franchise. These games don't need to be like Mario 64. They need to be like Pac-Man.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Game - Frustrating Controls, April 29, 2009

By 

R. BROWN "Furian" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Pac-Man C.E. [Online Game Code] (Software Download)

Overall, I would agree with most reviewers who have given this game a strong review. However, I believe these reviews should be tempered by a comment on the controls.

Obviously, precision control over Pac-Man is important for your enjoyment in this game, and I find this area sorely lacking. Indeed, controlling Pac-Man with the standard 360 controller can sometimes be an exercise in extreme frustration. You will miss turns, get unexpected (and unwanted!) turns, etc, and you will get frustrated.

Casual players will probably not mind so much. And I suppose after awhile you get used to it. But trying to complete the 10 minute "challenge" modes is already pretty tricky, without the added difficulty of unreliable controls.

That being said, it is still a good game overall, unfortunately saddled with below average controls.

3.0 out of 5 stars It's an interesting, yet frustrating, experience., October 21, 2011

By 

DeathArcanum - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pac-Man C.E. [Online Game Code] (Software Download)

Exactly as the title says. I do find it a fun game to play, as it is far different from the original, it looks very nice, and it's definitely up to date. However, the challenge in this game seems more frustrating in this game than on other pac man games, and I find it a bit frustrating there's no difficulty setting.

If you have the $5 or you get the namco collection/XBLA compilation disc, it's definitely worth checking out, at least.