Pac-Man: CE2 reminds us just how special DX was
Like most people I spent a fair few hours when Pac-Man: Championship Edition DX was released. The sounds and the visuals came together to create something truly remarkable, it was hard to believe that Pac-Man could be so fun and relevant in the year 2010.
Fast forward six years and the time has come for Pac-Man: Championship Edition 2 (keep in mind no DX). As you jump into the game after the short and sweet tutorial, you are overcome with the feeling of fast paced Pac-Man just like you remember it, you get into a groove and within no time you feel yourself blazing through the courses, devouring ghosts and collecting fruit.
There are two modes to the game. Score Attack is the classic eat the pellets, increase your score and try to get as far as you can. Playing through each course unlocks the basic modes for the next course and then the next course and so on and so on until you unlock all ten courses with a variety of difficulties. There is also an adventure mode, which at its core says within a time limit (that varies on the difficulty you select) Pac-Man needs “X” amount of fruit/items whilst this feels like a nice addition to the main mode it feels like a repetitive task for the most part with not a lot of variety.
The basic mechanics of PM:CE2 is something that Pac-Man purists may be upset about as it fundamentally changes the interactions between Pac-Man and the ghosts. When Blinky, Inky, Pinky & Clyde are touched you will not find certain death waiting for you but instead an annoyed ghost. If Pac-Man annoys them multiple times within a certain period they get angered, inflate ever so slightly and then become deadly, looking for you with murderous intent on their minds. Whilst this change is understandable due to the speed of the game, it’s still jarring nonetheless not only when you bump into them but also when they kill you because sometimes there are just too many ghosts on screen for you to comprehend what is going on.
In DX the course changed in halves, when you started eating pellets for Pac-Man’s dinner this made the course feel dynamic, made you feel like you had to think on your feet because round the next corner could be a completely different corner. In PM:CE2 when Pac-Man eats pellets a bar at the bottom of the screen fills up, when the bar is full you can eat the fruit and the whole maze smashes into pieces as the little yellow guy and the ghosts fall precariously to a new maze. Whilst a pleasure on the eyes, when playing these stages multiple times (which will happen) it feels like going through the same 5 minute routine and while you might be getting better it just does not feel as good as it should. The game does not have that nagging itch to keep you going and try to beat the high score that every good Pac-Man game should have.
Multiple times I had controller input problems with the game. A simple button press to go right should allow me to go right but on different occasions and circumstances Pac-Man acted like a disobedient dog which took me away from the immersion of the game and made me question why I should keep going.
One main criticism of DX was that there just was not enough modes, but the gameplay was just so good it didn’t matter. Championship Edition 2 is the same case there is not enough modes but this time as the gameplay has been changed even though it’s ever so slightly it feels less dynamic, more stagnant and less thrilling. The first few hours will remind you how good Pac-Man is, but after that initial “high” the cracks start to show and you probably won’t be inclined to come back until a few years time when they release Pac-Man: Championship Edition 2 DX.
