Pac-Pix (Nintendo DS) Review

There has never been too much going on in Pac-Man games, mainly because the traditional style was a simple maze in which The Yellow One would be guided round to eat all the pellets present and try to kill a few ghosts along the way as a bonus. This all took place on a 2D overhead view, with even Shigeru Miyamoto’s 3D take on the series being mere simple 3D models. But Pac-Pix is actually quite charming to play, with its Crayola-scrawling style throughout, with a smidgen of 3D thrown in for good measure. Bright colours, fast speeds, lots of action going on throughout and nary a glitch in sight, Pac-Pix clearly does push the DS to its limits, yet still does not leave gamers with a bitter taste in their mouths.

The musical side is quite a turn out for the books, with a mixture of old skool classic Pac-Man ditties and a bunch of new tunes that are rather ‘plinky-plonky’ in places, but quite catchy and memorable after a few listens. Unfortunately (or fortunately for those that heard Charles Martinet’s annoying Mario voice in Pac-Man Vs) there is no speech in Pac-Pix, but this is made up for with some very good use of sound effects (like when you draw an arrow and you get the ‘whoosh’ noise). Nothing spectacular, but pleasing nonetheless…

Being on the Nintendo DS, this is not exactly your usual type of game (unlike a few of the release games that were clearly just GBA titles fudged onto the system). The D-pad is not used and neither are the action buttons – everything revolves around the use of the touch-screen and the fact that the system has two screens for the action to take place on. This leads to some very interesting aspects being thrown up, with gamers not only having to reply on their quick reactions, but their ability to draw things properly at high speeds.

When the game begins you are shown a quick demonstration of how to draw the little yellow fellow – by drawing his mouth first, then his body and finishing back off at the start. But that is not all there is to it, because depending on where you start drawing his mouth from will determine the direction in which he starts chomping toward. His size is also very important, with the smaller versions flying around the screen at high speeds and larger ones slowly plodding around. Each has advantages and drawbacks, with the faster ones able to catch quick ghosts, but being more difficult to control and the larger ones too slow, but able to eat many things at once.

That is not all you can do with Pac-Man, though, as you can drag him back slightly by tapping him and pulling back, hold him still by keeping the stylus pressed on the screen or keep Pac-Man from disappearing off screen into the ether by drawing lines, which he follows obediently. Later in the game you obtain the ability to draw arrows that shoot off to the top screen and can pop enemies trapped in bubbles or stun ghosts. In addition, you can draw bombs even later in the game! So there is a definite amount of variety thrown in by Namco. It is not all wacca-wacca-wacca…

And these various drawings all come into play on certain levels, meaning that some real thought has to go into clearing the screen. For example, you can open up a path around the top of the screen by making Pac-Man move over a keypad on the lower screen and not only are there extra lives, enemies to kill and fruity bonuses to collect up there, but the area acts as a nice little delay tactic whilst you draw arrows to pop enemies at the very top. Rather than letting Pac-Man die each time you draw an arrow, quickly send him on a trek whilst you do your art-work! It is tactics like this, as well as drawing multiple Pac-Men when necessary that make the whole game so much fun. It is testament to Namco’s talent that it was able to transform such a small demo into this brilliantly addictive title!

Straight out of the box you might think Pac-Pix to not be the long lasting, fulfilling adventure that it should be for its price. However, despite the lack of multiplayer and just an initial ten stages, you will find that there is quite a lot to complete overall. Each of the ten stages is broken down into ‘pages’ that must be cleared, first of all by just drawing Pac-Man, then by using arrows as well, and finally bombs. All of this must be done without exhausting the amount of ‘magic ink’ (lives) you have from the start or letting the timer run down to zero. Levels begin innocent enough, but very soon become stress-filled and so tricky that you will have barely seconds left on the clock (if any at all, resulting in yet another death...). Getting through to the credits of Pac-Pix will be one hell of a challenge, but ultimately a very worthwhile one.