I Got A Fever, A Fever For Pac-Man

Oct 03, 2012 20:18

I buy game cards when I can, because the less places my credit card number is the better. This is slightly problematic because the cards are always alot more static then when you buy points online. There's still about 400 points I think I have from DCU that are completely worthless right now, and buying another 1500 point card won't help me spend them, at all.

So it was basically the same thing when I grabbed a Microsoft points card to buy Double Dragon Neon. I only wanted $10 worth of points, what the games costs, but the smallest amount on a card is $20. Gee, maybe I can buy some useless shit with the extra points, like hats for my game avatar, blarg!

Okay, it's not actually the same thing at all. There's plenty of decent options in the Xbox Arcade for another $10, my problem was most of them are also available on Steam, which is my platform of choice. I mean, why put Jet Set Radio on my Xbox when I'd rather have it on my PC, and the PC one will be cheaper when Steam inevitablly does a sale?

So I've had these Xbox points for a couple weeks now not really knowing what to do with them until I remembered I had wanted the anniversary edition of Pac-Man.

Yes, all I enjoy now is new version of games from the 80s, shut up.

Well, it also turns out that they had made a special edition of the anniversary edition, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, it's not available on PC and it was exactly my Xbox points total. Perfect.

Originally I wanted this game because it looked like Pac-Man on acid. And it IS Pac-Man on acid, but it's got more going for it then just being trippy looking Pac-Man.

The changes to gameplay from the old school original are that now the ghosts are sleeping in the maze, waking up and chasing you as you go by them. The pellets you eat aren't fixed on the maze, they appear as you clear other sets of pellets, so you're always kind of chasing after them and trying to find the optimum way of gobbling them up before the long train of ghosts you've woken up get you.

They also slow things down when a ghost is about to get you and give Pac-Man a limited number of bombs that blow up the ghosts, which make the game easier than the original version.

And when you get the power pellet, the ghosts don't run away from you. So when you have a huge train of ghosts chasing you and you get it, you can turn around and gobble them all up. And then they'll put hoardes of stationary ghosts near power pellets, pretty much just so you can gobble them up too.

It's alot of fun when you're racking up a ridiculous number of ghosts getting om nommed. I can usually get it around the 30s, my best was in the 60s. ALL THE GHOSTS! I EATS THEM ALLLLLL!!!!

The game speeds up as you play, and slows down again when you get killed. There is a limited number of lives, which seems largely irrelevant since the modes usually have you trying to get a high score within a certain time limit and you won't die that often.

All in all it captures what was enjoyable about the original game while adding new mechanics which can be grasped quickly and fun.

I guess if I had to bitch about anything, it's that I don't have any of the drugs on hand that I think I should probably be tripping on to really appreciate this game.

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