Gaming Glance - "Pac-man Championship Ed. DX+" (PSN)

For those of you who are unaware of it Namco Bandai released a significantly different version of "Pac-man Championship Edition DX" recently in the form of a free update (assuming you have the game already). This update is of course "version 1.10" as you'll find out when you load up the game. While this new update, and version of the game contains many noticeable visual, and functional changes it is still a trial until you purchase the accompanying DLC that was also released in it's wake. For those of you worried about losing the core experience you payed for before fret not, because all of the former in-game content from the previous version is still very much intact. It merely had a visual overhaul. The more prominent features that you'll find this time around are things like highly detailed friend comparison charts, in-game stats, and even Facebook sharing options which were added to make playing the game a more "social" event. As far as visuals go you'll be quite surprised that everything in the game looks worlds better than it did before.

If for some reason you've never heard of "Pac-man Championship Edition", or "Pac-man Championship Ed. DX", you my friend have been living under a rock in the middle of some vast godforsaken desert for quite some time. In a nutshell, "Pac-man Championship Ed. DX" was an arcade-like experience like no other. It took the competitive nature of the Pac-man series, and increased it tenfold. Namco had in essence created the perfect Pac-man tribute game that also stood on it's own as being the future of the series. Instead of solely focusing on pac pellet collecting, and dodging the four infamous ghosts (Blinky, Pinky, Inky & Clyde) of the Pac-man universe Namco decided to make it more about ghost attracting, ghost gobbling, and ghost gobbling combos. Aside from the newly improved combo oriented ghost gobbling Namco Bandai also added in time trials, and score based levels that made the competitive aspect of the game it's true focal point. For good measure they even threw in the ghost clearing bombs, and slowdown feature that helped Pac-man get out of dire situations.

There's definitely a lot of new things that were applied to the traditional Pac-man experience that helped "Pac-man Championship DX" become so grand in scale. Obtaining a high score in the original DX version of the game, for example could win you a place on it's global leaderboards for all those long time Pac-man fanatics to admire. Not only that, but you could also compare your progress with online friends for some friendly competition. In comparing both the old, and new versions of the "Championship Edition DX" game I can see that there's definitely a lot of similar features in both versions. In this latest version however all of those stat, graphical, and leaderboard oriented features have been amplified in a way that make the social, and competitive aspects of the game more viable in today's online communities. It might just bring veteran gamers back to it, as well as attract newcomers to the game by introducing such features. The only downside to though it is that in order to experience the latest version in it's intended entirety one must spent money on DLC to unlock all that is offered.

What's new in this recent version? On the trial side of things the game has undergone a complete visual overhaul. From the moment you start the game, and view the newly created title screen you'll notice many changes. The navigation menu that follows the title screen, for example is one of the greatest changes of all. At this particular menu you'll see stat menus, friend comparison menus, and even a menu for all the trophies, and medals you have unlocked through gameplay. You'll also notice an immediate pop-up that lets you know that your previous save data means diddly squat in this new version of the game. Luckily for you though the trophies you earned before hand are still there. You'll simply have to play through all the levels again to unlock everything.

Aside from the navigation menu there are several sub-menus including graphs displaying your in-game progress, a global leaderboard as well as a leaderboard where you can watch replays from the top scoring gamers. The actual character, and level graphics have also been greatly altered giving the game a more modern, and more impressive appearance. For those of you who are curious about the actual pre-game setups you can still change colors, character design, and all the things that were changeable before you installed the latest edition. While all that has definitely been enhanced for the better you'll be pleased to know that there are some truly new features added into the mix. Should you opt to splurge on some DLC you'll gain access to a few new level collections, character designs/skins (Dig Dug, Classic Pac-man, Pac-man Returns ...), and a few other things that will no doubt stretch the replay value of the game.

I for one found the Dig Dug tribute skins to be an interesting addition to the game even though they were made for mere visual appeal. If I remember correctly there's also another set of tribute skins based on a retro Namco shmup. I can't remember which one though? For those of you looking for a secret pertaining to the skins you'll discover an in-game ad via the main navigation menu explaining that if you unlock all medals & trophies you in turn will unlock a secret skin. This in itself is motivation enough for me to revisit the game at least for a while. Hopefully this handful of new DLC won't be the last additions to the game though as I'd love for "Pac-man Championship Ed. DX+" to become as popular as Zen Studio's Zen Pinball, and Pinball FX2 game are.

Now onto the verdict ...

For the awesome experience that it offers "Pac-man Championship Ed. DX+" is still one of the most affordable, and rewarding PSN games that you'll find to date. For $9.99 you'll get the core game with immense replay value, and for some additional dollars spent you can further the experience through DLC add-ons. While I definitely think Namco is jumping on the DLC train trying to make an extra buck off of the gamers I feel that this game is still worth investing in. Very rarely will you find me agreeing with DLC practices, but there have been some exceptions (Soul Calibur V, Zen Pinball ... ) that I've encountered in my time as a gamer that I've deemed to be worthy of additional purchases including this very game. If by some chance you already own "Pac-man Championship Ed. DX" the core update is free, so there's no need for a second full game purchase.

As for as recommending this game goes I say it's definitely a must have. Any fan of retro, or modern day gaming will have fun playing through the game. There's no doubt in my mind about it. The replay value alone more than makes up for the game's core cost as well as the cost of the DLC add-ons. I give mad props to Namco Bandai, and their staff for greatly improving on a game that was Awesome in the first place. I hope that they continue to produce games such as this in the future. There's nothing quite like a retro gaming tribute, especially when it's so masterfully done!