Pac-Man 256 hit store shelves (virtual store shelves) today for a whopping $4.99. That price seems low, which generally equals out to a cheap experience that doesn’t last, right? Typically this would certainly mean that, but as history has shown in the past, especially when it comes to Pac-Man titles, Pac-Man games for cheap are generally epic. Pac-Man Championship Edition comes to mind, which was a repetitive Pac-Man game jacked up on speed that has been known to start arguments in happily married households. My wife and I cannot play the game anymore for reasons I cannot type in this review.
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Anyway, Pac-Man 256 is here. It’s a game that runs slow and steady, as well as pushes your sanity and nerves to the limit. Sounds crazy for a Pac-Man game, doesn’t it? The answer is yes to that question. The premise of the game is that you constantly move your Pac-Man up, devouring dots, picking up special items and all the while avoiding a corruptive arcade disintegration (from the 256th level of the arcade game, which would glitch accordingly) that is making its way from the bottom of the game board. Get caught in the disintegration and Pac-Man is toast. All of this makes the gameplay incredibly intense.
The strategy of the game is built around making movements quickly on the fly, while avoiding a variety of ghosts, as well as the above issues. The antagonist in the game represent their arcade brethren perfectly, with each having a unique personality for preventing Pac-Man from progressing. Inky (blue) repeats patterns, not straying away from his plans, regardless of Pac-Man proximity. Blinky (red) hunts down Pac-Man like a dog, using backtracking and forward strategy to chase the heck out of our hero. Pinky (pink) is slow and steady with strategy, and the fastest of the bunch, who waits for Pac-Man to cross his path before striking, though only moving when that path is crossed. Clyde (orange) falls like Tetris pieces in a downward motion, never backtracking. Then there is Glitchy (rainbow-y), a multi-faceted antagonist that will change strategies at any given moment. The threat of the ghosts is a huge reason the nerves are constantly in fifth gear in this game. In addition, the randomly changing levels with each start means that you never know how these ghosts are going to be every time you start a new game. They make the game more pressing than it should be.
While simple movement would ultimately be enough to satisfy the pure strategist out there, as well as avoiding ghosts, co-developers Hipster Whale and 3 Sprockets really want to mess with you mind, as if it didn’t have enough to think about, with power-up choices. Pac-Man can pick up your typical power pellets to dispose of ghost in an old school method. Sometimes that is the best choice of strategy, especially at the right time. Outside of the usual power-up suspect, the developers have also put together power-ups that can be gained through building up XP via pellet munching. The more pellets, the more power-ups are unlocked. These power-ups can come in the form of an expanding wall of fire, a Pac-Man bomb, frozen power-ups that slow enemies and/or smaller Pac-Men that go off in multiple directions to eat enemies (there are a lot more, but that’s just to name a few). You have the option of picking what power-ups you get during gameplay before you start the match. You get three power-ups per game and each power-up can be upgraded to more powerful forms through the gaining and spending of coins, which are scattered all over the levels as you play the game. In short, Pac-Man has loadouts. Those loadouts are upgradable. This is a Pac-Man game.
So, yeah, this game is far deeper than it should be.
To make it even better, you can play with up to four players (why not), which casts a breath of Pac-Man Vs. essence into the gameplay mix. As an added bonus, but somewhat frustrating to do, the game does offer up a Share Play option for online buddies, but I haven’t gotten that to work for more than restricted Share Play time. If that is the only way to play online with friends, then that’s a bit of disappointment with the title, as playing a friend across town would be a definite plus. It seems like a true online multiplayer option would be a phenomenal addition to the title, though the lack of that solid option could be forgiven with its low price point. Having said that, make it happen Bandai Namco Entertainment!!!!
That disappointment aside, the game does offer up a variety of levels to play on (so far, just 10 I can see, which include a race track, garden and a classic Pac-Man level) and more than a few characters to substitute the usual Pac-Man moniker (chicken, robot, 3D Pac-Man to name a few). While nothing groundbreaking, it’s still neat to have a different set of visuals to play with in the game. If that doesn’t really do anything for you, then let me remind you that this is a $4.99 game. There seemed to be a tremendous amount of thought, effort and love put into it for what equals out to a cheap price. It’s highly impressive.
Onto the summary!
