Pac-Man Championship Edition - Xbox Live Arcade review

Pac-Man Championship Edition needed to be released for 400 points, not the 800 Namco's asking us for. In fact, better yet - Pac-Man Championship Edition needed to be released as some kind of expansion pack for the original Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man, both of which have been on the Xbox Live Arcade service for months now.

What is Championship Edition exactly? It's an updated version of Pac-Man that's meant to be a series of timed score-attacks, but not in the traditional way. Choose one of the six or so game modes included in the package and basically do what you can to earn as many points as possible within the time limit. As the game progresses, movement speeds begin to accelerate, rapidly approaching breakneck speeds - the Man himself even has sparks flying out of his butt…but in a tasteful way.

That's not the only difference, though. The mazes are completely new, designed by the game's original creator (nice touch!) and like nothing you've ever seen in a Pac-Man game before. Rather than being full of pellets, only certain parts of each maze contain the munchable yellow dots. Eat enough of them and some fruit appears; eat that fruit and more pellets and power pellets appear elsewhere in the maze. The technique comes from knowing when and how to open up more parts of the maze while being chased by Inky, Pinky, Blinky and Clyde.