Pac-Man Championship Edition DX

There's almost too much game in there. [Feb 2011, p.121]

A must-have for every hi-score maniac, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX can keep you away from your friends more than any woman, and away from you woman more than any friend. An act of love to the golden era of the arcade games and probably on of the best downloadable games of the year.

This is the best downloadable title of the year: frenzied, addictive and defiant, along with a perfect pace and design. Pac-Man DX is a love letter to classic gaming, and the best update possible to the classic formula.

The only thing I really wish Pac-Man Championship Edition DX had was just more. More mazes, more modes, more ways for me to subjugate ghosts and rub my high scores in my friends' stupid, stupid faces. It's not that this package feels particularly anemic, it's just that what's here is so damn good, I wish it didn't have to end.

This is a master class in game design: you will understand it instantly, enjoy it instantly, and want to play again and again.

There are also a wealth of presentation options that cover the gamut of Pac-man's 30-year history.

Where previous iterations amounted to ports and bizarre 3D interpretations, Pac-Man CE managed to merge classic, addictive gameplay with a high-definition, modern touch.

To say that this is a must-buy is doing it a disservice; it's a game you'll want to instantly evangelise to anyone with even the vaguest sense of what makes a game good.

A great game and a must-have for anyone who is a fan of old-school, classic games.

I can't think of a single negative thing to say about it, and it's definitely in the contender for Game of the Year.

It is just that good, an incredibly fun game to both watch and play, and one that fills a thirty year old franchise full of life once again. It is hard to think of a more exciting and inventive way Pac-Man could have been re-envisioned in 2010.

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is an incredible game, from top to bottom.

n short, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is everything you've come to love about the series, distilled down into its purest form.

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is an extraordinary package that appeals to nostalgic arcade dwellers and newcomers alike. Namco has done an excellent job preserving the essence of Pac-Man while adding in new features such as bombs and ghost chains to spice things up.

One of the best Live Arcade games around: entertaining, immediate, challenging and nostalgic. A must have.

With Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, Namco Bandai has done all this and more, crafting an utterly addictive Pac-Man experience that will thrill, challenge, and consume players of all ages, skill levels, and experience. It's the best Pac-Man game to date, and a must-play for anyone who has thumbs and likes playing video games. It's really that good.

A little gem and a must have title both on PSN and Xbox Live. Highly recommended.

The gameplay is incredibly addictive, the leaderboards will keep you busy for ages, and the presentation tops the original game in many ways. Drop a roll of quarters and let the fun commence. Wakka wakka wakka!

DX is the gaming equivalent of throwing five Mentos mints into a cola bottle and shaking it until the lid pops in a fizzy explosion of insane foamy greatness. [Feb 2011, p.91]

The Pac-Man recipe strikes again. It's a must-buy for true fans of wokka-wokka-wokka.

As far as 2010 goes, it's mightily difficult to recommend a downloadable title more than Pac-Man Championship Edition DX.

Sometimes the simplest games are the best and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is one of those rare games that is super-easy to pick-up and play and impossible to put down.

In fact, it's the opposite: a cranked-up and damn near hypnotic high-energy sprint across a flashy, ever-shifting psychedelic racetrack. [Feb 2011, p.79]

Quite simply another brilliant title in concept and design. [Issue#67, p.100]

In the end, I'm really judging my enjoyment level of Pac-Man CE DX compared to how addicted I was to the previous title.

Seeing other companies failing to give the proper attention to their timeless classics, what Namco Bandai offers for a mere $10 cannot be overlooked, whether your a newcomer or hardened gamer.

Namco Bandai once again shows us how to take your old properties and make them relevant and fun for modern audiences. Top notch.

A perfect mix of retro and modern sensibilities that loses none of the charm or accessibility of the originals, but adds a great deal more variety.

But when the actual game is compared to the finest of its score-hungry contemporaries - Trials HD, Super Stardust HD and Geometry Wars 2 - Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is a titanic event of equal worth.

It's an absolutely hypnotic experience, one that simply feels good to play, whether in short bursts or as an alien-abduction-like time-eater. It's a game that's as timeless as the original, and while it probably won't reinvigorate Pac-Man as a cultural phenomenon, it's certainly an amazing step towards making the series relevant again.

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX introduces a number of terrific new elements that make it a superb update of the arcade classic.

Though I still don't know what a perfect game of DX looks like, the fact that I'm still glued to it (despite -- at this point -- finishing what I estimate to be maybe one actual five-minute game in any given hour) should give you a pretty clear idea of how I feel about it.

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is as an exhilarating experience as its sibling, and provides enough differences from the previous game to make the aggressively priced 800 MSP title a worthy addition to your XBLA collection - a single go will have you gagging for more.

Lest you fear that all the challenge has gone, let me ease your mind. Pac-Man DX ascends to mind-shattering speeds in a hurry, demanding fast minds and thumbs both.

While it's still puzzling why the developers seem so reluctant on including some sort of simultaneous multiplayer action, Championship Edition DX is unbelievably fun and mercilessly addictive, enhancing the timeless appeal of Toru Iwatani's original coin-op design to frantic and eye-catching levels.

Simply a masterpiece. There's really no reason why this one shouldn't be in your collection, whether you are a fan of the saga or not. It's so funny and polished you really can't miss it.

Unmatched combination of simplicity and fun in one of the best games in history, which again demonstrates that after 30 years its gameplay is still strong enough to engage us in our new consoles.

Pac-Man made better. [Feb 2011, p.103]

Pac-Man has received a facelift. The well-known bleeps that we know and love are now accompanied by a technobeat, the pace of the game is much faster and neonlights give the game a modern look. More importantly, the old concept of the game has been altered so that there's an original twist in every level.

It's a more immediate and instantly gratifying variant of the classic game than any that have come before, but you have to wonder if all this pyrotechnic pizzazz doesn't come at the expense of long-term score attack potential. [Issue#104, p.123]

With ten different courses to select and multiple challenges for each (mostly time trials and score challenges), there's quite a bit to Pac-Man Championship Edition DX to keep players busy.