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Pac-Pix Review for Nintendo DS
Posted on Saturday, June 25, 2005 @ 12:00:33 am E.S.TPac-Man is a true gaming icon for the ages. The simple little yellow circle has burrowed a wedge into the hearts of all gamers worldwide. After all, how many grandmothers do you know who could draw Master Chief from memory? But as much love as Pac-Man has received in the the long gaming past, remnants of his former frenzy still show themselves on occasion. Enter Pac-Pix: an innovative title that utilizes the legend well, even if the game is slightly above average at best. Much like Yoshi's Touch and Go, Pac-Pix was originally a tech demo for the Nintendo DS. It showed how, using the touch screen, developers could animate drawn inputs from the player. In short, it showed a Pac-Man being drawn and then it “waka-waka-ing” around the screen. The idea was such an innovative success at E3 2004 that the demo was morphed into a full-fledged title for the sparse DS library.
The actual gameplay of Pac-Pix stays true to the demo in many ways. Using your user-created Pac-Man, you try to eradicate the ghouls from a book in an attempt to save the day. Walls are drawn with the stylus to navigate the yellow figure into the enemies who are meandering around the screen. To add to this functionality are two other objects to draw for animation (called “gestures”) - an arrow and a bomb. Arrows are sent flying in whatever direction they are drawn to pop bubbles, hit switches, or stun enemies. A circle, followed by a fuse, must be drawn in order to create the little blue death spheres, which are lit from the on-screen candles. All of these elements combined with simple obstacles and obstructions make for a pretty frantic environment. With all of the fore mentioned, the subject of the object of the game is brought up. Well, you are restricted by two elements: how many Pac-Mans you can draw and how much time you have to digest the apparitions. These limits keep the game's franticness high and are the main factor keeping the player in the game. In general, the gameplay of this title is extremely different than that of any other game ever made. It's innovative, intense, and quite an impressive idea.
Moving on to other matters, the notion of how one rates the visuals of a title in which you yourself draw the focal points of the game is a rather perplexing one. Pac-Mans will be birthed by the stylus at an outstanding rate, so logic would dictate that many would not be “prom king” material. To put it bluntly, during the course of the game, the player will see overbites and underbites that would put West Virginians to shame. Plotwise, all of Pac-Pix takes place in a book, so the background is an appropriate parchment tone. Each chapter has a slightly different pattern to it and do a decent job of making it look differently than other chapters. When it comes to the ghouls to feast on, the enemies are nicely animated and appropriately colorful. In fact, everything is aesthetically pleasing and overall the game has adequate visuals.
When it comes to the audio of the game, it carries a rather nostalgic feel. Pedestrians who can't see the screens will undoubtedly know it is a Pac-Man game by merely listening to the music. Classic sounds effects such as the timeless “waka-waka” can be heard and little jingles from the ole arcade title have been revamped for a more modern feel. There is a problem, however; Just like the oldies, the same sounds are played over and over again. While difficult to call a major problem, variety certainly could have given the audio track a big boost.
Pac-Pix consists of twelve chapters, each which contain five pages to feast upon. On even numbered pages, there is a sixth boss stage to contend with, which helps move the game along. As to be expected, the game progresses with a slowly increasing difficulty level (arrows become available at Page 5 and bombs at Page 9). After finishing the game, a more difficult second book is unlocked (the same as the first book but with greater restrictions and faster enemies). To add to the replay value, a scoring system which gives you a letter grade, with certain grades unlocking “cards”. These cards are easily one of the laziest unlockables in almost any game. They consist of a picture of something from the game and a short little block of text saying what it is. Exciting stuff. To be quite blunt, the gameplay itself is quite fun to play for a short while but in the long run, dust will gather on this one. Having very little incentive to get higher scores is a disappointing quandary. Luckily, simply going from chapter to chapter every once in a while is still pleasurable.
Overall, Pac-Pix isn't a bad game in the least. It has positives such as innovation, general fun, and intense gameplay, though lacks in the replay section. While fans of the series should definitely give this game a look, mainstream gamers might want to just borrow it from a friend. It is nice to see Pac-Man back in an innovative title on Nintendo's latest handheld. If you're looking for a nostaligic blast from the past in a new wrapper, Pac-Pix might be just what you need. Otherwise, maybe you should just wait for Pac N' Roll.
Review By: Flamecuber - 1334 Reads
Pac-Pix Review Scores for DS :
| Gameplay |
| 8.5 |
| Graphics |
| 7.0 |
| Sound |
| 6.5 |
| Replay |
| 6.0 |
| Overall |
| 7.2 |
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