Welcome to VC Weekly, N-Europe’s guide to the wonderful world of Nintendo’s download service. Written by Sam C Gittins

Another iconic videogame gets the portable treatment, not for the first time either, thankfully though this version is surely one that's worth playing. Anyway enough from me and on with the game!
 
Available for download this week we have...     

Pac Man


 
Price: GB £4.49, EU €4.99
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Namco
Released: 1984
System: NES

Wakka, wakka, wakka... the repeated sound that defined a generation of gamers; instantly synonymous to many as the sound of the infamous Pac Man chowing down on large amounts of small yellow dots. Originally a hugely successful arcade game in 1985 this iconic title has been re-released many times in the past double decade.

As far as the story goes there isn't really one to speak of... you are Pac Man, you navigate mazes populated with items and objects, while these are edible the multi-coloured ghosts aren't by default. For the most part you eat yellow dots, all of which must be consumed in order to progress to the next stage, pieces of fruit sporadically appear which our round hero can consume for massive point bonuses.

Other perishables include the Power-Pills and the ghosts (named Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde) the two are inextricably linked because while most of the time the multicoloured ghosts will hunt down the lil yella fella, if he then pops a power-pill they turn bright blue and become partially consumable (apart from their eyes) for a limited period of time.

Essentially that is it, the concept carries on for the rest of the game with the only variables being the speed of ghosts, the central bonus item and the map, of which there are 256 that are considered to be actual "proper" maps even though technically due to a design flaw present in all versions there is actually no end to Pac Man, just maps which have reduced visibility rendering them virtually unplayable to the average player.

With that single technical flaw noted which I don't count as a negative seeing as it is present in all versions; Pac Man is one of those immortal gaming classics that is fun to play regardless of format. While this virtual console incarnation doesn't add anything new aside from being a full colour portable version of the title (unlike the lacking GameBoy version) it certainly doesn't lose any of its charm and remains as playable and addictive as it always has
been.

Verdict : Pac Man ported in a playable portable form, what's not to like?

That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!