Pac Man. The name is synonymous with old school arcade gaming and is absolutely legendary among video gamers worldwide. Since the games introduction in 1980, Namco has created numerous sequels and countless remakes of their yellow-circled hero. With the possible exception of Ms Pac Man, however, no sequel has ever came close to capturing the magical feeling of total addiction that the original created all those years ago. Now, with the introduction of the Nintendo DS, comes the possibility for all new forms of game control and game play. Can this new platform breathe fresh air into the classic franchise, and more importantly, can Pac Pix recapture the original addiction that “Pac Mania” once created in the action/puzzle genre as before?

Thats cheating surely, but we dont care!

The story in Pac-Pix is very simple. You see there exists a Wizard, who is evil of course, and he creates this amazing ink that can turn anything that is drawn with it into ghosts. These despicable ghosts invade books all around the world, causing havoc that only a ghost monster can (I hate those guys). Luckily, and most conveniently, Pac Man suddenly finds himself with a “magic pen” and traps all the ghosts into one magical book. Unfortunately for Pac Man, before he can put the finishing touch on this book he finds himself also trapped in that same book, faster than he could say power pellet. The only way to save him, and defeat the ghosts is for the player to use the stylus to draw Pac Man, and other objects, in the pages of this book until all the ghosts are defeated. Not exactly the greatest story in videogame history, but when the heck has a Pac Man game ever had a good story anyway?

Obviously with this being a puzzle game, the graphics in Pac-Pix will not impress any DS owner. Once again this is a DS game that completely ignores the 3D capabilities of the DS hardware and stays in the tried and true 2D tradition of the GBA. And once again, I am a DS owner who is disappointed with that. However the games “story”, if you can call it that, revolves around the fact that Pac Man has been trapped into a storybook 2D world and the games graphics do compliment the story very, very well. Thus, although very simplistic, the graphics are very well suited for this game and it works out perfectly. The ghosts and other objects are colourful and decently detailed, but the objects that you draw on screen are, of course, just basic lines, triangles and circles. I suppose, the graphics in Pac-Pix depend on ones own artistic skills to some extent, as the player literally creates some of the in game graphics with the stylus on the fly.

Draw your own Pac-Man and guide him with the stylus.

Pac-Pix music is very good and its sound quality is very impressive. DS owners will be treated to different yet catchy renditions of the old musical scores from Pac Mans classic past. The music is very well done and sounds great coming out of the two speakers of the DS. The games sound effects have also been updated for the DS while still playing tribute to the original games old school roots. The sound production in this game is very well done, and quite frankly, much better than I expected from a puzzle game.

The game play is a hybrid puzzle/action game with a lot of drawing involved on the bottom touch screen. I have already played DS games where I controlled a character by use of the touch screen, or in other games such as Yoshi Touch & Go, by drawing a path for the game character to follow. What sets Pac-Pix apart from other DS games is that for the first time in a video game I actually had the ability to create my game character from absolutely nothing with the stylus. It’s pretty cool finishing off your hand drawn creations and then watching them come to life in front of you, exactly as you have drawn. And as long as it is basically a round shape with a mouth, whatever size or shape Pac Man you draw on screen will come to life, exactly as you have drawn it.

[pagebreak]

The game has many stages consisting of 12 chapters, all of which involve eating waves of ghosts before the timer runs out. This is simple at first, but as the levels progress the ghosts become armed with shields, will disappear when you get close to them and can be locked up on the top screen safely out of Pac Mans reach. Barriers which can knock Pac Man off course and perhaps even off screen, along with locks, keys and other dangerous obstacles are all placed on the bottom screen to deter the player from succeeding at his objective.

There are no size restrictions for your Pac Man, as a matter of fact against some boss ghosts the bigger the Pac Man you create the better. The larger the Pac Man the more you can eat, but the slower he will move. Unfortunately for Pac Man some Ghosts have shields that will cause him to bounce back in the opposite direction from where he came if he comes into contact with them. In other instances a smaller and much faster sized Pac Man is essential in order to both catch certain objects in precise numerical sequence and in order to unlock a door and allow the player to access the top screen. Sometimes you cannot touch anything else while doing this without resetting the sequence, and thus speed and small size are an advantage here. To makes things even more hectic, multiple “Pac Men” can be drawn on the bottom screen in order to save precious time, however controlling 3 Pac Men at a time, with some on the top and others on bottom screen can become very hard and usually one will go off the screen very easily before the player can draw a barrier to prevent this. But it’s defiantly necessary in later levels to create more than one Pac Man at a time in order to beat the clock.

Wouldn't be Pac-Man without cherries to get greedy for!

Players are not restricted to only drawing and watching Pac Man come to life in this game, there are a few other objects that also must be created on the touch screen. In later levels bombs must be drawn using the stylus in order to destroy blocks and barriers that hold bonuses, ghosts and secrets. These bombs must be drawn with a fuse in the middle and then lit. The length of the fuse the player draws will determine the time it takes for the bomb to explode.

Some clever ghosts can hide on the top screen, trapped in bobbles, floating in areas that cannot be reached by Pac Man even when he unlocks the tunnel and ventures up to the top. Luckily, the power of the “Magic Pen” can also be used to create arrows, which at the moment you have finished drawing them will shoot off like a rocket up to the top screen and pop anything trapped in a bubble that it comes into contact with, bringing it down to the bottom screen where the player can now deal with it. Needless to say, with up to three Pac Men to simultaneously control, multiple arrows being both drawn and aimed, obstacles to blow up, various ghosts to eat, specific sequences to numerically unlock and a clock to beat, the game gets very hectic and very challenging. Even with all of this to do, this puzzle game rarely becomes frustrating and always seems to stay fun.

Bound to addict, level after level.

The replay value in Pac-Pix is very good. Each of the 12 chapters has a scoring system based on letter grades and even if you have finished the chapter you can return to beat your personal best score at any time by selecting the Chapter on the menu screen. Also, fruit and cards can be found and collected in all of the chapters, which you can later access on the menu page. These cards and fruit are little bonuses with a description and picture of the characters you have played against in the game. The difficulty in the later chapters will ensure that you do not finish the game quickly, and the ability to replay the previous chapters will keep DS owners entertained for hours on end.

If you're thinking about adding this to your DS collection, i'd say you'd most likely be very satisfied with your purchase. I highly recommend this game for all DS owners, even if you don’t like puzzle games you still should pick it up used at some point as it is very entertaining, original, and has a lot of action for a puzzle game. Even after all these years, the loveable yellow circle with the eating disorder still has what it takes to entertain gamers everywhere. Although very fun and innovative, Pac-Pix does not surpass the original puzzle/action “Pac Mania” from the 80’s, even on a brand new system like the DS. But still, it’s a very fun game in its own right. And being fun is what games are all about.