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It all started that fateful day, just a simple shopping trip to Kroger's with my mom. I was only six years old at the time, and never really had played a video game before. Except Pong, we had that on our first family TV that my dad built (he's really smart). But I didn't realize that was a video game, just something you played when there was nothing else on TV. So at first I didn't know what to make of that great big yellow cabinet sitting just past the checkout lines at Kroger. I thought it was some kind of vending machine at first, there was a place where you could put money in. I asked my mom for a quarter, which she kindly gave me. Oh if she had only known the monster that would have been created. This yellow cabinet was actually a Pac-Man arcade machine, and from the moment I dropped in my quarter, I was instantly hooked. I was mesmerized by the colorful ghosts, neon blue maze, unique sound effects, and the little round yellow guy himself. To me, this was light years ahead of Pong, and the first time I realized that I was playing a video game! From then on for most of my childhood, I was fascinated with Pac-Man. I played all the games, slept on Pac-Man besheets, ate Pac-Man Spaghetti-Os, watched the Pac-Man cartoon religiously, even doodled Pac-Man in my school notebooks. I drew Pac-Man chasing dots, Pac-Man chasing ghosts, Pac-Man chasing my math teacher. And now, just as Pac-Man drew us into the arcades back in the 80's, now there's a game where YOU draw Pac-Man! Who knew all that doodling in my notebook would pay off in a game?
At last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo when Nintendo was showing off their new DS handheld game system, there was a tech demo where you could draw Pac-Man on screen with the DS stylus, and he'd come to life, no matter how badly you drew him, and eat ghosts roving around the screen. A year later and now Namco has made a whole game with that concept: Pac-Pix. The story goes that an evil wizard has created ﾑghost ink.' When you draw something using ghost ink, a ghost comes to life and starts moving around and making mischief on the paper the ghost was drawn in. Our hero Pac-Man manages to trap all the ghosts drawn with ghost ink into one book. But then the ghosts strike back, trapping Pac-Man in the book with them! Now it's up to you to draw Pac-Man in the book to chomp all the ghosts! The object of the game is to eat all the ghosts in the level. If you do this, you'll proceed to the next stage. All you have to do is draw Pac-Man, but you must do it a certain way. First you must start with the wedge that forms his mouth. It's the part that looks like a ﾑless than, greater than' sign. Then draw the circular part of the Pac-Man shape and connect it to the wedge without lifting your pen from the DS touch screen. If you do this correctly, Pac-Man will come to life and chomp any ghosts in his way! It's easy! The game is pretty lenient on how you draw Pac-Man. You can give him a huge overbite or a hunchback, and he'll still munch merrily along. The bigger you draw your Pac-Man, the slower he'll go. Draw him small and he'll go fast, but it'll be harder to keep up with him on screen. There are no mazes in Pac Pix, but you can draw walls to control your Pac-Man's direction. For instance, if you draw a vertical line with an upwards pen stroke, when Pac-Man hits it, he'll go up. You can also tap your Pac-Man with the stylus pen to hold him in place, and even move him backwards a bit. In later levels you'll learn to draw other things as well. Arrows that can shoot down ghosts in bubbles on the top DS screen, or bombs to blow up barriers. There are also different kinds of ghosts that will take some strategy to chomp. Some ghosts have shields in the front that'll bounce Pac-Man backwards if he takes them head on, so you'll have to chomp them from behind. Ghosts with numbers on their bellies have to be eaten in order. The same rules in Pac-Man apply here in Pac-Pix. The more ghosts you eat with one Pac-Man, the higher point value each consecutive ghost will be. Use the warp tunnels to go to the top DS screen to nab fruit for bonus points, too! You have a time limit to catch all the ghosts, and if time runs out it's game over. Also, you can only draw a limited number of Pac-Men in each stage. If a Pac-Man goes off the screen, you lose it. Run out and you'll have to start again. You can draw three Pac-Men on the screen at once. There are twelve ﾑchapters' with five levels each. At the end of every even numbered chapter is a creative boss fight, too. If you lose in a chapter you have to start that whole chapter again, which is a little frustrating at times. After each completed chapter the game saves your high score and gives you a ranking. Get a high enough ranking and you can get a card to put in the gallery to view later. Graphics in Pac-Pix are fairly simplistic, but the crayon-on-paper visuals have their unique charm. Plus, once you see the game in action you'll realize how much of a technical marvel it is to see a Pac-Man come to life that you drew. Sure there have been games in the past that let you create your own characters (like Magic Pengel), but there's almost something magical about drawing something that comes to life immediately after you draw it. The music features remixed tunes from the classic Pac-Man game, and strangely enough, the music really puts you in the mood for drawing Pac-Man. Familiar ﾑwakka wakka' sound effects enhance the experience. Play control is as easy as scribbling on a piece of paper.  There are only two problems with Pac-Pix. One, there's really not much to the game, and it's a little short. But you'll want to replay levels again and again to get a higher score and ranking. And while the game is pretty good at recognizing what you drew, sometimes it's hard to get the arrows to aim like you want, or to make a circle that will register as a bomb. But you can replay the drawing tutorials and practice drawing in an in-game sketchbook to practice how to draw things correctly. Sorry if this review was rather disorganized. It's just that I'm excited about this game coming out. Have you ever played a game that you thought was tailor-made just for you? Well, I like Pac-Man and drawing, so Pac-Pix was just a natural game for me. Too bad the game didn't come with the special Pac-Man stylus pen like it did in Japan. Over there, if you got Pac-Pix, it came with a special yellow stylus pen with Pac-Man at the end of it, and it looked just like the ﾑmagic pen' Pac-Man uses in the game. It also made playing the game easier because it was thicker (it won't fit in the stylus' hole in the DS). A friend imported me a special Pac-Pix pen from Japan, but it's a shame that Namco's US branch didn't take the extra mile to have the Pac-Pix pen be available for US gamers. Still, every Nintendo DS owner needs to get Pac-Pix. It's just plain fun. 
There is absolutely no questionable content in this or any Pac-Man game. All a kid needs to play this game is enough motor skills to maybe write their name fairly quickly. Although they may get frustrated at some of the later levels because things get H-H-HARD by then. Other than that, it's a perfect kid's game that you and them will both enjoy.
Having doodles and drawings come to life must be a shared childhood dream, as you see that theme in lots of places. From children's books like Harold and the Purple Crayon to cartoon shows like the old one about a boy named Simon who has adventures in a chalkboard world he created, to the new Nickelodeon show Chalk Zone. Heck, there was even an episode of Spongebob where he draws doodles that come to life. A game like Pac-Pix, where the child's OWN drawings come immediately to life makes that childhood dream come true, and should surely delight any kid with that dream. It may be stretching it, but Pac-Pix might even be considered educational, as children can use it to practice writing and motor skills they'll use later on in school when they learn to write cursive and whatnot. Can you tell I liked this game? It made me feel like a kid again. You should get it! Discuss this review on our Message Board! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "Pac-Man" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Pac-Pix |
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