POSTED 25/6/16


PAC-MAN 256

Hipster Whale/Bandai Namco

Look. If you had one shot, one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it, or just let it slip?

What’s the world’s most famous cheese wheel got to do with Eminem? Erm, nothing that we can think of. But this new adventure for the pill-popping arcade veteran does only give you one shot at everything before BAWOOOOOO-WUP-WUP, game over.

It’s a clever little thing too, based heavily on Hipster Whale’s Frogger remix Crossy Road, but working a treat with Monsieur Pac. You start out with a traditionally styled Pac-maze, except it’s been turned all isometrical. Oh, and the mazes aren’t contained within one screen, for they’ve gone all procedurally generated endless runner on our arses.

Don’t think that you can faff around though, for that 256 in the title? It refers to the infamous glitch that only Pac-immortals ever encountered in the originator, whereby after level 256 the screen went glitch crazy. It’s back, and chasing you up the screen. If it catches you, please refer to that bit about BAWOOOOOO-WUP-WUP.

The classic ghosts return, but with different behaviour patterns to keep you on your toes. Still, beyond basic ghosts-go-Smurftastic power pellets, you have an embiggened arsenal of weapons from which you can enable three at any one time. These boast everything from ginormous, all-eating Pac-men to whirlwinds, fire trails and rather cool fricking laser beams. These and more are gradually unlocked the more dots that you gobble.

Also, four player couch co-op. Yay!

Perfect for quick play bursts, games may last anything from seconds to, well, a few minutes if you rock – and sometimes luck out with a friendlier pattern than some which just doom you from the very start. Pac-Man 256 is a great angle on a genuine classic, and seriously 10 times more addictive than swank.

It’s Pac-tastic... yo!

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