I would like to call attention to everyone who owns a Nintendo DS. Hey, yeah, you too, back in the corner there. OK. Everyone, I want you all to say thank you to Namco by going out to buy Pac Pix if you haven’t already. They’ve done all DS owners a huge service: they developed a game that offers up some of the unique gameplay Nintendo promised the system would produce, and it’s a game that almost anybody who picks up the system will have fun playing. OK? We’ll thank them all together on three: One, two, three... THANK YOU NAMCO! Pac Pix is arguably the best game available for the Nintendo DS at the moment, and no DS should be without this game in its library.
Chomp-ba-chomp-ba-chewie-chewie-chomp!
There’s something inherently enjoyable about what Namco has come up with in Pac Pix. The instant gratification of drawing a Pac-Man shaped icon, only to see it spring to life and "waka-waka-waka" around the stage is undeniable. The mechanics are simple enough that anyone can do it. You start drawing Pac-Man from the top of his mouth, go in and out to the bottom, and circle down and around back up to the top of the mouth. Depending on the size, the speed of your creation will vary. Smaller is faster, taller is slower.
"Pac Pix is arguably the best game available for the Nintendo DS..."
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For those just picking it up, the fun lies in how weird your Pac-Man looks when drawn. While most times you get the mildly amusing over or underbite, some of your drawings will look extremely off, resulting in some very funny characters. I swear to you I once drew a Pac-Man with his mouth at the top of his head instead of the side. It’s actually a good thing that some of these Pac-Mans (I swear its Pac-Mans, that’s what it says in the game) are allowed to look so misshapen. It means the drawing mechanic is forgiving. If you had to draw a perfect Pac-Man every time you’d never be able to complete the later levels. There are times where the drawing program is imperfect, but I’ll speak on that later.
Kicking the Habit
The story in Pac Pix begins simply enough. Ever since Pac-Man had his tabloid scandal with Pinky the ghost (you know, the one who started the series out as a male but is somehow now female...) his addiction to "power pellets" grew, and it grew so large it became a problem. He only used to need them to take on the ghosts, but eventually he grew dependent on these "pellets" simply to function, and ultimately ended up in rehab. For years Pac-Man weathered countless jokes about his "power pellets," but he persevered. Now successfully rehabilitated, he doesn’t need the pellets he so desperately used to crave. Now, he runs the ghosts down sober.
OK, OK, you got me. The real story has something to do with a magic book, and some evil ghosts are inside, and Pac-Man gets trapped in it, blah blah blah... you know. All joking aside though, this game uses a lot of Pac-Man staples fans will surely recognize. The enemies of course are the ghosts. They wander around on the stage, waiting for the arrival of Pac-Man and his gaping mouth to devour them. Some will just wander aimlessly, but some wear armor, or can teleport across the stage, making it harder for Pac-Man to get to them. There are also several inventive and enjoyable boss fights that change up the action and add something slightly different to the mix, though I won’t spoil them here.
Pac-Man will be able to leave the stage and go up to the top screen, similar to his left-side-of-the-screen-to-the-right-side-of-the-screen teleport trick in previous games. He enters in the upper left or right hand corner, runs along a track on the second screen and comes out the opposite corner. Sometimes there are enemies in this area, and sometimes Pac-Man will be able to partake in the healthy and points-providing fruit that randomly grows there.
Doing Lines: Pac-Man’s Off the Wagon
While Pac-Man no longer needs power pellets to eat the ghosts, he does need to do a few lines in order to change directions (cue canned laughter). All of the control in this game is done with the touch screen, and not in the faulty Super Mario 64 DS way either. For instance, say you draw Pac-Man is moving across the screen to the right. In order to change his direction, you’ll need to draw a vertical line. When he hits this line, he’ll go in whatever direction you drew it in, so if you started from the bottom and went up, he’ll go up. If he’s going up, and you draw a line to the left from the right, he’ll hit that line and turn right. At first it’s a little confusing, but after a while you’ll be chasing ghosts around like a pro.
"... this game uses a lot of Pac-Man staples fans will surely recognize."
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While you can draw Pac-Mans and lines, those aren’t the only drawing options available. Later in the game you’ll learn to draw arrows, which will fire across the stage. They can stun enemies, or pop bubbles on the top screen that float outside the track Pac-Man runs through. You’ll also learn to draw bombs, which will knock armor off of enemies, or clear obstacles out of the way. With these actions, some depth is provided, but unfortunately some problems are as well.
Let me give you an example: once I meant to draw a Pac-Man, and a bomb came up. There are multiple reasons why this may have happened, but the drawing mechanic isn’t fail-safe. There are times where you’ll draw arrows and they won’t register either; it’s just that these moments don’t happen very frequently, and they’re mostly your own fault. You can’t draw things through obstacles or enemies, and you have to make sure that the drawings are somewhat accurate. It wouldn’t be a game if there wasn’t any skill involved.
Not Quite Over Before You Know It, but...
If there are any problems I have with Pac Pix, they’re the length and the replay value. Pac Pix is unfortunately only twelve chapters long, and each chapter has five levels. This results in sixty levels, but you’ll rarely spend more than a minute and a half on any of them. Mathematically that results in a game that’s only an hour and a half long. The game is actually longer than that, it’s maybe three to four hours long (due to dying, and learning how to play, etc.), but it’s still not lengthy by any means.
Replay is scarce as well. It’s done through a ranking system; the higher the points you score, the higher your rank is for a stage. You can get ranks as low as C (maybe lower, but I didn’t get that low), and as high as S, by getting as many points as you possibly can. To do this you’ll need to finish the level quickly, use as few Pac-Mans as possible (each stages gives you four to five to work with), and eat all the bonus fruit. Unfortunately all you unlock for doing this are "cards," which detail items and characters in the game. It’s kind of worthless. I personally don’t like to have below an A ranking on any of the levels, so it’s good for players who like to do well, but for those who just play through once, this game has little to offer.
"... the core gameplay is enough to come back for more..."
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There’s also a mostly worthless sketch book mode, where you can practice the drawings, or uncover the hidden drawings, but most of the "risque" ones were taken out for the American release. The mode was empty enough to begin with, so I’m not sure why they emptied it even further.
Thankfully, it’s enjoyable to just draw Pac-Man and watch him march around. I really can’t explain why it’s so fun, but there will be times you put this game in just to screw around. You’d maybe like to see how small you could draw him, how big, or just how misshapen the game will allow him to be. While there isn’t a great deal of extra content or length, the core gameplay is enough to come back for more, and that’s saying something.
Pac Pick This One Up
While I’m not saying Pac Pix is a perfect game, I am saying it’s one that every DS owner should own, and one that every gamer should experience. It lends some weight to the idea that the DS is capable of changing the face of gaming, but at the very least it offers something totally unique and undeniably fun. When you learn all of Pac-Man’s moves, and all the elements come together in the later stages, this game gets pretty darn complex. It’s just a shame it’s so short.
