A quick bit of research informs me that Pac-man and the Ghostly Adventures is firstly a children’s television series. Pac-man has been reimagined as a high-school teen, though not just any ordinary teen (as ordinary as a spherical yellow…thing, with arms and legs and rudimentary facial features can be). He is the last of the Yellow Ones, a race of…things that are the sole defence between their world and the Netherworld, where those dastardly ghosts reside. Except, the portal to the Netherworld has been inexplicably opened, and the evil Commander Betrayus is determined to overthrow Pac-world. In keeping with the series, the game opens in exactly the same fashion, with the portal open and ghosts floating freely throughout the streets. It’s up to our hero to defeat them all and return the world to normal.
To achieve this, Pac-man is a bit more nimble than many older gamers – hell, the majority of the world are familiar with Pac-man in his original guise – may be accustomed to. Now he exists in a 3-d, third-person platformer. He jumps, he even double jumps, and with a simple tap of the ‘X’ button can chomp his way through ghosts to his heart’s content. The controls can be slightly deficient where the platforming is concerned: simple jumps can be inexplicably missed, falling short of the platform, resulting in a return to the last checkpoint. While they are usually generously placed, on some occasions I found myself right back at the start of the level. This would be fine if the game wasn’t so obviously marketed towards kids, who may find their patience tested one too many times. The emphasis of games like this should surely be on entertainment over challenge, which the game seems to forget at times.
The one attempt to make combat and the platforming slightly more tactical is the addition of suits that Pac-man can wear, granting him special abilities. So a fire suit allows our hero to spit fire at enemies, and is needed to stun ice-based enemies before you can finish them off. Or the chameleon suit, which allows Pac-man to become invisible to enemies for a short time, should you wish to avoid a fight. This sounds fine in theory, but in practice, combat difficulties are never an issue, and nearly all enemies succumb to your default attack. The suits are necessary to reach certain areas: the fire suit melts icy obstacles, while the chameleon's tongue grabs on to bars, allowing you to swing from one section to the next.
All this is done while accruing insignificant collectibles, which merely grant you lives that you won’t need. Other collectibles include lemons, cherries etc, gained on completing a level, though sometimes you are required to finish a level twice in order to receive one. These can be used to unlock arcade machines in the highschool, if you are willing to persevere for that long. In said highschool, which serves as the games hub, you can chat to the characters that populate the show. This is presumably what Namco Bandai hopes will be one of the major draws for its target audience, allowing kids to explore the world that they have been watching and interact with their favourite Pac-folk.
Luckily for Xbox owners, we’re not deprived where platformers are concerned. For those still on the 360, both Rayman Origins and any number of Lego games can be got for the same price, if not a bit cheaper. With numerous worlds based around a certain theme – ice, Aztec, lava – there’s at least enough variety to keep the programme’s die-hard fans interested. There is multiplayer as well, a spin on the classic Pac-man where you control the ghosts in 3d versions of the mazes, trying to hunt down Pac-man before he has the chance to get you. Surprisingly, in such a connected age, this mode is split-screen only. Fine for playing along the young ‘un, but hardly more than a passing distraction. Pac-man may be determined to play catch up to a gaming world that has far outgrown its simplistic beginnings, but it’s going to have to offer more than this to get close to the competition.
