Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local), Online Leaderboards

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Namco Museum Arcade Pac, along with Namco Museum.)

Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus is actually the expanded version of the third game in the Pac-Man Championship Edition series (with DX coming between the first game and 2). For those not familiar with the series, Championship Edition reimagines Pac-Man as a fast-paced blast through multiple on-screen mazes with a ticking clock. 2 continues the use of the “bomb jump” and Snake-esque “ghost train” of DX, while adding in new boss stages. The “Plus” from this version’s title comes from a new, exclusive 2-player mode that shakes up the formula even further.

This game’s presentation retains the same retro technological fusion-style graphics of the previous games in the series, with plenty of neon visuals and effects, although honestly I can’t help but find them a bit more subdued this time around. This game also uses voxel-style graphics to depict the “boss” characters, a nice touch but hardly impressive. Honestly though, what disappoints me most about the presentation here is how busy and crowded everything seems, when the original Championship Edition felt like such an elegant evolution of the original Pac-Man formula.

Likewise, I have mixed opinions about this game’s soundtrack, which gives players their choice of a variety of fast-paced electronica tunes, but I honestly found none of them as catchy as the music from the first Championship Edition.

The gameplay here is divided into two parts: Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 and Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus 2P, with the latter being the new mode added to this version of the game.

In Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 mode, players will find the game to be an evolution of the formula from Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, albeit with a few changes. Now, ghosts don’t automatically kill you, you have to bump into them a few times. Also, when players eat a power pellet, the ghost becomes locked onto a track, making them easier to hunt down. And then there’s the new “boss” levels that have players rushing through the level with the ghosts always in “angry” mode.

In Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus 2P Mode, the game actually plays noticeably different than Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 mode. Ghosts are now lethal again from the get-go, and players have a helper partner assisting them with levels (either played by a second player or an AI). However, this comes with required additional strategy – fruits and power pellet-weakened ghosts now need to be crushed between the two Pac-Men, requiring a degree of coordination between the two. In addition, unlike Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 mode, the boss battles in this mode are actually more traditional boss battles, where players must flee a giant ghost using Platformer mechanics, collect pellets, and ultimately bash into him multiple times after finally getting a power pellet.

So the good news here is, I think the new Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus 2P mode is wonderful, and the boss battles in particular are an excellent addition to the Pac-Man franchise. However, everything else… I’m less than enamored with. Again, I think a large part of it comes down to the game’s cluttered levels. It just feels like the game keeps pushing set paths at you it wants you to take rather than you feeling like you’re forging your own paths, and with “sleeping ghosts” blocking off much of the game’s levels, it’s far easier to get trapped if you don’t follow these patterns.

Don’t get me wrong, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus is still fun, especially in the new Switch-exclusive 2P mode. However, I kept finding myself missing the elegance and simplicity of the original Pac-Man Championship Edition, which I’d argue is simply a better game in the end, despite this game’s bells and whistles. However, if you’re looking for a fun take on the Pac-Man formula, this game will do the job. It’s just… not quite what I hoped for after the first Championship Edition.

tl;dr – Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus is a decent follow-up to the original Pac-Man Championship Edition, itself a re-imagining of the arcade classic Pac-Man. However, this time around things just feel more cluttered and the game loses the elegant simplicity of the first Championship Edition. However, it’s still fun to play, especially in the new Switch-Exclusive 2P mode, which offers some excellent co-op. Overall, players looking for a decent modern evolution of the classic Pac-Man formula should be mostly pleased with this.

Grade: B

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