PixlBit

Maybe you've had Pac-Man Fever, but couldn't get enough partying in with the pizza-shaped ghost-runner. Will Pac-Man Party provide fans with a fix?

Some games on the show floor didn't demo very well. At the same time, others did play great, were easy to pick up, and needed little real explanation of the controls. Naturally, though, there's several games that I'd say wound up being right in-between.

I'd say Pac-Man Party was definitely one those in-between titles on the floor. Like other newer Pac-Man titles, Pac-Man Party marks the effort Namco is making to maintain Pac-Man as a franchise, similar to Pac-Man World Rally or even how to Pac-Man and his gang's appear as competitors in Mario Kart GP. Perhaps most interestingly, many members of the Pac-Man franchise got re-designs. Each ghost, for example, had an entirely new model based more on the ghost concept, and some looked closer to say, Rotom, from Pokemon than the traditional Pac-Man ghosts. A few new characters were adding into the mix, as well, like a black cat with a forgettable name.

When I spoke to the person manning the demo station, I asked which mode, playing mini-games or the board game mode, would give me a more full experience. He told me the truth: The board game mode was the more complete experience, but the mini-game mode would be easier to pick up and play, partially because Namco's demo didn't contain instructions for the board-game mode. I heeded his words and decided to try to take in the big picture, and unfortunately, that was my mistake.

See, in Pac-Man Party, you play a territory-defense game on a board. Picture something like Monopoly, I'd say, but change the names of everything, and imagine that every time someone lands on an owned piece of property, a mini-game battle occurs to attack or defend the property. The winner of the mini-games can win the castle if he or she is standing on it, but in addition to winning property, the winner also gets cookies, in which the collection of a set number of said cookies seemed to be the end-goal for Pac-Man Party. In order to progress on the board, players play a brief mini-game all at once, involving anything from roulette to dart throwing. Unlike Mario Party, players move around the board all at once, letting the game progress much more quickly, but it also means that each board is going to be a lot less interactive, and that the map is more difficult to gain a good grasp of, due to the quick progression.

Given the rapid-fire progression of the game, as well as the lack of demo instructions, it was virtually impossible to tell much of anything in regard to the rules and workings of the game. Some spaces were property spaces, others gave cookies, and others had other, unexplained effects. Power Pellets could also be collected somehow, and could be used for extra ability in the mini-games. It was all entirely confusing taking in the game this way, and unfortunately, it shows in this impression.

What did work? The mini-games. From what was there, about half the mini-games seemed a bit too simple, but the rest were easy to pick up and a lot of fun to play. There's the obligatory "Shake-the-Wii-Remote-Rapidly," game, where players proceed to blast off after shaking a bottle of soda and using it like a jet-pack, along with a "Flick-the-Wii-Remote-at-the-right-time" game, where players have to react to a prompt quickly in order to pull up the largest fish. A more memorable game, though, involved characters turning into an orb and bouncing around, collecting apples to get to an oasis. In it, there were hidden apples, breakable walls, and various obstacles to overcome. Another fun game took a platforming twist, where all the characters stood on a conveyor belt leading into a trash compactor. Players had to dodge junk like planks, furniture, tires, and really random trash using various platforming skills at the conveyor slowly sped up.

All-in-all, I'd say that if you like Pac-Man and party games or mini-game collections, it could become an enjoyable experience. There didn't seem to be an all-out conquest mode, and the only board playable was square, while players moved in one direction, so it doesn't seem like strategy is all too possible, likely making it a game propelled by those looking for less complication than the cookie and property management may allow.

Pac-Man Party is due out in the fall, and will come with 45 total mini-games, as well as fully playable Pac-man, Galaga, and Dig-Dug ports.