Namco Bandai Games, Inc.
Pac-Man for Android
Rating:
4 Stars
It’s time to feel the nostalgia and start devouring some power pellets! No, no, put your quarters back in the piggy-bank and step away from the dusty arcade cabinet, because Pac-Man has made its way to Android! Available free today is the best incarnation of Pac-Man available on the Android platform. Just in case you’re somehow unfamiliar with Pac-Man, you’re a little yellow guy stuck inside a maze on a mission to collect as many dots, fruit, and power pellets you can. Along the way you’ll run into a few enemies – Pinky, Inky, Blinky, and Clyde – but with the help of the aforementioned power pellet, you can take them down. Your ultimate goal? To get the high score of course!
The Good:
This is a spot on port of the original arcade classic. Graphics, sound, gameplay, all of it is just the way you remember it. There’s even a little virtual joy-stick to play with dubbed the “Pac-Pad”. The Pac-Pad is actually another highlight of the game too. It’s a little weird at first, but once you realize what’s going on, you’ll realize it’s the best way to control the game. If you drag off in one direction, you’ll notice the joystick gradually starts pulling back to the middle; however, underneath your finger there’s a little shadow of the game pad, and that’s the important one. All of your moves from that point on react in regards to the little ‘ghost pad’, not the actual Pac-Pad in the middle of the screen. The virtual joystick is incredibly responsive, appealing to the eye, and unobtrusive!
The Bad:
There’s an alternative version of controlling the game that reacts to you flicking your finger across the screen, but this just doesn’t seem responsive enough in tight situations where you’re changing direction quickly. If it weren’t for that, this would probably actually be the preferred method of play. True Pac-Fan’s will also notice that the 2-player alternating mode is missing from the game. This is someone disappointing; however, it does actually save your expensive piece of technology from being frequently passed back in forth where it’s likely to get dropped. It does list the high-score at the top of the screen, so you can each play full games and just try and beat that. Unfortunately, though, there’s also no full high-score board, just the top score posted above the game board. This just seems like another feature that’s missing out. There’s also no option to turn down sound from the options menu, however you can always just use your volume buttons or go into your phone settings and lower your media volume.
The Ugly:
Like the lack of volume controls, there’s also no brightness control. This may seem like an odd request, however Pac-Man hijacks your brightness settings and automatically sets the brightness to 100% Sure, this is nice in the sunlight, but if you’re low on battery, it limits your playing time, and if it’s late at night, it feels like it’s going to burn your eyes out after a few minutes of game play. The most ridiculous thing about Pac-Man, though, is its asking price. $5? Namco Bandai wants a full $5 of your hard-earned cash for a port that’s not even full featured? Come on, $0.99 for the hundreds of ad-free levels of angry birds, or $5 to walk through the same maze, running from the same ghosts, and collecting the same dots over and over and over again? This just doesn’t seem like great marketing.
Bottom Line:
One thing that’s great about Pac-Man for Android is that it’s most definitely Pac-Man to the core. Everything holds true to the original game you wasted so much allowance on when you were a kid. If you can pick this up for free, there’s absolutely no reason you shouldn’t. Seriously, who doesn’t love Pac-Man? However, if you’re not so lucky, this is probably left best to the true Pac-Man enthusiasts who are desperate to get a taste of Pac-Man everywhere they go. If the price ever comes down, it might be worth picking up, but otherwise go spend your money elsewhere, but not even the price can take that much away from the overall excellent experience that you’ll be getting with Pac-Man.
Pac-Man was created by Namco Bandai Games, Inc. and is Amazon’s free app of the day for 6/1/11. It typically sells for (price)