Reviewed: September 29, 2005
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Namco
Developer
Namco
Released: August 23, 2005
Genre: Action
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone
9
8
7
8
8.5
Supported Features:
It’s generally the unspoken rule that the best games for any given system are created by the company who created the system. Nintendo has always managed to milk more from their consoles than any third-party developer although Namco is quickly challenging their authority with two back-to-back hit titles. Perhaps it’s coincidence or just a love for the franchise that both titles just happen to be Pac-Man variations.
After wowing us with Pac-Pix Namco is quick to follow-up with Pac’n Roll, another fantastic title that features our favorite “pizza missing a slice” hero as he enters a new 3D world that is a mix of Marble Madness and a few other classic style platform games.
Back in the 80’s nobody worried how Pac-Man got around. He just glided around that blue maze and that was that. It was only when Namco created the Pac World games that we saw our hero sprout legs and run around like the true action star he was.
In Pac-n Roll the designers take away their gift of bipedal mobility through a freakish encounter with an ancient and evil Space Ghost that has been summoned by those meddling ghosts. He zaps our hero and those spindly yellow legs are gone! It’s up to Pac-Man to master his new mobility skills, and roll his way to victory as he explores numerous challenging and enchanting levels.
Pac’n Roll is one of those games that would be perfect if you had a track ball controller, but in lieu of such a device, the touch screen on the DS serves as an identical and nearly perfect replacement.
Control is simple; you swipe the stylus over the large version of Pac-Man in the lower screen, the speed and length of each swipe dictating how fast he moves and the direction of the swipe changing the direction as Pac-Man rolls through the maze-like levels on the top screen. It’s so simple even 5-8 year olds will master this in just a few minutes.
But like any good game, while the premise is simple at the core level the game gets incredibly challenge with increasingly difficult level designs, a bevy of power-ups, and multiple level challenges that will have you replaying each mission at least 2-3 times each.
The game takes place in Pac-Land, which is a pretty big place. It’s divided into several worlds like Castle Pac, Gyro Jungle, Flaming Fortress, Ghost Land, and Sweet Land, and each of those are divided further into stages. As worlds become unlocked you can travel about Pac-Land doing missions in any order of your choosing, including going back and attempting to collect all the gold crowns for each stage.
Each stage offers three modes of play that are scored separately. While it’s possible to achieve multiple goals and get multiple crowns in a single pass it is not very likely. Story mode is the first and primary objective. This has you simply completing the level by collecting all the Pac-Dots and reach the end goal.
Time Attack mode has you racing through the level as quickly as possible in an attempt to beat the par time for that coveted gold crown. Challenge Mode is a bit trickier and asks you to complete the level under varying conditions; possibly a time limit or a certain quantity of dots or ghosts that must be eaten, or even NOT eaten. Meet those requirements then reach the goal for a gold crown.
Pac-n Roll is played almost exclusively with the touch-screen. The D-Pad and some of the face buttons can be used to pivot the camera around the 3D world but all movement and interaction within the world is handled with the stylus.
As you might expect, gameplay revolves around eating dots and avoiding ghosts, at least until you gobble a power pellet and they turn blue, then it’s payback time. The levels are often divided with checkpoints or Golvis Gates, that require a certain number of dots before allowing you passage. Usually, the dots are pretty obvious, or at least enough are to get to the end. If you want that perfect gold crown you might have to look hard (by rotating the camera) for one or two troublesome dots.
If you touch a ghost that isn’t blue you are engaged in a type of struggle and you need to swipe the pen outwards from the center to break free of the ghost. As long as you are touching the ghost you take damage and if you lose all your health you lose a life. When ghosts are blue they are safe to eat and you are rewarded with health and even bonus lives for multiple feedings.
Pac-Man is surprisingly mobile for having no legs. He rolls around with a great sense of inertia and gravity. You can swipe and hold on the outer edge of the screen for a burst of speed or touch the center of the screen to put on the brakes.
Pac-Man also has a sweet tooth and there are several types of chocolate available. Knight Chocolate will put our hero in a suit of armor allowing him to smash metal boxes and barriers. He moves much slower in his armor but he also sinks and can travel under water and isn’t as susceptible to the effects of strong winds.
Wing Chocolate allows Pac-Man to glide long distances, useful in the levels with gaps and jumping puzzles, but beware of winds that will blow you off course. And finally, Pac Chocolate will return our hero back to his lovable self.
Other power-ups and pick-ups included a variety of fruit from the original game and other tasty snacks that will restore your health. Pizza adds actual lives to the maximum life gauge, special flags earn you more lives, and jewels will get you access to bonus worlds and special challenge modes.
Pac-n Roll is a visual treat with lots of colorful charm and old-school graphics design that hail back to the days of Marble Madness. The levels are true 3D even though they are presented in an isometric camera view. You can rotate the levels freely and even orient the camera for a top-down perspective.
The animation is smooth and the framerate solid, which is nice considering the speeds that Pac-Man can achieve when he is bursting down the steeper slopes. The portrait of Pac-Man in the lower screen changes with his various costumes and there is always some quirky expression on his yellow face.
The various worlds are nicely designed and while many are linear there are a few side routes that lead to special encounters and hidden dots. It’s fun to explore these levels in detail during the story mode run and plot your path for the time attack.
The art design for each stage fits with the overall theme of the world you are in, and the open movie and storybook presentation is topnotch and as charming as any children’s book.
Music is a bit lacking in quantity. There are specific tunes to each world but when you have to listen to that same music for each stage and each pass through those stages it can wear you down a bit. I suppose it’s still better than the whir whir whir and the wacka wacka of the original.
Sound effects are limited to the scope of the game but what is there is nice. Water splashes and boxes burst apart with appropriate splintering sounds. Voices are limited to a bunch of gibberish that you’d expect from a Sims game.
Pac-n Roll is one of those games that is great in small doses. You’d have to be pretty hardcore to go into this game thinking you could finish it in one or two sessions. On my first session I finished the Castle World with gold on all modes on all stages, but the game got much harder after that and I was happy if I could get gold on all modes on one or two stages.
Ultimately, it took me about 20+ hours to get gold across the board and finish the game completely. The addition of the original Pac-Man game and even a two-player mode for that bonus game adds a bit of value to the package but let’s face it, Pac-Man is being included on just about every game these days.
It’s taken nearly a year but the Nintendo DS is finally starting to come into its own with some really great titles. Thanks to Namco we now have two great Pac-Man titles, so when you get tired of drawing in Pac-Pix you can find your rolling groove with Pac’n Roll.
The game is simple to learn, easy to master, yet quite challenging to complete. With multiple worlds, levels, and challenges, there is plenty of dot and ghost gobbling to be enjoyed by kids and adults of all ages and the use of the touch screen is flawlessly executed. It’s a definite addition to any DS gamer’s library, especially if you love Pac-Man.
