SpecialEffect's accessible GameBase

XBOX 360 Arcade/PS3 Network -Bandai Namco 

Pac-Man CEDX is amazing. I was around for the original Pac-Man and I recognise what a land-mark in gaming it was, but it never appealed to me, I never really got it. But CEDX is different and suddenly I get it. It’s the same formula- gobble pellets, run away from ghosts, eat big pellet then ghosts run away from you- but now it feels urgent, frantic and addictive. They have taken a game from the year 1980, twiddled with it a bit and I now find myself happily choosing to play Pac-Man over bombastic, modern day, state of the art shooters.

The game is simple it’s essentially just a score attack game. “Free” mode is also available and furnishes you with infinite lives and bombs which is great for brushing up those skills. Yes, Pac-Man can now set off bombs.

The controls are simple-moving and the occasional bomb is all you need.

There aren’t too many options. You can adjust the sound levels and there are two controller configurations. A nice touch is that one of the configurations maps the character movement to the controller’s face buttons, so you don’t need to use the anolog sticks to play this game.  

The presentation is fantastic and highly contrasted with black backgrounds and bright neon mazes making everything clear.

Unlike the original you won’t have four ghosts to avoid. There are ghosts sleeping all around the mazes that wake up when you pass them. I like to wake the ghosts on purpose, so I can have a huge train of them following me, ready for chomping when I’m given a power pellet. The most ghosts I’ve chomped is 80 in one go, which isn’t a-chomping-lot but I’m working on chomping more.

As I mentioned earlier you now have the ability to use bombs, that when set off, send the ghosts reeling back to the centre of the maze. It sounds like an odd addition, an unnecessary power-up that would make things too easy. But when the speed picks up and you’re trapped with no escape you will need to use them to avoid dying and loosing precious seconds.

Another handy addition is when you are just about to be eaten by a ghost everything goes in slow motion for a brief moment, giving you an opportunity to quickly look for a route of escape, turn and get away. Again things can get pretty fast, so it’s another way the developers have balanced the game-play and avoided it being controller-throwingly punishing.

To me CEDX is as close to a pure gaming experience as you can get. The mechanics are honed to perfection. The game-play is simple yet offers massive depth.

As your final seconds count down and you are so close to that score you have been chasing for what feels like an age. The screen flashes as a new trail of pellets are laid in the maze and you hold your breath as you make a dash for them. You feel like your hearts in your mouth and all you see are those pellets and all you know is that Pac-Man CEDX is amazing.