Pac-Man Championship Edition

Pac-Man Championship Edition
Game cover.
Developer	Namco Bandai Games
Publisher	Namco Bandai Games Microsoft (XBLA Compilation Disc)
Series	Pac-Man Championship Edition series
Game system(s)	Xbox 360
Genres	Maze
Release date(s)	WW: June 6, 2007
Number of players	1 player

Pac-Man Championship Edition (パックマン チャンピオンシップエディション Pakkuman Chanpionshippu Edishon) is a game released by Namco Bandai Games in 2007, originally exclusive to the Xbox Live service for Xbox 360. It is the first entry in the Pac-Man Championship Edition series.

Gameplay

The game takes many features from the original Pac-Man. The player controls Pac-Man, and must navigate him through a maze while collecting dots; all the while, he must avoid Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. Eating a Power Pellet allows Pac-Man to eat the ghosts, getting large amounts of bonus points. Eating another Power Pellet while Power Pellet effects are still active renews the effect's time, allowing Pac-Man to continue eating ghosts in succession for larger amounts of bonus points. Each of the ghosts retain their chasing methods from the original game, though they no longer make 180 degree turns when switching between scattering and chasing modes.

Each map is divided into two halves. Eating all the dots from one half spawns a Bonus Item on the other side; eating it will replace the cleared half with a new maze layout, with another set of dots for Pac-Man to eat. This process continues until the end of the game.

The game's speed increases as the player scores points; losing a life will reduce the speed. An extra life is awarded after every 20,000 points. The player has 5 minutes to score as many points as possible (10 minutes in some other game modes), and the game ends either if the player loses all of their lives or after the timer reaches zero.

Game Modes

• Championship Mode - The standard gameplay maze layout. The time limit is 5 minutes.
• Challenge Mode 1 - Maze halves in this game mode alternate to having a large amount of Power Pellets to having no Power Pellets at all. The time limit is 10 minutes.
• Challenge Mode 2 - The maze is covered in darkness, though Pac-Man, the Ghosts and Power Pellets illuminate the maze. The maze layouts consist of large quantities of Pac-Dots spread around. The time limit is 10 minutes.
• Extra Mode 1 - The maze layouts consist of large hallways, with nearly no vertical walls, in addition to the starting game speed being higher than normal. The time limit is 5 minutes.
• Extra Mode 2 - The maze layouts emphasize large and small square walls. The time limit is 10 minutes.
• Extra Mode 3 - The maze layouts consist of a variety of different layouts, mostly composed of layouts featured in all the other game modes. The starting game speed is slightly faster. The time limit is 10 minutes.

Scoring System

• Pac-Dot:
  • 10 points.
  • increases to 20, 30, 40 and 50 points after every 60 Pac-Dots eaten.
  • Resets back to 10 points if Pac-Man loses a life.
• Power Pellet - 10 points.
• Vulnerable Ghosts:
  • #1 in succession - 400 points.
  • #2 in succession - 800 points.
  • #3 in succession - 1200 points.
  • #4 in succession - 1600 points.
  • #5 in succession - 2000 points.
  • #6 in succession - 2400 points.
  • #7 in succession - 2800 points.
  • #8+ in succession - 3200 points.
• Bonus Items:
  • 🍒 Cherry: 1000 points
  • 🍓 Strawberry: 1200 points
  • 🍊 Orange: 1400 points
  • 🍎 Apple: 1600 points
  • 🍈 Melon: 1800 points
  • 🍌 Banana: 2000 points
  • 🍑 Peach: 2200 points
  • Galaxian Boss: 2400 points
  • 🔔 Bell: 2600 points
  • 🔑 Key: 4000 points
  • ☕ Coffee: 4200 points
  • 🍰 Cake: 4400 points
  • Boss Galaga: 4600 points
  • Gaplus Drone: 4800 points
  • 🍔 Hamburger: 5000 points
  • 🍳 Fried Egg: 5200 points
  • 🍬 Candy: 5400 points
  • 🍀 Four-Leaf Clover: 5600 points
  • 💎 Diamond: 5800 points
  • ❤️ Heart: 6000 points
  • Samurai Helmet: 6200 points
  • 👑 Crown: 7650 points

Achievements

Pac-Man Championship Edition features 12 achievements, each unlocked by fulfilling their respective requirements.

Icon	Name	Description
	200,000 Points	Score 200,000 points!
	400,000 Points	Score 400,000 points!
	Sparkster	Emit sparks for 1 second!
	8 Ghosts	Eat 8 ghosts in succession!
	Championship Mode	Complete Championship Mode!
	Challenge Mode 1	Complete Challenge Mode 1!
	Challenge Mode 2	Complete Challenge Mode 2!
	Extra Mode 1	Complete Extra Mode 1!
	Extra Mode 2	Complete Extra Mode 2!
	Extra Mode 3	Complete Extra Mode 3!
	Key	Eat the Key!
	Crown	Eat the Crown!

Xbox 360 Extras

According to the Xbox 360 page there are 2 extra downloads for this game.

• PAC-MAN C.E. Theme 01 — Xbox 360 home & library menu theme of the maze from this game along with items
• PAC-MAN C.E. Picture Pack — Xbox 360 Profiles pictures of this Pac-Man, Ghosts, and Items

Home Ports

• Android
• Famicom/NES
  • Included in the 2020 compilations Namcot Collection (in Japan, unlocked by purchasing 10 games) and Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1. (internationally).
  • The release was originally a homebrew port created in 2008 by coke774. The ROM was never made available to the public, though a video of gameplay was released. When the port was officially licensed by Bandai Namco in Namcot Collection/Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1, the game received several modifications from developer M2, such as the games graphics being greatly improved, the soundtrack being recomposed (taking advantage of the Namco N163 sound channels), and extra features also being added.
  • The port contains the Championship Mode and Extra Mode 3 game modes, labelled Normal and Extra in-game respectively. General gameplay tweaks from the original include the camera scrolling horizontally, Pac-Man's control being improved, Pac-Man's starting speed being increased, Pac-Man slowing down while moving through a path of Pac-Dots (a mechanic from the original Pac-Man) and music syncing with the visuals. Additional features include the ability to select between four different visuals (with one based on Pac-Mania being unlocked after unlocking all achievements) and a sound test feature.
  • The original homebrew version's soundtrack is taken from the Tengen NES version of Pac-Mania. The title screen, statistics, and high score table use music from the Famicom Disk System, Famicom Disk Writer (slightly remixed), and Hopping Mappy, respectively. The final official release uses original music using the additional Namco N163 sound channels, with the statistics being a remix of Pac & Pal's main theme.
• HTML5
  • Released on GamePix.com in 2017; it was confusingly listed as just "Pacman". It likely originated from another source, but it is unknown where. It was removed from the website sometime in June 2020 and replaced with Tentrix, though embed versions of the game continue to function. The port was developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment Romania.
  • The time limits are shorter than the original game; 10 minute modes were reduced to 5 minutes, and 5 minute modes were reduced to 3 minutes. The general gameplay speed is slower in comparison to the original console versions.
• iOS (iPhone, iPad, etc.)
  • The port features 5 maze modes returning from the original game. In addition to the regular mode (Championship), there are two additional modes known as Challenge and Mission. Though the game featured 120 individual challenges and 30 courses, an amount of them were part of an in-app purchase/DLC pack known as the Expansion Pack, sold at $3.99 USD. An update released a year later in 2010 made all the content from the Expansion Pack unlocked by default.
  • The app is currently delisted.
• Nintendo 3DS
  • Included in Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions.
• Nintendo Switch
  • Included in Pac-Man Museum +
• PlayStation 3
  • Included in Pac-Man Museum.
• PlayStation 4
  • Included in Pac-Man Museum +
• PlayStation Portable
  • Released as a PS mini. Delisted in 2021 following the closure of the PlayStation Store for PlayStation Portable.
• Roku TV
• Windows Phone
• PC
  • Included in Pac-Man Museum & Pac-Man Museum +
• Xbox 360
  • Playable as it's own title and in Pac-Man Museum. Included in Xbox Live Arcade Compilation Disc and Namco Museum Virtual Arcade.
• Xbox One
  • Playable as it's own backwards-compatible title, and is included in Pac-Man Museum and Pac-Man Museum +

Trivia

• This was the final game developed by Toru Iwatani, the creator of the original Pac-Man, before his retirement.
• Pac-Man Championship Edition boosted Xbox 360 hardware sales in Japan (the 360 was a very unsuccessful console in the region).
• The director of the Championship Edition series, Tadashi Iguchi, claims that Pac-Man C.E. was intended to release for Pac-Man's 25th anniversary. It was likely pushed to 2007 due to a large number of other Pac-Man titles released during his 25th.
• The Pac-Man Museum port featured the Clyde and Blinky error, which was not present in the original release. This could possibly mean that the version ported was an earlier build.
• In the Famicom/NES demake of Pac-Man Championship Edition, the default high score list's initials reference different Pac-Man and Namco characters:
  • On the Normal high score list, these include PAC (Pac-Man), AKA (Blinky's Japanese name, Akabei), PIN (Pinky), AOS (Inky's Japanese name, Aouske), GUZ (Clyde's Japanese name, Guzuta), SUE (Sue), VAL (Valkyrie from Valkyrie no Densetsu), ALB (Albatross from Rolling Thunder), NAM (the first half of Namco's publishing label Namcot), and C.E (the abbreviated initials of Championship Edition).
  • On the Extra high score list, the Pac-Man names remain the same (except the ghosts use their English initials instead; including BLI, PIN, INK, CLY, SUE), though they are also accompanied by different initials including KI. (Ki from The Tower of Druaga), TAR (Tarosuke from Yokai Dochuki), COT (the second half of Namco's publishing label Namcot) and GAP (Gaplus).

Gallery

Artwork

Logo

Alternate logo used for re-releases

Namcot Collection artwork, designed to resemble Famicom box art.

Xbox 360 Home Theme

Xbox 360 Library Theme

Screenshots

References

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