Pac-Pix

Pac-Pix
Original box art.
Developer	Namco
Publisher	Namco
Series	Pac-Man series
Game system(s)	Nintendo DS
Genres	Action, Puzzle
Release date(s)	JP: March 10, 2005 US: April 26, 2005 EU: May 20, 2005
Number of players	1 player

Pac-Pix (パックピクス Pakkupikusu) is a action video game in the Pac-Man series developed and published by Namco. Pac-Pix features a gameplay style using the Nintendo DS' Touch Screen to create Pac-Man drawings that come to life and eat ghosts.

Pac-Pix is one of the first games to be exhibited during the reveal of the Nintendo DS at E3 2004. The game was originally released for the Nintendo DS in 2005.

Plot

Pac-Man and his Magic Pen.

An unknown mischievous wizard invents a substance called Ghost Ink, which turns into mischievous-behaving ghosts when it is used. The mischievous Ink Ghosts would jump into different pictures and books, pestering people all over the world. Hearing of the crisis, Pac-Man rushes to rid the world of the Ink Ghosts, using his Magic Pen that can combat the Ink Ghosts. After much effort, Pac-Man succeeded in capturing the ghosts into a single book. Before he could turn the Ink Ghosts back to Ghost Ink, the Ink Ghosts zap Pac-Man with a counterattack curse, capturing him in a paper sheet. Pac-Man enlists the help of the player, now holding the Magic Pen (as in, the player holding the the Magic Pen through the Nintendo DS' stylus), to rid the book of the Ink Ghosts.

The player uses the Magic Pen to create Pac-Men drawings that would turn the ghosts back to Ghost Ink. Using the magic pen to chomp over twelve chapters of Ink Ghosts, the player encounters the Ink Master, the source of the Ink Ghosts. In the final battle, Pac-Man assists the player by giving the Magic Pen a power boost. With the power boost, the player successfully defeats the Ink Master, who is then turned back into ink and sealed inside a bottle.

With the Ink Master and Ink Ghosts gone, the paper sheet curse on Pac-Man is broken as Pac-Man is freed from the paper sheet. Pac-Man thanks the player and ventures off. With all the Ghost Ink sealed in the bottle, Pac-Man seals the bottle in a chest and buries it in the unknown sea, freeing the people of Pac-Man's land from the Ink Ghosts forever.

Gameplay

Screenshot from the game's first page. The Nintendo DS' touch screen is used to draw Pac-Man than come to life and eat ghosts.

Pac-Pix is a touch screen game that uses the Nintendo DS' Touch Screen exclusively. The player uses the stylus to create Pac-Man drawings, which come to life and must be guided through each levels in order to eat all the Ink Ghosts. Across the game, there are three drawing gestures with different effects:

• Pac-Man: Drawing a Pac-Man symbol will spawn a Pac-Man that begins moving and can eat ghosts when it touches the ghosts. Each Pac-Man can eat ghosts when drawn facing them, and can be guided by drawing walls, with the Pac-Man following the direction of the drawn wall when colliding with it. The Pac-Men can also be held back or dragged backwards by repeatedly striking the Pac-Man backwards from its current direction. The size of the hand-drawn Pac-Man will also adjust its speed accordingly (Larger Pac-Men move slower, while smaller ones move faster). Only up to three Pac-Men can be present on screen at once; the oldest surviving Pac-Man will disappear if a Pac-Man is created while there are three Pac-Men on screen. Pac-Men will disappear if they move off screen or if they repeatedly bounce off solid objects like walls or Armor ghosts too quickly.
• Arrow: From Chapter 5 and onwards, the player gains the ability to create arrows. By drawing a triangle and using tip of the line to aim, arrows can temporarily stun ghosts when they are hit; they can also be used to activate buttons including some placed outside the area of the top screen that the Pac-Man drawings cannot traverse.
• Bomb: From Chapter 9 and onwards, the player gains the ability to create bombs. By drawing a circle and creating a "fuse" line that touches a candle placed on the page, Bombs allow the player to trigger explosions; the explosions are capable of destroying certain walls, ghosts with Armor, and can also stun ghosts. The explosion will also render the player unable to draw around the explosion radius for a period of time. Nearby Bombs will also explode upon destruction from another bomb.

The general objective is to eat all of the ghosts on-screen with minimal Pac-Man drawings used as fast as possible, with each page's ghosts arriving in two waves. After the first wave of ghosts are eaten in a page, the next wave of ghosts will spawn. Each page features various gimmicks that require the player to perform certain gestures, such as popping bubbles, activating buttons to unlock gates and light candles, mirrors that make arrows bounce to another direction and walls that make Pac-Men bounce off to the other direction. There is a tunnel located at the top of every page, which allows the Pac-Men to travel safely across the top of the screen if it is open, additionally eating ghosts and the bonus fruits/items that appear. The player fails the chapter if they run out of creatable Pac-Men or time on a page and must start the chapter over from the beginning.

The game is split up into levels referred to as "pages", which are part of multiple "chapters"; all pages in a single chapter must be completed in one sitting. Each page has a time limit, and a limited amount of usable Pac-Men. The game features 12 chapters containing 5 pages. Some chapters feature a sixth page, where a boss fight occurs. When a page is completed. the amount of remaining time and remaining Pac-Men is tallied up for a bonus score. A score rank is given depending on how much the player has scored at the end of a chapter, ranging from S, A, B, C, D and E. If a chapter is completed with a rank ranging from S to B, a card will be unlocked.

After finishing the game, a second, blue-colored book is unlocked. This second book serves as an extra hard mode for the game, featuring faster moving ghosts and alternative ghost placements; also featuring 12 chapters.

Gallery

Upon completing the first chapter, the Gallery is unlocked, which lets the player review previously seen content:

• Cards: Upon completing a chapter with an S to B rank, cards will be unlocked. The cards (40 in total) display the names and descriptions of various ghosts, characters and objects.
• Lecture: The player can replay the tutorials for creating Pac-Men, Arrows and Bombs. The tutorials for Arrows and Bombs are unlocked upon encountering them during the main game.
• Sketchbook: Indicated by the notebook icon, the Sketchbook serves as a practice space and allows the player to draw without restrictions and ghosts. There are additional gestures with visual effects that can be created in this mode.
• Opening: Replays the opening cutscene.
• Ending: Replays the ending cutscene and credits.

Enemies

Ghosts

• Pinky: Pinky is a small regular ghost with big pupils. Pinky has no special abilities and wanders across the stage, also attempting to avoid the Pac-Man drawings when they come in sight.
• Blue: A tall blue ghost with small white eyes. Blue will gain a quick burst of speed when a Pac-Man drawing approaches it; however, after using its ability, it enters a cooldown period in which it moves at normal speed.
• Berobero: A white ghost with size-altering eyes and a huge mouth. When a Pac-Man drawing approaches it, Berobero will quickly move to the other side of the page. Afterwards, Berobero shrinks in size and becomes dizzy for a short amount of time, during which it can be eaten.
• Numboo: A group of orange ghosts with purple numbers on their bodies. Numboos appear in groups of three to five. In order to eliminate them, they must be eaten in the order indicated by their numbers (e.g. Numboo 1 must be eaten before Numboo 2). Eating the wrong Numboo will break the order, forcing the player to start over.
• Bari-Boo: A red ghost with black eyes and a pointy mouth. Moving only in two directions, Bari-Boo has a purple barrier in front of it which bounce Pac-Men off when they touch it, like the walls in certain stages. Bari-Boo's back, however, is unguarded, and it is the only place where they can be eaten by the Pac-Men.
  • Bari-Vader: A variant of Bari-Boo but with a darker shade of red and an angrier expression. Not only can Bari-Vader move in all four directions, but, like Blue, it also gains a burst of speed when a Pac-Man drawing approaches it, making it much more difficult to defeat. It appears exclusively in Book II.
• Peppeta: A yellow ghost with a tuft of hair. Peppeta will periodically drop paint droplets on the page, which prevent the player from drawing on the droplet's space until it dries out.
• Bubbles: In some pages, the ghosts will be hovering in bubbles on the Top Screen which can be popped by using arrows. The ghosts will drop down to the Touch Screen after they are popped.
• Armor: In some pages, the ghosts will be protected in armor cubes, which can only be destroyed with the explosion blast of a bomb.

Bosses

• Biggaboo
• Aloha
• Ghost House
• Ink Master

Development

Screenshot of the Pac-Pix demo from E3 2004

Pac-Pix was produced by Hideo Yoshizawa, who had previously produced Klonoa and Mr. Driller games for Namco; and directed by Tetsuya Shinoda. Pac-Pix was originally conceived as an arcade game in 2001, after game director Tetsuya Shinoda was inspired by Apple personal digital assistants (PDA) devices correcting text. Finding the control intuitive and wanting to implement the concept to a game, a prototype of a Pac-Man touch screen game was produced; where a Pac-Man drawing would come to life and eat the moving ghosts on screen. Yoshizawa showed interest in the prototype and prepared to pitch the game to Namco by porting the game to tablet PCs, which had recently started gaining traction in the market at the time.

The Pac-Man prototype was pitched to various Namco divisions, who were impressed by the concept but encountered difficulties in finding a sustainable market for the nature of the game. The game was pitched to numerous companies that were producing PDA and touch screen devices, but all had turned down the game, resulting the prototype being shelved. Upon gaining traction of Nintendo's upcoming Nintendo DS system; which featured a touch screen as an input device, the producers realized it was the perfect opportunity to present the Pac-Man prototype and had pitched the game to Nintendo, who were impressed by the prototype and had asked Namco to port the prototype to the Nintendo DS for their E3 2004 demo lineup. The E3 demo for the Pac-Man prototype, given the title of Pac-Pix was created in under two months and was exhibited at the E3 lineup. Upon receiving positive reactions from press and media, including Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo requested Namco to turn the Pac-Pix prototype into a full game, and as such Namco had commissioned Pac-Pix to be produced for retail. Namco heads at the time initially ordered the Pac-Pix to be released for the Nintendo DS launch upon assuming the prototype was a complete game, and as Namco had found out that Pac-Pix was merely a demo, they then pressured the staff to have the game released by May of the following year.

Pac-Pix had a pressuring development period lasting 7 months, while additional staff not having arrived until two months after development began and game producer Yoshizawa also being involved with the production of another Namco game for the Nintendo DS; Mr. Driller Drill Spirits, simultaneously. The game staff had encountered difficulties in creating concepts for Pac-Pix, and an early version of the game was criticized by higher-up staff at Namco for not being interesting enough. An idea meeting was conceived late during Pac-Pix's development, with multiple ideas being conceived for the game but only select ones being implemented into the next prototype. During development, Nintendo had requested Pac-Pix to make use of the Nintendo DS' top screen in addition to the bottom screen. Inspired by a game on the TV show The Bottomless Derailment Game—in which contestants had to lift a balloon attached to a train on a circular track before it was popped—the developers conceived the idea of the top screen being used to protect ghosts and having Pac-Men travel in an inverted U-shaped path on the top screen. The game staff had conceived the idea of arrows and bombs as Yoshizawa wanted more things to be drawn aside from Pac-Man. The approach of the game's bosses were also conceived using the concepts of bombs and arrows. Much of the game's final outlines became finalized during the last 2 months of development. Following the second prototype showcase, staff were more impressed with the game quality. Originally, the game was to feature three books, but was reduced to two at the request of Tetsuya Shinoda; with game difficulty balance such as the amount and speed of the ghosts being altered for the two books.

Trivia

• Pac-Pix is known to have gone under two different redesigns before its release.

  

  The tech demo version of Pac-Pix shown at E3.

  • A tech demo of Pac-Pix was shown at E3 2004 (alongside Pac 'n Roll), around ten months before the game's release. The demo seems to have been a timed challenge to eat as many ghosts as possible. The overall visual design is entirely different than the final game, with unique ghost designs and a more "sketchbook"-like aesthetic.

    

    Early screenshots of Pac-Pix from the Winter 2004 issue of the NOURS magazine

  • The Winter 2004 issue of NOURS Magazine featured a design that is closer to the final design, but has notable differences such as a different book background and ghosts with different designs, most notably including the inclusion of shadows for the characters.
    • One of the early screenshots originating from the magazine was also featured in the Pac-Man: Birth of an Icon book.
• This game was one of the few games released during the 50th anniversary celebration of Namco's founding.
• The Korean version of the game, which was released after the Namco and Bandai merger was completed, has the Namco Bandai Games copyright notice and logo instead of the Namco logo and notice in the international versions.
  • The Japanese Namco chant and 50th anniversary logos are also removed in said version.
• The European version of Pac-Pix features different themes for the chapter results and credits. While international versions of the game use an original composition, the European version instead remixes the Coffee Break theme from Pac-Man.
• Pinky is the only Ink Ghost in the game to share similar names and appearances with one of the regular ghosts.
• The "PictoChat 2" stage in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS features a stage hazard based on Pac-Pix, in which a Pac-Man is drawn on-screen that attacks the player. This reference is also present in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• According to game producer Hideo Yoshizawa, Pac-Pix had sold an estimated amount of 350,000 copies worldwide.

Gallery

Screenshots

Nintendo DS

Pre-release screenshots

Gameplay screenshot from E3 2004

Direct screenshot from E3 2004

Gameplay screenshots from NOURS Magazine Winter 2004

Artwork

Original box art.

Main cover artwork (E3 2005)

Pac-Man

Pinky

Blue

Numboo

BeroBero

BeroBero

Peppeta

Bari-Boo

Biggaboo

Armor

Ghost House

Wallpapers

Wallpaper

Wallpaper

Wallpaper

Namco Channel wallpaper

Namco Channel wallpaper

Namco Channel wallpaper

Namco Channel wallpaper

References

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