Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
Namco was one of four companies outside of Apple picked to inaugurate Apple ’s premium iPod game service — game you may buy from the iTunes store for $ 4.99 a pop . It ’s gracious to have such a beloved classic on the iPod , though the game itself does n’t succeed quite as well as I had hoped it would .
If you ’ve somehow completely missed the sauceboat onPac - Man , he ’s one of colonnade play ’s towering heros — a yellow mouth that champ pellets through tangle as he ’s chased by spectre . Occasionally he come across power shot that will temporarily turn those haunting ghosts blue and make them vulnerable to being chomp . He can also pick up the occasional yield for extra tip .
Simple colour nontextual matter on a black background — this is an authentic Pac - Man experience you retrieve from the arcades , right down to the music and the interstitial sequences that occur every few levels through the first persona of the biz .
It may be on an iPod screen or else of an arcade machine , but Namco ’s iPod version Pac - Man looks more or less like the ’ 80s arcade favorite .
What ’s of primal conflict in this version of Pac - Mac is the control — alternatively of using a joystick , like in the arcade , you ’re using a virtual joystick , if you will , by lightly touching the cardinal directions of the click wheel . You do n’t need to actually press the push — impress your pollex over the Menu , play / pause , rewind , and fast forward keys is enough to get the on - screen stick to reply . It adopt a little acquiring used to , and it ’s more hard than it should be — Pac - Man really ask lightning reflexes , and the iPod ’s click wheel just does n’t feel that precise .
The other major difference is the cover , and that ’s something I found myself less adaptable to . Maybe it ’s just old eld creeping up on me . In the colonnade , Pac - Man is render on a calculator screen door set up sideways , so it ’s higher than it is wide . The iPod takes the opposite approach , a more established aspect proportion . Without any way of return Pac - Man sideways , Namco terminate up just using part of the exhibit — the entire maze is scarcely larger than a postage stamp stamp , with the right side showing your score and a representation of the virtual control stick , so you could see which direction you ’re telling Pac - Man to go .
Options include the power to turn well-grounded effect on and off , adjust brightness levels , and interchange your name ( funny , since high piles are n’t recorded by name ) . you could also correct volume and fiddle the biz in three different musical mode ( Easy , Normal and Original , which mainly seems to set game speed ) .
The lowdown
Pac - Man is fun to see on the iPod , but with click wheel ascendence leaving something to be desired , this is one arcade experience that probably ought to remain a nostalgic retention .
