Techtite's Nintendo DS Reviews!

"The biggest piece of Pac-garbage that ever received a "Pac" prefix."

---from the review

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Pros: Draw Pac-Man and See him Animated!

Cons:  Yet you must draw in mere seconds thanks to an infernal "timer" that allows as little as 60 seconds of play at a time, Also; lose the level and you have to start the whole "chapter" of levels at the start! 

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Pax-Pix

Click picture to order this game (DS)

A Techtite Review

Somewhere, Eidos should be sending Namco the biggest "Thank You" flower bouquet they can find. Thanks to Pac-Pix, Eidos' PSP fiasco Smart Bomb is no longer the most frustrating game for a handheld system. Sadly, once again, our little power pill popping friend has been used to peddle a pitifully poor Pac-Man game.

The premise is enough to keep the game from a dead-bottom "one-star" grade. Pac-Man has been cursed to the world of paper, and it's up to you to help him, by drawing him on each page so he can get the ghosts. Yeah, I know; bad story eh? I mean if Pac-Man was stuck on paper, why do we have to "draw" him? Leave your reality checks at the door, kids, because this simply means that this game utilizes the Nintendo DS' touch screen so you can draw Pac-Man all by yourself. What's more; your drawings come to life! That sounds pretty neat, don't you think?

You don't even have to be good at drawing circles. This game is as liberal as it is unkind towards your rendition of Pac-Man. The good news for kids is: he does not have to be a perfect circle (thank heaven). On the other hand, you must draw him in a certain way, or else the software will not animate your Pac-Man at all. In games played here at Techtite.com, nearly hundreds of the Pac-Men we drew were ignored by the software. My ten year old nephew gave up trying, and he loves Pac-Man. In short, this isn't the -Pac-man game that was promised.

It isn't even the "cute" game promised. I mean; if you're going to open a game with a cute prologue about the cute Pac-man getting transported into this cute little book, could you remain slightly consistent? Here's where things are not cute: there's a time limit. Let me quote my nephew as I say what is irrefutable truth: aside from racing games where it's required: time limits suck. Don't believe me...? Think of other games on store shelves that give as little as 60 seconds to play the game. Off the top of my head there's Smart Bomb and that's it. The trouble with this comparison: that timer was what made Smart Bomb totally frustrating. When applied to the world of Pac-Man, it's simply infuriating.

Sure, fans of racing games love timers. However, when software to draw Pac-Man is shaky enough as it is, having fun drawing Pac-Man should not be a "race." Quick! Get that infernal program to recognize your Pac-man! 10 seconds! There's simply no reason for a timer aside from "we didn't know how else to make the game interesting."

Frustrated yet? Well, here's another complaint: the game only saves your progress after every 6 "pages." Six...pages?!? Often there is even a boss on the very last page. Defeat the boss and your progress is saved. Lose and you have to repeat the prior 5 pages again and again. Frustrated yet? Well, how about a game with no "lives," so you basically have only one shot at each page, and that's it. Oh; did I mention the timer yet? Quick! Finish the page or you'll have to do the prior five pages all over again! 5 seconds! 4...3...2...1...Buzz!

The sad part is there really was a good game premise here. Drawing silly renditions of Pac-man over and over is admittedly fun, especially when the goofiest of odd-shaped Pac-men suddenly comes to life. In time you learn how to draw Pac-Bombs which are funny, in a Warner Brothers Cartoon sort of way. It's pretty fun to draw a circle, then draw a fuse towards a flame, only to see the fuse slowly ignite and...kaboom! So...yeah, drawing in this game is fun enough to keep this game from a dead-bottom rating. There's even a sketchpad in the main menu, which allows little tykes to draw silly shapes, some of which are even recognized by the game. Draw a cloud and animated rain falls from it as the cloud floats off the screen. Kids will think that's neat.

Yet an animated sketchpad is immaterial compared to what isn't there. Given the option for Pict-o-Chat built right into the system, I see no reason why this game should not offer a multiplayer option. Imagine the option to fight the ghosts with two players on screen at once! This would be particularly amusing in the final boss level; a "can you top this?" moment of absolutely infuriating frustration, when even once you figure out how to defeat this stupid blob, that annoying timer makes it nearly impossible to do so. Yes, the touch screen on the DS is amusing, but if anyone wants to make another game devoted entirely to drawing things on the screen; take a cue from Pac-Pix, and think of something else.

---Techtite