Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions

Namco have been doing some awesome things with their classic franchises over the last couple of years. Rather than allow them to become revered untouchable and eventually forgotten classics they’ve reinvented both Pac-Man and Galaga with new rules, music, modes and skins. Instead of producing inferior games that shame the originals and have gamers shouting “sacrilege!” Both Pac-Man Championship Edition and Galaga Legions are in fact superior in every way. This being the case we are very happy to see them popping up and of course popping out of our 3DS’s. Did we really need a full cartridge release, though? Couldn’t these games have just been released to the E-Shop?

To make the cart release more appealing, these excellent titles come packaged with four others. There is the original Pac-Man and Galaga, which are OK but really too small, being confined to the top screen. There are also two completely new games, which we would expect to take full advantage of the console’s 3D element. Galaga 3D Impact is an on-rails first-person title and definitely works better with the 3D, even though you will be swinging your console around to aim at enemies. However the gameplay is pretty basic and without a proper save ability when you die, it’s back to the start, like it’s 1985 or something.  Pac-Man Tilt is a Sonic-style side-scroller where you tilt your 3DS to help you jump to high areas, a bit like in LocoRoco. It lacks the speed and excitement of Sonic and the exploration and charm of LocoRoco. It doesn’t take advantage of the technology in any creative way and actually isn’t in 3D.

Even when it comes to the two standout titles, Pac-Man: CE and Galaga Legions they still don’t quite match the XBLA or PlayStation Network versions, missing the skins, some leaderboards and being confined to a very small screen. Worse still these are the Championship Editions but do not confuse them with the new Deluxe Editions of both titles which are now available on XBLA and are whole leap forward for these titles again, being categorically the best Pac-Man and Galaga games ever. To round out the package there is an utterly bizarre cartoon about Pac-Man on there that’s worth a watch if only to check out just how mental it is.