Pac-Man Battle Royale coming to a Nintendo system near you.
Do you remember the "Namco Museum" collections? Namco would slap Pole Position, Galaga, Galaxian, Pac-Man and Rally-X on a disc, create a little "virtual arcade" to explore, add some original materials from the games and call it a day.
That same philosophy seems to drive Pac-Man Museum, a paltry collection of three Pac-Man titles: the original arcade game, Pac-Man Championship Edition and, available for the first time on home consoles and handhelds, Pac-Man Battle Royale. Details are scant as to whether more games will be later announced or if there are plans to make them available through DLC, but for now, what you see is what you get.
There is literally nothing left to say about the original Pac-Man game. If you have ever wanted to own it, you probably already do.
Pac-Man Championship Edition is more notable since it has only been available on Nintendo platforms through the Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions collection on 3DS. In this 2007 take on the Pac-Man formula, the game gets faster and faster the longer you stay alive. The mazes are split in two halves and eating bonus items on one half completely changes the maze on the other half. The game is all about scoring as many points as possible in five minutes and competing on the online leaderboards.
Finally, Pac-Man Battle Royale adds simultaneous multiplayer to the mix. Up to four players compete for points on the maze. When a player gobbles up a power pellet, all of the players can take on the ghosts, but the powered-up player gets bigger and can eat everyone. I can see this game being popular in a party setting, as everyone knows how to play Pac-Man and people are sure to get competitive as they race for the power pellets.
The collection will be available on multiple platforms and no special effort is made for the Wii U version, so do not expect Pac-Man VS even though the GamePad is perfect for it, or Pac-Pix despite the omnipresence of game-capable devices with touch screens.
Pac-Man Museum comes out later this year for the Wii U and 3DS in download form only.
