Namco’s recently released Pac-Pix marked the original video game star’s debut on the Nintendo DS. Now, about four months later, he’s back for another adventure. Pac ‘n Roll plays like a mix of Pac-Man and Marble Madness, as you’ll have to carefully guide Pac-Man through a series of levels while munching dots, defeating ghosts, and trying to stay perched upon precarious ledges.

Pac-Man has been turned into a sphere and must make his way through a series of platforming levels and defeat the evil Golvis to return himself and his friends to their original forms. The game’s action takes place on the top screen, while the bottom screen is used to control Pac-Man. A representation of the hero resides on the lower screen, and rubbing the stylus across it will roll Pac-Man around on the top screen. Longer and quicker sweeps across the screen result in Pac-Man moving faster and farther. Pac-Man can also be brought to a dead stop by holding him in place with the stylus. It will also hold Pac-Man on a slope and keep him from rolling off. This feature makes finite control a breeze.

Pac ‘n Roll starts off fairly simple but eventually builds to a fairly challenging level. It never quite gets to the point of being truly difficult, though. There are five full worlds, the first of which acts as a drawn out tutorial. Worlds two through four slowly build in challenge but can be beaten fairly easily. World five provides some challenge, especially in its last few levels. Every world (except the tutorial world) ends with a square-off against Golvis. There’s also a sixth world which is simply one large fight with Golvis. In addition, there is a seventh area that contains some challenge levels, one of which is actually the original arcade Pac-Man (not some touch screen roll-around adaptation of it).

The main game plays like a cross between Pac-Man and Marble Madness. The levels are filled with Pac-Dots, which must be chomped, and ghosts that will chase Pac-Man until he devours a Power Pellet and then destroys them. Gates are scattered through the levels, and they will not open until Pac-Man has consumed enough dots. They act as a restraint and keep players from breezing through the entire game without actually doing anything.

Environments are constructed in three dimensions and are full of slopes, walls, and other such things standard to platforming games. Pac-Man, being a sphere, will react to the environment accordingly by rolling down slopes. He also floats on top of water and will be carried by the current. It’s very reminiscent of Marble Madness, only nowhere near as difficult to control thanks to the 3D levels and touch screen controls.

The game feels totally natural and not at all like the two elements were simply thrown together for the hell of it. The rolling mechanic blends perfectly into Pac-Man’s standard dot-chomping gameplay. The platforming elements are also very well done. Levels are littered with dash-pads and spring-boards which add some variety and really help add some challenge later in the game. Pac-Man can also don two special costumes. The knight’s outfit armor-plates him, making him invulnerable to arrow attacks. It also anchors him in place, making him slower and preventing him from being blown away by gusts of wind. It will also sink him to the bottom of water pools, allowing him to collect submerged goodies. A feather cap allows lets him zip along at higher speeds and also gives him the ability to glide through the air a little bit when he rolls off ramps.

The game’s story mode is short, but it is bolstered by extra challenges. Every level (excepting boss fights) has a time trial and challenge mode. The time trials require Pac-Man to hit a series of checkpoints in a certain amount of time. Challenge modes vary by level and include such challenges as running levels in reverse, destroying all the ghosts, not eating any dots, etc. They also remix the levels slightly by moving dots and items around.

Pac ‘n Roll was one of the stand-out titles for the system when it was first unveiled at E3 2004, and it has lived up to that showing. It goes beyond the “gimmicky” nature of touch screen controls and provides a unique and fun experience, something which is actually becoming quite common on the DS. Fans of Pac-Man or platforming games would do well to add Pac ‘n Roll to their collection.