Pac-Man gets an upgrade, hits XBLA tomorrow
by Dustin Burg 
{ Jun 5th 2007 at 1:30PM }
Yesterday's rumored big announcement has come to a fruition in the form of an update to an iconic franchise. NAMCO and Microsoft just announced that the Pac-Man Championship Edition will be headed to the XBLA and will feature the first new mazes in over 26 years. The new Championship Edition is exclusive to the XBLA and will stick with the standard 80's 2D presentation, but will include added features and gameplay. The game will feature six new timed game modes, a new soundtrack, a new HD presentation, and brand new dynamically changing mazes. NAMCO's Pac-Man Championship Edition will be available this Wednesday on the Arcade for 800 Microsoft points. Full press release after the break.We know this news is extremely exciting for Pac-Man fans around the world as this is the first time the original Pac-Man game has been updated with new content. But for the rest of us who were expecting a BIG Xbox announcement, we can't help but feel a little saddened as our imaginations and expectations may have gotten the best of us.
Original "Pac-Man" Creator Surprises World With First New Mazes in 26 Years - Only on Xbox 360
London - June 5, 2007 - The year was 1981: Big hair, leg warmers and high-waisted jeans were popular fashions, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" hit cinemas, and everyone was saving up their money to play the latest video games. Also that year, a new video game by game designer Toru Iwatani at NAMCO LTD. (currently NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc.) hit arcades around the world and would soon become a pop-culture phenomenon and one of the most beloved games of all time. That game was "Pac-Man®".
Today Microsoft Corp. and NAMCO BANDAI Games made video game history by unveiling the "Pac-Man Championship Edition" - featuring the first new Pac-Man mazes in more than 26 years - available only on the Xbox 360™.
The "Pac-Man Championship Edition" is the same beloved "Pac-Man" game played in arcades of the '80s but is updated with new features that former "Pac-Man" fanatics and new generations of fans alike will love. It includes new mazes that dynamically change shape during gameplay, six new timed game modes, new soundtracks and high-definition (HD) graphics. Details include the following:
· Classic 2-D "Pac-Man" presentation with a new, modern look in HD
· Six new, timed game modes:
- The Championship Mode. This is the main game mode designed by NAMCO BANDAI Games and Iwatani specifically for the championship round of the Xbox 360 Pac-Man World Championship. This mode – as well as all others within the "Pac-Man Championship Edition" – features redesigned mazes with wide maze walls and a widescreen configuration to better enable high-speed game play. Timed limit of five minutes.
- Challenge Mode 1 (Patience and Reward Course). This mode is an evolution of the Championship Mode. Patience mazes strategically offer fewer Power Pellets and Reward mazes provide a large number of Power Pellets – providing unique challenges and rewards for the player. Timed limit of 10 minutes.
- Challenge Mode 2 (The Darkness Course). In this mode, only the area directly around Pac-Man and the Ghosts is visible and the maze walls are completely hidden. Timed limit of 10 minutes.
- Extra Mode 1 (The Freeway Course). An extremely high-speed mode for advanced players, this mode features warp-speed Pac-Man and Ghosts and plenty of tunnels. Timed limit of five minutes.
- Extra Mode 2 (The Manhattan Course). A mode inspired by the streets of Manhattan - the home for the first-ever Xbox 360 Pac-Man World Championship. Timed limit of five minutes.
- Extra Mode 3 (The Overall Course). A mix of all other modes resulting in extreme mazes for the most devout Pac-Man fans. Timed limit of 10 minutes.
· Xbox LIVE leaderboards, Achievements and Gamerscore
· Rated E for Everyone by the Entertainment Software Rating Board
· Costs 800 Microsoft® Points
· Available for download only on Xbox LIVE Arcade on the Xbox 360 starting at 0900 BST on Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Since launching in 1980 in Japan and in 1981 around the world, "Pac-Man," its host of ghosts and its famous "wakka wakka wakka" sound have become global pop-culture icons. This arcade game played an instrumental role in establishing the video game industry in the 1980s, while the launch of Xbox LIVE in 2002 was a key factor behind the rapid growth in popularity of online gaming. Today, Xbox LIVE Arcade is the premier online destination for digitally distributed HD games offering fans around the globe a great opportunity to connect, compete, and enjoy the fun.
"'Pac-Man' was the game that ignited the world's passion for video games, with every member of the family hooked on avoiding Clyde and eating up all the Power Pellets," said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of Global Marketing for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. "It is a tremendous honor that NAMCO BANDAI and Toru Iwatani are going to use the power of the Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE Arcade platform to deliver the next evolution of 'Pac-Man' to the world."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Viridium @ Jun 5th 2007 1:34PM
This is not even exciting for Pac Man fans. It's not a big announcement at all, it's a gigantic disappointment.
Greenberg, you're a f*cking TOOL.
nerrrd @ Jun 5th 2007 1:35PM
anyone who thought the news was going to be non-Pac Man related is a retard. The ideas and guesses people came up with were insane. IT WAS A PAC MAN TOURNAMENT!!!
DatBoy @ Jun 5th 2007 1:35PM
all hype media does is set consumers up for disappointment. i move to never use the words Major, Huge or Big on websites anymore lol
kentoe @ Jun 5th 2007 1:36PM
Wow pretty gay.. just waiting for something huge and then this tiny thing.
dunnypop @ Jun 5th 2007 1:36PM
we got pwned!
John @ Jun 5th 2007 1:36PM
I heard somewhere the 'big announcement' would coincide with the pacman one
As in they would have a pacman announcement and a 'big' one
GAH
DatBoy @ Jun 5th 2007 1:37PM
and i move to fine websites who post such hype media lol.
Spitkicker @ Jun 5th 2007 1:38PM
yeah what a let down. I have pac-man but rarely play it. Wupdeefreakingdoo...this had better not be the arcade offering tomorrow. I already have pac-man and wan't a new game.
Viridium @ Jun 5th 2007 1:38PM
Does anyone have contact information for Aaron Greenberg, so we can tell him what a douchebag he is?
dred550 @ Jun 5th 2007 1:39PM
Wow, what a complete and total waste of time. How about more backwards compatible games, 65mm, or maybe some exciting new game announcments. No, instead we get "The Darkness Course). In this mode, only the area directly around Pac-Man and the Ghosts is visible and the maze walls are completely hidden" wow that must have been hard to make over the last 26 years...thanks microsh*t
Enon777 @ Jun 5th 2007 1:41PM
Whooptie Freakin Doo and a Ladee Freakin Daa!!!
Big announcement my arse!! Thanx MS for the punch in junk section!!!!
Ed @ Jun 5th 2007 1:41PM
rofl
murph @ Jun 5th 2007 1:47PM
anyone who dropped $5 on Pac-Man and now shells out $10 for more Pac-Man, needs to be shot.
Toph @ Jun 5th 2007 1:43PM
...What a suck.
To quote Master Chief, "LOLLOLLOLOLLLOLOLLLOOLLLOLOLLLLOOOLOLLLOLO"
did @ Jun 5th 2007 1:45PM
not surprised, all of the 360 'big announcements' have been lame. At least the ps3 has home to look forward to.
HazyCloud @ Jun 5th 2007 2:00PM
@ Toph
That was one of the funniest videos I've seen in a long time.
As for the announcement, I even expected something bigger knowing damn well it was Pacman related. Im an idiot.
Jon @ Jun 5th 2007 1:48PM
This was a PR screw up out of Sony's playbook. They had me ready to shoot a load and all we got was new Pac-Man maps? WTF?
Tobias @ Jun 5th 2007 1:49PM
OH MY F****** GOD WHAT A RETARD OF AN ANOUNCEMENT MICROSOFT YOU CAN JUST GO AND F*** YOUR MUM'S AND GET A FUCKING LIFE.... DICKEDS!
boomh4u3r @ Jun 5th 2007 1:50PM
"not surprised, all of the 360 'big announcements' have been lame. At least the ps3 has home to look forward to"
Home is gonna be so g3y...I'm looking forward to Halo 3 & Mass Effect
Toph @ Jun 5th 2007 1:50PM
We should have known it was XBLA info..this being early afternoon Tuesday, after all.
We've been had. Greenburg, prioritize your usage of the words 'video game' and 'history'. The gaming geeks all over the world eat that crap up faster than housewives eat up Oprah.
Um....well you get what I mean.
Way to blue-ball the gaming community, man! Here's a cupcake.
h0mi @ Jun 5th 2007 1:52PM
Derp!
zduclos @ Jun 5th 2007 3:07PM
dude i am mad i hope nobody buys it and an actual arcade game comes out wedsday
Toph @ Jun 5th 2007 1:56PM
...And yes, Home is just foofy. It's a distraction that there are no decent PS3 games out. It's an electonic gaming purgatory waiting room while Sonyboys wait for Final Fantasy.
ANYWAY...with that said..
I petition that all X3F readers don't download the demo or purchase this Championship Edition tomorrow to send a message that we all are a little less than happy about this whole thing.
..Then again I said that about Root Beer Tapper, and people downloaded THAT, too..
eh. Eh with a side of eh.
Stephen @ Jun 5th 2007 2:00PM
Wow, no one seems to have noticed when they updated the announcement story to say "And, before this gets out of hand, we've heard rumblings that this announcement won't be huge, but that it should be relatively cool nonetheless." Was it just me that saw that or what?
aZTEKv2 @ Jun 5th 2007 3:57PM
sonofa... i'm such a fool for having bought the original pacman released on xblm!!
then it was MS PACMAN, and now its PACMAN HOOPBLAH CHAMPION WHATEVER. my wallet would be empty if I tried to keep up with all the versions.
Toph @ Jun 5th 2007 2:06PM
@ 23...before they said that, they had said 'Video gaming history'..then backpedaled. It's just like Roswell..whet the appetites of the masses and any backpedaling can only fuel the fire.
HiWay @ Jun 5th 2007 2:07PM
it's a better announcement than some stupid 360 game with pretty graphics with gameplay that probably gets demolished by the simple fun of pacman or worms or geometry wars and the like, which owns probably 75% of my 360 play time.
Perno @ Jun 5th 2007 3:08PM
Anyone getting bent out of shape about this is crazy, it's not Greenberg's fault. All he said was it would be an unveil that will go down in video game history, and that's what it is.
They're physically changing the mazes of one of the most famous video games of all-time for the first time in 26 years. Sure, it's not "ground breaking" but he never said it would be.
I won't be spending $10 on it, that's for sure.
Wizardly @ Jun 5th 2007 2:08PM
more importantly:
where the f is Carcassonne.
the page is up already:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/c/carcassonnexboxlivearcade/
Snap @ Jun 5th 2007 2:09PM
Lame. Still only single player. Way to go NAMCO. Charge 400 pts for a single player Pac-Man removing the "classic" arcade two player option. Then follow that up with the same lack of two player in Ms. Pac-Man for 400 pts. And now charge 800 points and STILL NOT INCLUDE TWO PLAYER. EL OH EL.
Tony @ Jun 5th 2007 2:10PM
Every thing in the world pointed to this. It was being announced during a Pac-man tournament of all things, yet some people expected things like MGS4 and free Xbox Live.
I personally think the additions sound pretty awesome. I suppose some people might consider this "historic" in that it's the first real update to the old-school Pac-man gameplay in a very logn time.
Toph @ Jun 5th 2007 2:12PM
The only XBLA news I wanna read about any time soon is Castle Crashers. Yeah?! You got my back, X3F? Huh? Yeah????....Huh??
......And REZ, and more SOTN downloads, and Geometry Wars, and...okay, i'll shut up now.
hoos30 @ Jun 5th 2007 2:13PM
I say we give Greenberg three smacks with his own hype-stick for this fiasco. Does Krazy Ken work for MSFT now???
razer @ Jun 5th 2007 2:19PM
haha! Some of the comments here have me laughing my ass off. I warned of the Aaron "foot-in-mouth" syndrome in the original post. I see he didn't let me down.
I just hope this isn't a foreshadow of Mini-E3. With MS thinking announcing a retro arcade game is huge industry shaking news while Sony and Nintendo proceed to eat them alive. Like the above comment mentioned "Home", even though I agree it's gamer purgatory(great comment btw) it's still forward thinking to see something like that on a console and it's free. Everything MS announces has a fee attached to it and does very little to push things beyond what they showed us 2 years ago.. It's getting old..
tinycg @ Jun 5th 2007 2:20PM
His gamertag is 'BIGVIP' .. I'm tempted to leave him negative feedback, muhaha.
Liam @ Jun 5th 2007 3:40PM
Lame! Make gaming history my ass. Microsft should fire these PR n00bs
Former PS Fan @ Jun 5th 2007 2:24PM
The last time I heard news this disappointing was when the Playstation 3 became available and was called, "Biggest Disappointment of the Year," by USA Today and TIME Magazine.
Toph @ Jun 5th 2007 2:27PM
@ 31....
Call me a loose-wallet gamer, but I gotta stand by and say that 'you tend to get what you pay for'. I'd rather pay $$$ for Xbox Live and get great service than get online gaming for free, yet it SUCK MY HEAD OFF with crap like 'Home' and..well...'Home'..
True I'd love to get free stuff, but I don't expect it, nor do I immediately think 'free' means 'good'.
Are Sony gamers really THAT excited to wander virtual hallways at 'Home'? Give 'em a stick and a rock to play with till Final Fantasy, Sony! Jeeze.
Ieu-ee @ Jun 5th 2007 2:29PM
More Pac-Man maps - what a gaming revolution!!!!11!!!1eleventyone
This is soooo bad I am no longer pissed, I am actually wiping tears of laughter from my eyes!
Toph @ Jun 5th 2007 2:35PM
I'm about to announce another nugget of gaming history.. Ahem...
ATARI ANNOUNCES ORIGINAL E.T 2600 GAME FOR THE XBOX LIVE ARCADE:
ENJOY!- All the crap you were confused about as a child! Fall down open pits and find flowers!
FLOAT!- Using your elongated neck!
DO!- Nothing whatsoever!
DIE!- And watch Elliot take you to your hospital bed!
Coming THIS Wednesday, download the original Atari 2600 E.T Game!
Gamer Magic Whiskey says,
"Hell, it's better than more Pac-Man crap!"
....800 MS Points
HiWay @ Jun 5th 2007 2:37PM
@33
what on earth are you whining about? Retro gaming is what makes the 360 fun for myself (I'm 23) and most all of my friends with the extra little things MS adds to it via xbox live. Worms alone probably holds 60% of my total 360 time. It's the ability to play an actual good game instead of some piece of crap hiding behind good graphics (see guitar hero 2, graphics suck, gameplay good.. and its not retro). I'd be willing to bet that if games like shining force of chrono trigger came to live arcade (would never happen) that TONS of people would be willing to pay around 2000+ points for it. I know I would.
HiWay @ Jun 5th 2007 2:38PM
@37
ET on the other hand is about the equivalent of some of the gameplay now offered, without the pretty graphics :D
Maxi @ Jun 5th 2007 2:44PM
Expected news :P Never hear anything good when its a "Big announcement"
JamieBoi V2 @ Jun 5th 2007 2:49PM
HiWay if you like Worms so much go play on your Playstation...
Surely you didnt buy a 360 to play XBLA, surely?
Corellia @ Jun 11th 2007 5:02PM
This would have better.
Basic XBLA Pac-Man free, so my son can play it.
New/Bonus mazes, 400 points.
C.
ill trooper @ Jun 5th 2007 3:01PM
Quotng the Old Spice
commercial...
"Dumb."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Aj55sgudlc
...and this announcement, and it's subsequent sucky follow-through, smells like "wild flowers and shame."
GOD I hope Major Nelson reads the internet today.
HiWay @ Jun 5th 2007 2:55PM
@40 for the most part, yeah, I did. That and hoping that forza 2 can beat gran turismo in terms of realistic physics and that logitech will make a good 360 driving wheel; the HD guitar hero so I wouldnt have TV lag on my HD. Maybe the new GTA. Other than that, no; just XBLA.
Kyle Bidwell @ Jun 5th 2007 3:01PM
Pac-Who?
Dadditude @ Jun 5th 2007 3:21PM
Anybody other than me ticked off that they suckered us into dropping $5 for Pac-Man with this whole championship thing, only to tell us that we have to drop another $10 if we want the championship edition? Anyone else think that anyone who purchased the normal Pac-Man after the championship announcement ought to get the new version for $5 off?
Pinhead @ Jun 5th 2007 3:31PM
800 points for Pac-Man is still insanity...