Info about PAC-MAN™ Championship Edition DX+: Official game description: It's time to gear up! Get ready for more ghost chain gobbling and frantic action in PAC-MAN® CE-DX+! The award-winning chomping game makes a shattering debut on Steam with even more content and a refined user-interface to compare high scores with your friends! Wake up the ghosts, form the longest train of pursuers and chomp as many as you can at blazing speed to beat the score! And never forget to manage you a way out using your skills or you’ll have to force an escape route with your bombs! A Pac-man experience that will definitely surprise you! Online Features --------------- * Beat the game! Follow your self-progress and unlock all the game medals by defeating the mazes in the most arduous conditions * Intense rivalry Break all leaderboards and challenge all your friends directly on social medias. Key Features ------------ * Infernal speed arcade Blaze through neon-like mazes and reach maximum speed to beat the score. * Vast maze line-up 7 mazes with unique layout, special options, features presenting each a specific challenge. * Tons of intense courses 5 different game modes for a complete set of challenges to overcome in each maze. * Your own Pac-man experience Customize difficulty, music, characters and maze visuals to re-create your favorite Pac-man experience. Release date: Sep 24, 2013 Categories: Arcade, High Score Chasing, Action, Maze Navigation, Score Attack, Speedrunning, Single-player, 2D Platformer Feature scans: - MTX: score 60; verdict: Aggressive; summary: The game offers a significant amount of DLC, which some players find overpriced and not worth the cost. The availability of multiple DLC packs suggests a monetization strategy that could be seen as aggressive, particularly if the content feels like it should be part of the base game. - Steam Deck: score 50; verdict: Playable with Caveats; summary: The game has received positive feedback for its enjoyment and suitability for the Steam Deck, particularly for short play sessions. However, significant issues include the requirement for an internet connection to play, which is a major drawback for a handheld device. Additionally, while the game is compatible with Linux, it requires some tinkering with Proton versions, which may not be ideal for all users. - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: - Community fair range: $2.00 - $10.00 - Reasoning: The evidence suggests that the community finds the game worth purchasing at a discounted price, typically around $2 to $10. Multiple reviews mention the game being worth it at $10, especially for arcade lovers, but also highlight that it is often available at deeper discounts, sometimes as low as $2. This indicates that while the game is valued at around $10, it is frequently purchased and enjoyed at lower prices during sales. - Playtime Metrics: - Game completion: 2.0h - Story completion: N/A - Session length: 0.5h - Endgame: 100.0h - Reasoning: The evidence suggests that the game is often played in short bursts, with players frequently engaging in quick sessions. One review mentions that the game is perfect for short play sessions, and another review highlights that the game can be completed in 1-2 hours. Additionally, the game is described as ideal for quick distractions, indicating that sessions are typically short. The mention of 'just one more round' lasting an hour suggests that while individual sessions might be short, they can add up to longer playtimes. - Time-to-fun: - Summary: The game starts with some initial friction due to its repetitive nature but becomes highly addictive and fun once players get into the rhythm and start chasing high scores and unlocking content. - Stance: Clicks after - Anchor: Chasing high scores and unlocking content - Time to anchor: 0h 30m - Friction: Repetitive gameplay; Tedious initial experience - Unlock drivers: Variety of modes; Chasing high scores; Unlocking levels and content - Conditions: Playing solo; Competitive mindset; Enjoying arcade-style games - Player Archetypes: - Adrenaline Seeker (sale) - Motivation: The thrill and excitement of fast-paced gameplay. - Playstyle: Fast-paced, high-energy, and competitive. - Experience: mixed - Purchase stance: sale - Labels: arcade lover; speedrunner - Reference games: Pac-Man; Dig-Dug - Casual Gamer (sale) - Motivation: Enjoyment of simple, easy-to-learn games that can be played casually. - Playstyle: Relaxed, short sessions, and easygoing. - Experience: newcomer - Purchase stance: sale - Labels: casual player; time-passer - Reference games: Pac-Man; Super Pac-Man - Competitive Scorer (buy) - Motivation: Competition and the drive to achieve high scores. - Playstyle: Competitive, score-focused, and persistent. - Experience: veteran - Purchase stance: buy - Labels: competitive player; high score chaser - Reference games: Pac-Man Championship Edition; Pac-Man 256 - Nostalgic Fan (buy) - Motivation: Nostalgia and love for the classic Pac-Man gameplay. - Playstyle: Nostalgic, classic, and faithful to the original. - Experience: veteran - Purchase stance: buy - Labels: Pac-Man fan; retro gamer - Reference games: Pac-Man; Ms. Pac-Man Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Modernized Classic Pac-Man Gameplay (weight 0.8): This game is praised as a good and faithful entry in the PAC-MAN series, revitalizing the classic gameplay with modern graphics while retaining the essence of the original. It offers a fast-paced and challenging experience, making it enjoyable for both fans and newcomers. - Variety of Game Modes (weight 0.21): The game offers a variety of modes, including timed and score modes, providing variation in gameplay. This diversity keeps the game fresh and engaging. - Multiple Visual Styles (weight 0.18): The game features different visual styles, allowing players to choose from modern and stylized visuals. This variety enhances the gaming experience and caters to different preferences. - Nostalgic Experience (weight 0.18): The game evokes a pleasant sense of nostalgia with its visuals and gameplay, making it enjoyable for those who appreciate classic arcade games. - Frenetic and Engaging Gameplay (weight 0.16): The gameplay is described as frenetic, engaging, and full of new elements. It is colorful, fast-paced, and exciting, providing a dynamic experience. - Amazing Visuals and Sound (weight 0.14): The game features amazing visuals and good sound, creating a visually striking and spectacular experience. The combination of visuals and music enhances the overall gameplay. - Unique Slow-Motion Feature (weight 0.14): The game includes unique features like slow motion, which helps with gameplay and adds excitement with near-miss moments. This mechanic enhances the gaming experience. - Easy and Intuitive Controls (weight 0.14): The game is praised for its super-easy and intuitive controls, making it accessible and enjoyable for players. The snappy controls contribute to a smooth gaming experience. - Variety of Mazes and Challenges (weight 0.11): The game comes with many mazes and challenges, including time trials and timed high score modes. Additional mazes and modes can be unlocked, providing a rich and varied experience. - Vibrant Neon Art and Visuals (weight 0.11): The game features vibrant neon art and visual effects, with bright neon lights and a refined art direction. The colorful visuals enhance the overall aesthetic appeal. - Stylish and Functional Visuals (weight 0.11): The game is visually striking and fancy, with stunning visuals that enhance the overall gaming experience. The stylish visuals contribute to the game's appeal. - Highly Recommended (weight 0.11): The game is highly recommended for everyone, offering a very fun and enjoyable experience. It is praised for its quality and appeal, making it a must-have for players. - Good Difficulty Levels (weight 0.11): The game features increasing difficulty and a choice of difficulty levels, providing a challenging and engaging experience. The good difficulty levels cater to different player skills. Common complaints: - Lack of content and short gameplay (weight 0.3): The game is criticized for being short and lacking sufficient content, which can lead to boredom quickly. - Repetitive gameplay (weight 0.24): The game is often described as repetitive and monotonous, which can make it tedious for some players. - Graphical and visual issues (weight 0.19): The game has graphical issues, including overwhelming visual styles and some unappealing graphic designs, which can detract from the gameplay experience. - Missing classic Pac-Man mode (weight 0.18): Players are frustrated by the absence of a classic Pac-Man mode, which is a significant drawback for fans of the original game. - Technical limitations (weight 0.12): The game is locked at 720p resolution and lacks offline playability on Steam Deck, which are notable technical limitations. - High price and excessive DLCs (weight 0.12): The game is considered overpriced, and the number of DLCs available may seem excessive to some players. - Health concerns (weight 0.08): There are concerns that the game may cause health issues such as epilepsy or convulsions due to its visual effects. - Leaderboard and cheating issues (weight 0.07): There are reports of cheating on the global leaderboards, which can be frustrating for competitive players. - Highly addictive (weight 0.07): The game is described as highly addictive, which can be both a positive and negative aspect depending on the player. - Facebook sharing requirement (weight 0.06): The requirement to share achievements and medals on Facebook is seen as an issue by some players. - Lack of authentic Pac-Man feel (weight 0.06): Some players feel that the game does not capture the essence of the original Pac-Man, leading to a lack of authenticity. - Limited achievements (weight 0.06): The game is criticized for having a limited number of achievements, which could have provided more motivation for players. - Game is too easy (weight 0.06): The game is considered to be too easy, which may not provide enough challenge for some players. Gameplay feedback: - Variety of game modes (weight 0.32): The game offers multiple game modes, including combo-focused modes, racing, timed modes, score attack, and time trials, providing a diverse gameplay experience. - Dynamic maze navigation (weight 0.3): Players navigate through changing mazes, eating dots and fruits while avoiding ghosts, with maze configurations that transform as the game progresses. - Score attack mechanics (weight 0.25): Score attack mode involves high-score chasing under time limits, adding a competitive and puzzle-like element to the gameplay. - Classic with modern updates (weight 0.24): The game retains classic Pac-Man gameplay but introduces modern updates such as increased speed, grenades, and new ghost behaviors. - Strategic bomb usage (weight 0.23): Bombs can be used to blast ghosts, clear paths, and provide a strategic safety net, adding complexity to the gameplay. - Customizable visual styles (weight 0.19): The game features different and customizable visual styles, offering a variety of graphics and layouts. - Power-ups enhance gameplay (weight 0.12): Power-ups provide temporary advantages, such as increasing game speed and affecting enemies, enhancing the overall gameplay experience. - Engaging challenges (weight 0.12): The game offers engaging challenges with dynamically changing mazes and various gameplay modes that provide different types of challenges. - Ghost chaining mechanics (weight 0.09): The game introduces a ghost chaining mechanic, allowing players to chain ghosts for combos, adding a strategic element to the gameplay. - Time-based challenges (weight 0.09): Time-based modes require players to complete specific tasks, such as eating a certain number of apples, within a set time limit. - Online leaderboards (weight 0.09): The game features online leaderboards, allowing players to compete and compare their scores with others. - Bullet time feature (weight 0.09): A bullet-time feature is included, providing a slow-motion effect when the player is in danger, adding a strategic layer to the gameplay. Performance notes: - Performance and optimization issues (weight 0.13): There are mentions of poor scaling, blurry visuals, and general optimization problems affecting the game's performance. - Runs on low-end hardware (weight 0.11): The game has low system requirements and runs well on various hardware, including integrated graphics and low-end PCs. - Linux and Steam Deck compatibility (weight 0.11): The game runs well on Linux with Proton 6.3.8 and is perfectly supported on the Steam Deck, making it ideal for short play sessions. - Resolution locked at 720p (weight 0.11): The game's resolution is locked at 720p, which may affect visual quality and scaling on higher resolution displays. - Loading screen issues (weight 0.08): The game can get stuck in a loading screen forever, and there are long loading times, especially in offline mode. - Offline mode problems (weight 0.08): The game won't run offline and experiences long loading times when attempting to do so. Recommendations: - Highly recommended for Pac-Man fans (weight 0.28): The game is frequently recommended for fans of Pac-Man, including both longtime enthusiasts and newcomers. It is praised for its appeal to those who enjoy the classic arcade experience. - Recommended for arcade lovers (weight 0.23): The game is suggested for those who enjoy arcade-style games, offering mindless fun and dynamic gameplay. It is particularly appealing to fans of arcade challenges and high scores. - Strong general recommendation (weight 0.23): The game receives strong recommendations from various reviewers, indicating its overall appeal and value. It is praised for being worth the buy and offering a great deal for the price. - Highly recommended for everyone (weight 0.21): The game is highly recommended for a broad audience, not just Pac-Man fans. It is praised for its excitement, challenge, and innovative gameplay design. - Worth buying on sale (weight 0.18): Many reviews suggest that the game is best purchased when it is on sale. This indicates that while the game is enjoyable, it might not be worth the full price for some players. - Recommended for casual players (weight 0.12): The game is suggested for casual players who enjoy short sessions or quick achievement completion. It is also recommended for those who enjoy modern arcade experiences. - Recommended for competitive players (weight 0.1): The game is recommended for those who enjoy competing with themselves and others. It offers mastery-focused design and endlessly replayable challenges. - Community engagement (weight 0.04): Players are encouraged to join the community on platforms like Speedrun.com or Discord, indicating an active and engaging player base. - Unique storyline and emotional depth (weight 0.04): The game is recommended for its unique storyline and emotional depth, offering more than just typical arcade gameplay. - Try the demo (weight 0.04): Some reviews suggest trying the demo before purchasing the full game, indicating that players should test the game to see if it meets their expectations. Other player notes: - DLC Content Mentioned (weight 0.08): Players frequently mentioned DLCs in their reviews, indicating a significant interest or concern regarding downloadable content. - Social Media Integration (weight 0.08): Reviews included tips and discussions about sharing achievements on social media platforms like Facebook, suggesting a focus on social features. - Regional Pricing Concerns (weight 0.04): Some reviews mentioned issues with regional pricing, indicating that this is a concern for players in different locations. - Steam Review Policies (weight 0.04): There were inquiries about Steam review policies, showing that players are interested in understanding the guidelines and rules for posting reviews. Emotions: - Excitement (weight 0.32): Players are thrilled by the game's fast-paced, high-intensity gameplay and its fresh take on the classic Pac-Man structure. The addictive mechanics, such as the ghost train and high score competition, along with the frenetic pace and visually striking elements, contribute to the excitement. - Nostalgia (weight 0.22): The game evokes nostalgia through its classic arcade experience and retro feel, combined with modern elements. Players reminisce about childhood memories of playing the original Pac-Man, appreciating the classic skins and reinvented gameplay. - Satisfaction (weight 0.13): Players are satisfied with the variety of modes and customizable themes, as well as the improvements over previous editions. The high scores, chaotic fun, and enjoyable gameplay mechanics contribute to a sense of achievement and contentment. - Frustration (weight 0.09): Frustration stems from issues like the perceived rigged rank system, unintuitive menus, and the lack of a classic mode. Additionally, cheaters on the leaderboard and the need to purchase DLC for unlockables add to the frustration. - Joy (weight 0.08): The game brings joy through its fun and enjoyable gameplay, customization options, and great music. Players appreciate the trippy and fun experience, as well as the variation in gameplay and different modes. - Enjoyment (weight 0.05): Players enjoy the fun and challenging aspects of the game, praising its visuals, music, and competitive gameplay. The grinding scores and chaining ghosts mechanics add to the overall enjoyment. - Disappointment (weight 0.05): Disappointment arises from the lack of updates and modern features, as well as the game's monotonous gameplay. Some players prefer the original game and find that the current version does not leave a lasting impression. - Enthusiasm (weight 0.04): Players are enthusiastic about the game's revival and its variety of game modes and mechanics. The increasing speed and difficulty, along with electronic music, contribute to the excitement and replayability. - Excited (weight 0.02): The game's exciting gameplay, characterized by pure adrenaline and vibrant colors, along with its tremendously fast pace and next-gen music, generates a sense of excitement among players. - Admiration (weight 0.01): Players admire the innovative gameplay mechanics and the new fancy neon look. The fabulous motion and modern twists on the classic game are highly appreciated. - Boredom (weight 0.01): Some players find that the gameplay can become boring after a short time, leading to a sense of monotony and disinterest. - Addiction (weight 0.01): The game is highly addictive, with players finding it hard to put down due to its engaging and intense gameplay mechanics. - Stress (weight 0.01): The game's challenging and fast-paced nature can induce stress, as players struggle to keep up with the intense gameplay. - Surprise (weight 0.01): Players are surprised by how fun and addictive the game is, exceeding their initial expectations and providing an engaging experience. - Concern (weight 0.01): Some players express concern about the potential health risks associated with playing the game, such as eye strain or repetitive stress injuries.}