And, for the time that it lasts,
Pac-Man: Adventures in Time fits the license quite well. With a few really top-notch mazes and plenty of good ones, it offers quite a treat for fans of the original crazy Japanese import. And although it’s over a little too soon, that shouldn’t stop you from playing it.
You control Pac-Man, of course, bouncing back and forth through time to rescue the four pieces of the Super Duper Power Pellet or some such. It’s a trite plot, but that’s never exactly been a strong suit in a series that features round balls munching pellets. Yeah. What’s important to know is that the basic Pac-Man formula is all here, with a few additions that keep the game interesting the whole way through.
First of all, Pac-Man can jump. Those of you who’ve played Pac-Mania (and those of you who hadn’t, should) will be familiar with this, and it’s even a little more refined in Adventures. Instead of being able to jump constantly, our yellow hero has to wait for a jump meter to recharge. This keeps you from bouncing around the level like a madman.
Second of all, each level has a gimmick. Some of them, like the alligator level, are one-shot and merely break up the standard gameplay. Others, like the cannonball/log/other-moving-objects-that-hurt-you levels, add a little more challenge to the game by making you keep track of more than just the ghosts. As far as I know (I didn’t exactly go trying to die on purpose), most of the things like spikes and whatnot are non-lethal. It’s generally just the ghosts that can kill you, but the others stun you for a while. Don’t blame me if you die by getting bit by a snake, however.
My favorite gimmick of all is found in a few levels of the game, which is complete 3D. Rotating cylinders and spheres where you find yourself running around and collecting dots are just cool. The level that has you walking on the side of the cube is cool too.
There are also various mini-games, from a few iterations of a race (collect dots and fruit while not falling into pits or hitting objects), a few Memory-type puzzles, and at least one “Shooting Gallery.” They’re really nothing special, and seem to exist more to break up the levels than for any real gameplay reason.
The only problem with Pac-Man: Adventures in Time is that there’s not quite enough here. Yes, there are more than 40 mazes, and unlocking all of the secret ones will take some doing. But there are some seriously cool concepts -- the cube walking, the 3D mazes, etc. -- that are underutilized. A level designer (which is unrealistic, I know) or even free add-on levels would be very, very cool. The engine is very solid, but a few more things to play with it would be sweet.
There’s a multiplayer mode which lets you play such games as one where you must chase down the Pac-character, at which point you turn into the Paccer and have to eat as many dots before someone tags you, a mode where you must tag the other characters as quickly as possible to get rid of a “Hot Potato”-style bomb, and a classic dot-munching mode. They’re entertaining for a bit, but there are much better multiplayer modes out there. It’s nothing much, really.
