PAC-MAN

I mentioned a few days ago that the Amazon Android Market has a free app each day, PAC-MAN was one of those just a week ago. If you were to buy it today on Amazon it costs $4.99 but you can buy it cheaper on the Google Android Market for $2.99. The question is, is it worth it?

PAC-Man for those of you that don't know has been around for just over 30 years now, it was a huge hit in American arcades during the 1980's and has seen countless sequels and revisions ever since. The simplicity of the game was its greatest strength, using a single joystick you move the character around the screen eating dots and avoiding the bad guys. You can power up four times in each round by eating a big dot turning the enemies into ghosts which you can then eat for a limited time. Each level gets progressively harder and the baddies, Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde move faster and faster.

Bonus points for collecting fruits that pop up periodically near the middle of the screen and for eating them when they are turned to ghosts. That's all there is to it, simple yet addictive. The Android version as well as the iPhone port are exactly the same as the original version that helped start the video game craze back in 1979. The secret to making a successful copy of PAC-Man for any device is the controls and they did it right for the Android.

I've seen the game done using the gyroscope and having to turn and twist the handheld device to move the character, this made for a terrible gaming experience. The game makers, Namco in this case the original developer of PAC-Man chose to use an on screen touch joy pad and it works extremely well.

Using your index finger you simply press down once and move your finger in any direction to make him move, he responds immediately and precisely to your gestures. This is the most important part of making this game enjoyable, the graphics are the same as the original game so all the work went into the control aspect of the game.

I'm very happy to see PAC-MAN on the Android, its still a very fun game and highly addictive. I'm not too happy people have to pay $2.99 to own it, 99 cents would have been a better price point. Why a two dollar difference between the two Android Markets is another weird one, I can only guess the high price to begin with is name recognition. Still it is an old game and they should be happy to make any money off of it all these years later, I would hold off spending the money until another deal surfaces.

In the end I do recommend it and if you can't wait for a price drop then by all means go ahead and buy it, you can always try it out online if you've never played it. There are many flash versions of the game you can try for free to see if its even your cup of tea, now if they would just bring Donkey Kong to our phones. enjoy!