PAC-MAN Championship Edition 2 Reviews
The creators of Pac-Man CE 2 had the difficult task of remixing a game that has already been expanded upon and reworked to the point of refinement, and they chose to pile on the complexity anyway. The result is a Frankenstein’s Pac-Man—a mess of features and modes that, despite all the power pellets and fruit and ghosts, still left me feeling hungry.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is a fun little arcade game that channels the inner spirit of old school Pac-Man, but manages to create its own little niche. It’s overpriced for the amount of content, but those with the patience of a saint and a compulsion to top leaderboards will certainly get their money’s worth. For anyone else, the fun factor may be exhausted before the euphoric beats of the soundtrack subside. And it’s all a bit of a shame really, because it’s an interesting and fresh take on an age-old game. There just isn’t enough of it.
Where PAC-MAN 256 pushed PAC-MAN forward, PAC-MAN Championship Edition 2 takes a single step backwards over iteration and innovation. PAC-MAN Championship Edition 2 just isn’t the second coming of the “PAC-MAN Jesus” we’ve come to praise with its first installment onto XBLA all those years ago.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 did not take the direction everyone would have preferred. But great respect goes to the development team for trying to do something different than the usual formula.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Championship Edition 2's drastic changes to the classic Pac-Man feels like a misstep. You can touch the ghosts without dying and the speed and danger of the original are missing because of this.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is a fun variation of the classic Pac-Man formula you know and love.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is an addictive throwback to the original classic; however, there is a lot of new game mechanics that work well to modernise the formula, without taking away any of the nostalgia. Those looking for a new Pac-Man game will find plenty to love here, including the pellet eating and the ghost trains, combined with the fruits meter, the bomb jump, the jump pads and the ability to bump into the ghosts. Each stage features a sequence of mazes in Adventure mode, while Score Attack tests even the toughest of Pac-Man players who are looking at posting up some high scores. This is a fun adventure that can be enjoyed by fans of the old, as well as younger fans being introduced to the franchise for the first time.
This is not your father's 'Pac-Man'. 'Pac-Man: Championship Edition 2' is faster and busier, and the purity of the original has been sacrificed for variety and a more forgiving difficulty level. That being said, it's still a great score attack game, one that I will be enjoying whenever I'm in need of an hour or so of sparkly, candied arcade goodness.
Namco-Bandai wanted to create a sequel which retained the core of what came before it, while expanding where necessary, and the result is a sequel which suffers from that most crippling of sequel problems... mediocrity.
Pac-Man never really changes his ways, but Championship Edition 2 proves that a three-and-a-half decade old videogame star can still pull a crowd. This is a smart set of takes on what may genuinely be a timeless mechanical formula.
Maybe that’s what peeves me most about Pac-Man Championship Edition 2. There’s a solid idea at the core of the game, one that’s endearing and compelling despite some major changes to the formula. But nothing backs up that idea. It’s just that—an idea, and not much else, though the familiar Pac-Man gameplay still holds up. While I’ll probably attempt to best some of my own scores in the coming weeks, though, there’s not enough engaging content to keep me hooked in the long run.
the classic experience of a classic pacman adapted to the new times, with a thrilling gameplay and challenging levels
Review in Spanish | Read full review
At the end of the day, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is a solid sequel that suffers from trying to add too much to a formula that was almost perfect. It's still plenty of fun to play but feels too excessively bloated compared to the excellent original. If you're a fan of Championship Edition,then you'll find a lot to like in the sequel, and newcomers should find it an accessible place to start. It's an interesting evolution of the Pac-Man gameplay and makes for a solid pick-up-and-play title for players of any age. It is, after all, still Pac-Man at heart.
“Pac-Man Championship Edition 2” is a fun remix of the classic Pac-Man gameplay, featuring zippy action and crazy maze mechanics. As a followup, it doesn’t quite have the same freshness of the original Championship Edition. The incredibly fast pace of the game also can be overwhelming for some and tiring for others after extended play. All that being said, it’s an enjoyable and entertaining re-imagining of Pac-Man that builds on the classic formula’s solid foundation instead of shoehorning the round mascot in the square peg of a different gaming genre.
It might be a case of sky-high expectations, but this sequel doesn't live up to its sublime predecessor Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+. Still, I'm not so sure it ever could -- that game was damn near perfect, putting Bandai Namco in a tough spot when creating a follow-up. Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is worth playing for its frenetic new style and ruleset, but it's no replacement.
I had a good time with Pac-Man Championship Edition 2, even if it meant I had to wade through a lot of white noise to find it. For every excellent addition like being able to jump back to the start of a map, there are a few that aren’t as well thought out and feel more like limitations than tools for expanding your options. Figuring out the fast-paced puzzles based around all the new tweaks is still a good retro-arcade challenge, but it doesn’t come close to recapturing the magic of the first Championship Edition.
Pac Man Championship Edition 2 is a solid title; rich, funny and well developed. Still, it can not match the incredible Championship Edition DX.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 mostly retains the spirit of the original while offering a ton of content and plenty of fresh gameplay mechanics.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is clocking in at about £10 on the PSN store, which makes sense. It has the feel of a highly polished game that can kill 30 minutes or so at a time rather than instigate hours of play. If that’s what you’re looking for then you’re in luck, friend; here be a game that is both simple and immersive for short periods of time, to divert your brain away from real issues and solely into ‘where the fuck is the fruit oh no there’s a ghost train EAT IT YES HA!’. If you’re after a happy dose of nostalgia and an engaging half hour then this is the power pill for you.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 isn’t necessarily a bad game. The original and the DX versions were just about perfection, and you just can’t improve on perfection. It is simply a case that Bandai Namco needed to make it different enough to set it apart from the other Pac-Man games. On that count I have mixed feelings. The ultimate success story is that Bandai Namco can take Pac-Man as it is in its basic form and still find amazing new, and very modern, ways to apply that formula.