GAME CLEAR No. 96 -- Pac-Pix

Pac-Pix (2005, DS)

Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco
Clear Date: 6/23/22

My descent down the Pac-Man rabbit hole continues with Pac-Pix. It’s a game that, surprisingly, I bought brand new and sealed for just a few bucks at Walmart in 2020 despite it being 15 years old at the time. I can only assume it had been kicking around in their bargain bin all those years until I finally grabbed it. Mildly amusing to think about.

This is one of those fun DS games that, with the exception of pausing, exclusively uses the touch screen. The basic gameplay involves drawing little Pac-Mans on the screen that come to life to gobble up ghosts. There are also some other things you can draw, such as arrows that can shoot things on the top screen or bombs that can blow things up on the bottom screen. These allow for some light puzzle-solving elements, but ultimately you’ll always been cleaning up ghosts with Pac-Man to clear each page. I was really pleased with how lenient the drawing detection algorithm was, especially as someone who can’t draw worth a shit. It allowed so many of my freakish little Pac-Mans to come to life, and I appreciate that.

The impetus for the action is some silly contrivance about how Pac-Man has gotten trapped in a book that he also trapped a bunch of ghosts in? Anyway, you gotta help him eat ’em all and escape. The story is obviously not the highlight, and that’s fine.

The gameplay largely works, and I give it major props for not being quite like anything else I’ve played. Some of the later stages get a bit too busy and difficult for their own good, but I was able to power through to the credits despite some frustration. This is really the kind of shit I enjoy most — games whose novelty outweigh their jank. I would love to see a Pac-Pix sequel on mobile devices, as part of the problem with the original was that the game could get a bit busy trying to cram as much as it could onto the low-resolution DS screens. Modern phone screens could easily handle the concept.

Otherwise, it’s a shame this game/concept will likely never see the light of day again. With the DS and 3DS well in the rearview mirror, stuff like this just really isn’t gonna happen again, and uncompromised ports are basically impossible. I complain about preservation all the time, but the DS family is really one of the sadder cases on that front. You can emulate with mouse controls, and you can port things with tweaked controls (as has been done with games like The World Ends with You), but you can’t quite capture that original experience. Maybe somebody will come along and make a knockoff handheld like Analogue has done with the Pocket. That sort of thing seems like the only true long-term solution to this situation.

In the shorter term, it’s fortunate that Nintendo sold absolute tons of DSes that still work and aren’t too expensive on the secondary market like so many other things are. Pac-Pix carts can be had for just a few bucks on eBay too (or I suppose you could check your local Walmart like I did). It didn’t review amazingly on release, but I really think this is worthy of anyone’s collection. It’s novel and unique in a way many of even the best DS games weren’t. You may not love it, but it’s unlikely you’ve had quite the same experience with any other game.

I also wrote a little bit about this game here. Specifically, I love the very freakish Pac-Men that will render in this game. It’s a treat.