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Pac'n Roll Review - DS

Okay, yes, I know it sounds hypocritical of me when Mario Birdwatching is to be shown at E3 2006, but Pac-Man should stick to maze-roaming. And possibly karting. At least Mario has more of a personality than 'I eat dots and avoid ghosts'. So...can you tell the direction this review is heading in?

Gameplay

Rather than sit through an excruciatingly lame story, I just jumped right into the game and tried to ignore why Pac-Man suddenly wanted jewels and plenty of dots. Basically, you guide Pac-Man through 3D worlds, collecting enough dots to pass through gateways (think notes in Banjo Kazooie) and reach the end. If you're masochistic...sorry, I mean, dedicated, you'll hunt down every last hidden one, and a special jewel. These jewels are then put towards opening secret stages, like the original Pac-Man. Hooray! Nostalgia!

You control your suddenly-spherical-for-no-apparent-reason buddy with the touchscreen. The bottom houses a gigantic Pac-Man, which spins in the direction you hold the stylus. Just hold it down, and the guy starts rolling. There's a two pixel wide strip around the bottom screen, which makes him dash if you drag and stop there. Basically, if you ever hope to pull off a dash, you'll need to be using the stylus, as no thumb could reach that tiny border. Unfortunately, by the time the game tells you about the move, you've already needed it to get there. It's infuriating seeing him shoot about and not knowing how to do it. This dash lets you break open boxes that block your way or contain the ultra-important dots. Yes, I could have read the manual, but I'm a guy. We don't do stuff like that.

There's an ok physics engine in the game, which basically ensures that if you let Pac-Man rest on a slope, he'll start rolling away. Unfortunately, he feels a bit 'heavy', and it's almost laborious the way he sluggishly rolls around. In other words, the engine is a bit off. I know it's not meant to be easy for a ball to roll uphills, but damn it, I need to get up that slope!

Being the good little Pac-Man game it is, Pac 'n' Roll lets you eat power pellets and rocket around the stages with aplomb. Those pesky ghosts that have been hunting you down ever since you dared enter their room are now blue and thus instantly edible. You'll also get a decent burst of speed, which lets you clear ramps and other obstacles easily.

You do get two other costumes to use - the knight armour, which makes you really heavy and lets you travel underwater. It also lets you deflect arrows and bust open super metal boxes for extra special presents, like... more dots. The other one is just a...well, I don't know what it is, but it makes you really light so that you can float gently across gaping chasms and skim across water. While they do mix up the gameplay a ... (continued next page)