Pac'n'Pix

[RabidYak]

I thought i'd better get the DS warmed up for when all the good games start coming out in a few months, so I went looking for something to play on it the other day and picked up Pac'n'Pix and Bomberman on a buy one get one half price offer (in WH Smiths of all places). I had to think about Pac'n'Pix because the blub and screenshot on the box tell you next to nothing about the game other then it invloves drawing Pac-Men and guiding them around, but there isn't anything else out that catches my attention at the moment and it only cost £22.50 with another game anyway.

The plot is some nonsense about a professor inventing Ink that draws ghosts and Pac-Man stopping it with his magic pen before being sucked in. I was more amused by the fact that Pac-Man was making the old wakka-wakka-wakka noise when his mouth opened to tell me what was in the speech bubble next to him. I had visions of the Pac-Family sitting at home having entire conversations in wakka noises and understanding what eachother was saying.

Moving onto the game, the bottom screen is where all the action happens. Basically it has ghosts running around it and you have to draw a Pac-Man and change its direction with lines to eat them within the time limit to clear the stage. As you move on in the game, obstacles and switches also come into play and you get different types of gimmick ghosts like ones with shields that you have to attack from behind and ones with numbers that you have to eat in the right order. The Pac-Man can be as big as you want, but they get slower and more unwieldy the bigger you draw them. You also have a limited amount of times you can draw a Pac-Man per level and you loose the one you currently have if he moves off the edge of the screen.

The game is divided up into groups of stages that you have to complete all in one go before unlocking the next one, which sometimes have boss fights at the end. In addition to just drawing Pac-Man, the later levels have you drawing arrows to shoot things (sometimes ghosts trapped in bubbles on the top screen) and bombs to blow up obstacles. The top screen has a path around it that you can make the Pac-Man go around to collect bonus items, press switches or just to keep him occupied while you do something else on the lower screen. The scores and counters are also up there.

Like the Yoshi title, its good entertainment for a bit if you can get it on the cheap but it still comes across as a bit of a tech demo rather then a fully featured game. You can see some screenshots (which tell you infinatly more about the game then the one that is actually on the box) here - http://www.gamespot.com/ds/puzzle/picpax/screenindex.html

I've not played Bomberman yet other then to see if it actually works as SF3 is still sucking up my gaming time, but i'll post comments on that once I have. I got that SF book I mentioned in the other thread as well, pictures are nice but shame about the cover-to-cover Engrish and blatant factual errors.

[were]

you played that nintenDogs yet?..its been all over the news in the past 2 weeks..

[Silverhaze]

Nice little review Yak, thanks for that!! Still seems like the DS is falling short at the moment.
Why do Nintendo bring out a system and then take ages to bring anything good out on it other than a couple of good launch titles?! They did it with the damn N64, GC and the DS!!

If I had the money I would still lean in the direction of the PSP.

[RabidYak]

you played that nintenDogs yet?..its been all over the news in the past 2 weeks..

Nope. That concept wasent entertaining when Dogz did it about 10 years ago, I doubt its anymore interesting this time round.

Nice little review Yak, thanks for that!! Still seems like the DS is falling short at the moment.
Why do Nintendo bring out a system and then take ages to bring anything good out on it other than a couple of good launch titles?! They did it with the damn N64, GC and the DS!!

Gawd knows, but its starting to pick up. Mario Kart, Sonic and Pac'n'Roll are out in the next couple of months and the Kirby game is meant to be good as well.

If I had the money I would still lean in the direction of the PSP.

I'd never use a PSP if I had one. I hardley brought any games for my GBA because most of the good ones were just portable versions of SNES stuff and the PSP looks like it'll be the same with PS2 games, which don't interest me anyway. I like the DS because the pen gimmick and double screens are (for the most part) making developers do something different instead of just copy and pasting code.

[were]

what makes the psp so good is not the games,but its memory stick,,you could play emulated games on it

[Silverhaze]

Yeah what were said

There are some games I wouldnt mind trying but just like with the GBA a lot of games are plain ports with bits added or taken away.

I'd mostly use it as a media player. I couldnt get my head around that thumbstick on it. Its flat against the body of the machine but I suppose you would get used to that.

As for the DS, yeah it looks nice and has the pen gimmick but how long before that screen starts looking scratched and tatty? Also, theres nowhere I would use it. My train journey into work is 5 mins and when Im at home I use the consoles or thesedays the PC. At £115 with bomberman its still too expensive for something I wouldnt use much.