Can you reinvent a franchise that’s almost been around since the origin of the arcade? Unveiled at the recent Xbox Pac-Man World Championships, Pac-Man Championship Edition is a competitive based offline experience that changes on the fly. But it isn't all roses in the new world of Pac-Man Championship Edition, jump in to find out why.

The game is purely about scoring; setting gamers up with a preset time limit in a number of maps and modes with one intention; get as many points as possible. The game retains the same aesthetic of the original game but does away with stopping the action after all the dots disappear or when Namco's favourite mascot gets hit by his enemies.

Now, when you clear one side of the map a piece of fruit appears and chopping down on it resets the empty half of the map adding new dots and changing the landscape of the arena. As you play and rid the world of those pesky ghosts, the speed ramps up and adds a hectic feel to the action which unfortunately is marred by the lackluster controller.

For casual players of the original Pac-Man, the game was merely a cat-and-mouse game of survival to that last pellet, but Pac-Maniacs will tell you the game has always been about scoring. The new format of non-stop action lends itself well to chaining together great combos of chomping down multiple ghosts.

Championship Edition almost feels like it's been built specifically with Xbox Live in mind with detailed leaderboards but unfortunately does not feature multi-player gameplay. Pac-Man Vs. (Namco's giveaway disc for the GameCube) would have been a perfect addition to the hectic single-player game if it was included, where you take the reigns as Pac-Man and four friends took over as the ghosts, but the game was released as a Leaderboard Live experience only.

It's difficult to do anything to modernize the look of the classic arcade game, but with the full widescreen high-def support (where the maps seem to bump to the beat of the repetitive Techno soundtrack); Championship Edition looks fantastic.

It isn't without its flaws though, as I mentioned. Without a proper arcade caliber controller it’s difficult to make the hairpin turns needed during the fastest moments of the game. Often you'll find yourself making or missing turns that can result in your immediate demise. This wouldn't be as big an issue as I make it out to be if the game itself wasn't directly tied to it's controls. Any glitch in the high-paced, high-scoring system breaks the experience in half. When it works the game is great, but it only takes one hiccup to ruin your fun (especially when you have little time left on the clock).

As is expected, Pac-Man Championship Edition includes 200 possible Xbox Achievement points for completionists. The majority of the 12 achievements come from simply enduring the 5 or 10 minute matches, but some include point landmarks and they are all relatively easy to obtain.

The game includes six game modes, all of which have a preset time limit that cannot be adjusted, and changes the gameplay a number of different ways. One setting gives you a ten minute time limit and darkens the entire map, only showing the on-screen baddies, pellets and Pac-Man's immediate surroundings. Other modes are long corridor-like paths throughout the map that turn the speed up so much your liable to think Pac-Man has a meth problem.

Overall the game is a welcome addition to any Pac-Maniac’s library and to anyone looking for a new arcade addiction. Pac-Man Championship Edition might sound pricey at $10, but its well worth a shot.

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