Official Namco Pac-man App Chomps Android

Official Namco Pac-man App Chomps Android

It's no secret by now that my Google Nexus has surgically replaced one of my hands. (Eat that, Robocop!) And as I cruise the Play store and sites like CNet.com, I like finding my favorite 80s arcade games and franchises as mobile apps. It's like scanning your digital TV guide and finding that Antenna TV is playing your favorite A-Team episode (Boy George singing in the cowboy bar.)

I recently found the official Namco Pac-man app for Android and thought I'd give "Pac-Man + Tournaments" a whirl. I was mainly interested in how you would control Pac-man and how well this free version would match up to my memories of playing it at the arcade.

The game sets up with the board in the top 2/3 of your screen and the joystick in the bottom 1/3. A swipe of your finger controls the joystick and ultimately pac-man. It was a little awkward, but I managed to make it through 4 boards and rack up 21,960 on my first quarter...err...game. If you want to hook up with other Pac-players, registering for a free Bandai Namco ID is the way to go. Play in one free tournament daily or for a little extra cash, buy tokens to play in more tournaments. You can even post or tweet your scores and progress to your friends. I tweeted my first score last night to see what reaction I'd get.

I just scored 21960 and earned 5 Achievements in @pac-MAN! bit.ly/X8RcqL

— Jason Gross (@SockOfFleagulls) March 26, 2013

Here's what my tweeps had to say...

@sockoffleagulls It's not really pac-man if it doesn't involve quarters

— Engineernerd (@Engineernerd) March 26, 2013

@sockoffleagulls You PAC-braggin?

— eclectik relaxation (@eclectik) March 26, 2013

I've gotta side with Engineernerd on this one. There are some games that just have too much arcade nostalgia that no matter how you play, it just doesn't measure up. My plug-n-play Pac-man game gives me a better experience than the Atari 2600 game but still doesn't fill the arcade void. Overall, this is a decent version of Pac-man for the free price. All the sounds and traditional gameplay are there. The swiping motions to move the joystick does take some getting used to (call my experience "beginner's luck" I guess,) but I will be keeping it on my tablet to mainly to show off to my boys and let them play.