Simplify: Better Living Through Pac-Man: CE's Design
If someone was to ask me what my favorite 360 game was last year I would have easily skipped past heavy hitters like Bioshock, Call of Duty 4, and Halo 3 to focus on a game that truly deserved the nod: Pac Man: Championship Edition. Don't laugh, I'm being very serious here! Forget the "wait" that fans of System Shock had to endure to enter Rapture, fans of the original arcade hit had to wait 17 long years to see a real Pac-Man follow-up. Gamasutra's Christian Nutt got a chance to sit down with Pac-Man: CE's producer, Nobutaka Nakajima, and director, Tadashi Iguchi, to talk about all things Pac. The meaty interview goes touches on the inspiration of the XBLA hit, effectively simple gameplay design, immunity from a strange sickness called "Pac-Man fever," and another little game called Galaga Legions.
The strange action-meets-racing hybrid holds a special place in my heart for being the first and only 360 game that I've managed to earn all of the achievements for. I've been able to fend off many fierce competitors on the leaderboards as well. I'd highly recommend that anyone with taste for all things retro that hasn't yet been able to enjoy this game find the time to try out the demo and learn more about what makes this game so extraordinary.
[Reawakening The Sleeping Giant: The Pac-Man CE Interview] Gamasutra
Game-Boy
Posted to Video Games on 2 December 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: design, gamasutra, interview, pac-man, pac-man:championship edition
[heart] Christian Nutt, he's a San Franciscan GayGamer :)
Most of the time these games are so much more than those so called AAA titles. Gamers just think they are AAA because of the pretty graphics, and the amount of money thrown behind it... I mean how shallow are we? :)
Incidentally, actionbutton.net listed this game in their "manifesto" as the 5th best game of all time (just ahead of Gears of War at #6).
@MME: We're not shallow. High production values and instant-pleasure will always attract the biggest audience (movies are the same way, but there have been plenty of great masterpiece films made as well), because it's the biggest area of common interest. I love weird art that challenges you and makes you think, but I also enjoy Resident Evil, for example. Most people would rather only stick to simple pleasures in games, but there's nothing wrong with that. If you want to make art for the sake of art rather than money/popularity, then you can't expect to be rewarded with popularity of course!