Namco's Pac'n-Jump Sends Pac-Man To New Heights
April 8, 2011
The nostalgic feeling of walking into a room filled with flashing screens, tons of game artwork on the sides of pinball and arcade consoles, and the unmistakeable simplistic sounds of '80s video games just makes a person smile. One of the longstanding games of all time is Pac-Man. This yellow circle with an eye and triangular mouth that is always chomping is truly iconic to the arcade. There have been a number of ways the franchise has been spiced up, but Namco's latest release, Pac'n-Jump, sends this dot chomping character to a genre he has never experienced before.
Pac'n-Jump sends Pac-Man to new heights, literally, as the game introduces this 8-bit legend to the endless-climbing genre. Instead of making your way around the walls of the traditional Pac-Man mazes, Pac'n-Jump uses those wall segments as platforms that the now bouncy chomp master will use to climb to endless heights.
Namco keeps the enjoyment true with plenty of dots, power-ups, and fruit to eat, plus those nasty ghosts to get in the way. While this new edition holds true to the experience, Namco adds even more excitement. Beyond the first stage the company offers the chance to unlock three other stages -- that are actually just themes --, which immerse Pac-Man into other Namco titles from the 8-bit decade: Dig Dug, Rally-X, and Galaga.
As with other Pac-Man editions released by Namco for iOS, Pac'n-Jump provides three different control schemes: tilt, analog stick, and digital pads. Since the game plays in portrait mode, the control scheme options will play a big role in success. Pac-Man automatically jumps and chomps, leaving you to simply control the left and right movements. Bounce from platform to platform as you rise to the top, where there will be fields of dots to consume to launch Pac-Man up to the next set of platforms. Get power-ups, avoid ghosts and other Namco characters of the past to earn your way to the Game Center leaderboards' number one spot.
Pac'n-Jump is a universal app compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or later, and available in the App Store now for the introductory price of just $.99.
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