Handheld
(DS) Pac N’ Roll
By Ron Ayers
Oct 17, 2005, 6 :42 am

Every time you put a ball in some sort of three-dimensional world everyone immediately starts making comparisons to Marble Madness and Super Monkey Ball. Meanwhile, Namco continues to plaster Pac-Man’s likeness and license onto every single game they can get ahold of. Your initial thought might be to stay away, but shockingly enough, Pac N’ Roll holds its own as a very serviceable 3D platformer that has the potential to be a stepping-stone for bigger things from Namco on the DS.

As with Pac-Pix the presentation of the game itself comes off very well with the exception of the actual story. Namco seems to have fired up the “Pac-Man Random Story Generator” and this time you’re out to save Pac-Master and his family from the evil Golvis. It doesn’t really make a ton of sense, and seems to be there just to give you a brief break between levels. Don’t expect an endearing tale.

Pac N’ Roll is divided into several themed worlds ranging from a Castle and a Jungle to a Candy Land-style world and some Volcano action. Each of these worlds contains five levels, and in every other world, the fifth level has a boss battle. The boss battles leave much to be desired and actually seem to be the easiest portions of the game.

The controls for Pac N’ Roll are reasonably tight, taking on a track-ball feel as you navigate the levels. Moving your stylus slightly rolls Pac-Man slightly. Longer, faster “strides” move him at a brisker pace, while tapping on him repeatedly slows him down. With a stride and a stop at the border of the touch-screen Pac-Man can also burst ahead, allowing him to break open boxes and execute some sweet jumps. The control is very easy to get used to and is one of the strongest points of the game.

As you go through each world, you’ll do the typical Pac-Man schtick, eating pellets, ghosts and fruit. You’ll need a certain number of pellets to advance through the gates in each individual level. Meanwhile, you’re also trying to collect all of the diamonds littered throughout the game, which open up mini-games including a dual screen version of Pac-Man (which unfortunately is a bit awkward due to the gap between screens.)

You can also get diamonds by collecting all the pellets in a level, beating the gold time in each level’s time trial, or completing a specific “challenge” for each level. Some challenges are reasonable such as finishing a level without eating a ghost. Others are borderline impossible. Regardless, these additional trials and challenges do a lot to extend the play time of Pac N’ Roll.

Pac N’ Roll looks colorful and fun. The isometric 3D engine Namco created works very well in conjunction with the control scheme, even including camera functionality – you can rotate around Pac-Man to get a better view of certain levels. The top screen displays the majority of the gameplay, while the bottom screen usually just shows Pac-Man rolling around and some statistical information. The bottom screen is also used for tutorials throughout the game.

For the first couple of worlds, Pac N’ Roll appears to be a pretty easy jaunt with little to prevent you from breezing through levels. Items such as suits, which alter Pac-Man’s characteristics, making him heavy and invincible, or light and feathery, and the addition of new techniques keep the game fresh. Once you get past the first couple of worlds, the game turns from leisurely to insane, as you’re blazing down conveyor belts, hitting trampoline-like jumps and landing on moving platforms all in the middle of a wind storm. On one particular level, I lost all sixteen of the lives I had built up in the first few worlds, and while it can be a bit frustrating, it's ultimately beatable.


Overall Score: 7.5
Regardless of how the difficulty ramps up at the end, Pac N’ Roll is enjoyable to play, and a great display of the potential of the DS. If you’re bored of Nintendogs and not an Advance Wars or Castlevania fan, Pac N’ Roll may be the way to go. In fact, I dare say that I was left with the impression that if Namco had replaced Pac-Man with Kirby and licensed it to Nintendo, the game could’ve passed as a solid first party title. Pac N’ Roll is a good pick-up now, and will be a great pick-up when it goes budget.