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Pac-Pix (パックピクス Pakkupikusu) is a video game developed and published by Namco for the Nintendo DS.

Plot[]

An unknown mischievous wizard invents a substance called Ghost Ink, which turns into mischievous-behaving ghosts when it is used. The mischievous Ink Ghosts would jump into different pictures and books, causing a global crisis for the people of the world. Hearing of the crisis, Pac-Man uses his Magic Pen to rid the world of the Ink Ghosts. After much effort, Pac-Man succeeded in capturing the ghosts into a single book. Before he could turn the Ink Ghosts back to Ghost Ink, the Ink Ghosts zap Pac-Man with a counterattack curse, capturing him in a paper sheet. Pac-Man enlists the help of the player, now holding the Magic Pen, to rid the book of the Ink Ghosts.

The player uses the Magic Pen to create Pac-Men drawings that would turn the ghosts back to Ghost Ink. Using the magic pen to chomp over twelve chapters of Ink Ghosts, the player encounters the Ink Master, the source of the Ink Ghosts. In the final battle, Pac-Man assists the player by giving the Magic Pen a power boost. With the power boost, the player successfully defeats the Ink Master, who is then turned back into ink and sealed inside a bottle.

With the Ink Master and Ink Ghosts gone, the paper sheet curse on Pac-Man is broken as Pac-Man is freed from the paper sheet. Pac-Man thanks the player and ventures off. With all the Ghost Ink sealed in the bottle, Pac-Man seals the bottle in a chest and buries it in the unknown sea, freeing the people of Pac-Man's land from the Ink Ghosts forever.

Gameplay[]

Pix1

Screenshot from the game's first page. The Nintendo DS' touch screen is used to draw Pac-Man than come to life and eat ghosts.

Pac-Pix uses the Nintendo DS' Touch Screen exclusively. The player uses the stylus to create Pac-Man drawings, which come to life and must be guided through each levels in order to eat all the Ink Ghosts. Across the game, there are three drawing gestures with different effects:

  • Pac-Man: Drawing a Pac-Man symbol will spawn a Pac-Man that begins moving and can eat ghosts when it touches the ghosts. Each Pac-Man can eat ghosts when drawn facing them, and can be guided by drawing walls, with the Pac-Man following the direction of the drawn wall when colliding with it. The Pac-Men can also be held back or dragged backwards by repeatedly striking the Pac-Man backwards from its current direction. The size of the hand-drawn Pac-Man will also adjust its speed accordingly (Larger Pac-Men move slower, while smaller ones move faster). Only up to three Pac-Men can be present on screen at once; the oldest surviving Pac-Man will disappear if a Pac-Man is created while there are three Pac-Men on screen. Pac-Men will disappear if they move off screen or if they repeatedly bounce off solid objects like walls or Armor ghosts too quickly.
  • Arrow: From Chapter 5 and onwards, the player gains the ability to create arrows. By drawing a triangle and using tip of the line to aim, arrows can temporarily stun ghosts when they are hit; they can also be used to activate buttons including some placed outside the area of the top screen that the Pac-Man drawings cannot traverse.
  • Bomb: From Chapter 9 and onwards, the player gains the ability to create bombs. By drawing a circle and creating a "fuse" line that touches a candle placed on the page, Bombs allow the player to trigger explosions; the explosions are capable of destroying certain walls, ghosts with Armor, and can also stun ghosts. The explosion will also render the player unable to draw around the explosion radius for a period of time. Nearby Bombs will also explode upon destruction from another bomb.

The general objective is to eat all of the ghosts on-screen with minimal Pac-Man drawings used as fast as possible, with each page's ghosts arriving in two waves. After the first wave of ghosts are eaten in a page, the next wave of ghosts will spawn. Each page features various gimmicks that require the player to perform certain gestures, such as popping bubbles, activating buttons to unlock gates and light candles, mirrors that make arrows bounce to another direction and walls that make Pac-Men bounce off to the other direction. There is a tunnel located at the top of every page, which allows the Pac-Men to travel safely across the top of the screen if it is open, additionally eating ghosts and the bonus fruits/items that appear. The player fails the chapter if they run out of creatable Pac-Men or time on a page and must start the chapter over from the beginning.

The game is split up into levels referred to as "pages", which are part of multiple "chapters"; all pages in a single chapter must be completed in one sitting. Each page has a time limit, and a limited amount of usable Pac-Men. The game features 12 chapters containing 5 pages. Some chapters feature a sixth page, where a boss fight occurs. When a page is completed. the amount of remaining time and remaining Pac-Men is tallied up for a bonus score. A score rank is given depending on how much the player has scored at the end of a chapter, ranging from S, A, B, C, D and E. If a chapter is completed with a rank ranging from S to B, a card will be unlocked.

The second blue-colored book, featuring faster moving ghosts and alternative ghost placements is unlocked after finishing the game, which also contains 12 chapters.

Gallery[]

Upon completing the first chapter, the Gallery is unlocked, which lets the player review previously seen content:

  • Cards: Upon completing a chapter with an S to B rank, cards will be unlocked. The cards (40 in total) display the names and descriptions of various ghosts, characters and objects.
  • Lecture: The player can replay the tutorials for creating Pac-Men, Arrows and Bombs.
  • Sketchbook: Indicated by the notebook icon, the Sketchbook serves as a practice space and allows the player to draw without restrictions and ghosts. There are additional gestures with visual effects that can be created in this mode.
  • Opening: Replays the opening cutscene.
  • Ending: Replays the ending cutscene and credits.

Enemies[]

Ghosts[]

  • Pinky: Pinky is a small regular ghost with big pupils. Pinky has no special abilities and wanders across the stage, also attempting to avoid the Pac-Man drawings when they come in sight.
  • Blue: A tall blue ghost with small white eyes. Blue speeds up for a brief moment when the Pac-Men approach Blue, but will remain at regular speed for a while as a cooldown.
  • Berobero: A white ghost with size-altering eyes and a huge mouth. Berobero will hide under the ground and will quickly move to the other side of the page, which will temporarily make him dizzy and vulnerable after emerging.
  • Numboo: A group of orange ghosts with purple numbers on their bodies. The group of Numboos (ranging from three to five in numbers) must be eaten in the indicated order to successfully eliminate them. Eating the wrong succeding-numbered Numboo will nullify the order, and the player must restart the order by eating the first Numboo again.
  • Bari-Boo: A red ghost with black eyes and a pointy mouth. Moving only in two directions, Bari-Boos have a purple barrier in front of them which bounce Pac-Men off when they touch it, like the walls in certain stages. The back of each Bari-Boo is unguarded, and is the only place where they can be eaten by the Pac-Men.
    • Bari-Vader: A variant of the Bari-Boos but with a darker shade of red and an angrier expression. Unlike Bari-Boo, Bari-Vader can move in all four directions, making it more difficult to eat them. They appear exclusively in the second book.
  • Peppeta: A yellow ghost with a tuft of hair. Peppeta will periodically drop paint droplets on the page, which prevent the player from drawing on the droplet's space until it dries out.
  • Bubbles: In some pages, the ghosts will be hovering in bubbles on the Top Screen which can be popped by using arrows. The ghosts will drop down to the Touch Screen after they are popped.
  • Armor: In some pages, the ghosts will be protected in armor cubes, which can only be destroyed with the explosion blast of a bomb.

Bosses[]

Trivia[]

  • Pac-Pix is known to have gone under two different redesigns before its release.
    Pac-pix-e3-2004-gameplay

    The tech demo version of Pac-Pix shown at E3.

    • A tech demo of Pac-Pix was shown at E3 2004 (alongside Pac 'n Roll), around ten months before the game's release. The demo seems to have been a timed challenge to eat as many ghosts as possible. The overall visual design is entirely different than the final game, with unique ghost designs and a more "sketchbook"-like aesthetic.[1]
      Pacpix nours winter 2004

      Early screenshots of Pac-Pix from the Winter 2004 issue of the NOURS magazine

    • The Winter 2004 issue of NOURS Magazine featured a design that is closer to the final design, but has notable differences such as a different book background and ghosts with different designs, most notably including the inclusion of shadows for the characters.
  • This game was one of the few games released during the 50th anniversary celebration of Namco's founding.
  • The Korean version of the game, which was released after the Namco and Bandai merger was completed, has the Namco Bandai Games copyright notice and logo instead of the Namco logo and notice in the international versions.
    • The Japanese Namco chant and 50th anniversary logos are also removed in said version.
  • The European version of Pac-Pix features different themes for the chapter results and credits. In the international versions, they sport a unique composition while in the European version, the Intermission theme from Pac-Man is arranged.
  • Pinky is the only Ink Ghost in the game to share similar names and appearances with one of the regular ghosts.

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Nintendo DS[]

Pre-release screenshots[]

Artwork[]

References[]

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