So, the glorious Pac-Man C.E. arrived on the iPhone at midnight last night. It’s one of the finest games on the Xbox 360, but has it survived the transition?

Yes. Not perfectly, but I’ve been finding it very, very hard to put down. It’s a great conversion, only slightly hampered by touch screen controls that aren’t quite there. Very close, but this is one case where having a physical stick can only be an advantage.

Not that the controls are bad. Using the dual d-pad set up I’m mostly fine, but sometimes my thumbs move off centre when I’m going very fast and I get killed before I can readjust. It’s not a problem with the controls themselves – they’re perfectly responsive if you hit them correctly – it’s just a case of it being hard to keep your thumbs in the right place in the heat of the moment. (It’s lot a easier to tap the d-pads, rather than drag your thumb around, by the way.)


Just to check the 360 version is actually better in this regard, I gave it a quick go this morning before work – and promptly got a new high score. Nice.

There’s also been a bit of controversy regarding Namco’s pricing model. Basically, you pay £1.79 for the game, which gets you a selection of levels in a couple of different modes. Then you can pay £2.39 to unlock another game mode and lots more levels in the existing modes. Seems very reasonable to me. The game gives you lots and lots to do for your initial £1.79 – I’ve mostly just been playing one level over and over again, trying to beat my high score – but there’s more there if you want it and the total price ends up being very reasonable.

The only real downer is the unforgivable lack of online high scores, but even that’s not a deal-breaker when the game’s this good.

All in all, it’s a hair away from perfection, due to the limitations of the hardware, but it’s more than good enough to be worth getting.