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Can you draw Pac-Man?

The gaming icon is back and is making his first appearance on the Nintendo DS with Pac-Pix. For years now, fans young and old just cannot get enough of that yellow, power pellet, ghost gobbling, little man. We have seen him in old school form, in 3D, with various family members such as Ms, Jr. and Baby Pac-Man, in cereal form, and even his own 30-minute cartoon in the 80's. Pac's staying power is incredible and makes you wonder just what are in those power pellets. Now in 2005, on the DS, Pac-Man has a brand new game, and the story goes a little like this...

One day a mischievous wizard came up with a mysterious invention called Ghost Ink. Everything drawn with the Ghost Ink turned into Ghosts. These ghosts then wreaked havoc all over the world. Our hero, Pac-Man, rushed to defeat the Ghost with his mighty Magic Pen, the only weapon effective to defeat them, and trapped all the Ghosts inside one last book. However, before he could turn the Ghosts back into the Ghost Ink, he was also captured within a piece of paper. Now you must take over Pac-Man's quest to defeat the mischievous Ghosts, by using the stylus to draw Pac-Man and control his movements on screen. In Pac-Pix, you can draw all sorts of Pac-Man shapes, from little Pac's that go quick, large Pacs that move slower, and everything in between. You have limited space to get those Ghosts, but if you do such things as draw lines to block Pac-Man from leaving, you can stay on screen as long as you need him to be. Later stages add strategy and difficulty by adding arrows that add flying ghosts, switches, mirrors, bombs, and other gadgets and surprises to keep things interesting. At the end of each stage is a boss battle in which you need to draw Pac in a certain manner in which to defeat it.

Pac Pix is not what you would call a pretty game, but just seeing your Pac drawing come to life is cool each and every time. Think Magic Pengel, only with Pac-Man and you get the idea. The use of the touch screen is obvious, but the top screen gets some use when you take alternate paths that lead you to it for safety reasons or just to gobble up that cherry.

On the surface or at first glance you would think that this is just a DS tech demo, but the later stages do require a bit more thought and precise drawing. If you are looking for a good DS title to fit the bill until the next big thing hits store shelves, then Pac-Pix isn't the worst decision you could make, providing you know what you are buying in the first place. For this reviewer, it is a good pick up and play title at any time, and even once completed there are still higher scores to achieve. That is good enough for me.