Here we go again with a Pac-Man game for the DS. Pac-Pix proved that touch-screen innovation could make the old Pac-Man universe completely new again. Now, we have Pac’N Roll which brings Pac-Man back on the DS and brings a great time along with it. Using your stylus and the DS touch screen, you roll your way through five distinct worlds in an effort to bring happiness to Pac-Land. Your movement on the touch screen is reflected over on the top screen where Pac-Man moves around in 3D worlds. While the game is initially tedious and takes some time getting used to, later levels become an incredibly good time and are worth playing through.

There is actually a story surrounding why Pac-Man is a ball and has lost his legs, which is the reason why you roll Pac-Man around in the game. It all started one day back when Pac-Man was a young boy. He visited the Great Ghost Hunter himself, Pac-Master, and was supposed to go through training with him. Unfortunately, some mischievous little ghosts unleashed the evil (and clumsy) Rock & Rollin’ Ghost from outer space, Golvis. If this boss is not in any way influenced by Elvis then I have no idea how Namco created such an incredibly ridiculous boss character. Now, this Golvis guy wants to take over the Pac-Land in order to make room for his Ghosts to inhabit. (hmm… where have I heard of this before?) Golvis turns every single Pac-Person into spheres except for Pac-Man, who is aided by a fairy who has fought against Golvis in the past. This fairy takes Pac-Man away and teaches him (and thus you) the basics for controlling our yellow hero.

These are the slow, banal first worlds that are not fun to play through and have no sense of challenge. The fairy is simply taking you through a first-steps process in order to get you used to controlling Pac-Man with the touch screen and stylus. Here you’ll learn to move, speed burst, and control everything in the game. Like I said, these levels are extremely tedious and their only purpose is to get your feet wet for the ocean ahead.

Controlling Pac-Man is slightly difficult at first. It took me a couple of levels to get acquainted with moving with the stylus and thoroughly dragging it across the screen to get a boost. It is difficult at times when you are trying to move away from an enemy and have to drag the stylus to boost away since the touch screen does not always pick up your touch. This is a small, but still noticeable, irksome little detail about Pac’N Roll. Moving the little Pac-Ball around is sometimes very difficult because of the action that distracts your senses. You try to move Pac-Man in one direction at a certain speed yet you either over-power the movement or under-power it which puts you in a possible life-loss situation. This is especially true in later levels where you have no barriers to protect you from falling off from the level and losing a life. There is the brake system in which you simply tap Pac-Man to make him stop but when your mind is focused on the top screen it becomes difficult executing this procedure.

In an effort to change things up a little in the gameplay department, Namco added two items that change the weight and abilities of Pac-Man. There is the Knight Chocolate which allows Pac-Man to become a knight, making him heavier, tougher, and slower. This is effective when faced with high winds which may blow away any other form of Pac-Man. There is also the Wing Chocolate which makes Pac-Man as light as a feather allowing him to float in the air for a few seconds and reach higher ground. There is also the Pac Chocolate which simply turns your transformed Pac-Man back into regular Pac-Man. The use of these chocolates is initially mundane, yet at later levels their use is implemented ingeniously which makes the game very enjoyable.

Pac’N Roll varies greatly from level to level. In some, you find yourself in just a simple location eating away pellets and Ghosts. In others, however, things get more interesting. You go around jumping through platforms, flying through floating islands, sifting through a narrow course, and circling around concaved rotating platforms. It gets fast, it gets hard, it gets fun. There are a lot of pellets and ghosts around, so there is definitely some feel of old-school Pac-Man in Pac’N Roll. Eating these pellets allows you to go to different areas that are blocked by Golvis Gates which require a certain amount to pass. As with the original Pac-Man game, power pellets are also in this game. These special pellets are spread out throughout the levels and give you a chance to eat those pesky Ghosts that follow you around; the ghosts turn blue, and you know what to do.

The graphics are nice and each world looks beautiful in 3D. The frame-rate is constant; it never lags even when there are numerous ghosts on-screen and you are boosting yourself away. From the first Castle Pac level to your very last confrontation with Golvis, the levels are colorful, unique, and greatly supplemented by some suitable music. You are even allowed to manipulate the camera if you cannot see something at a certain angle. This becomes useful in many instances yet suffers because the rotation of the camera is limited to circling around Pac-Man. This means you won’t be able to zoom the camera out or pan it upwards to get a better view of a distant location. Some boss battles with Golvis become a hassle because of this limited perspective. The touch screen’s primary function is to control Pac-Man, but there are times when you’ll have to switch your attention to it in order to survive. When ghosts attack you on the top screen, they will appear on the touch screen circling around your spherical Pac-Man. During this attack, you must tap the ghost repeatedly in order to escape its attack, or else be faced with damage. It is a nice addition that adds more functionality to the otherwise control-only function of the bottom screen.

While on your adventure in Pac-Land, you’ll come across other items. Pac-Man loves to eat, so it is no surprise that eating apples, bananas, burgers, chicken, and other delicacies will add lost health points to our hero’s life gauge. Now, if you ever wondered what Pac-Man’s favorite food is, prepare to find out. Pac-Man apparently loves pizzas because eating these will add a bar to the maximum life gauge level, so eat up. There are also Special Flags spread throughout each level which give Pac-Man an additional life, and collecting scattered Jewels allows for the unlocking of level challenges and bonus worlds. Through the acquisition of these Jewels, you will be able to reach the Moon where you’ll have the pleasure and honor to play the original Pac-Man game. It doesn’t get any better than that.

While the story may be remotely interesting, there are some major problems with it. For one, the story is told through book pages that contain looped sound samples for speech. These get extremely annoying, especially when you have to continuously hear Pac-Man’s cooing and gibbering over and over again. It is funny, really, but painfully annoying as well. Also, many of the story pages are repeated over and over again and make you lose interest in it. The fairy is also annoying and her attitude will get on your nerves. The dialogue that is written in the story is laughable, and it will make you want to skip these parts entirely.

Apart from the bad story telling and some minor control issues with the touch screen, Pac’N Roll is still an incredibly fun experience if only so on the latter part of the game. There are some levels that you’ll want to go back and play again simply because of the awesome time you had playing them the first time through. The music is very appropriate for the game and the graphics are very nice and suitable. The worlds are divided in subsections and the boss battles with Golvis are different every time. If only there were more of those few levels that are ingenious and if only there were more uses for the different chocolates, then Pac’N Roll would have been all that much better. But what is there is still great and fun to play and is worth trying out.