Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 impressions: missing the point

Pac-Man is back for another championship.

Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is out now for $13 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and I’ve played it for around four hours. It brings back a lot of the elements that helped the original stick out while simultaneously burying what made those earlier games so engaging. In this updated version, which follows up the 2007 original and 2010’s Championship Edition DX, you still get the neon-drenched visuals, simple maze gameplay, and short rounds where you alternate between avoiding and eating ghosts. At the same time, this followup doesn’t emphasize the asynchronous multiplayer that made the previous two entries so much fun. In its place, players should expect more stages and more ways to play.