Pac-Man on XBLA is founder’s last game

If you have to go, you have to go with a bang. That may be what Pac-Man founder Toru Iwatani was thinking when he decided to design Xbox Live’s Pac-Man Championship Edition, his last game as a video game designer.

Iwatani will retire from active duty as an employee in Namco Bandai Holdings, but will not leave the video game industry entirely; he plans to impart his knowledge and experience by teaching Game Designing at Tokyo Polytechnic University. He’s even willing to lend a hand in future Pac-Man games (should there be any) by supervising the development of the new Pac-Man game, or by personally working on the new version with his game design students.

The new Pac-Man, while retaining its 2D design to keep its original flavor, now pulses to the beat of the background music, and has mazes that spontaneously change shape. The new Pac-Man also has the new “Dark Mode”, where players navigate through an invisible maze guided by a flashlight. All in all, it’s not a bad way to end a career.

Iwatani wants to impart a small (but not the least important) advice for the games industry before he leaves: The future of the games industry also depends on outsiders, not only professional game developers. To further illustrate his point, he makes an example of Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov. “Tetris was not from the industry. He was a scientist,” Iwatani said. “For someone thinking outside of the industry, they can have a fresh new idea.”

Xbox 360 players can have a taste of Iwatani’s fresh new idea for Pac-Man Championship Edition on the Xbox Live service for only US$ 10, starting today.

If you have to go, you have to go with a bang. That may be what Pac-Man founder Toru Iwatani was thinking when he decided to design Xbox Live’s Pac-Man Championship Edition, his last game as a video game designer.

Iwatani will retire from active duty as an employee in Namco Bandai Holdings, but will not leave the video game industry entirely; he plans to impart his knowledge and experience by teaching Game Designing at Tokyo Polytechnic University. He’s even willing to lend a hand in future Pac-Man games (should there be any) by supervising the development of the new Pac-Man game, or by personally working on the new version with his game design students.

The new Pac-Man, while retaining its 2D design to keep its original flavor, now pulses to the beat of the background music, and has mazes that spontaneously change shape. The new Pac-Man also has the new “Dark Mode”, where players navigate through an invisible maze guided by a flashlight. All in all, it’s not a bad way to end a career.

Iwatani wants to impart a small (but not the least important) advice for the games industry before he leaves: The future of the games industry also depends on outsiders, not only professional game developers. To further illustrate his point, he makes an example of Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov. “Tetris was not from the industry. He was a scientist,” Iwatani said. “For someone thinking outside of the industry, they can have a fresh new idea.”

Xbox 360 players can have a taste of Iwatani’s fresh new idea for Pac-Man Championship Edition on the Xbox Live service for only US$ 10, starting today.