Pac-Man Tilt Feels More Like A Lost Sonic The Hedgehog Game

Bright flashing colors, pinball flippers, and a rolling character you’re in control of sounds like it could be a scene from Casino Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog. We’re talking about a Pac-Man game this time, though.

Pac-Man Tilt, one of the two games in Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions, feels closer to the Sonic series than Namco Bandai’s dot chomping arcade game. In the Nintendo 3DS title, players move Pac-Man with the Slide Pad… and by tilting the handheld. See the pendulum on the bottom left? That’s the tilt meter. Lean the system to the right or left to angle the world and make Pac-Man roll. While rolling, you can send Pac-Man soaring by hitting a shoulder button to flick a flipper or by coiling a spring.

But, whatever you do, don’t roll into any of the ghosts walking around. Pac-Man isn’t endowed with Sonic’s sharp quills so touching a ghost, even while rolling, sends Pac-Man back to the last checkpoint with one less life. As a connection to the arcade classic, Pac-Man needs to eat a Power Pellet before digesting any ghosts. Touch the bottom screen after finding one of these sparsely placed power-ups and Pac-Man can chomp down on ghosts of any size (the game has giant ghosts) for a few seconds.

The tilt mechanic also comes in to play during regular jumps. The demo level I played had swinging platforms that only moved when I swung the system left and right. Another jump had a stone that slid out on top of Pac-Man, blocking him from climbing up to a higher ledge. I tilted the 3DS to the right to keep the stone in place to clear this jump. Near the end of the stage it was a flipper challenge with Pac-Man bouncing in the sky and rolling through narrow paths with dots to collect.

One interesting bit to note is Pac-Man Tilt was the first Nintendo 3DS game I played that was not in 3D. I don’t mean I turned the 3D slider off, the game just doesn’t have a 3D option. I asked about this and a representative confirmed Pac-Man Tilt isn’t designed to use the Nintendo 3DS’ 3D feature. Perhaps, that’s for the better because tilting and 3D don’t mix well…