During Pac-Man's youth, he spends a summer at the home of Pac-Master for training to fight the ghosts in Pac-Land. During his training, he keeps experiencing a dream where he is being chased by a shadowy ghost. When Pac-Man and Pac-Master attend the annual Power Pellet Harvest Festival, the ghosts summon the legendary rock & roll loving ghost Golvis so he can do away with the Pac family, even though his power was so great, he was exiled to space. After he remains unaffected by a Power Pellet, he casts a curse on Pac-Man and the rest of the Pac-Landers to turn them into balls. Soon cursed into a mere ball, Pac-Man is joined by Krystal, a guardian fairy, and they venture on a journey to defeat Golvis.
This game takes a new twist on the traditional Pac-Man formula by having the player roll Pac-Man through different stages by using the DS touchscreen. The player must collect a certain number of Pac-Dots per stage to unlock Golvis Gates that allow progression through the level. If a ghost latches onto Pac-Man it must be shooed off before it drains his health fully.
The game received an Updated Re-release in 2007 as part of the Namco Museum Remix Compilation Re-release on the Wii, as well as that collection’s 2010 rerelease, Namco Museum Megamix. This version, called Pac N’ Roll Remix, uses a more traditional control scheme using the analog stick on the Nunchuk to move, and replaced certain levels with new ones. The Remix version would be released once again in 2022 as part of the Pac-Man Museum + collection on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Tropes found in the game:
- 1-Up: The player can earn extra lives by collecting Special Flags.
- Adapted Out: The Remix version removes the story sequences, meaning that Pac-Master, his wife, Pac-Dog, Pac-Girl, and Krystal are all removed, since none of them appear during gameplay.
- Advancing Boss of Doom: The first fight with Golvis in Gyro Jungle takes place in a narrow, linear arena, with Golvis chasing Pac-Man down. However, once Pac-Man is able to eat three Power Pellets, the tables turn in the opposite direction.
- Amusement Park: The third world is Sweet Land, a bright carnival with a variety of different rides including trains, spinning cups, and even a roller coaster.
- A Winner Is You: Collecting every blue gem earns the player a message that reads “Congratulations! You’ve earned a gold crown on every stage!”
- Be the Ball: Golvis removes the limbs of all the Pac-Landers, including Pac-Man himself, so Pac-Man must spend the game rolling around as a ball.
- Big Bad: Golvis, a rock-and-roll loving ghost from space that the Ghost Gang recruit to capture all the Pac-Landers.
- Blow You Away: During certain Golvis fights, he will attempt to use his guitar, Jack, to create powerful air currents to blow Pac-Man out of the arena.
- Book Ends: The final hallway leading to the final Golvis fight is the same hallway that appears in Pac-Man’s dream at the very beginning of the game.
- Boss-Only Level:
- All battles with Golvis take place in stages entirely dedicated to the fight.
- Golvis' UFO, the final world of the DS version. The world only has one stage, which is entirely dedicated to the five-part final encounter with Golvis.
- Cash Gate: Each stage contains multiple Golvis Gates, which prevent Pac-Man from progressing unless he has collected enough Pac-Dots first.
- Chrome Champion: Knight Pac-Man who can break metal crates and walk underwater.
- Embedded Precursor: The DS version includes the original Pac-Man arcade game as an unlockable minigame. The player must score at least 10,000 points in order to collect one of the blue gems.
- Exact Words: Golvis brags that one or two measly Power Pellets aren’t enough to defeat him. Three power pellets, on the other hand…
- Fairy Companion: Pac-Man is accompanied by a fairy named Krystal. She provides him with instructions in the tutorial levels.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All:
- The DS game contains 128 blue gems that can be collected. Requirements for obtaining these gems include collecting all of a stage’s Pac-Dots, completing challenge stages, beating the best times in Time Attack mode, and simply finding them within the stages.
- Every stage contains a certain number of Pac-Dots. Pac-Man must collect them all in order to obtain one of that stage’s blue gems.
- Heart Container: Certain stages contain Pac-Man shaped pizzas that will permanently give Pac-Man one extra hit point if he collects them.
- Jungle Japes: Gyro-Jungle, the second world. It is a dense jungle full of tropical plants and water.
- Lethal Lava Land: The Flaming Fortress, the fifth world, is situated atop a volcano.
- Level Ate: Sweet Land, the third world which is a giant cake that has been taken over by the ghosts.
- Marathon Boss: The final boss fight with Golvis in the DS version lasts for a whopping five forms, each requiring three hits, just as all the previous fights. By comparison, there are only four fights with him before this, making the final fight longer than all the others combined.
- Nostalgia Level: Once 127 blue gems have been collected, the player unlocks stage 7-3, which is a recreation of the classic Pac-Man maze.
- Pinball Zone: Certain stages have areas that are loaded with bumpers and other obstacles designed to make Pac-Man bounce around all over the place. The most explicit is the first phase of the DS version’s final Golvis fight, which is outright designed to resemble a large pinball table.
- Power-Up Food: Chocolate bars scattered through the game can change Pac-Man's abilities.
- Knight Chocolate: Gives Pac-Man a knight's helmet. It makes him slower, but also makes him heavy enough to sink under water, and powerful enough to break metal crates.
- Wing Chocolate: Gives Pac-Man a winged cap. Greatly improves Pac-Man's speed, and makes him float in mid-air more, but makes his controls more slippery.
- Brown Chocolate: Turns Pac-Man back to his normal form.
- Recurring Boss: Golvis is the only boss in the game, and he is fought at the end of every world barring the first. Each fight has essentially the same objective, though he comes with a very different arena layout each time.
- Rule of Three: Golvis has three hit points in every boss fight with him. Additionally, in order to damage him, Pac-Man has to eat three Power Pellets.
- Sequential Boss: The final boss fight with Golvis has multiple phases in both versions. Five forms in the DS version, and two phases in the Remix version.
- Slide Level: Stage 4 of Flaming Fortress consists primarily of a series of linear slopes Pac-Man must roll down while avoiding obstacles.
- Time Trial: Every stage in the main worlds of the DS version has a time trial mode where the player must complete an abridged version of the stage while hitting all the checkpoints. Beating the best time on each stage is necessary to obtain one of that stage’s blue gems.
- Version-Exclusive Content:
- The Remix version of the game omits a lot of the bonus content from the original DS game, including all of the story cutscenes, the Time Trial and Challenge stages, and the gem collection sidequest.
- Ghost Land, the fourth world from the DS game, is missing in the Remix version. That version moves on directly to Flaming Fortress once Sweet Land is completed.
- The Remix version has a different final world from the original DS game. The DS version has Golvis' UFO, which is a Boss-Only Level dedicated entirely to the final boss fight, while the Remix version has Golvis' Hideout, which is a full-length world.
