Pac-man world champ will chomp prize

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 19 April 2007 04:09

Your IT - Entertainment

Xbox owning fans of video game classic Pac-Man will soon put their skills to the test in the Pac-Man World Championship.

The much-loved game is already available on Xbox Live Arcade for 400 points, and the tournament will open on April 25 (12.01am GMT).

"Pac-Man reached an iconic status in the '80s across multiple generations and cultures, so the Xbox 360 Pac-Man World Championship provides a great incentive for fans old and new to fall in love with the game all over again," said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of global marketing for Microsoft's interactive entertainment business.

When the tournament closes on May 9, regional winners from Asia, Australia/New Zealand, Canada, Europe, Japan, Mexico and the United States will win a trip to New York for the June 5 playoff. But beware: having the top score in your region doesn't automatically mean you are through. Regional winners must reach the global top 1000 to qualify.

That seems fair, as Australia/New Zealand and Canada have much smaller populations than the other regions. But what the announcement doesn't mention is what happens to the vacant place if a regional winner fails to make the cut. Will it go to the competitor with the highest global rankings that didn't top their region?

The nine regional representatives (Europe and the US each get two places) will be joined by the winner of a North America only fan film competition.

The world champion will be crowned by Pac-Mac creator Toru Iwatani, and will receive a one-off Pac-Man themed Xbox 360, 100,000 Xbox points and 1352 Quiznos subs - that's one lunch per week taken care of for the next 26 years.

According to Wikipedia, American Billy Mitchell was the first person to play a perfect Pac-Man game, clearing all 256 levels without losing a life for a score of 3,333,360.

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