Namco bring arcade classics and trivia titles to mobile

The arrival of a Pac-Man game on mobile may seem like less than earth-shattering news – the yellow fella is no spring chicken, with 25 years under his belt now, and it feels as though he's been on mobile for almost as long.

Nevertheless, Namco insists that Super Pac-Man is different, as although the game does include the original arcade mode, the new game also features a range of super powers (ice, mirror, teleport and stun) to help defeat the ghosts, and four new mazes to explore that include locked doors and super power pills that turn Pac into a ghost-chomping giant.

Currently targetting the US only (where those who download via Sprint are automatically entered into a draw to win a special customised Volkswagen – yes, we imagine it is yellow), we expect to see for ourselves just how 'super' Super Pac-Man really is when it arrives on these shores later in the summer.

If you were excited about Pac-Man, then the arrival of the classic space shooter Galaga might just have you in spasms, especially in light of the new 'Dual Fighter Mode' that enables mobile gamers to fight off the alien hordes with two spaceships. Exactly how this will affect the gameplay (other than doubling the firepower) we'll discover shortly when the game gets its official US release on the Sprint networks. As yet no European dates have been announced.

Finally, the brand new 'Scene It?' offers something a little more up-to-date.

Based on the top-selling DVD-based board games, Scene It? Movie Edition and Scene It? TV Edition will demand players answer trivia questions as they progress around the board, some of which will be linked to images or even full-motion TV and movie clips.

Familiar rounds from the original board game include Invisibles (where characters or objects are removed from famous scenes), distorted reality (a famous pop culture icon gradually comes into focus) and pictograms (images must be added together to create the name of an actor, TV show or movie).

It all sounds fabulously multimedia-ish to us – let's just hope the mobile networks really do continue to 'rapidly increase the connection speeds and streaming video technology' as Namco expects them to before its winter release.

Incidentally, the screens here are from the original arcade version of Super Pac-Man and the first version of Galaga, and the Scene It? picture is of a box, obviously. When Namco backs up its announcements with pictures, we'll be sure to add them in.