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.

Namco Bandai and Microsoft have a treat for Xbox 360 owners and it definitely has that creamy retro goodness that we all love. It's Pac-Man Championship Edition, a remastered title of the game that pretty much expanded the once-niche video game scene into something that's enjoyed by the masses.

We get you the lowdown on what's to expect with Pac-Man's shiny new look as well as what's in store for your 800 Microsoft Points.

Pure retro fans should be pleased to know that while Pac-Man gets the usual next-gen benefits (new mazes, new modes, new soundtrack and HD graphics), it's still the game you've sunk quarters into in the arcades - just pure good ol' dot-chomping, ghost-evading action.

To give you an overall idea on what's new in Pac-Man Championship Edition, here's a list for your reading pleasure.

• Pac-Man remastered: new mazes, new modes, new soundtracks. HD graphics.
• Core gameplay: no bells and whistles here. Get to wakka-wakka-ing!
• Championship Mode: Main game mode designed by Iwatani and Namco Bandai for Pac-Man World Championship finals. Redesigned mazes, wider walls, widescreen for faster gameplay.
• Challenge Mode 1: Patience and Reward Course. Patience mazes give you few power pellets, Reward mazes gives you a LOT.
• Challenge Mode 2: Darkness Course. Only Pac-Man and the Ghost can be seen.
• Extra Mode 1: Freeway Course. High-speed gameplay, only for advanced players. Lots of tunnels.
• Extra Mode 2: Manhattan Course. A course inspired by the streets of Manhattan.
• Extra Mode 3: Overall Course. A mish-mash of all the courses, designed to test the ultimate Pac-Man player.

One thing to note is that all the added modes are timed, so you're not only chomping dots and power pellets for survival, you're also trying to beat the clock. For those of us worried about online capabilities, there's the Xbox Live leaderboards, Achievements and Gamerscore to play around with so it's all good.

Pac-Man Championship Edition will be available for download on Xbox Live Arcade starting at 9 a.m . BST on Wednesday, June 6 (that's 4 a.m. EST for the same date). So keep a close watch if you're dying to get your Pac-Man fix. It'll be the best 800 Microsoft points you ever blew on a classic.

Interested in winning 100,000 Microsoft Points? We knew that'd get your attention. Microsoft and Quiznos are joining forces for the first ever Pac-Man World Championship, which will begin on April 25 and culminate in a grand final competition for top dot muncher on June 6.

There are two ways to join. First off, you could be a part of the grand final competition by topping the leaderboards in Pac-Man for your region. Another way for folks from the US and Canada to join the contest is to be the ultimate Pac-Man fanatic by sending in a video that explains why they are the ultimate Pac-Man fan.

After the jump is the timeline for joining the competition. Before we do that, however, you may want to know that the grand prize winner gets 100,000 MS Points, 26 years worth of free Quiznos subs, and a special Pac-Man-styled Xbox 360. Better get your reflexes set, because for 100,000 MS Points, we're certain you're ready to take your dot munching skills to the next level.

Learn about the contest after the jump!

Man oh man, we seriously gotta love them Japanese people for their wicked weirdness and hilarity. We've seen a lot of laugh-out-loud funny game-related videos but this one really has to go way up there on our list of faves.

And yeah, yeah, we knooow this isn't news (as a LOT of you guys have repeatedly pointed out in some of our posts), but seriously, did you guys really think that we'd pass up the chance to share with you a real funny vid and keep the cheer among us? C'mon! So anyway, this vid shows four Japanese dudes dressed up in "intricate" Pac-Man (Xbox360, PSP, DS) costumes emulating the classic game.

The kicker here though is that when Pac-Man is cornered by his colorful foes, they beat the hell out of Pac-Man with ginormous styro sticks. Hahaha! *wipes tears of laughter* (Okay it's not as funny when you read it, you gotta see it, I tell ya.) So check out the vid and let us know what you think. Kudos to theproz for posting this!

Japanese arcade game Pac-Man originally appeared in 1979. Almost 30 years later, Mr-Gobble-Everything-On-My-Way is still yellow and of most importance, a force in the industry. Fact of the matter is, a world championship is currently being planned as a form of tribute.

Microsoft, in cooperation with NAMCO BANDAI Games, will host early next year the first ever Pac-Man World Championship. Aside from the announcement, no other details were divulged about the competition. However, it is needless to say that the said event will take place on the Xbox Live Arcade. The top 10 competitors will be sent to New York City to slug it out in the finals.

On a related matter, classics from the '80s and the '90s have conquered the XBLA. The current games were recently announced by Microsoft:

•     Contra by Konami Corp.
•     Gyruss by Konami
•     Dig Dug by NAMCO BANDAI Games
•     Track & Field by Konami
•     New Rally-X by NAMCO BANDAI Games
•     Rush’n Attack by Konami
•     Ms. Pac-Man by NAMCO BANDAI Games
•     Yie Ar Kung Fu by Konami

"Why can't they just let the little yellow guy eat his goddamn cherries?!"

That's what a lot of XBLA users have been complaining about regarding the annoying pop-ups that's been... erm... popping up on their screens while playing retro titles Galaga and Pac-Man.

A lot of users are getting pissed off with these annoying pop-up notifications that disrupt them while the little yellow guy eats around. Honestly, who would care if your "download's complete" when it's the bonus round already, right? However, don't fret because the said issue has been updated such that the pop-ups now show up only in the right hand corner of the screen.

Now you can have uninterrupted fun with the little yellow guy.

You may now finally purchase the classic arcade game, Pac-man, on the Xbox Live Arcade. The game will cost 400 Microsoft points like most of the other classic arcade games. Pac-man will include 200 achievement points from a total of 12 achievements. Here is the list of achievements to be completed. They seem like they will be fairly easy.

1. All Ghosts - Eat all ghosts in succession after eating a Power Pellet.  
2. Clear Round 5 - Beat the first five rounds.  
3. Perfect - Eat all ghosts four times within a stage.  
4. Clear Round 21 - Clear round 21.  
5. Cherry - Eat a Cherry, Round 1.  
6. Strawberry - Eat a Strawberry, Round 2.  
7. Orange - Eat a Orange, Round 3 or 4.  
8. Apple - Eat a Apple, round 5 or 6.  
9. Melon - Eat a Melon, Round 7 or 8.  
10. Galboss - Eat a Galboss, Round 9 or 10.  
11. Bell - Eat a Bell, Round 11 or 12.  
12. Key - Eat a Key, Round 13.

The game is only a little more than 15 megabytes. It wont take you long till you can start chomping those ghosts! Good luck.

Unconfirmed Xbox Live Wednesdays schedule for August will include Pac-Man, and Texas Hold 'Em. Meanwhile, September starts off with a supernova-style bang as Lumines Live! makes its debut.

Also on the sched list is Time Pilot, a 1982 arcade game by Konami. In Time Pilot, gamers assume the role of a futuristic jet pilot who must rescue fellow pilots trapped in different time eras while fending off enemy crafts and their mother ship in every level.

Another game slated for August is Scramble. In this game, player flies a spaceship across a scrolling terrain while evading obstacles and enemies along the way. The ship also runs on limited fuel supply and pilot must destroy fuel tanks to juice up.

But all these are unconfirmed. We'll keep you updated once we get hold of official announcements.

• 09 August: Pac-Man
• 16 August: Texas Hold 'Em
• 23 August: Time Pilot
• 30 August: Scramble
• 06 September: Lumines Live!

We don't care how far video games have come. In our book, nobody but nobody can ever take the place of Pac-Man as our all-time best title ever. When we heard the cool, classic yellow dude was set to run on Xbox 360 we knew for sure that there really is a Santa!

The test version of Xbox 360 version of Pac-Man was made available for download on the "PartnerNet" (the test version of Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade service). Word on the netvine says the Xbox Live Arcade version of Pac-Man a port of the original arcade game featuring the same addictive maze-navigating action. So addictive it made Pac-Man the most successful coin-operated game in history.

Pac-Man's visuals and audio will also be practically the same as the original so playing this would be like being transported back in time. And we wouldnt have it any other way! Unfortunately, Namco Bandai has not issued a release date for Pac-Man. Meantime you can get your Pac-Man Fever antidote here:

Download:
[Pac-Man Xbox360 Gameplay Movie 2]
[Pac-Man Xbox360 Gameplay Movie1]